ORIGINAL: firstshot
ORIGINAL: M77man
ORIGINAL: thunter4558
Have a marlin 30/30 good gun, go to the new hornady lever revolution bullet excellent. The guys on this site helped me out with my gun and ammo. Shot out to 200 yards to problem very accurate.
Cool, I will thanks. Heck, the boy is still young and he may not even want to shoot an elk or deernext year or the year after but I'm just looking to get him something that will help him get interested in the sport for now.
M77man
A Marlin 30-30 would be a good "starter" starter for a kid primarilly due to the low recoil. As a matter of fact, a Marlin 30-30 was my first rifle "way back when"..LOL.....however:
With Elk on the menu, you might want to consider something with a little more rangeand "umph" and yetwhich still has mild enough recoil for a kid to start learning to shoot.
I don't know how "set" you are on the 30-30 caliber or if / how muchyour "lever action"choice was driven by the 30-30 caliber decision. Regardless, youshould seriously consider
7mm-08 as the starter caliber for your Kid.
The 7mm-8 would provide significantly improved ballistics over the 30-30 and still provide extremely mild recoil. Many view this caliber as an ideal starter caliber for women/kids; however,it is also considered by many to be the ideal whitetail caliber, while at the same time having enough power to handle up to elk at reasonable ranges. The 7mm-08 is very similar to the 7x57 which has long been used to take a wide variety of Affrican big game including elephant. I don't see why it wouldn't work on Elk....LOL
The 7mm-08 caliber is very rapidly gaining in popularity and as far as rifles are concerned, just aboutall the major manufacturshave offererings in 7mm-08. I own two, a Rem 700 Mtn LSS and a Rem 7600 Pump. Both of these rifles shoot sub MOA. If you were looking to the Marlin lever action for its quick follow-up shot capability, you should give the Rem 7600 a look. Grices currently has a 7600 special run offering in 7mm-08. Go to
http://www.gricewholesale.com/specials_7600.phpthen scroll down for the 7mm-08 offerering.
Here is a pic of mine:
As far as bolt actions are concerned, like I said above, just about every manufactureroffers something in 7mm-08 now. Here is a pic of my Mtn LSS:
As far as ammo is concerned, if you reload, there are hundreds of 7mm bullet types/weights/constructions available from light weight "varmint" bullets like the Sierra and Hornady 100 Grn HP's up to heavier "Elk" capable bullets like the 160/175 grnBarns TSX and everything in between.
As far as factory ammo is concerned, currently most offerings are in the 140 Grn weight range, which many consider the ideal bullet weight for 7mm-08. Even so, and although I don't hunt Elk, I would think that Federals Premium Vital Shock in either 140 Grn Accubond, Partition, or BarnsTSXwould work great on deer sized game and be more than adequate for Elk. Considerng the rapidly growing popularity of the 7mm-08, I would soonerrather thanlater expect the ammo mfgs to startcoming out withheavier bullet weight offerings.
Therehas been a whole lot of 7mm-08 related discussions on this and other sites. Do a search on 7mm-08 and see what others have had to say about this very popular, versitle, yet mildmannered caliber.
I think you will like what you find!
Regards
firstshot
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Make your first shot count!