ELKOHUNTER
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What cal and tipe of gun shoud you buy for a 12 year old? To hunt mule deer with?
HELP!
- Thread starter ELKOHUNTER
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MortgageMan
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I think a .243 would be ideal for a 12 year old.
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DallanC
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LAST EDITED ON Feb-20-07 AT 11:50AM (MST)[p]ditto
If you reload maybe a 7mm-08 and reduce the load as much as is safe, that way as he gets older the rifles good up through elk.
-DallanC
If you reload maybe a 7mm-08 and reduce the load as much as is safe, that way as he gets older the rifles good up through elk.
-DallanC
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NickJ1980
Guest
My vote is for anything in the .308 Win family (.243, 7mm-08, .308). I bought a 7mm-08 for my wife, who is only about 125 pounds, and she handles it really well even when shooting 140 grain Partitions at 2800 fps. We put a Nikon Pro-Staff 3-9x with the BDC reticle on it and the aiming points are almost spot on out to 400 yards.
In the same vein as DallanC, he can shoot now and still grow into a heavier load for either 7mm-08 or the .308 (very little difference in recoil if you use 150 grain bullets in the .308).
On the other hand, if you don't hunt elk for some reason, the .243 is a good round for deer and can be better suited for predator/varmint shooting than the larger, harder recoiling rounds.
In the same vein as DallanC, he can shoot now and still grow into a heavier load for either 7mm-08 or the .308 (very little difference in recoil if you use 150 grain bullets in the .308).
On the other hand, if you don't hunt elk for some reason, the .243 is a good round for deer and can be better suited for predator/varmint shooting than the larger, harder recoiling rounds.
SDBugler
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The .243 is pretty hard to beat for a youth gun. However the new recoil pads make the bigger calibers a lot easier on the shooter. My son has harvested three deer with a .300 Rem SAUM. It is my gun but he loves to shoot it and he only weighs 79 pounds!! It really depends on what else he will be using it for - varmits?, antelope? elk?.......
