Choosing a rifle for my son.

[maroonandwhite]

After a loooong wait my wife and I just had our first child (Son) and I am looking to buy a nicer hand-me-down hunting rifle for him/myself. I’m really recoil sensitive so am looking for opinions on what caliber some of your children have used when younger. I’d prefer to get a caliber that will serve him into adulthood and that I will enjoy using in the mean time. .243 was my first choice but would prefer a little more power at distance. .308?  .270?

 

Im also looking for suggestions on the rifle itself. Wood stock for sure. Rem 700 CDL or something similar is what I’m thinking. Probably going to try to keep it around or under $1000 for just the rifle. 

Edited November 17, 2018 by maroonandwhite

[1gewehr]

How about 6.5 Grendel?  Short action, lightweight, very accurate, low recoil, and lots of punch.  Several manufacturers make hunting rifles in that caliber now.

A good selection of loads are available including inexpensive steel case all the way up to precision long-range target ammo.

[maroonandwhite]

18 minutes ago, 1gewehr said:

How about 6.5 Grendel?  Short action, lightweight, very accurate, low recoil, and lots of punch.  Several manufacturers make hunting rifles in that caliber now.

A good selection of loads are available including inexpensive steel case all the way up to precision long-range target ammo.

I have been eyeballing 6.5 creedmoor. Any major differences in those two that you know of?

[Chucktshoes]

If you can find a deal on a Montana Rifle Company ASR you’ll be in the $1k territory, maybe just under if used. 

Youll never regret it. 

[MP5_Rizzo]

I like 1gewehr suggestion on a 6.5 Grendel.  I get the fact you want something nice to hand down but to be honest, some of the hand me downs in my possession now that I cherish most are not high end guns.  Some have been heavily used and have a lot of character.  I don't really think you can go wrong on this no matter what you decide.

[DaveTN]

I think you are spot on with the .243. I’ve never shot a .270. .308 in a bolt action is heavy recoil for many men, let alone a kid.

$1000 budget on the gun alone covers almost anything. I recently wanted walnut and high gloss blue. For the prices people were giving me on used; I just bought new. I bought a Winchester Model 70 Super Grade so I could compare it to my Remington 700 (haven’t got a chance to do that yet). I wanted .223 (for paper not hunting); they don’t have it in that so I got .243. It’s more than your budget, but there are plenty of options in that price range.

I also had a problem finding gloss Leupold scopes. They are limited in what the offer anymore and I had to settle.

My Remington 700 VLS 308 is a tack drive, but it’s heavy. And its laminate, not solid wood. The Remington 700 CDL is solid walnut, but the barrel is satin blue instead of high gloss blue.

Good luck in your search.

[peejman]

.223 or .243 or 6.5. 

.270's and bigger thump pretty good, especially in a light weight hunting rifle. An accurate hit with a small bullet beats a miss with a big bullet every time. 

[maroonandwhite]

31 minutes ago, MP5_Rizzo said:

I like 1gewehr suggestion on a 6.5 Grendel.  I get the fact you want something nice to hand down but to be honest, some of the hand me downs in my possession now that I cherish most are not high end guns.  Some have been heavily used and have a lot of character.  I don't really think you can go wrong on this no matter what you decide.

I’ll have to research them. Is it offered in a bolt gun?

[maroonandwhite]

28 minutes ago, peejman said:

.223 or .243 or 6.5. 

.270's and bigger thump pretty good, especially in a light weight hunting rifle. An accurate hit with a small bullet beats a miss with a big bullet every time. 

My wife killed her first deer with a .243 at about 230 yards. Dropped where it stood. 

[maroonandwhite]

Anyone have an opinion on the REM 700 vs Ruger Hawkeye vs Winchester?

[KahrMan]

I prefer the Remington or Winchester. Tiger deer rifles just do not feel as good in the hand as the other. 

I would consider the .243 or .308.   One thing to consider is in 15 years you and your son are out hunting and forget your ammo or run out. You go find a country store. What ammo do you think they will have on there shelf. There will always be 308 and probably 243. The 6.5s are popular now but what about in 15-20 years?  

[bersaguy]

Let me start off by saying congradulations on the new addition to your family!!

I know this might not fall in the catagory your looking for but let me say this. When I was brought here to Tennessee from Illinois at age 16 to live on my Grandfathers Farm/Ranch I didn't own a deer rifle but had been hunting small game since age 10 so was not unfamilar with hunting.

