First deer rifle

[mrmiskin]

My 14 year old son is starting to deer hunt, he has been shooting 22's a .223 and a 20 gauge for the last 4 years. I was wondering what you all thought about a good starter gun. Coworker out here says the 25-06 can not be beat. Any thoughts from you all would be appreciated. thanks

[Dom]

My thots, for what it's worth :)

1. Stay away from any .22 centerfire for deer, even if legal.

2. .25 caliber bore is a good choice, .270 better. That said, due to his size and also depending on what type of hunting he'd do, a .243 might be an option -- but that's as light a caliber as I'll recommend.

3. You owe it to the animal you're hunting to make a clean shot and kill, and no head or neck shots. Get it in the boiler room, and the motor will stop.

Since he's been shooting, start practicing on the range, but from hunting stances, i.e., kneeling, leaning against a pole, etc. And, a few shots freehand just to show how difficult that is and what the consequences are!!

And, take him out and enjoy deer hunting with him!! Waidmannsheil, Dom.

[Dan Morris]

Personally, I'd go with the .270.....recoil between the 25-06
and the 270 are almost the same....availability of ammo is better.
Comments of clean kill are true...just practice..practice.Glad to see young ones carrying on the sport!
Dan
:)

[gspsonny03]

I think it has a lot to do with how much abuse that you feel your son can handle. I personally know of two 270's that are real bruisers. If your son is small framed, you might want to think about something in the 24 or 25 calibers. Alot of smaller people or going with the 243 or 6mm guns. The 25.06 is a very good choice, even the 30.30 is a very viable gun, granted it doesn't handle the long range shooting that others do, but in the right hands it has killed a lot of deer and doesn't cause the shooter to hate to shoot it do to abuse.

[Jack]

The 25-06 is a great choice as an open country deer rifle. Of course, the 270 is, too.
The 25-06 can be almost like 2 different cartridges, in a way. With 100 grain bullets, recoil is little more than the 243 or 6mm Rem- in other words, light. The same 25-06 loaded with 120 grain bullets feels more like a 270 (shooting 130 grain bullets), recoil wise.
If your deer hunting is in wooded areas, you might not need the flat trajectory that are features of both the 25-06 and 270. For woods hunting, a 30-30 or a 257 Roberts (if you can find one) might be just what he needs.
A couple things to keep in mind: light rifles kick more than heavy rifles- often, a lot more. Some of the ultralight rifles on the market that weigh 6 pounds or less can be real nasty to shoot from the bench, with recoil that can be surprisingly heavy.
Often the superlight rifles have short barrels, too- short barrels are LOUD. And muzzle blast is often perceived as recoil.

[petey]

I started off with a .308 and I was 5" nothing and might have weighed 100 pounds.

Depending the the make and model, the recoil is consedirably less than a .270. Most of the youngsters I started hunting with used a .243 or .308 (pretty much the same case size, just different caliber).

Those that shot .270's seemed to have flinchin issues.

The 25-06 is often sold short, but it's a super deer round. I still hunt with a .308 every once in a while. I've also killed deer with all the above mentioned rounds.

Depending on his size, I'd suggest the following along with where and how you hunt.

.243 or (6 mm)
.308
.25-06
.270

If you're hunting in an area where you better put the smack down on him or risk someone else trying to take your animal b/c it ran, rule out the .243 Average distance ran on a well placed double lung shot will be around 40-50 yards.

.308 - If you shoot some souped up loads supporting something like a 165 grain balistic tip, they rarely run very far if at all. Probably 80% of the deer I've shot with this caliber fell over dead on their feet and never took another step. You'll find more selection on .30 caliber bullets than any other out there. One more reason I give it (or any 30) a thumbs up!

.25-06 - Bullet selection isn't the greatest, but this gun puts them down just as good if not better than the .308. It's super charged and got some distance to it. If you're hunting in the midwest where you may be shooting more than 100 yards, I'd give this my first choice. Mostly use mine to shoot groundhogs out past 500 yards.

