Kids rifle...again.

[Brandon.miller.4]

If you worry about the legalities of .223 caliber, you can always swap a 6 ARC upper on your SBR and call it a day. 6 ARC very kid friendly as well. I own the 6 ARC in a 22" Seekins DMR, 16" FN Scar / Deadshot Barrels, Franklin 16" / BA Barrel and currently having Preece Precision build an 18" Proof on a SS Tikka action.

Good point. Anywhere they will hunt .22 is fine.

 

[jaredg]

BTW, my Scar 16 with the Deadshot Barrel is my most accurate semi-auto. My son and I take turns going shot for shot at the mouth of pop cans turned on their side. First one to nick the mouth loses. We can sometimes go through two 5rd mags before someone loses. NF ATACR 4-16X42 optic, Geissele trigger, Gemtech Saker, Atlas bipod.

 

[Timjohnson11]

If you worry about the legalities of .223 caliber, you can always swap a 6 ARC upper on your SBR and call it a day. 6 ARC very kid friendly as well. I own the 6 ARC in a 22" Seekins DMR, 16" FN Scar / Deadshot Barrels, Franklin 16" / BA Barrel and currently having Preece Precision build an 18" Proof on a SS Tikka action.

Was Garrett (Preece Precision) able to open up your Tikka bolt for the ARC? or did you have it done elsewhere? I asked him a year or so back and he wouldn’t do it then.

 

[jaredg]

I think you're wise to stay .223. I started my son on an X-Bolt micro 22-250 at 8 years old. Started my daughter with X-Bolt 243 at 10. I regret the 243. She shot it and still shoots it great. But at 5'2" and 100lbs now, it is borderline too much gun.

 

[jaredg]

Nope on the Tikka bolt. Bought one from JA Outdoors. It seems like they always have just one in stock.

 

[Germangarcia]

Xlr chassis would be great but honestly I’d buy the an Sig cross.

 

[Brandon.miller.4]

Xlr chassis would be great but honestly I’d buy the an Sig cross.

Ahhh but no 223!

 

[Taudisio]

I have made a few of the Ultralight bolt action ARs. I think they will meet all of your criteria very well. I have been taking a jr hunter, albeit 14 y.o. out the last two seasons. I let him pick what he wants to shoot out of my rifles. He picks my 4 pound 13oz (loaded, scoped, suppressed) 6x45 every time. He says it’s because it’s the easiest to hold up and shoot off hand. I think the platform is a great thing for you to look into a little more for your use case. The only issue I could see is the recoil, even from the measly 5.56/6x45 can be surprising with the light rifle weights. 5-6 pounds field ready, with a flip flop on the butt stock, should ease that and still be easily used by a small framed person.

 

[Brandon.miller.4]

I have made a few of the Ultralight bolt action ARs. I think they will meet all of your criteria very well. I have been taking a jr hunter, albeit 14 y.o. out the last two seasons. I let him pick what he wants to shoot out of my rifles. He picks my 4 pound 13oz (loaded, scoped, suppressed) 6x45 every time. He says it’s because it’s the easiest to hold up and shoot off hand. I think the platform is a great thing for you to look into a little more for your use case. The only issue I could see is the recoil, even from the measly 5.56/6x45 can be surprising with the light rifle weights. 5-6 pounds field ready, with a flip flop on the butt stock, should ease that and still be easily used by a small framed person.

I like the ultralight ar route. If for nothing else a fun gun for everyone. Id be more inclined to keep it gassed and in the 6-7lb range all said and done. Likely wearing a swfa ultralight with the msr reticle. If any of you have build suggestions for that, shoot.

 

[CMF]

my kids are now 12,15,17, but they've been shooting deer since they were 8/9. I tried some rossi single shots early on, then my fil bought a mgm .243 barrel for tc encore and I put an adjustable stock on it. This was a fairly affordable route to end up with an adjustable stock. Picture below.
Then I moved them to bolt action 270 with lite recoil loads, but that ammo got hard to find.
They're shooting Ruger ranch 6.5cm now, and if I could start over, I would buy that gun for an eight-year-old now. Or a better bolt action if you want to spend the money.

 

[Brandon.miller.4]

my kids are now 12,15,17, but they've been shooting deer since they were 8/9. I tried some rossi single shots early on, then my fil bought a mgm .243 barrel for tc encore and I put an adjustable stock on it. This was a fairly affordable route to end up with an adjustable stock. Picture below.
Then I moved them to bolt action 270 with lite recoil loads, but that ammo got hard to find.
They're shooting Ruger ranch 6.5cm now, and if I could start over, I would buy that gun for an eight-year-old now. Or a better bolt action if you want to spend the money.
View attachment 1000493

To be clear you wouldnt go the TC route but rather a bolt action cut down?

 

[CMF]

To be clear you wouldnt go the TC route but rather a bolt action cut down?

Nothing wrong with the TC, I definitely wouldn't go rossi. But I feel like with the bolt action, I could be one and done. I just couldn't find a good adjustable stock and rifle combo for a decent price back then. If I had a higher budget, I'd look at Sig cross too.

 

[Brandon.miller.4]

Nothing wrong with the TC, I definitely wouldn't go rossi. But I feel like with the bolt action, I could be one and done. I just couldn't find a good adjustable stock and rifle combo for a decent price back then. If I had a higher budget, I'd look at Sig cross too.

This was from another poster but looks like the ideal setup. With the right choice in stock and buffer tube it should be close to 8 lbs all in.

 

[Dexter Grayson]

my 6 year old shoots a ruger ranch .223, but I’m a hunter on a budget.

 

[CMF]

This was from another poster but looks like the ideal setup. With the right choice in stock and buffer tube it should be close to 8 lbs all in.

what brand action?

 

[Brandon.miller.4]

what brand action?

Tikka

 

[TradLife406]

For a higher end kids rifle I really like the Sig Cross for its adjustability. But the factory calibers are no good.

My kids gun started out as a 6.5 Creed. But it kicked like a mule.

Rebarreled it to 22 Creed since I'm in Montana and we don't have any cal restrictions. And spending too much time on here reading 22 cal success figured why not. It definitely didn't disappoint. It hammered their deer this year. Never had a chance at elk and without any winter weather I'm not sure she'll get a chance at any shoulder season cows.

I prefer Tikka too. But being able to have the rifle long enough for me then two seconds later I can shrink it for them it's really nice.

 

[Boltgun]

Suppressor and tripod for sure, both help tremendously.

I started my oldest on a .22 AR at 5 years old. Then graduated to a .223 AR pistol at 7 years old and shot his first deer with it. At 8 years old he switched to 300BLK for legal hunting in another state, and took a deer with that.

We couldn’t find a LOP short enough, without going to a heavy chassis. I’ve built my ARs to be pretty lightweight, so they worked pretty well.

Just picked up a Tikka 223 to start working on some longer range shooting, and I’m currently planning to butcher an old Tikka stock to make a really short LOP.

 

[Boltgun]

My kids are 7 and 9 and once they started shooting 223 they haven't shot any more 22lr. When my 6 year old shot his tikka for the first time, after 1 mag he turned to me, still in the gun, and said "Daddy, I'm never gonna shoot that other gun again."



You'll probably end up with 2 guns.

Here's where we are at right now:View attachment 1000428

Can you tell us more about these guns and what’s under the vet wrap?