You might try this... for my boys, when they were 12-14 yrs. when pretty small or just starting out, I borrowed a Savage .250, a .257, .30-30, and .243 for them to try. They did all right using these, but there was a problem in each case with the stock (trigger reach) and head space. I ended up buying an old Stevens/Savage .30-30 which both shared as they grew up.. I trimmed inches off the stock and used a butt plate w/absorber which helped. When they got older, they just used my Ruger M-77 .30-06, until they got their own rifle. Then, my wife wanted to try hunting... the scaled-down stock was too small for her. She used my .30-06 and did well with it... however, we had to limit the amount of rounds fired at range each time, as repetitive shooting tired her and she could feel soreness after too many rounds... by doing the repetitive thing,and multiple trips to the range, she got fairly comfortable with the rifle... and in three seasons of hunting, I think two of her harvested deer were one shot affairs, and the other just two shots. I also think heavy clothing and butt shock absorbers can help without interfering too much with shot mechanics.