I borrowed a Ruger Hawkeye Compact .223 froma friend and let my 7 year old son shoot it some this week. He sat with it in the stand with me on Friday. I didn't take a gun, I held the rifle and if we saw a deer I was gonna help him shoot it. All that being said, my son is stoked and wants to hunt some more like that next season. I want to buy him his first hunting rifle.

Now I feel it may be a little soon, but I'm not planning on him hunting with a rifle by himself for several years. I'm gonna sit with him and hold the gun until we see a deer, and I may let him hold it more and more until he can hunt on his own. I want a bolt action rifle that he can shoulder, one that doesn't kick bad and lead to flinching, and one that will dispatch a deer humanely. Though my friend that I borrowed the .223 from says it is enough, and his son has taken several deer with it, he has shot one or tow that got away. I know deer getting away can happen with any caliber, and shot placement is key (read, heard, and lived it more time than I can recall) but a .223 is just a little too small in my book, and illegal to use in some states.

I'm leaning towards a .257 Roberts or a .250 Savage in a small, compact bolt action. I aready have a .243 in a gun that he can't shoot until he is much older and I ain't into buying multiple guns of the same caliber (it is just a thing I have). I own .243, 6.5x55, .270, and 7mm-08. I may get a Ruger or Savage and cut the stock. Is the Ultralight a bad idea? They don't make it anymore. Any other worthy brands? The .250 Savage is hard to find ammo for. Why is it so hard to find the length of pull for a rifle? Just list the barrel length and length of pull and leave the total length out. JMO.

You already have the gun for your son to use. The .243 is a mild kicking round with more than enough oomph to take any whitetail deer.

Yep. It is a 1973 Model Remington 742. Kinda heavy and long for him IMO. Also, I need an excuse to buy another gun.

Start him off shooting a .22lr in a boltaction rifle most similar to one of your deer rifles.


By the time next year gets here he will feel more comfortable shooting yours.

I'm gonna get him started shooting a pellet gun with a scope too so we can shoot in the yard anytime.

Got my son a Ruger compact .243 when he was 8. Great little gun. I wouldn't worry about buying a "duplicate", get him what he needs to use. The other option would be a Rem Model 7 with the youth stock. Once he gets older, you can get a full size stock for it and he's good to go. My son is 14 now and still uses his compact, he loves it - even though its actually kinda small for him now. My choice would be .243 or 7mm-08. Have fun

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.

Mighty fine advice.

You may want to consider a Howa youth model rifle. It comes with 2 stocks, a shorter stock and more adult lenght for when he has a growth spurt.

Keep in mind the purpose of the rifle..it's for your son. Whatever you buy, needs to fit. I started my daughter 2 years ago on a Rossi (Tri-fecta) single shot rifle...it came with .22LR, 243 WIN and 20 ga barrels. She started on the .22 LR barrel and then eventually moved up to the 243. It was a great choice as she was able to shot the same rifle and grow with it. My brother did the same with his daughter as well. Both girls now shoot Weather Vanguard's in .243 in the youth version. If I had it to do over I wouldn't change a thing. The Rossi was inexpensive and yet accurate enough to build confidence and allowed her to start with a 22LR and easily grow into the .243. At 7 years on this fall she took her first buck with that Weatherby Vanguard at about 40 yards and will ever be my hunting partner and the investment was well worth it!