What youth rifle for my son?

[Alfred Crouch]

My 260 has a 25" barrel and my grand son's has a 23" barrel. Can't speak to how much recoil or muzzle blast the 20" barrel will deliver compared to the longer ones. . That is an aspect that will need to be considered. Interesting point. Will be intersted in seeing what those who have used the shorter barrels have to say on this.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Some good options on the table. Here's another one... Vanguard youth.

Vanguard® Series 2 Synthetic Youth | Weatherby.com

I would pick the 7-08. When he grows out of it, sell it and fix him up with something else, or get it a B&C medalist for it and re barrel.

Mark

 

[Red Sparky]

I have the same questions about my 12 year old daughter. A youth model fits her without having to modify the stock. I reload so that is not a problem to reduce recoil for target shooting. I have her shooting a muzzle loader with light loads all summer at the range then I load it up for hunting season ( of course I don't tell her that). I would look at what you are going to be hunting and what ammo is readily available. I know you said deer but what about elk? Here the .243 is the minimum legal caliber for elk but I do not want to have her hunting elk with it. I am going to get her a 7-08 for antelope, deer and elk. I would really like to get her the 6.5X284 Norma but wonder if it will take off and become popular enough to have longevity.

 

[Smoak352]

I went to the shooting range a few days ago and next to me was a couple shooting a rifle. The wife looked to be about 120lbs (nice body ) and she was shooting a 7mm-08. When she fired the rifle it looked like she was shooting a 300 magnum. I would suggest getting him a 243.

 

[257WTBY]

Well i started my daighter out with a 44mag lever gun, shooting 44 specials all summer. She shot a nice fat 4X4 white tail. Her picture is in the bottom of all my posts. She turned 12 this year and i bought her a Howa 1500 243. It came with the youth and adult stock and honestly I was impressed with its out of the box accuracy. The trigger kind of sucked but i fixed that it is a crisp 3 lbs. I know i want her to grow with it but i also know that here the minimum caliber for elk starts at .25. I have a couple of 25-06's one feather weight she could use if i take her before she gets to grown up.

I know u like the 7mm 08 but i had my older daughter shoot one in a youth when she was younger and it kicked the crap out of her. i mean if u reloaded now u could load some lower power rounds. I will tell u this at a decent range with quality bullets the 243 will whack a mulie no sweat.

Just my 2 cents

 

[toddc]

Well i started my daighter out with a 44mag lever gun, shooting 44 specials all summer. She shot a nice fat 4X4 white tail. Her picture is in the bottom of all my posts. She turned 12 this year and i bought her a Howa 1500 243. It came with the youth and adult stock and honestly I was impressed with its out of the box accuracy. The trigger kind of sucked but i fixed that it is a crisp 3 lbs. I know i want her to grow with it but i also know that here the minimum caliber for elk starts at .25. I have a couple of 25-06's one feather weight she could use if i take her before she gets to grown up.

I know u like the 7mm 08 but i had my older daughter shoot one in a youth when she was younger and it kicked the crap out of her. i mean if u reloaded now u could load some lower power rounds. I will tell u this at a decent range with quality bullets the 243 will whack a mulie no sweat.

Just my 2 cents

Why do we put muzzle brakes on or guns and not our wives/kids? Whatever I bought over a 243 it would have a brake. Heck a light enuf 243 will kick ya in the teeth.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Well i started my daighter out with a 44mag lever gun, shooting 44 specials all summer. She shot a nice fat 4X4 white tail. Her picture is in the bottom of all my posts. She turned 12 this year and i bought her a Howa 1500 243. It came with the youth and adult stock and honestly I was impressed with its out of the box accuracy. The trigger kind of sucked but i fixed that it is a crisp 3 lbs. I know i want her to grow with it but i also know that here the minimum caliber for elk starts at .25. I have a couple of 25-06's one feather weight she could use if i take her before she gets to grown up.

I know u like the 7mm 08 but i had my older daughter shoot one in a youth when she was younger and it kicked the crap out of her. i mean if u reloaded now u could load some lower power rounds. I will tell u this at a decent range with quality bullets the 243 will whack a mulie no sweat.

Just my 2 cents

Factory loads are gonna be a bit on the warm side. If you load up 120 gr bullets over a mild charge of powder, it wouldn't be any more than a 243. In fact a 243 is a necked down 7-08. Also the Vanguard has an excellent trigger and the youth stock has a very forgiving recoil pad. If it was me, i would probably get the regular Vanguard with 24" barrel vs the 20" youth barrel for more weight and replace the stock with the youth stock. That would be a rifle that a kid could grow into and the load could be progressively increased as he/she got bigger.

