Daughter wants a new (smaller and lighter) rifle....

[Blacktail]

I have a 280ai with a brake and even pushing 143 hammers at 3180 not bad. My daughter absolutely loves her 7/08ai and why not a 6.5 SAUM?

 

[Steve Sheasly]

Background. My grown daughter is an avid hunter (for someone who works, is a full time student, etc.). So I guess you can say, she goes hunting when she can. She has taken a whitetail buck a few years back with her rifle, shot under one a couple of years back with her brother's rifle. Wants to kill a hog, you get the picture.

I bought her a Savage Hog Hunter in .308 about 5 years ago or so. She is shooting full power ammo (my reloads) and recoil is not an issue but the Savage has a pretty thick barrel and some heft to it which mitigates the recoil somewhat. But she commented on this past weekend's hunt that she would like a lighter rifle. I just weighed the Savage and with scope (Bushnell 1-5x32), Ken Farrall 1" rings, Griffin can (the SS baffle and Aluminum can), sling, cheek pad and 5 rounds of .308 weighs in a shade over 10lbs. I'm guessing stripped it's an 8lb rifle.

She doesn't care for the AR platform, she likes bolt guns. Finding a lighter rifle is not a problem but finding one with enough punch without a substantial increase in recoil.

I've shot some kid sized, lightweight .243 rifles that had a pretty good kick. And the single shot rifles are out. Even though I've taken a pretty good sized buck with an AR in 5.56, I think she needs more than that.

So, I'm thinking about one of the rifles chambered in 7.62x39. Most of our shots are limited to 70-80 yards at most. But a 150-200 yard shot could come up occasionally. Her first dear was a 120 yards. We live in the southeast and there's not many opportunities for long range shots.

I've looked at the Ruger Ranch, the Howa, the Zastava and the CZ. Only the Ruger and Howa are threaded.

But then I saw that they all are also chambered in a 6.5 Grendel.

And there's the option to rebarrel the Savage but I'm not leaning in that direction because when I buy her a new rifle, Pops gets the Savage.

So what do you guys think? Thanks.

Simple. 243 is the best option. I think Savage makes a ladies model .Just shoot a,light projectile

 

[Wyoming65]

Background. My grown daughter is an avid hunter (for someone who works, is a full time student, etc.). So I guess you can say, she goes hunting when she can. She has taken a whitetail buck a few years back with her rifle, shot under one a couple of years back with her brother's rifle. Wants to kill a hog, you get the picture.

I bought her a Savage Hog Hunter in .308 about 5 years ago or so. She is shooting full power ammo (my reloads) and recoil is not an issue but the Savage has a pretty thick barrel and some heft to it which mitigates the recoil somewhat. But she commented on this past weekend's hunt that she would like a lighter rifle. I just weighed the Savage and with scope (Bushnell 1-5x32), Ken Farrall 1" rings, Griffin can (the SS baffle and Aluminum can), sling, cheek pad and 5 rounds of .308 weighs in a shade over 10lbs. I'm guessing stripped it's an 8lb rifle.

She doesn't care for the AR platform, she likes bolt guns. Finding a lighter rifle is not a problem but finding one with enough punch without a substantial increase in recoil.

I've shot some kid sized, lightweight .243 rifles that had a pretty good kick. And the single shot rifles are out. Even though I've taken a pretty good sized buck with an AR in 5.56, I think she needs more than that.

So, I'm thinking about one of the rifles chambered in 7.62x39. Most of our shots are limited to 70-80 yards at most. But a 150-200 yard shot could come up occasionally. Her first dear was a 120 yards. We live in the southeast and there's not many opportunities for long range shots.

I've looked at the Ruger Ranch, the Howa, the Zastava and the CZ. Only the Ruger and Howa are threaded.

But then I saw that they all are also chambered in a 6.5 Grendel.

And there's the option to rebarrel the Savage but I'm not leaning in that direction because when I buy her a new rifle, Pops gets the Savage.

So what do you guys think? Thanks.

My recommendation would definitely be a Weatherby Vanguard Camilla in either 6.5 Creedmoor or 7mm/08. Of course, without getting personal, a lot would depend upon the build of your daughter but the Camilla is built for females, is light and very accurate. I personally have 9 granddaughters, 8 of whom hunt and keep one in 6.5 Creedmoor at my place for a loaner. It consistently shoots .5MOA.

 

[Wyoming65]

My recommendation would definitely be a Weatherby Vanguard Camilla in either 6.5 Creedmoor or 7mm/08. Of course, without getting personal, a lot would depend upon the build of your daughter but the Camilla is built for females, is light and very accurate. I personally have 9 granddaughters, 8 of whom hunt and keep one in 6.5 Creedmoor at my place for a loaner. It consistently shoots .5MOA.

