Youth rifle idea's for western Montana

[MarkOrtiz]

My son is 12 and small in weight and stature. I got him a Mossberg Bantam 7mm-08. It shoots well and has little recoil. I think its a great youth choice. He is shooting 120 grain bullets now, but can go up to 140-160 later for larger animals.

 

[WhatToHunt]

I have a Savage 110 my son has used his first two years of hunting (at age 10 and now 11). AccuFit is the feature that sold it for me. I can change the length of pull in minutes and make it perfect for him or for me. Comes in a wide variety of calibers.

 

[MThuntr]

FWIW, Tikka still has a $75 rebate good until the end of January.

 

[jamesmc8]

Ruger American Gen 2 stock goes down to 12 in LOP. It will be coming out in 6 ARC and 6.5 Grendel, or if you want a step higher 6 CM. Could even do a 6.5 CM loaded with a lighter bullet.

 

[GoatPackr]

I'm in the same boat. Planning a family deer trip next year and am planning to pick up a couple Tikka T3x lite in 243. I've had the kids handle them at the store and they found them the most comfortable.
243 is more than enough gun to do what you are talking about.

Kris

 

[RS3579]

Look at the Hobbit Rifle thread. That’s the route I went with my kids. TC Encore frame, ar style adjustable stock. Single shot (so they can only shot you 1 time). Good luck, many options.

 

[kkp005]

It’d be hard to beat a tikka in 6.5 or 308.. try to find a compact stock and put it in there or got with maybe a MDT chasis with the adjustable AR stock. I’d also go ahead and order a suppressor if you don’t already have one. Muzzle blast and recoil aren’t good for kids…

I also wouldn’t completely overlook the 6CM in one of the new Ruger American gen 2. I’ve been killing stuff the last year with a 6cm and it’s impressive.

Figure out the optic budget and then go Trijicon, NF, Swfa or the new maven

 

[Preston]

I would recommend a 30-30 and a fixed 3-4x power scope in like a Henry or Marlin, and keep your shots under 200 yards. I’ve shot around 20 elk, half dozen pronghorn and around a hundred deer about 95% of them were shot under 200 yards and most under 75 yards. A 30-30 would have been more than enough and you can carry one all day and have a low recoil and not a ton of muzzle blast like a 243/6.5 CM. A 7mm-08 or 270 is way too much recoil for a younger shooter. And like others have said a 223 will definitely do the job on a deer and a great way to start shooting

 

[Agross]

My boy is 11 and he just started shooting a 243. He seems to like it alot.

 

[Evasal]

I will recommend a Leupold vx-3 scope

 

[Jsteel]

Looking to buy a starter rifle for my nephews. Leaning toward the Tikka youth model in 6.5cm and putting a suppressor on it.

 

[spdrman]

One thing I would put at the top of your list is a suppressor, I put a brake on my kids 260 and he hated the noise of that more than the recoil, took it off and he could only shoot a few times before it was thumping him too hard but he enjoyed it more, got a suppressor and between the recoil and noise reduction. Both boys will shoot it all day long.

I’m a big tikka fan, I’ve put all of mine in chassis’s for the kids, everyone is looking for a shorter LOP for their kids and I feel they often over look the cheek rest, hard to see through a scope if their head is free floating above the stock.

I don’t own one and have only shot one once but maybe a sig cross or something along those lines would be a good option, easy to adjust LOP and adjust the cheek rest to get a good picture through the scope.

Most my kids guns have 3-15 power scopes, wide FOV and good eye relief is key things I’d be looking for. It helped them acquire animals quicker when they where starting out.

Top pic is my 12 year old (Green ear pro) shooting a tikka with a 2-10x42 nxs, you can see his face is floating above the stock to look through the scope. Lower pic you can see he has good contact on the cheek piece, when that cheek riser is setup for my kids I can’t get low enough to look through the scope. That scope is a 5.5-22x56 nxs. That would really never work for him without a cheek riser for them. When his arms where shorter I’d take that folding adapter out to shorten the LOP for him.

Same factory tikka my 10 year old (blue ear pro) you can really see the difference on him between that and another chassis. That tikka is a full length buttstock. Chassis is adjusted down for him.

Another thing to note is the grip angle between the 2 stocks. Factory stock he’s stretching his finger out to get on the trigger, vertical grip on the chassis gets them closer and gives them a little better trigger control