i would suggest a remington model 7 in .243-.308, i bought my wife a model 7 in 260 rem, my 11 year old grandson has been shooting it for a couple of years, light, small, and the recoil is very tolarable, it is a great shooting little gun, and in the 7mm-08 or .308 version he'd have a gun for life, also i have found the .260 is great little deer medicine, when i went looking i was looking for a 7-08 but i ended up buying this gun from a friend, read the post about the little model 7, i think you'll be impressed, BTW others make youth model also, so shop around, and you could always go the handi rifle route 199$