I'm taking my 10 year old on his first hunt this fall. I was also thinking that I'd need to get something like a 243 for him. Then, I discovered the Managed Recoil loads by Remington. Roughly half the recoil as standard loads and still good out to 200 yds. I don't plan on him shooting at anything over 150 yards anyway. So, I'm going to let him use my 30-06. It certainly costs less than buying another gun.

So, if you've already got a good deer rifle, you might want to look into letting him use it with a managed recoil load.