women's hunting rifle

[flipmo]

My wife's birthday is coming up soon and we have talked about her getting her own hunting rifle. I have looked around and I'm not sure what to get her. I am thinking of .270 or .243. She has shot my 30-06 but she is not sure about the 30-06 she has shot my 7mm but say's hell no to that. I want to get some thing with a little less recoil but still the distance and punch for that whitetail. Can i get some opinions on this matter or what does some of your wife's shoot. Thanks flipmo

[Pioneer2]

7x57[7-08] ,.308 or 6.5X55[.260] All will handle deer ,moose ,elk + black bear also shooting flat enough for open country long shots without kicking the snot out of one.Harold

[Ridge Runner]

whichever rifle caliber she prefers, just make sure it fits her, put a good pad on, that'll make anything from 7mm on down tolerable even for a female.
I'd lean toward the 6mm's through 260 if it were me, unless you have larger game than deer in mind.
RR

[TexasBowHunter]

My wife has a 243 and last year my 7 year old daughter took her first buck with it. If you are hunting anything bigger than whitetail I would recommend the 270. I agree with ridge runner about it needing to fit.

[rjhans53]

7mm08 depends on how tall etc she is but I would probably go with a howa in a youth model.

[mcawful]

I'm thinking .308 for your gal.
My wife shoots a .308 and she's just a smidge over 5 feet tall.
Store bought ammo has never been a problem for her with it, so I don't have to handload a light load.
But, she is an Alaskan girl. Weaned on a 30-06.

[Edcyclopedia]

.30-06 Browning Bar, it's gas operated and kicks far less then my .270, plus you won't have to buy all kinds of different caliber bullets.

[whitetaildreamer]

Take a look at the ballistics of the 7-08. It's fast, shoots flat and has very little recoil.

[MdDave]

25-06......

[game4lunch]

I used to love the 25-06, but the .243 has almost identical balistics whith the same weight bullet! (100gr)
Ethical/quick kills being at the top of my caliber choice criteria list, I believe the bigger the animal, bigger the gun.
But the shooter needs to not be scared of the kick either.
The .270 and .308 both puching a 150gr bullet have almost identical recoil (17ft lbs / 17.5ft lbs respectively) (According to the Chuck Hawkes recoil table: http://www.chuckhawks.com/recoil_table.htm )
But the 7mm-08 pushing a 140 gr bullet only has a recoil of 12.6ft lbs. My choice.
I got my son one when he was about 14 or 15 and we took Antelope, mulies, and I even took a cow elk because I was wondering if the gun was big enough to do the job. It did, she went maybe 80 - 100 yards.
Best advice, the more you and she go out and shoot, the more accustomed to the gun (recoil, noise) she gets. That can't be ignored! Shoot more . . . shoot more often.