 

[Spinner]

I am in a similar situation with my daughter n law except her rifle is a little under-powered. She is a petite woman weighing all of about 100 lbs. My son and I are avid whitetail hunters and I am an avid re-loader. She surprised us by wanting to go deer hunting. She had absolutely no experience with firearms.

Forgive me while I tell kind of a long story:

I had hunted all of my life with a 30-06 and about five years ago I decided to put together a Smith & Wesson AR-15 in .300 Whisper for myself. A lot of my hunting is at short ranges (less than 100 yards) I was intrigued by the idea of using a light weight rifle with a silencer and an EOTech holographic sight. Shooting the heavy sub-sonic .30 caliber bullets. The first couple of years I had good luck, took three deer, pretty much bang flop.

When my daughter n law became interested H&R had introduced a light weight single shot break-open rifle in 300 Whisper. I already had my Whisper and reloading dies. The H&R has a 16" barrel with a threaded muzzle. We got her one of those, put a scope on it and headed to the farm to teach her how to shoot. She was an eager student but we started easy with a .22 rimfire. Showed her that the rifle would not hurt her, did not want any flinching. I then screwed the silencer on her rifle. We made a dangerous woman out of her. She can keep her shots in a 5" circle at 100 yards with that little short barreled rifle and it is no bench rest rifle.

Then my own 300 Whisper hunting started to go south a couple of years ago. I was hunting with 155 grain cast hollow points running about 1,950 feet per second. Supersonic, you could hear them but the silencer negated the need for hearing protection. I have a Texas "quad pod" stand in a 20 acre over grown field. I usually see a dozen different deer from this stand the first hour of the morning. In Missouri you can get multiple doe tags but you are only allowed one buck tag in a season. While I am always trophy hunting I usually start out by killing a couple of does and have summer sausage made out of all of the meat. Then I trophy hunt the rest of the season. Shot a deer at 100 yards in pretty heavy cover. With the shot this deer and four others that I hadn't seen that were near it jumped and ran. I was sure I hit it but couldn't find it. Concluded I missed. The next day I shot another one at pretty much the same place. It immediately disappeared and I thought it was down in the briars. Climbed down out of my stand to go get my deer and it wasn't there. Tromped around in the briars and weeds quite a while a hundred and fifty yards around the spot, when another hunter who had been on a ridge about a quarter mile away came over. He had seen the whole thing. He saw the deer go down about 250 yards away. Then to my disgust I found the deer from the day before, cold and stiff.

The reason I relay this long winded story is to pass on what I have learned first hand. That is to get a good bang flop kill on a whitetail you need a bullet that is traveling over 2,600 feet per second at the muzzle. The shock from a high speed light weight bullet is more lethal than a slow heavy bullet with the same foot pounds of energy. The 300 Whisper punches a 30 caliber hole through a deer, in one side and out the other. Unless you hit a major bone or the heart itself the deer runs a long way then dies. When I hunted with the old 30-06 with 150 grain bullets running 2,950 fps, any deer I hit was a bang flop. The past two years I have been stand hunting with a .Savage bvss 223 using 62 grain soft nose Game King bullets. If you know that rifle you know it is too heavy to carry very much. I have killed five deer with it, one close out of a stand and four in an open field at 210 to 225 yards. With the high speed bullets hey didn't go anywhere after being hit. That being said I don't really recommend a .223 for deer unless you are really sure of your marksmanship.

All of that being said, for a smaller frame person such as my daughter n law, a 30-06 is a bit much. Still I do not want her to experience the disappointment of losing a wounded deer. So I too am looking for a smaller lighter rifle with plenty of power for her.

I own about 10 centerfire rifles from 17 Fireball to 8mm but I don't have any 6mms, I do have a 6.5 Swede and a 6.5 Lapua

In the light weight rifles for deer I really like the idea of the 6mms or the .257 Roberts or a 250 Savage for deer.The And I like the idea of a bolt action as opposed to a semi automatic for a novice hunter. The ones with readily available factory ammo are the tried and true .257 Roberts .243 Winchester, the newer 6mm Creedmoor and the old 6mm Remington (aka the ,244 Remington) If you reload there is the 6xc, the 6x47 Lapua, and the really promising 6mm Grendel.

Savage, Ruger and Browning all offer rifles in the new 6mm Creedmoor at fairly reasonable prices. It is a matter of finding one that is light weight enough. I wish there were more rifles offered in 250 Savage.

