Ok well my son has shot my 300 win mag feather weight and he has no problem with it and he loves it. so the recoil isn't the problem. n to answer rebel hog's ? he handles that 30-30 quite well and but then agian that gun is pretty heavy tooo!!! I just want something for him that can take an elk down with no problem. And the 30-06 isn't the gun that is on my good list because i had i nice 6x6 buck get shot three times at 200yrds in the vital area and it never went down and i never found it.