re: .243 for 8yr old

quote:

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What is the goal just a youth gun for a couple of years or a lifetime gun.
I bought my son a tikka 308 when he was 9 it’s a lifetime gun and him and my daughter both were shooting 308s when they were 8-10yrs old .

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Good advice. I'd suggest using reduced recoil/managed recoil loads at the start. A reduced recoil 308 w/ 125 gr bullet actually has less recoil than a full power 243 w/ 100 gr bullet. I'm not crapping on the 243, just pointing out that a gun shooting a much heavier bullet, like the 308, can be set up to have less recoil than a 243 w/ a much lighter. Yeah, the reduced recoil load w/ not be as flat, but it's not a bad idea to put a range restriction on a beginner hunter, at which point there may be no significant difference in practical trajectory.

When my son first started deer hunting at 10 yo, I bought him a Savage 308 Win and worked up a reduced recoil load w/ the 125 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip. He killed a bunch of deer w/ it before moving to a full power load.