Originally Posted by homers brother

I used to think I didn't want more of one caliber, either. Somehow though, I now have multiples in .223, 243, .308, and .30-06. What works - simply works. And sometimes it comes in different packages that work better in some situations than in others. Obviously, you have a youth situation that your adult .243 can't fulfill, but a youth .243 would easily take care of.

Good luck finding either .257 Bob or .250 Sav ammo at the hardware store. If you're dead set against .243, you can also consider the .260 or 7mm-08.

I think you might be rushing things a bit more than you think you are. If you want another rifle, don't use your young son as the excuse to go get it. Lots of people believe to the contrary, but "calibers" don't "dispatch game humanely" - that's the responsibility of the marksman holding the rifle. Until he's proven to you and to himself that he can reliably hit a paper plate at ranges you expect to hunt at, he probably doesn't need to be running a gun in the deer woods. Many of us started our hunting careers with Daisy and a Red Ryder, graduating to a .22LR before we started using a big-game centerfire. I would HIGHLY recommend that your son do the same, and over the course of two or three years.

A close relative took his daughter pronghorn hunting once she'd completed hunter safety and was of age (12 here) to hunt. She'd fired five rounds from a rifle (never a BB gun or .22) prior to the season. She shot (poorly) a little buck, and I'm sure having to watch him thrash around until her dad could finish him off, then and there decided to hunt no more. She won't even eat venison her dad's brought home since. Now she's working on her little brother who's about at the age he wants to go hunting with dad. Moral - don't rush things, especially when it comes to your sons and daughters. Let them grow into it.