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If I wanted to break a youngster or a slightly built person (male or female) into hunting without intimidating them I would probably go one of two ways.

1st, I would probably use a .308, .270 or 30-06 and look into the reduced recoil loads Remington is making. That way one could always go up in power. You dont get something for nothing, reduced recoil means less "power" but the decrease in practical ability to drop game might not be as much as you think. There is an attendant reduction in Point Blank Range however if long range is a consideration.

2nd I might look at the "intermediate" cartridges like the 6.8 Remington SPC ( I shot two deer with this last year testing ammo for the military). Both had 3" exit wounds and it worked just fine. Range was 75 and 100 yards. It does not look like much on paper though. Recoil is certainly not more than a 5.56 (.223).

In that same line CZ makes a nifty carbine in 7.62X39 Russian. American ammo (rather than the cheap steel cased stuff) performs pretty good on deer in this area and the cheap stuff makes for good practice.

Those are just a couple of ideas, certainly not the only avenue to success.

Bear in mind the skill at placing the bullet is paramount... a gut shot with a .458 is probably not going to get the job done.

Happy Trails!
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