Youth rifle for deer

Howa 7mm08 has a youth rifle that comes with an adult stock.

7mm-08. I have seen plenty of children around that age shoot them. They work great.

.243

A 7mm-08 from one of the big manufacturers (Ruger, Remington, savage, etc) so it’ll be easier to get a full size stock later on.

Not a .223/.243
There’s no need to limit horsepower for fear of recoil. The 7mm-08 is a very soft shooter.

Grew up with a 6 mm. It has similar ballistics to 243. Dropped several in their tracks with it and it was easy to handle.

Bought a Savage Axis 2 7mm 08 for my son and really like the gun and round. Has the accu-trigger and came with a 3-9 Burris scope for around 300. Has a 50 rebate as well. Got it from outdoor superstore. I couldn’t find a local dealer with the axis 2 in 7mm 08.

Savage offers the axis in a youth size, but not sure if you can get an axis 2 in youth size stock though. As others have stated, you may be able to get a youth stock separately.

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Want to buy my 6 year old a rifle to kill first deer this year.

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While there are lots of hunters who are fans of using 243s and 22 caliber center fires for youth hunters, I'm not one of them. I read a lot about extremely deadly shots made w/ smaller rounds, but every now and then there'll be an unexpected disappointing result. I think larger rounds are more consistent and a little more forgiving w/ shot placement (no one makes a good shot every time).

The 300 BlackOut, 300/221 or 300 Whisper would be a great youth gun. Others I'd recommend are the 260 Rem, 7-08 Rem and 308 Win. I imagine all of the above rounds will have more recoil than the 223, but he may still be able to shoot one well; you'll know after a few shots. Whatever the caliber is, start out w/ reduced recoil loads. A reduced recoil 308 Win actually recoils less than a full power 243 Win. When my son started hunting at 10 y/o I bought him a full size Savage bolt action (308 Win) package gun w/ regular stock. He shot reduced recoil loads that I handloaded. While it's true he won't notice the recoil from a shot taken at live game, I'd still do everything I could to prevent him from developing bad habits at the bench; bad habits at the shooting bench usually result in bad habits in the field. Tips for shooting from the bench:

Use good ear muffs AND soft plugs at the same time.
Keep the number of shots in a shooting session to a minimum.
Consider a shooting sled of some sort to minimize recoil.
Consider a small sandbag (we used to call it a "sissy bag" when I was growing up) between the butt stock and shoulder if it doesn't mess up how the stock fits.
If it looks like he's having problems handling the recoil, DO NOT force the issue.

Full disclosure: I've never hunted w/ a 7-08 rifle, but I deer hunt w/ a 15" barreled 7-08 handgun (Remington XP-100); it's one of my favorite deer hunting handguns. In addition, I killed 3 hogs w/ it this week. OTOH, I recently bought a Thompson/Center Compass rifle on sale to be a "grandchild's gun." Guess what.... it's chambered in 7-08.

Good luck and keep us up to date!

Ruger american compact 7mm-08 shoot the hornady reduced recoil rounds

Another gun to look at is an AR15 chambered in 6.5 Grendel. Not a lot of recoil at all and it being a gas gun helps. Also give you an excuse to buy a new AR.

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chambered in 6.5 Grendel.

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This caliber but in CZ 527 or Howa mini.