My Grandfather ask me one day if I had a deer rifle and I said no sir. He didn't say anything but just turned and walked away. About 10 minute later he came back and handed me a Winchester model 94 and said every boy should have a deer rifle in Tennessee. I went the next day and bought two boxes of ammo and went out in a cut down corn field and put up some targets. A buddy of mine that lived down the road from me went along. Well, needless to say the recoil was about like a 12 guage 3 inch Mag round which I was not really expecting and it hit my shoulder fairly hard. My buddy Wayne told me I needed to make sure I had it tucked into my shoulder better.

We had put the targets out about 60 yards and my grandfather had told me to put the target on top of my front sight when I went to practice. Well, was shooting at 8 inch pie pans placed on a couple bales of hay stood on end. Out of a box of 20 rounds I had 12 hits for sure but a couple looked like I may have put a second round through a previous hole.

That deer season I managed two deer hunting with Wayne and his brother Tom. Over the years I killed a lot of deer with that old 30/30. I still own it and It will be my Sons someday. He did grow up using it to hunt with and killed his first several deer with it. He began hunting deer at age 11 and he used the gun to bag I think he said 14 deer before he went to a 30-06 Winchester Bolt gun but the gun was passed down to his oldest son when he began hunting and he killed 16 deer with it before he stepped up to a 308 Savage model 110 bolt gun & scope. My Son and daughter in law thought there would be no more children but sometimes things happen. A new addition showed up after  his older brothers were 18 & 16. His name is Logan. 

Well when he was 10 years old his oldest brother began taking him small gamehunting to see how he would react. Needless to say the 30/30 had one more hunter left in her and at age 12 Logan bagged his first buck on a juvenile hunt with the 30/30. He is now 15 and has began looking for more range and has been shootng his fathers 30-06 but wants a 243 so that will be coming from Santa Claus this year.

I know you weren't expecting a book report but it all really goes back to a family heir loom hand me down issues. That gun was bought new by my Grandfather back when he was a young man and since then it has been a deerslayer through 6 different family members. It remains in my oldest grandsons gun safe waiting for the next generation. There has been another 30/30 Marlin added to the batch of deer rifles in the family only because someone wanted one with a scope.

Good luck with what you deside for your future deer hunter. If it is a hand me down from his father it will mean that much more over the years.

 

 

[maroonandwhite]

13 minutes ago, bersaguy said:

Let me start off by saying congradulations on the new addition to your family!!

I know this might not fall in the catagory your looking for but let me say this. When I was brought here to Tennessee from Illinois at age 16 to live on my Grandfathers Farm/Ranch I didn't own a deer rifle but had been hunting small game since age 10 so was not unfamilar with hunting.

My Grandfather ask me one day if I had a deer rifle and I said no sir. He didn't say anything but just turned and walked away. About 10 minute later he came back and handed me a Winchester model 94 and said every boy should have a deer rifle in Tennessee. I went the next day and bought two boxes of ammo and went out in a cut down corn field and put up some targets. A buddy of mine that lived down the road from me went along. Well, needless to say the recoil was about like a 12 guage 3 inch Mag round which I was not really expecting and it hit my shoulder fairly hard. My buddy Wayne told me I needed to make sure I had it tucked into my shoulder better.

We had put the targets out about 60 yards and my grandfather had told me to put the target on top of my front sight when I went to practice. Well, was shooting at 8 inch pie pans placed on a couple bales of hay stood on end. Out of a box of 20 rounds I had 12 hits for sure but a couple looked like I may have put a second round through a previous hole.

That deer season I managed two deer hunting with Wayne and his brother Tom. Over the years I killed a lot of deer with that old 30/30. I still own it and It will be my Sons someday. He did grow up using it to hunt with and killed his first several deer with it. He began hunting deer at age 11 and he used the gun to bag I think he said 14 deer before he went to a 30-06 Winchester Bolt gun but the gun was passed down to his oldest son when he began hunting and he killed 16 deer with it before he stepped up to a 308 Savage model 110 bolt gun & scope. My Son and daughter in law thought there would be no more children but sometimes things happen. A new addition showed up after  his older brothers were 18 & 16. His name is Logan. 

Well when he was 10 years old his oldest brother began taking him small gamehunting to see how he would react. Needless to say the 30/30 had one more hunter left in her and at age 12 Logan bagged his first buck on a juvenile hunt with the 30/30. He is now 15 and has began looking for more range and has been shootng his fathers 30-06 but wants a 243 so that will be coming from Santa Claus this year.

I know you weren't expecting a book report but it all really goes back to a family heir loom hand me down issues. That gun was bought new by my Grandfather back when he was a young man and since then it has been a deerslayer through 6 different family members. It remains in my oldest grandsons gun safe waiting for the next generation. There has been another 30/30 Marlin added to the batch of deer rifles in the family only because someone wanted one with a scope.

Good luck with what you deside for your future deer hunter. If it is a hand me down from his father it will mean that much more over the years.

