Best deer rifle for young hunters

[Elkaholic]

Wanting to buy a rifle for my girls to kill a deer with this year but not sure on what to buy. Any suggestions would be greatly appriciated!

 

[Field King]

Not sure on rifles but I walked up on an 11 year old several years ago who took the back out of a does head at 40 yards with a single shot 20 gauge loaded with a slug! He was hollering for help from his dad, I thought someone was hurt, he was just excited! Others will chime in on rifle calibers.

 

[Elkaholic]

Thanks Field King the eleven year old will shoot the muzz. but dont like it too much. The nine year old is scared to shoot anything but her bow. If they are going to hunt i want them to be comfortable and enjoy what they are doing!

 

[Six Shooter Steve]

My son is getting ready to turn 7 and is pretty small, like 40lbs soakin wet small. He will be hunting this year with a Rossi M92 44Magnum. I don't know if you reload or not but I load up light 44mags for him and he rips the bullseye out at 35yards. I have been upping the powder a grain about every other time we hit the range. Hopefully he can smoke a doe this year.

 

[357 Terms]

A 357 lever action is kinda mild, with standard loads, (or you could even start them out with 38's ) The 357 can be loaded to near 30/30 levels if you reload.

If the girls feel comfortable with it enough to become proficient (good shot placement), the 357 is plenty of gun for Indiana whitetail.

 

[Denny L]

I had a H&R HAndi rifle in 357 remeaned for 357 Max will shoot 38 Special (not legal) 357 Magnum and 357 Max The barrel is 16 1/2" andI placed a 1.5 x 4.5 scope great little gun easy to pack and will shot .50 inch at 100 yards

 

[hammer24]

Handi rifle in .44 or .357. My seven year old shoots a .44 that I load to around .44 spl +P velocities. I also shortened the LOP and put a Limbsaver recoil pad on to make it a more comfortable fit. He's scrawny and I limit his shooting to 6-10 shots per session. He cloverleafs them at 50 yards. He took his first deer last year in youth season with it!

 

[Titanium Man]

Handi rifle in .44 or .357. My seven year old shoots a .44 that I load to around .44 spl +P velocities. I also shortened the LOP and put a Limbsaver recoil pad on to make it a more comfortable fit. He's scrawny and I limit his shooting to 6-10 shots per session. He cloverleafs them at 50 yards. He took his first deer last year in youth season with it!

Great Picture.

 

[dubsac]

Id say .44 or .357 if u don't go with a 20 gauge

 

[Archer46176]

My cousin's son has killed several deer with his H&R 44 mag since he was about 12 and is now 17. In fact last year my cousin finally broke down and bought one because he was so impressed with his son's. I have been thinking of buying a Marlin 44 but I would like to find one of the older models.

 

[kludge]

.45 Colt or .357 Mag. Or download the .44 Mag to .44 Special range.

All of these can grow with the shooter and the .357 can be reamed to .357 Maximum when they are ready.

 

[.356luger]

A 357 lever action is kinda mild, with standard loads, (or you could even start them out with 38's ) The 357 can be loaded to near 30/30 levels if you reload.

If the girls feel comfortable with it enough to become proficient (good shot placement), the 357 is plenty of gun for Indiana whitetail.

^^^^this ^^^^^ you can accomplish 30/30 loads it takes
Research and inevitably the bullet fails(158gr xtp)At least in my case with thorough testing. I chose heavier tougher bullets (180gr nosler partitioned) when I hunted with my Rossi 92. I'm a good sized guy 6'4 230lb and I found the recoil of a full house 357 sharp. I also had a steel butt plate, but damn was that my favorite gun. With factory loads it's plenty lethal and very pleasant to shoot. If you have a little more money to throw at it buy a ruger 77/357 if they are anything like my 77/44 you will be very pleased. If you go ruger buy a volquersten trigger kit well worth the money.

 

[DEC]

A lot of good advise in all the previous posts. I'm not going to try to take away from any of them, but I will offer my based on my young girls and their deer hunting.

I started my oldest daughter (now 13) when she was 7 using a Rossi youth muzzleloader. She still shoots it to this day, though she has almost physically out grown it (she's 5'-8" and just turned 13). Anyway, the beauty of the muzzleloader platform is that I could tweak loads based on her abilities and sensitivity to recoil. We started out with a 50 gr pellet and a 190 gr lead bullet back in the early days. Since then she shoots 70 gr loose powder with a 250 gr bullet. I topped the gun with a red dot to keep aiming simple. It has worked great over the years with several deer to her credit.

My youngest (soon to be 11), I went with the .44 mag route when she turned 8. I got her a Rossi in .44 mag and also topped it with a red dot. She is very small framed so recoil is an issue. I let her practice with .44 Specials which barely kick. Then she hunts with .44 mag Leverution ammo. She never feels the recoil when the adrenaline is pumping while shooting a deer.

I've been very happy with both platforms for my girls.

Hope that is some help.

 

[ghogs nightmare]

Well if you can use a "rifle" caliber I'd say go with an Encore in 243. Great caliber for youth/women and when turkey season roll's around you could slap a 20ga barrel and
save some coin. Not to mention the weight an familiarity is nice bonus as well.

 

[ewhitehouse]

I don't think anyone could go wrong with the 44mag. It is a great low recoil rifle that can get the job done.

 

[Icemancometh]

My 11 year old, at the time, started out with a Rossi .243. He bagged a nice 10 pointer that same year. I know, not the best rifle, but it has worked flawlessly. I use it myself most of the time. I think we have bagged more deer with it than with any other rifle we own.

 

[mtb1981]

How do you feel about a 12Gauge with a rifled slug barrel and the shot barrel combo? That way you can shoot skeet or fowl if you want and still hunt. Plus the Mossberg 500 combos are under $400.

 

[indyjoe]

How do you feel about a 12Gauge with a rifled slug barrel and the shot barrel combo? That way you can shoot skeet or fowl if you want and still hunt. Plus the Mossberg 500 combos are under $400.

A 12 gauge combo with get the job done, but a 12 Gauge with a hunting slug or sabot will have a pretty stiff recoil for a young shooter. While a slug or sabot is devastating, I would not use one for youth hunting. The simple reason is that putting ammo through the gun to make sure the young shooter is shooting good enough to cleanly harvest game is 5-10x as expensive per shot as a pistol caliber carbine. You can also load lower power rounds to allow them to shoot more for practice without being worn out with recoil of full .357 or .44 rounds.

 

[hammer24]

How do you feel about a 12Gauge with a rifled slug barrel and the shot barrel combo? That way you can shoot skeet or fowl if you want and still hunt. Plus the Mossberg 500 combos are under $400.

This is THE best way to RUIN a young shooter!!!

 

[Matt52]

I wish when i was starting out you could have used a 44 mag rifle that would have been nice. I killed my first with a New England firearms 20 ga single shot. I was a pretty stout 8 yr old so it just depends from one kid to the next. Some mentioned a 12 ga that might be a bit much depending on the kid but winchester does make light loaded slugs for 12ga so that might work Ive never shot them so I dont know how they feel.