Savage Axis or Ruger American

[Lineman North Florida]

I to recently bought a rifle for my 10 yo boy, I went with a Remington 700 in 243 caliber,it has some kind of trigger deal called x-factor or something like that and it is smooth and light to pull, as far as ammo goes I have shot regular old plain jane Remington Core-lok bullets for over 30 years and have never had a problem with so much as 1 round, you can go broke buying ammo for a boy who likes to shoot and with core-lok's being about 1/2 the price of some of the fancy bullets you can't go wrong. Good luck. Charlie.

 

[vtsnowedin]

I to recently bought a rifle for my 10 yo boy, I went with a Remington 700 in 243 caliber,it has some kind of trigger deal called x-factor or something like that and it is smooth and light to pull, as far as ammo goes I have shot regular old plain jane Remington Core-lok bullets for over 30 years and have never had a problem with so much as 1 round, you can go broke buying ammo for a boy who likes to shoot and with core-lok's being about 1/2 the price of some of the fancy bullets you can't go wrong. Good luck. Charlie.

Getting off topic a bit but +1 on the Cor-lok Rem bullets. I've done quite a bit of hand loading and spent quite a bit of time testing various bullets from the cheap to the ridiculously expensive. The best test medium I have found is soaked newsprint stacked in a cardboard box and shot into from the desired range. Some bullets fail miserably by either falling to pieces instantly or not expanding at all. In between there are lots of bullets that work as advertised but none work any better then a heavy for caliber cor-lok. They do the same job for lots less money so I started buying them (The heads) in lots of 500.

 

[RobertBrown]

To follow up:
We ended up with a full brush camo .243 Savage Axis (Stock, Barrel and scope all camo - some Cabelas exclusive version) for a bit over $400 on a sale. I have a Savage Predator in .223 and this way my boys gun, looks just like mine as he says (If you have a kid it will make sense)
After our tests I learned a few things... It SHOOTS - no problem getting 1 M.O.A., Recoil is no problem for him (he weights about 95 lbs), of course .243 is very easy to find anywhere around us, the scope is decent - not a Leopold or Nikon but great for a 12 YOA.
The only part I don't care for is the trigger, it is a bit tight. I do understand there are a few things I can do to make it better but have not got into that yet. For the money I think it is a great firearm for the price and most importantly he loves it.

Thanks for the follow up. I'm glad your happy with that rifle.
I wondering if you would not mind including information on the ammo you used to get those reults "out of the box".
What kind of scope?
Being a collegiate shooter you must know the value of hand loads over factory ammo...Have you considered relaoding?

 

[Code54]

RobertBrown - That really is the funny part, I used to reload for everything - never shot factory centerfire ammo ever (rimfire is a different story of course, ONLY shot Eley for matches - expensive but extremely consistent) but marriage, children, the property and such has seemed to take up all my "free" time so I sort of got away from reloading.

As for my sons gun - it is shooting 80g Federal SP Power shok - I was surprised they shot as well as they did (right at one MOA - from prone with a front sand bag in the field ). I honestly bought them because they were the cheapest and lightest round at the store when I got the gun. Figured the first 30-40 rounds were just going to be getting him used to the rifle and wanted something that would not recoil much and be cheaper to practice with. Figured I would go and buy some better rounds once he was getting close to being ready to hunt then would re-zero the rifle at that point. Now I may let him give these a try when we go coyote hunting and see how they work out. Our long shots in the woods will be at most 50 yards so they are more than accurate.
Off the top of my head I dont recall what the scope is exactly , Its a Bushnell - but can not recall the model (3-9x). It is ok, not real clear or sharp and far from a top quality scope, but for a 12 year old it is not half bad and if he somehow breaks it I wont lose any sleep over it. The nice thing is they did do a full camo job on the scope (thus why I cant see the model) as well as the rings - looks really nice if nothing else.
The part about the rifle that is bad - the trigger! It is STIFF and not real smooth. It would greatly benefit from a good aftermarket trigger or at least a good trigger job. - when I say I had to really concentrate on a slow SMOOTH squeeze I truly mean it, it takes some work.

On another note - The scope I put on my Predator .223 is a Nikon 3-9x50 Pro-staff mounted with steel rings (Not a big fan of the ultra light rings or some of the aluminum ones) - the scope is not the worlds best but for around $200 it is amazing! VERY clear and seems to internally track and find zero very well. I would recommend it to anyone wanting a nice hunting scope for a very reasonable price.

 

[Biggreenavalanche]

Code54,

Timney makes a drop in replacement trigger...$104.95 from Timney...Timney IMHO is an industry leader in replacement high end triggers...

Rich

 

[Code54]

Thanks Rich!!!! I am going to check into it and also see what kind of trigger this will have after a decent trigger job (and how much it will cost).

 

[Biggreenavalanche]

Good luck either way !...hope ya boy has a successful season !

Rich