the 120 BT is my bullet of choice for deer hunting with my 7mm/08 savage 99, the hornady 120 gr spire point ain't bad either.
RR

I use the 140 corelocks in both my 7/08 a model seven and a 700 mountain rifle. Most don't move most go less then 30 yards.

Full power 7'08 loads aren't an option for a 50 lb 5 year old.

Me personal think 5 is too young to hunt with a rifle. I would let him practice with a smaller caliber gun. But that's my opinion.

I agree, thats why he isn't in the woods this year. He is pretty good shootin soda cans with a 22 and pellet gun. By next season he'll have enough trigger time to consisitently place the bullet where it has to be or he won't be shootin at critters.

Start with a 243. There is far more hunting and shooting of varmints and it can be all year too!

My late dad got me my first centerfire (and handloading outfit) when I was 14 Y.O.

Sounds like you have it figured out! I was pretty small when I started out at 5 back in the early 50s with a 22/410 O/U and took one of the first NRA hunter safety courses ever offered where I lived in Indiana. After getting my feet wet for a couple years I moved up to a 20 gauge, then a 12 gauge, and then on to centerfire rifles. Either a .243 or the 7mm-08 are good starters with reduced loads in the latter. If he's going to be hunting anything bigger than deer, I'd go with the 7mm-08. If not, a .243 should do fine for him.

Can use the 7mm/08 for bandits especially if you are going to use 120 nosler bt. I started out shooting a 222 to get used to a centerfield but not a lot of recoil.

I started my son with a 243 even though he had shot the 7-08 a couple times. I hand load a sierra 85gr. HPBT game king over a load or 4350 to about 2800FPS. It does a great job on any thing from crows to bang flop deer, very nice coyote round too.

:D Al

I started my son on a .243 at age 8. For the last 8 yrs I've watched him knock down everything that has come across his path with that gun with 100gr core locks. 7mm-08 is a very nice round for sure, but I'd lean towards the .243...especially for the young ones.

And, at one time in my life I would have argued to the death that a .243 was no where near enough gun....boy was I wrong. Maybe if you are elk hunting, but for whitetails out to distances that most folks will shoot...plenty of gun, imo.