Best deer caliber for 10yr old son?

[ADAM]

260 rem and 7mm-08 are superb calibers,love them both,shot lots of game with them out to 600 yards, dropped deer,antelope and pigs on there tracks,copper bullets have extended the range of many calibers,but if the kid develops flinch from to much gun he may shy away from hunting,best thing you can do is start reloading,mild loads to start him on the right path.

[ucsdryder]

The only 06 guns I own are milsurp M1s and 1903s. Why? Because I can hunt pretty much all game in CA with a .308 Win and if I need to step it up I'm going magnum with a 7mm Rem Mag or .300 Win Mag. If I can handle the recoil of a .30-06 180gr hunting load, I might as well shoot a magnum.

Don't get me wrong, I love the 30-06. I shoot a pre 64 model 70 that I love, but I'm not 10 years old either! That being said I am looking at building a mountain gun, lightweight and stainless in a 300wm or 7mm mag.

[NapalmCheese]

The recoil between a 257R and a 30-06 is huge. If your 10 year old isn't ready to be a linebacker at the local high school I don't think putting him behind a '06 is a good choice. He's 10. He will have plenty of time to buy a rifle when he's ready to go hunt elk or moose. If you're looking for a CA gun it's not necessary to have an 06. I haven't looked around but you might be able to find a youth gun in the marketplace that a kid has grown out of. Or if you're like me, you will keep it forever and have a gun for your kids. Trust me, it isn't that far away!

Reduced recoil/youth loads.

.30-06 can be downloaded to shoot a 125 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip at 2600 fps, the .257 Roberts shoots a 115 grain Nosler Partition between 2400 and 2800 fps.

Without loss of generality we can compare KE using imperial units, the .30-06 looks like k = 1/2 mv^2 = (125*2600^2)/2 = 4.225e8 units. The minimum .257R load is (115*2400^2)/2 = 3.312e8 and the max .257R load is 115*2800^2 / 2 = 4.5e8. BTW, that's not a +P Roberts load.

The maximum .257R recoils more than the reduced .30-06 load which recoils more than the minimum .257R.

.257R is a fine game getter, but wouldn't be my first choice on elk.

The .30-06 is a cartridge the youngster could keep for his entire life, no matter where he moves, no matter what he hunts and with few exceptions he'll never be outgunned. Yes, his father could get him a smaller cartridge that he could keep for his entire life (again, I'm partial to 7mm-08 which would be another lifelong chambering), but the .30-06 gives the OP's kid great flexibility.

[CSACANNONEER]

I'd go with .243 just for ammo availability.

BTW, I passed my Hunter's safety course when I was 11 and again when I was in my 40s and my 12 year old stepson was taking the class.

[jschuff32]

What are your thoughts about starting him with a .308 with reduced recoil hand loads? So that he could work his way into full loads in his later teen years and not need to get a new rifle.


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[NapalmCheese]

there is zero reason to buy a rifle for junior hunter and expect it to last his lifetime.

what's the fun in that?

Maybe some people like the idea of buying a rifle with which the child can make a lifetimes worth of memories should he choose?

I have a Red Ryder BB gun my wife gave me for Christmas a few years back. I'll keep it for the rest of my life. I have other fancy pellet rifles for shooting small game and targets, but that Red Ryder will be with me till the day I die.

[NapalmCheese]

What are your thoughts about starting him with a .308 with reduced recoil hand loads? So that he could work his way into full loads in his later teen years and not need to get a new rifle.


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Nothing wrong with that either.

[The Geologist]

Just do not get him a lever action that is tube feed. I seen to many people become careless when unloading.

If someone becomes that careless then..........

The only benefit of a non-tube fed lever action is that you can use spitzer rounds too.

[Bull Elk]

I realize .243 is super popular and has taken many deer, but isn't it really barely adequate? Wouldn't it be better to go with a 260 Rem or 7mm-08?

Barely adequate for deer? No. It's more than adequate.

[Calif Hunter]

Another option depending upon his size is CZ 527 carbine in 7.63x39. I do n't have one, but my son used a CZ527 in .223 to take a javelina at age 10.

My son (now 17) had shot a lot of prairie dogs, rabbits, etc with .223s, .22-250s and pretty much by-passed the .243 I have and went to a .270.

[NapalmCheese]

All this being said, I'm also looking for a rifle for my grandpa and recently found out on this forum that Howa is going to make a 6 lbs mini action bolt gun in 6.5 Grendel. The above poster with the 7.62x39 suggestion just reminded me of that. That would also be a fine youth gun if the OP decided to go that way.

[pepsi2451]

IMO .243 is a great caliber for deer. I got a Ruger m77 in .243 for my 11th birthday and I have been hunting deer with it ever since. I just turned 30 and I killed a buck with that same rifle last season.

That being said, I don't remember having any problem shooting my friends 270 or my dads 30-06, recoil didn't bother me much. You can't go wrong with a .243 but if the recoil doesn't bother him I don't really see any reason you couldn't go bigger. Has he tried shooting many center fire calibers?

[CSACANNONEER]

What are your thoughts about starting him with a .308 with reduced recoil hand loads? So that he could work his way into full loads in his later teen years and not need to get a new rifle.


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Why? Plenty of adults use a .243 for deer. If he wants a rifle chambered in a different cartridge later, he will have enough experience to decide what the rifle and chambering should be. Also, hunting reduced loads using lead free bullets isn't eithical. Most, if not all, lead free bullets require enough velocity to expand and work properly that a reduced load would be un ethical.

[fritztkatt]

Hey, another good thought with the -08 or -06 and handloading road, is that you can teach the kid reloading.

I'd assume if you trust him with a rifle, he can be closely supervised at the reloading bench.

[Calif Hunter]

My first centerfire was a "sporterized" (butchered...) 1917 Enfield in .30-06. Having two brothers, we all learned to reload right away as my Dad had a tough time keeping us in ammo. He would stop by Sierra when they were in Santa Fe Springs and buy bullets by the pound in brown paper bags, usually 125 gr SPs. We would load them over 55 gr of IMR 4064 and shoot them up at my uncle's mine in the Angeles Forest or out by Jawbone Canyon. I was about 13 when I started reloading.