Youth whitetail in South Carolina

[bburke292]

I am looking to purchase my sons first rifle for whitetail hunting in South Carolina what’s the best options for a light and low recoil rifle that will last him till he’s ready to up grade? Most of our hunting is done from blinds and pretty thick woods and some open food plots longest shots would be 300 yards maybe.

 

[wesfromky]

Kids rifle manifesto

I've chimed in on so many different "what rifle for my age XX kid?" threads that I thought I'd try to consolidate my thoughts here. My oldest son is 14 now, started shooting centerfire rifles at 9. My younger kids started shooting centerfire rifles at between 5-7 yrs old. 5 kids shooting now...

rokslide.com

 

[Nine Banger]

Look at RSS threads.

Get a suppressor for blast and recoil.

For folks not from SC our does average 70lbs, 100lbs is huge.

1.5-3.5 year bucks are usually in the 120's...

If a buck is over 160lbs, folks are talking about it for a few weeks.

My kids are on Element 4.0 chassis because they are 5 and 7 and the AR style stocks are great for adjustment but we will move to a field stock when we can.

You can swap the 223 action out for something bigger when the kid is great at shooting but keep the same platform.

 

[MikeDeltaFoxtrot]

308 with a can. Easy to shoot and enough gun to put the deer down if he makes a less than perfect shot.

 

[bburke292]

I was think a suppressor was the way to go. I hadn’t thought getting a chassis that fits AR stocks that’s a great idea! Is .223 good enough for whitetail?

 

[SloppyJ]

I went through the same exact thing. Ended up with a compact Tikka T3 in .223. I had it chopped to 16" and threaded for a suppressor. This has proven to be a good decision and my son is not scared one bit to shoot it. The stock is still a bit long for him so I'm thinking about getting a chassis for it as mentioned above.

 

[Nine Banger]

I'll speak for myself and say I've dropped whitetails DRT with 223 and killed a bear at 411 yards.

You can spend months reading about the 223 and Rockslide Special and 77gr TMK right here in this forum.

Welcome to Rokslide.

A tripod is a good thing to look at too, depending on the age of your child.

5 year old:

 

[MikeDeltaFoxtrot]

I was think a suppressor was the way to go. I hadn’t thought getting a chassis that fits AR stocks that’s a great idea! Is .223 good enough for whitetail?

No doubt a .223 will kill a whitetail with a well placed shot and the right bullet, but in my view it does not leave much room for error. By way of reference, .223 is not a legal deer cartridge in my home state of Virginia. I believe that is true in a number of other states as well. You can disagree with that policy (and many do), but it reflects the informed judgment of people who regulate hunting for whatever that is worth to you.

 

[Nine Banger]

You can disagree with that policy (and many do), but it reflects the informed judgment of people who regulate hunting for whatever that is worth to you.

I think our policies are written by 70-80 year old good ole boys in a back room in the Piedmont somewhere...

 

[eric1115]

No doubt a .223 will kill a whitetail with a well placed shot and the right bullet, but in my view it does not leave much room for error. By way of reference, .223 is not a legal deer cartridge in my home state of Virginia. I believe that is true in a number of other states as well. You can disagree with that policy (and many do), but it reflects the informed judgment of people who regulate hunting for whatever that is worth to you.

On what do you base the "room for error" portion of your statement?

How many deer have you killed and/or seen killed with 77TMK or 73ELDM?

These aren't meant to be aggressive or "gotcha" questions. I do find that nearly everyone that says .223 isn't enough or is marginal or some variation of that, hasn't killed many or any animals with those bullets. Nearly everyone who has killed with those bullets say they work fantastically well.

@bburke292 I would encourage you to read the kids rifle thread linked at the top, and then pick up a Tikka .223 compact, get it threaded and put a suppressor on it, and feed it 77TMK's. If you have any reservations about the effectiveness of .223 for deer, the first page of the .223 mega thread has a cheat sheet that links a ton of deer, elk, moose, bear, etc photos and reports. There is zero question for me that a .223 is the right answer for your kid (assuming it's legal where you're hunting). If you're an audio learner, I can link a couple of podcasts that do a wonderful job of outlining the how and why of these bullets' effectiveness.