 

 

Awesome story! I actually have a Marlin 336 from the 70’s that was my grandpas. It will fill the “reliable, beat up, awesome lever action hand me down” category. 

[maroonandwhite]

Looking at the Winchester Super Grades. I think I’d be afraid to take that in the woods! It’s beautiful. 

 

I went to to look at a few earlier and couldn’t find many wood stocks. Guess the market for them isn’t there any longer. I may be ordering this one sight unseen. Right now I’m pretty much going back and forth between the Rem 700 and the Winchester 70. Probably not a super grade but the featherweight. 

[Chucktshoes]

Go with the 70.

[xsubsailor]

 Have you considered the 25-06 ?

[maroonandwhite]

14 minutes ago, xsubsailor said:

 Have you considered the 25-06 ?

Hmmm. I had not. What’s the biggest differences? I’ve shot one before and thought it was very tame honestly. 

[KahrMan]

You should also consider a .30-06.  Remington makes a nice line of Managed Recoil ammo.  The managed recoil .30-06 has less recoil than a .243  Scroll down this page some and check out the charts.

https://www.remington.com/ammunition/centerfire-rifle/managed-recoil

This would give you a lot of versatility for shooting 125 gr ammo to 180 gr.

[maroonandwhite]

7 minutes ago, KahrMan said:

You should also consider a .30-06.  Remington makes a nice line of Managed Recoil ammo.  The managed recoil .30-06 has less recoil than a .243  Scroll down this page some and check out the charts.

https://www.remington.com/ammunition/centerfire-rifle/managed-recoil

This would give you a lot of versatility for shooting 125 gr ammo to 180 gr.

Wow. That changes things. Not sure how they manage that voodoo but that would solve the problem and give lots of versatility. And they claim the you don’t have to re zero. You have any experience with the ammo?

[DWARREN123]

.260 REM, 7mm-08 anything in this area will be easy to shoot and have range and knock down power.

[xsubsailor]

22 minutes ago, maroonandwhite said:

Hmmm. I had not. What’s the biggest differences? I’ve shot one before and thought it was very tame honestly. 

 You're a step ahead of me, I have one but never shot it  .  Maybe someone else with some experience will chime in with the pros and cons of the caliber.

 It's supposed to be a very flat shooting round so I picked mine up when I thought I was going to be able to make an antelope hunt out west.  The hunt fell through so it landed in the safe. 

 

[DaveTN]

1 hour ago, maroonandwhite said:

Looking at the Winchester Super Grades. I think I’d be afraid to take that in the woods! It’s beautiful. 

 

[KahrMan]

1 hour ago, maroonandwhite said:

Wow. That changes things. Not sure how they manage that voodoo but that would solve the problem and give lots of versatility. And they claim the you don’t have to re zero. You have any experience with the ammo?

No first hand experience. My nephews have used it and liked it but I have never shot it to compare felt recoil. 

[Hozzie]

I will take a different tact.  

Get what you want.  Your son is not going to know or care what caliber it is at first.  What he will eventually care about is maybe getting his dads gun.  

He will certainly start shooting with a BB gun or 22.  When he is ready, then figure out what would be good for him.  I think 243 is hard to beat for a first deer gun.  I am not a fan of the 30-06 as there are much better calibers out there now.  

Long story short, your getting ahead of yourself.  Your gun will be something he wants someday and it won’t matter what caliber it is.  

He will always have his first gun and eventually yours.  Best of both worlds. 

I also personally agree that 25 cal is a perfect caliber for here.  Unless you are going out west and need something bigger, there is no need for a 30 cal.  I personally shoot an x-bolt 25-06 and Rem 700 257 Roberts.  

Edited November 17, 2018 by Hozzie

[maroonandwhite]

12 minutes ago, Hozzie said:

I will take a different tact.  

Get what you want.  Your son is not going to know or care what caliber it is at first.  What he will eventually care about is maybe getting his dads gun.  

He will certainly start shooting with a BB gun or 22.  When he is ready, then figure out what would be good for him.  I think 243 is hard to beat for a first deer gun.  I am not a fan of the 30-06 as there are much better calibers out there now.  

Long story short, your getting ahead of yourself.  Your gun will be something he wants someday and it won’t matter what caliber it is.  

He will always have his first gun and eventually yours.  Best of both worlds. 

I also personally agree that 25 cal is a perfect caliber for here.  Unless you are going out west and need something bigger, there is no need for a 30 cal.  I personally shoot an x-bolt 25-06 and Rem 700 257 Roberts.  

That has crossed my mind as well. I’ve always had my heart on a nice .308 and have yet to get one..... The Remington SPS 16.5” sure would look good with a suppressor hanging on it.