Took my 10 yr 70 lbs boy up hunting for the first time this season. He didnt carry a rifle (no hunter education) but he enjoyed the whole thing. Thought he was ready to get a deer rifle and get him up to speed. Hes been thur thousands of rounds of .22 and will shoot every last round of .357 thru my ruger GP 100 if I let him. He saved up a couple hundred$ and with Dads christmas bonus we went looking. We found a very pretty little 300 savage. Must have been a custom built "wifes rifle" carbine length barrel, mauser action. He handled it well. The cartarige looked tame enough next to my 7mm. Plus it had a thick decelerator pad. All the places I normally go shooting are snowed in this time of year, so I hooked up with a buddy who belongs to a local range. set the target up at 50 yds. I ran three rounds of factroy 150gn. winchester thru it to make sure it was safe. The recoil was soft, I figured I was home free. I had my boy shoot it off hand, he poped off a round and then looked up at me with big tear filled eyes. He shot a few boxes of .22 but wouldnt go near what had been his prized rifle that morning. What was spose to be something special turned into a bummer for both of us. I should have done a many things different. First there were a bunch of guys there with all manner of new shooting irons and he was the only kid, and everyone was watching. Second it occured to me we had never shot from under a roof and it was louder then out in the woods. And third although he has been shotting with me many times. He never was really near me when I made sure the hunting rifle was still dialed in. And last he had never shot a rifle bigger then a .22. So dad could have dome much better, but I need to salvage this situation. I think he can handle the recoil but doesnt know it yet. I think the report got to him more(with headphones), I was thinking of finding some reduced loads for this cartraige. I see remington has some but not in a 300 savage. I have some buddys I used to reload with and could get that put together, but I know you cant just back way off on the charge and expect things to work right. Are ther some faster burning powders(pistol, shotgun?) that a guy could safely load up for 50% of the kick? I know that he would be fine if he ran a box of shells thru this rifle and got used to it.....but at this point Im stuck. Maybe I should have gone to a .243 but here I am.