Rem Youth Model 7, 243 Win or 260 Rem.

I think you are right on with the 308. I like the Browning MicroHunter. The gun looks good and is light weight. It's designed with a shorter length of pull for women and youngsters. The 308 loaded with a 150 gr. Barnes X is enough to put down an elk. Teach your wife to shoot well and where to place her shot and she will do great. The Browning will be a little over $500 for a new rifle. If you want to spend less money you can find Remington Youth ADL synthetics in 308 for around $329 in my neck of the woods. I much prefer the Browning. My friend won an ADL Youth in 308 and his son uses it. It's chambered in 308. My hunting partner bought his son a Micro in 7MM-08 and this gun is a tack driver. Handling both I prefer the Browning. But I as most others operate on a budget. You could also look on the used market and buy a full size short action rifle and have the stock cut to fit your wife's length of pull. If you buy her a rifle that fits she will be a much better shooter. Most people including adult males buy a rifle based on a magazine article and change their style instead of buying a rifle that fits them and a realistic caliber to hunt the game they are looking for.

That was so funny I laughed out loud in my office. That was funny as hell.

Tom

My suggestion is this: really consider what you're buying and for whom....

I.e. Don't buy a rifle that's made to be hunted a lot unless she's really going to hunt it that much. I bought my fiance a M-98 .308 Spanish/German Mauser that had been sporterized and customized-SLICK rifle built for looks AND hunting---she hunted coyotes with it twice in two years, always favoring a single shot .243 or leveraction .30-30 of mine.

Don't buy something for yourself...if it's going to be her gun, let it be her gun and unless it's a surprise, let her pick it out.

Women are weird, most of them don't like guns as presents...especially if it's so expensive that it's their ONLY ONE...My fiance had been wanting a self-defense "little pistol" for sometime, mentioning it often to me...aparently she wanted it as a "just because gift" or for me to just buy her one, because when I gave her one for our anniversary, she wasn't really pleased---thankfully I had bought about the same weight in jewelry too, so it wasn't a total wash, but a valuable lesson was learned.

"...Women are weird..."

And how brother,
RA

ps
But God dont we like the parts that AINT weird?

A browning micro medallion in .308 win, a remington model 7 also in .308 should be on your "must look at" list. A 7mm08 would also work but I would rather have a .308 if elk was in the picture. Top off either with a leupold compact 2x7 and it will be just about ideal for a smaller woman.

Why? The 7mm-08 Rem with out penetrate a 308 Win and carry more downrange energy.

If you compare the .308 shooting 180gr. nosler partitions to a 7mm08 shooting 150gr partitions the .308 has over 200 lbs more energy at 300 yds. Not saying the 7mm can't do it but the .308 will hit harder. Up here in Ontario the .308 is an extremely popular round for moose which can hit 1000 lbs on the hoof so in my opinion that qualifies the .308 for pretty well anything short of dangerous game.

I have no use for a 150 grain 7mm bullet. A 140 will work fine and if it won't there is a 160.

In Europe they use a 6.5x55mm or a 7x57 and swear by it. Can't argue with sectional density and ballistic coefficient. BTW, the other advantage the 7mm-08 has is quite a bit less recoil. A small, light 308 Win can be a bit unpleasant especially for a small framed shooter.

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