 

[gemihur]

lightbulb Check into the T/C contender. Youth stock (12" LOP & moderate caliber bbl.. (6.8 SPC or 7-30 waters) .. just instill importance of shot placement. It will offer many options for changing physique & ballistic need. You won't be disappointed. Jimmy

My 260 has a 25" barrel and my grand son's has a 23" barrel. Can't speak to how much recoil or muzzle blast the 20" barrel will deliver compared to the longer ones. . That is an aspect that will need to be considered. Interesting point. Will be intersted in seeing what those who have used the shorter barrels have to say on this.

 

[sox35]

Some good options on the table. Here's another one... Vanguard youth.

Vanguard® Series 2 Synthetic Youth | Weatherby.com

At 10 My son killed his first deer with a 14" TC Contender 7-30waters with a break(red dot sight). By 11 he could handle my 45LC, 7STW with break, and .257wby. I was not going to chop the stocks on the 7 or .257, and the colt wheel gun only gave him a 25-30 yd range. We ended up purchasing the Weatherby Youth .243. Great gun that grows with them with the stock extenders. He can easily shoot under 1/2" at 100yards with handloads. As far as enough power, he took a nice 2 1/2 year old buck at 434 yards with a Berger 95g. Next morning took a 5 1/2 year old 245lb 4x4 whitetail at 170yds. I would get him the same rifle again if I was doing it over again. So far in 2 years he has taken 5 deer (ranges from 95-434yards) with the little rifle. Not one deer has went more than 25 yards. The recoil is light enough that he regularly will shoot 50 rounds on one range day and still have enough in him to practice with his bow for a hour befor heading home. We did make it easier for him with a Leupold VX3 4.5-14 CDS and a rangefinder to make adjustments.

 

[pburton]

Thank you to everyone for their responses. Stil not exactly sure what I am going to do. I am leaning towards a full sized rifle and replacing the stock with a youth size. In this case I think I'll go with the 7mm-08 with a muzzle brake and a good recoil pad. This should tame it down enough for him to handle it well. But like I said i am still thinking it all over.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Thank you to everyone for their responses. Stil not exactly sure what I am going to do. I am leaning towards a full sized rifle and replacing the stock with a youth size. In this case I think I'll go with the 7mm-08 with a muzzle brake and a good recoil pad. This should tame it down enough for him to handle it well. But like I said i am still thinking it all over.

Before you install the brake, you might try a reduced load with lighter bullets. It will probably be very tame. A brake will be helpful in keeping on target but it will also be loud. Not that big a deal on the bench, but in the field the boy will need to be wearing ear protection or take the time to put it on before shooting. just something to think about.

 

[sox35]

Thank you to everyone for their responses. Stil not exactly sure what I am going to do. I am leaning towards a full sized rifle and replacing the stock with a youth size. In this case I think I'll go with the 7mm-08 with a muzzle brake and a good recoil pad. This should tame it down enough for him to handle it well. But like I said i am still thinking it all over.

That was the path I was going to take. By the time I purchased a youth stock, break, and better recoil pad I had met the price of the youth rifle. I figured he would shoot the youth for 3-5 years and than I would purchase him something or pass one of mine down to him when he turns 16. I spend the same amount of money but have 2 rifles not one rifle and a extra stock. Good luck in what ever path you take, the big thing is spending quality time with our kids.

 

[HARPERC]

That was the path I was going to take. By the time I purchased a youth stock, break, and better recoil pad I had met the price of the youth rifle. I figured he would shoot the youth for 3-5 years and than I would purchase him something or pass one of mine down to him when he turns 16. I spend the same amount of money but have 2 rifles not one rifle and a extra stock. Good luck in what ever path you take, the big thing is spending quality time with our kids.

The great thing about a kid's rifle is there's always another kid wanting a chance. Some of what I call kids rifles have taken more game than my adult rifles.

 

[Dr. Vette]

I have a Wby Vanguard in 243 with a beautiful wood stock. As I was not using it I called Legacy Sports a few months ago and purchased a youth sized Hogue stock as they install on the Howa youth rifles for under $120 shipped. It comes with an excellent recoil pad and the nice grippy surface. It fit very well and the rifle is fun to shoot. My girls can shoot it with no problem, and I can swap the full sized stock onto it at any time.

I'd highly recommend the 243. Oh, and I preferred the Vanguard for the extra barrel length. I did not want a 20 inch barrel on a youth rifle - the extra 4 inches moves the noise even further away from the shooter and doesn't seem to affect the balance at all.