Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

#101
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

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243 with 80 grain loads, The most important thing with kids is to make sure that the gun fits them correctly. Make sure that they have a good cheek weld so they are centered in the scope and the the lop is correct so they can take the recoil in the shoulder. I learned the hard way with my boy, one good case of scope eye will take years to get over. Here is a picture on my 8 year old and her gun, adj lop with a min of about 11.5" with a sims pad and adj cheek that you can get very high. Also a 1 to 4 scope with a red dot. Thanks
 
#102
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

6mm Remington or a .260 would be hard to beat. My boys shot those and a 7mm-08 after a year or so. All very good for young shooters but make sure they have great hearing protection and a lead sled helps take some of their early jitters out.
 
#103
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

.250 Ruger RSI with a nice gooey decelerator for my daughter. Started with 75 Sierra HP @ 2700fps. Ribs on Texas whitetails aren't armor. Per Mr. Manners, fit is important. There's a Howa with 2 stocks.

Son's Tikka Whitetail .243 was a little long, but we shoot out of box blinds, and he's 19 now, anyway.

I've killed a bunch to 220yd with a Ruger MKII 7.62x39, Fed 123 gr factory or Speer 130HP.

No recoil to worry about, especially the light .250. Never had a factory load, though.
 
#104
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ggmanning</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> The .223 loaded with 52 gr Barnes bullets is a suprisingly good deer killer. </div></div>

That's what I use in my .223 for predator hunting when there is tall grass, brush, weeds and anything else that could affect a ballistic tip. It also makes a clean hole most of the time.
 
#107
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

6-223 is a good round for antelope with the 85 grain GameKings. Not sure if you'd want to try it for deer. Maybe a 7-08 would be better for deer for a kid.
 
#110
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

All 4 of my kids killed their 1st deer with a .223. If they can hit what they're aiming at, there is no problem. Personally, I just killed my 51st and 52nd Whitetail deer with a .223 last season.I know some recommend a larger caliber, but it is really about shot placement over everything else. I've killed alot of others with different calibers, but none are more dead than another. If that doesn't suit your fancy, a .243, 6mm Rem., 7mm-08, .30-30, etc...
 
#111
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

Hammer guns are bad for kids. To dangerous.

AR15s are good for kids. The CAR stock is great b/c of adjustable pull.

I got rid of the kids' bolt action 22s and now they use just AR-22s from S&W. And an AR15 for deer hunting.
 
#116
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

I killed my first buck(6 pointer), many moons ago with a 6mm.. I use a 7mm-08 now. Where I hunt, the farthest I shot at a deer was 100 yards, so I don't need a larger caliber to reach out and kill one. Each deer I killed where all one shot and dropped.. Shot placment is key..
 
#117
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

I would go with either a 30-30 or a .243. I haven't looked at a 94 in yrs but last I remember they were still top ejecting and a bit of a PITA to mount a scope, the Marlin on the other hand I know is a side eject and easy to scope, that's why I bought it over the 94 last time I bought one.

Yea, you gotta teach them to keep it on half-cock, then again you are going to have to teach them to keep anything on safety. I don't see it as that different.

If you go .243 there are any number of decent guns.
 
#119
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

The newer M94 lever guns are a PITA for small children. I thought a trapper in 357 mag would work for my buddies kid with short arms. Most our shots are 50yds or less so I figured the new Leverevolution Hornady bullets would work fine. It fit in length of pull, but the new loop safety device is hard for small hands to compress while reaching for the trigger. Hell, it gives me a fit once in a while. Luckily he grew enough this past year to fit my Model 7 Remington in 7mm08. 243 would be my choice if I was going to buy for a kid. My buddy is going to build a little Savage M10 in 243 next year for his two pre-teen boys to hunt with so I can have my 7-08 full time
grin.gif
.
 
#121
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

I would go .243 without any hesitation. Light recoiling, and flat shooting with a phenomenal range of widely available factory ammunition. It is also easy to find a rifle.
 
#123
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

.223 kills a lot of deer but so does .22LR.
World-wide, .22LR is responsible for killing most of deer hunted. Is it the right choice? No.

So...

My vote is for .243 as MANY others have already stated. Also consider how inexpensive it is compared to other cartridges + TONS of ammo available.
 
