Friend just bought a youth model 6.5 Creedmore for his son. The boy weighs about 60 pounds. He wont shoot it and I don't blame him. The recoil is very sharp. I'm going to see how much weight I can add to it to tone it down and will likely end up downloading it. While the dimensions of the rifle may be right. Light weight rifles kick. Personally we always just downloaded a 270 or 30-06 and cut the stock to fit. That was before the Grendel came along. Plus you don't need a brake for the Grendel.
Low recoil deer caliber
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esshup
Well-Known Member
I would go with a .308, light weight bullets for practice and at a reduced velocity. Then do load development work for a 130 grain Barnes TTSX or a 150g Barnes TTSX at a faster velocity for him to hunt with. When he pulls the trigger on a deer he won't notice the increased recoil. The big thing is little recoil and muzzle blast for practice. He will be able to use that rifle/caliber for deer, bear and moose. Sierra makes a 110 grain bullet, at 1500 or so fps that should be very mild recoil and minimal muzzle blast. Heck, I bet you can run them barely supersonic with Trail Boss powder. I am shooting the 190g Hornady Sub-X bullet at 1015 fps with 9.5g of Trail Boss.
Putting a good partition style muzzle brake on it will also mitigate a tremendous amount of recoil, but increase the muzzle blast and noise.
In response to the posts about using a .243, a friend has a bad right hand where the thumb joint has a lot of arthritis. I have a .243 that weighs right at 6 pounds with scope. sling and full magazine. I also have a 7mm Allen Magnum that weighs 11.5 pounds in hunting trim. I had him shoot both rifles. 180g 7mm bullet pushed by 110g of powder moving at 3350 fps with a medium painkiller brake from Kirby vs. an 85g .243 bullet pushed by IIRC 46g of powder going 3250 fps (no brake). My friend said that to him the muzzle blast was much greater with the 7mm AM, but the recoil was the same or slightly less with the 7mm Allen Magnum. So, a full house .243 load might not be one for a small kid.
With the ballistic programs out there now, the OP can easily figure out how much recoil there will be with a given rifle/load. Throw a good muzzle brake on it (if the child can tolerate the extra muzzle blast and noise) and you can cut those recoil numbers. Doing a quick check, the .243 generates 12 ft lb of energy at 11.3 ft/sec. The 7mm Allen without the brake generates 28.7 ft. lb of energy at 12.4 ft/sec. So the Painkiller brake cuts recoil by more than half.
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243, son has been slaying deer with the Hornady custom lite 87gr reduced recoil rounds. Every deer has been 1 shot kills.
Bad thing with youth rifles, like someone already mentioned, they end up being shorter and in some cases lighter…which means more recoil. So gotta be careful with that. However, my son has a Mossberg bantam that allows you to remove spacers ti adjust length of pull. With the reduced loads it's gentle. Kind of a double edged sword trying to get a rifle that fits the kid without adding recoil, that's where the reduced loads come in and help
Bad thing with youth rifles, like someone already mentioned, they end up being shorter and in some cases lighter…which means more recoil. So gotta be careful with that. However, my son has a Mossberg bantam that allows you to remove spacers ti adjust length of pull. With the reduced loads it's gentle. Kind of a double edged sword trying to get a rifle that fits the kid without adding recoil, that's where the reduced loads come in and help
A lot of great recommendations. My boys were shooting 450 bm at 9 but I modified ar with weighted carrier heavy buffer and spring with a Ross muzzle break to tame the recoil pulse to a soft push. About in between a .410/20ga slug recoil. I feel 6.8 SPC and 6.5 Grendel would make a great rifle for kids. Leaning more towards Grendel for bullet offerings. A nice lil bolt gun in SPC or Grendel with 20-22" barrel would make a great 300 yard and under hunting rifle. They both will reach out further but bullet performance starts to diminish.
One important question?
DO YOU RELOAD?
Because if you do take all the advice that you just read and toss it in the garbage!!!!
Work up, our in this case down a load to fit the shooters needs.
In almost any caliber!
And the boy our girl will have a rifle for life!!!
DO YOU RELOAD?
Because if you do take all the advice that you just read and toss it in the garbage!!!!
Work up, our in this case down a load to fit the shooters needs.
In almost any caliber!
And the boy our girl will have a rifle for life!!!
Slaw
Member
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2018
- Messages
- 19
My son has shot a 257 Robert's since he was 7 and it works great. He will use his 308 this year at 10.
243, 6cm, 6.5cm 7mm08, 25-06, 308, 6.5cm
Just deer any of those would work. If you reload you have even more options. Not sure about up North there but I feel around here and in my travels 6.5cm and 308 are the most common and most available these days
243, 6cm, 6.5cm 7mm08, 25-06, 308, 6.5cm
Just deer any of those would work. If you reload you have even more options. Not sure about up North there but I feel around here and in my travels 6.5cm and 308 are the most common and most available these days
I see a lot of comments about rifle weight and I agree the best way to mitigate recoil is weight. For the 243 and 6.5 creed I would suggest a 7.5-8lbs rifle. The second suggestion would be bullet weight. Shoot a light weight bullet, 90 grain in the 243, 120-123 in the 6.5 creed. If you feel those are to much for him to handle get a 223 Rem and shoot 64 grain pills. As I stated earlier ammo availability is really the driving factor here for me. Any of these calibers will work in the above configuration. My daughters rifle was a single shot T/C Contender Prohunter in 22-250, weighed about 8.5 lbs scoped. You can't hardly find them anymore but 15-20 years ago they were the gun to have, built three of them I liked the modularity. The gun could grow with the child. Today I might would go with a Tikka because of the aftermarket support. JMT
I have taught 3 sons to shoot rifles and shotguns starting at young ages. We are not large persons, 5' 8" or less. Rifle length, weight and recoil matter.
My oldest son's first rifle was a 243. The go-to first for many decades. Easy to shoot, reload. BUT the 6.5 and 6 creedmoor are based on a bigger knowledge base and better design.
For the future, 6.5 CM has/will eclipse older cartridges in this class (6mm's, 308, 7mm-08 etc) in availability of ammo, components, rifles. So if this rifle is for now AND his future, go 6.5.
Tikka T3x compact 6.5 with 20 inch barrel is an awesome choice. Accurate, inexpensive. Shoot now, change stock later. Even can change barrel yourself later for longer or different caliber. Start with light custom load OR factory 95 grain varmint load for target practice. Alternatively start with a 223 in this model, swap for 6.5 when he is, say 120 lbs or more.
Not putting down others. I personally regularly shoot, kill with 7mm-08, 6mm CM, 6.5 CM, 6.5 Grendel, 7mm SAUM...building another 223 at present.
Buttermilk
Well-Known Member
I would suggest the following:
300 Blackout
6.5 Grendel
6mm. ARC
My 11 yr old granddaughter at the time killed her first deer with the 300 BLK. Very low recoil and capable of killing deer at a decent enough distance for most beginners.
Of the three above the 6 ARC would be my pick.
deltablade
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2013
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- 2
would a 270 win have light enough recoil?
Legionnaire
Well-Known Member
My kids started whitetail hunting with a .243, which I think was the best cartridge at the time. Today I'd start them off with a 6.5 Grendel.
redneckbmxer24
Well-Known Member
223. Doesn't get much more affordable to shoot or lower recoil for a centerfire round and kills deer really dead.
