Junior sized Rifle for my girlfriend

[bcp]

Many of the "youth" rifles have a short barrel (16-18-20) that hurts performance and ears. Try a "youth" for size, then buy a standard and cut/replace the stock. The 2 ounces weight of the longer barrel won't be noticed.

Bruce

 

[EddieWalker]

Here's a good table that shows the different recoil by caliber.

Aquila Recoil Table

What number matters? Recoil Velocity or Recoil Energy?

It sure seems like everything is a huge jump from the 22-250 that she is used to.

Eddie

 

[RobertBrown]

Energy
Velocity is going to vary with gun weight. The weight should already be accounted for in the energy calc

 

[MossRoad]

I love the 30-06 caliber, but Dear Sir, don't you think that the 30-06 is a tad too big? Correct me I'm wrong, but wasn't Remington sued by individuals and the Courts, due to Accidental Discharge Problems concerning the Model 700-CDL. If the problem has been corrected, please let me know. The last time that I checked, the problem still existed. Thanks in advance.

The gun itself is less than 8 pounds. Get a youth stock and put a good shoulder pad on it. The round will kill anything on this hemisphere out to ranges far beyond most hunters' abilities. As for the accidental discharge problems, I do not know if that has been resolved and it should be researched.

 

[EddieWalker]

My rifle is a 30-6 and it's way too much for her. Funny thing is when I was younger, I thought it had a lot of kick to it, then I bought the .338 win mag and after shooting that all summer getting ready for a hunt, I never thought there was any kick to the 30-06 anymore.

In reality, this is probably just a stepping stone rifle. Something to build her confidence and skill with. Then I'm thinking she might want something bigger if and when we go on a hunt out of state or another country. I hadn't thought about the .308, but it's probably a better round then the 7mm-08 just because of the size of bullets available. I doubt there is any significant difference between what it will do to a hog or deer compared to each other.

The 243 should do the job with very low recoil. I just hate that it might be a bit light on really large hogs. I've shot plenty here that where over 300 pounds, and a 300 pound hog isn't something I want to go track down in the thick jungle.

I will look into restocking the rifle too. If she decides she wants a bigger caliber, it would be easy to stick with the same model rifle and just swap stocks.

Do any of you go to a good forum that talks about different brands of rifles or has an honest review of them?

Eddie

 

[RobertN]

It would be simple to trim a stock down and reattach the recoil pad. The recoil pad would need minor reshaping, but that is easy for most gunsmiths(depending on the pad, easy to do at home too). I have friends that "made" youth model Ruger 10-22's by just doing some trimming on the stock(this was back before a youth model was offered). When their kids outgrew it, he swapped stocks with someone else who had kids.

There are a lot of options for a muzzle brake too... That would help recoil with any of the cartridges mentioned.

Keep in mind the glass you put on top of the rifle is easily as expensive as a rifle. Out of state or country trip, you want good glass. Remember that in the project budget.

I still like the idea of an AR fitting this endeavor. Easy swap from plinker 22lr or 5.56 upper, to hunting upper in 6.8SPC, 30AR, 458SOCOM. Not sure how that would be to transport out of country though. It is easy to tie a lot of $$$ up in a quality AR though.

Going out of state/country, you should be able to find 223, 308, and 30-06 easily. 30-06 is like universal. You could hunt most anything in the world short of big dangerous game with a muzzle-ported and trimmed stock 30-06...

 

[k0ua]

Muzzle brakes work, and they work very well for recoil mitigation, but just don't forget the hearing protection each and EVERY time. Muzzle brakes are nasty loud.

 

[kf4uda]

Here is a couple of forums that I would recommend:

PredatorMasters Forums - Forums powered by UBB.threads™

THR - Powered by vBulletin

 

[RobertBrown]

Do any of you go to a good forum that talks about different brands of rifles or has an honest review of them?

Guns are like trucks, most people have either had good results or bad results with a particular brand and that's how it is. Any rifle is as good as it's weakest link....there are a lot variables.
My next rifle will be a Savage. I don't own a Savage but I recently tested one (coincidently in .308) and I was impressed.
But if I want objective information, I check this guy: Chuck Hawks. He has a huge knowledge base and seems to have a lot of experience.

 

[ArmyPair2]

When my daughter turned 10 I bought her a savage for Christmas but even at 10 she would put a smile on my face when she wanted shoot my weapons and would let her. At 15 now she is into compound bows and shoots for her high school.