[missed_shot]

I am taking my grandson hunting this fall. He is 13 and not very big. What caliber in a handi would be best for him?. Consider recoil and bullet effectiveness. I don't want something that has to be perfectly placed to do it's job like a .223. I also know a bad hit is a bad hit even from a magnum.

 

[Wlscott]

I bought my 12 year old daughter a Handi Rifle in 7MM-08 Rem last year.

I load a 120 grain bullet for it. It's a very accurate gun, with little recoil. She shoots it just fine.

She was able to use it to take her first bob cat last year (No deer though).

 

[Varminter]

How experienced is grandson with firearms? Is this first season hunting? How far will he be shooting?

If he's going to be shooting under 100 yards the 44 mag is all you need.
The 30-30 would be another fine cartridge.

 

[Leftoverdj]

Good advice both ways. 7-08 if you are a handloader; .30-30 if you are not.

 

[Mac11700]

I don't have first hand experiance with these...but aren't there some reduced loads on the market in the larger calibers like 308...270...30-06...that are made just for this application that would work great...and allow the youngster to grow into the full house loads when suitable?

Mac

 

[Stan in SC]

Caliber for a young shooter

My experience with my grandsons is that young shooters seem to be very sensitive to recoil.Unpleasant recoil can quickly sour the experience for the youngsters.
The 30/30 would be an excellent choice as well as the .243.The nice thing about Handi rifles is that you can always buy another barrel when they "grow into" the present one in experience and size.

Stan

 

[quickdtoo]

Here's a recoil chart to help you decide...

http://www.chuckhawks.com/recoil_table.htm

From another source at AR, the 7mm-08 shooting 120gr loads in an 8lb rifle, has 9.9ft/lbs recoil for comparison. That chart won't display.

Tim

 

[Muddy05]

.30-30 under 100 yards, or 7mm-08 for longer shots. I like 120 gr remington hollow points for the 7mm-08.

 

[longcruise]

I am taking my grandson hunting this fall. He is 13 and not very big. What caliber in a handi would be best for him?.

Will he be hunting deer or Brown Bears? :twisted:

 

[myarmor]

357, 44Mag, 243, 30-30, 7mm-08, .....take your pick. All them have strengths and weeknesses depending on how far you are going to take a shot.

 

[missed_shot]

This is for whitetails. How does the 7mm-08 compare to the 30/30 ? I do reload. I was thinking between the 30/30 and .243. My thoughts were the 30/30 had more knock down power. The 7mm-08 now interests me.

 

[myarmor]

I hear a lot of good things about the 7mm-08. Yet I don't have one myself. Couldn't you just load them down? In that case you could get a 270 or 30-06 and do the same. Like Mac said you could work them into a big caliber slowly with light recoil.

 

[Varminter]

It seems the 44 mag is always over looked as a hunting catridge when it comes to these rifles. Sure is sad. My 44 mag is great. It's all i hunted with last season.(deer and hogs) And ammo is relatively cheap to get alot of practice in before season comes. and you can reload some hot 44 mags to hunt with and they would kick no more than a 7mm-08.

If this is his first hunting season i would limit his shots to 100 yards.

The 44 mag is all you need. and in the future if you want something alittle hotter ream it 445 supermag.

 

[ONE HOLE 4570]

I am in the same boat but my son is younger but likes to shoot. In the process of down loading a 30-30 with 125 's to the lowest load from hodgdon's manual. working up to his tolerance & then crony them to see if they will be effective or not. Also going to do the same for the 7-08. Hopefully have time for this be fore the season starts, too many pokers in the fire

 

[longcruise]

This is for whitetails. How does the 7mm-08 compare to the 30/30 ?

The 7-08 is a whole different class of rifle. I own one and would not hesitate to use it on game up to elk size and indeed may do just that this year.

There are plenty of load components available for this caliber and you should be able to find a light and effective bullet that can be downloaded a bit for deer. Nice thing about the 7-08 is as he grows he will have a rifle that is usefull across a wide range of uses. Same could be said for the 270, 280 and '06 as well as the .308 though.

7-08 with a well constructed (not varmint) bullet at 120 to 130 grains and propelled at 2500 fps or faster depending on recoil results will do it all. The day may come when he chooses to load up some 160 grain partitions for much larger game and it will work then too.

So, I vote 7-08 :grin:

 

[Leftoverdj]

The 7-08 is a twin of the 7mm Mauser that is easily loaded down to .30-30 levels. Big advantage is that it can be loaded up as the young shooter grows in size and experience. Hodgdon's has youth load data for it. There is/was a 120 grain FN bullet that would be ideal for deer at about 2400 fps. That's a pussycat load as far as recoil is concerned.

My belief is that new shooters are far less affected by recoil than by noise. Far too many people still do not use ear protection, and even one or two unprotected shots can put someone off shooting for life.

 

[quickdtoo]

Here's a link to Hodgdon's youth data that LODJ mentioned....

http://www.hodgdon.com/data/youth/index.php

Tim

 

[ditchdigger]

I would recomend the 44 mag.also. Then as his skills improve ream it to 445 super mag. and reload for it. The 44 mag is going to leave a larger entry hole and maybe a little more knockdown power. If you ream it to 445 s.m. you may take it away from him,since you can still shoot 44 mag and 44 spl's in it. Digger

 

[bajabill]

since you reload, you can make a 308 or 30-06 perform like a 30-30, but you cant make a 30-30 perform like the others. You would probably want all a 243 can give.

I would get a cartridge that is enough for the bigger boys, and load it down for the younger hunter. A 30-06 pushing 130gr bullets at about 2900 fps is noticably less recoil than the factory offerings. And Hodgdon has listed loads that are supposed to be 30-30 duplicates for a 30-06 with 150s. Look at the H4895 data. Im sure the same exists for the 308 and 7-08.

 

[Mac11700]

Here...go look at these links for the Managed Recoil loads by Chuck Hawks

http://www.chuckhawks.com/rem_managed_recoil.htm

And here is another article on them...

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_7_50/ai_n6038091

While this is just my humble opinion...it would seem to me...that either the 270 or the 30-06 would be a great rifle for the youngster...and with these new loads available...gives you the oppourtunity to buy him a grown-ups rifle that you can shoot as well with full house loads...to me this would be something for a grandson to shoot a rifle just like Grand Dads...but without all the pain normally associated with it... :grin:

Mac