I have zeroed in on two brands that offer very light weight rifles:

The Tika T3 lite bolt action in .243 or 6.5 Creedmoor. It weighs 5.9 to 6.5 pounds w/o scope. I see them on line in the $600 - $800 range

The Kimber Mountain Ascent in 6.5 Creedmoor (lightest caliber)(22" bbl.) at 4lbs and 13oz w/o scope. I see one on line for $1,679.

The Kimber Adirondack in 6.5 Creedmoor (18" bbl.) at 4lbs and 13oz w/o scope. I see one on line for $1,500.

And the Kimber Hunter in .6.5 Creedmoor or 243 Winchester or .257 Roberts. (22" bbl.) at 5lbs 10oz.
I see one in Creedmoor on line for $699. In production rifles the Kimber Hunter. For light weight AND light recoil and price, the .243 would probably be the one.

If I decide to build a rifle it will probably be a 6x47 Lapua or a 6mm Grendel.

 

[Vortex!]

6 mm Grendel or 6.5 Grendel?? The 6.5 is the only one I know of?

 

[Andy C]

I would check out the Christensen Arms Mesa or Ridgeline in 6.5 Creed. My own daughter shoots the Mesa in 7mm-08 and my wife shoots the Ridgeline in 7mm-08. I have found that I need to load 140gr and less bullets to keep the recoil manageable for them. So my thoughts are go with the 140gr 6.5 and get the extra b.c. Just cause you can. My second daughter will be getting the Ridgeline in 6.5 Creed for x-mas for this reason. While I own a .243 that is wonderfully accurate as a guide I have just had to many bad recovery episodes on mule deer. I no longer recommend it for big game to my recoil sensitive shooters. I love it for long varmints. For what it's worth.

 

[Spinner]

6 mm Grendel or 6.5 Grendel?? The 6.5 is the only one I know of?

6mm is a wildcat.

 

[Wyoming65]

The Weatherby Vanguard Camilla from Buds Guns runs about $630. Not bad for a lightweight gun with nice wood and good wood to metal fit. Its a great looking gun, which is always a hit with the ladies.

 

[JAYgs8163]

I have the Ruger American in 6.5 Grendel. Shoots sub moa and it's recoil is minimal. I've seen some recommendations here of much bigger bore rifles but be sure to choose something she's not going to be hesitant to shoot. Nothing worse than shooting a rifle and knowing your hesitant or anticipating the big kick. Lighter rifles even in Creedmoor will give a decent to harsh recoil. I also have a Kimber 84m lightweight hunter in Creedmoor and my wife despises shooting it. With the Grendel she can stay on target and rack another round and not lose her sight of the target. Good luck.

 

[model7fan]

Check out a model 7 in 243,260,7-08. They fit smaller framed people well. I wouldn't use a brake or a can on a non magnum deer rifle. Recoil isn't bad and keep the weight down. Some Talley light weight rings. You can use the current scope. 70-80 yards 4or 5x scope is plenty

 

[mnoland30]

Lots of good options. Caliber matters. The smaller the caliber, the lighter the bullet can be and still have adequate sectional density. I picked 7mm years ago for all of my rifles because of the excellent B.C.s available in bullets. Before the 6.5 Creedmoor. When I wanted a super light sheep gun, I bought a 7-30 Waters barrel for my Contender Carbine, and mounted a 2-7 Leupold Compact scope on it, and a homemade Safari sling. It weighs 5 lbs without the scope and sling, and 6 lbs. with it. Out to 230 yards, 120 Barnes bullets dropped Barbary sheep in their tracks. You can buy factory ammo. I can shoot that rifle offhand better than any centerfire I've ever owned. My 11 year old granddaughter loved it. For hogs, you can put a .45-70 barrel on.

When I wanted longer range and more knockdown, I bought a Browning Titanium (5-1/2 lbs) in 7mm WSM and loaded it to 7mm-08 levels. Longest shot 340 yards at bull elk. 168 Berger bullet did what they do. DRT

If I had to start over today, I'd look hard at the 6.5 Creedmoor. Savage makes one just as light as my Browning, and a whole lot less expensive. It is hard to find the youth models in gun stores, but I think that is what you want.

 

[WildRose]

View attachment 112649 View attachment 112650 If your looking for a light weight rifle for 200 yards or less the ruger 77/44 is 5.5 lbs an recoil is very light. I hunt thick cover with mine an killed a super nice 13 pt this year. Mine shoots the federal 240 grain flat nose hollow point into 1 1/2 group at 100 yds

Great short ranger for sure but realistically it's out of gas at about half the range he's talking about shooting.

Whole lotta guys used to use them hog hunting around here and for deer in the cedars.

 

[James H]

Howa 1500 Mini Lightweight in 6.5 Grendel would be perfect. It weighs less than 6 pounds. The 6.5 Grendel is more than adequate for the ranges you mentioned and has a light recoil.