#124
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

I really hadn't thought about carbines, a 357 or 44 carbine would work really well if the ranges are short.


Looks like the OP has quite a bit of advice here.

As for the 22s,the only time a 22 makes sense, .223 included, is a 22mag if your poaching, (not condoning it, just stating what I think would be the only "practical" use) other than that get a real round that has a chance of getting a kill w/o perfect placement.
 
#125
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

I have 2 custom built 250-3000s(250 Savage) on Remington 700 actions and they are great. Recoil is so light with a med weight barrel that you are able to see the bullit strike. Both of my boys will be hunting with them.
 
#127
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

I see this is an old post, but here are some considerations, and what I did, I have 2 sons close in age, and when they were young, about 9 and 11. I searched all the gun shops and pawn shops for used 243's. I really wasn't too concerned about the physical appearance of the stocks, I paid closer attention to the wear on the action and the bores and bluing.I knew I was going to cut down the stocks and refinish with a flat black epoxy paint (to keep them matching)and eliminate sibling rivalry. Short action, short barrels, decent scopes with see thru
mounts for the original iron sights. I personally think that the kids need to know how to shoot iron sights first then graduate to the optics, just my opinion. What I purchased was a Remington 788 in 243 with iron sights and a Remington Mohawk 600 in 243 with iron sights. Both rifles I found were in or around 200 each.
I cut the stocks to 11-1/2" lop, which included 15 dollar decellerator pads, sanded the pistol grip and palm swell a little smaller for little hands, used Holden Ironsighter see thru mounts about 15 bucks each, and inexpensive Nikon 3x9x40, great optics for a inexpensive scope, about 100 bucks each. A couple padded slings about 15 bucks each. These rifles are extemely accurate, 1-1/2" groups at 100 yards consistently, ammo is a Wally World drive away if it's needed. Grand total 350 each for a woods ready, tack driving, killing machine for South Florida. New stocks have since been replaced, the Ramline for the 788 (80bucks) was a perfect drop in fit. Numrich has a drop in replacement for the 600 Mohawk, and it's genuine walnut, much nicer than the original stained Beech and only mod is the safety release offset needs to be massaged, The guns are now back to original status 15 years later, and my boys have the cut down stocks to give to thier boys when the time comes. If you search around these guns are still available altho discontinued years ago, and parts are readily available. This, at the time was the only way I could afford to outfit my kids, a real viable option for others who just can't afford the luxury of a new 700 dollar micro rifle for thier kids. A properly dialed in 243 will drop just about anything in the ConUS without killing the kid's shoulder, IMHO............Dan
 
#128
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

If this is a strictly-deer hunting rifle, I would go with .30-06. Remington makes low-recoil rounds (they kick like a .223 but have the power of 7.62 NATO) for the .30-06, and when he gets older he can go to full-power rounds. If price is a problem, you can get your hands on a Savage Stevens 200 in .30-06 for usually $300 or less.
 
#131
Re: Deer Capable Caliber for a Small Child

Actually, since this is an old post.. kinda curious how it turned out.

I did enjoy reading this thread and seem to have some common ground with GregLangelius. I grew up in the farmlands north of Syracuse, NY and rifles were not allowed unless you were in the Adirondacks (I understand now rifles are now allowed in the "Southern Zone"). You also were not legal to hunt large game until you were 16. My first dozen deer were killed by a 12 ga. slug (or my damn car)... pretty surprising how accurate they can be out to 100 and obviously that big chunk of lead does some damage.

I moved to TX a dozen years ago and have been fortunate to marry into a family that has several professional guides/ranch managers and have killed many, many deer culling the herds and removing doe 10-15 at a time. The lions share of them have been taken with a .22-250 and not one of them moved more than a couple yards. Is that the prefered caliber, especially for a novice? Absolutely not.

The trick is finding the balance of knock-down and managability. You need to be able to "miss" the target by 6" and still bag your game. The .22-250 is a beautiful thing to ear-hole a 90-100 pound doe and preserve all that meat that goes to charities around S. Texas... but I would never trust a young heart with buck fever to make that shot consistantly.

IMO, the .243, proper stock fitment and several boxes of ammo on the range would have been the easy choice. Very curious to find out how it went and the end result of the hunt last year!
 
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