.270 - Now we're getting into personal preference. Although I've killed plenty of game with this round it's just not my personal choice of caliber. Not that it doesn't do the job, but if I were buying a new gun and the 4 calibers above were lined up, the .270 wouldn't be a consideration. That being said, I'm not bashing it and a lot of people use it and it's proven itself as a super deer round. I just don't think it's the proper choice for a youngster. Bullet selection isn't super, and there's so many other calibers out there with compariable or better balistics and energy that do have great bullet selection.

Now you .270 lovers, it's not a bash..just personal preference! ha ha ;)

[Rapier]

All good advice, but having been there and done that, I would really opt for a 308 style/capacity case, like the 243, 260, 6.5x55 or the 7x08. Of course, the old 7x57 is there also.

I like the 260 and 6.5x55 best of the choices but that is just my preference, based on the cartridges being versitile as varmit cartridges or deer cartridges and well known for accuracy.
Ed

[jon lynn]

Savage Model 10GXP3 – with AccuTrigger

http://www.savagearms.com/10gxp3.htm

Mild recoil, great ammo choices, can't think of anything simpler, OR better.

[bigkevmorgan]

go with a .270 be done with it ,nothing in tenn that it won't take
try him out on the managed recoil loads

[Aim to maim]

This question is asked multiple times on multiple forums every year. Usually overlooked in the ensuing and lengthy discussion on calibers is the fact that the FIT of the firearm to a young and/or small-statured shooter is at least as important as the caliber. If the shooter cannot hold the rifle comfortably and properly, he/she will be inaccurate and will likely be punished far worse by whatever recoil is present than would be the case with a properly fitting rifle.

[Ol` Joe]

I like the 260 and 6.5x55 best of the choices but that is just my preference, based on the cartridges being versitile as varmit cartridges or deer cartridges and well known for accuracy

Ditto!
If you can`t find a suitable rifle in one of these, the 7-08 is my 2nd choice.

[mrmiskin]

Thanks to one and all for the suggestions. We will be hunting in thick but not dense woods with no shot over 100 yards. We will be checking things out and I will let you know what we get. Thanks again for the suggestions I knew there was only one place to go when i need advice.( on fire arms)

[MacD37]

All good choices, some better than others, however! I have three sons, and a daughter, and I started them all on single shot rifles,(Ruger No1s) chambered for 243Win, with a 2-7X40 Weaver scope. We lived in extreme West Texas, where the deer are the mule type, and shots average 200 yds. I handload, and I never allowed them to shoot anything but 100 gr Hornady's in front of 44.0 grs of H-4831 with LR primers, for right at 3000fps, with the scope zeroed 2" high at 100 yds, which puts it dead on at 225 yds, and no more that 2'' high at any point. So the sight picture is dead on from the muzzle to 250 yds! This load/bullet combination drops those big 250lb muledeer in their tracks with a tight behind the shoulder shot way out there, or at 30 ft! The kid simply holds dead on where he wants the bullet to hit, and squeese! When they started hunting Elk, they moved to bolt action 7mm mags, and now shoot 375 H&Hs for the big stuff, from elk on up. :cool:

If I were going to pick a cartridge that they could use for most of North America, and I wanted somthing bigger than a 243Win, it would be a 280 Rem in a CRF bolt rifle like a Mod 70 win, or Mauser actioned custom! It carries more bullet weight, than the 25-06, or 270 Win, which are both on the 30-06 case, as is the 280 Rem, but shoots flatter than the 30-06!

There is no bad choice as long as you don't go below .243 for anything, almost, up to elk, the 243 being light for elk, and up! But there has never been a deer born that the 243Win, properly loaded, will not take cleanly! :cool:

[jmarriott]

Originally posted by mrmiskin
We will be hunting in thick but not dense woods with no shot over 100 yards. We will be checking things out and I will let you know what we get.

Sounds like the perfect place for a rem 760/7600 or lever action in some of the most popular cartridges like 30-30 35 rem and 44 mag to me. They do make 7600 in 7mm-08 i believe.

[mrmiskin]

Thanks for all the sound advice we will let you know what we get.