re: Starter Deer Rifle????

WRS,

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. Originally I intended to buy my son a 300/221 in a Contender carbine when he started deer hunting, but that didn't work out. W/ the BO, you're basically getting 30-30 performance but w/ less recoil

If you don't get the 300 BO, my personal rec is to get a 260 Rem, 7-08 Rem or 308 Win and start your son(s) out on 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. Started out w/ reduced recoil loads that I handloaded. He's done fine w/ this gun. Whatever you buy, use reduced recoil loads. At the bench, consider a sandbag between shoulder and butt of gun and use both plugs and muffs. Sure, he won't notice the recoil in the field, but if he develops bad habits in practice, it will carry over to the field and probably result in a flinch (no matter how big he may be).

No personal experience w/ the H&R or Rossi crack barrels. From reading on the 'net, quality control seem to be either hit or miss. One of my friends (who's an accomplished shooter and handloader) has one; he gave up on over getting it to shoot better than 2" groups at 100 yds. He'll prolly get more lifetime use w/ a bolt action than the Rossi.