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.

There are reduced loads in the Speer manual for the 100gr, 110gr, 150gr, 165gr bullets using SR4759 powder. The reduced loads for the 180gr and 200 gr bullets use IMR4198 powder.

I'm doing the reduced load thing for my son and his new .270 becuase I didn't want him to ever develop the bad habit of flinching. It really makes a difference and he enjoys shooting these loads.

Thank you, Ill see want I can find. Question does ME=felt recoil? IE half the ME= half the felt recoil?

I can only wish someone had done the same for me at that age. Rather than handing me a cannon and saying you can handle it......yeah I handled it...and to this day if I dont really think the shot through I have a hell of a flinch and despise bigger caliber guns. Thats a very worthy project and hopefully things will work out well for ya. I still refuse to shoot anything over a 30-06...and I am 6'5.....I just hate recoil....dont matter what kind of gun...just dont shoot em any bigger.

Thanks for the reply. I talked to the guy I bought it from. He has a Rem model 7 in .243 that I can trade almost straight across. Im going to do the swap. If you are interested if you do a search for "recoil tables" You will find some interesting numbers. A 7mm mag runs about 19lbs of recoil a 06 about 17.5lbs a .300 savage 14.8lbs and a .243 around 8lbs. They say anything over about 15 starts to make you think about it. So you are not alone. I should have done a little home work first ,but man that little rifle was pretty...... Again Thanks for responding

Everybody's different when it comes to recoil. A round I think isn't too bad might make you flinch, or visa versa. He's still pretty young, but I think that with practice he'll do fine. I'd recommend two things, first I think you're probably doing the right thing by stepping down to the .243 Win. A second thing to try is providing him with some sort of additional protection at the range. Look into a PAST recoil pad. It fits similar to a shoulder holster and provides quite a lot of additional recoil protection. I'm not sure if they make a version that is smaller to fit your boy, but it might be worth looking into. Providing the protection at the range will allow him to build his skill and confidence without learning to fear the recoil. It will also let him get used to the feel of recoil, and over time he'll get used to it and be able to handle more without discomfort. Also, when he takes his first shot at deer, as I'm sure you know, he'll never feel the recoil when he has a buck in his sights.

Good luck.

Mike

Good advise, Cabelas has them for $22. Looks like they would adjust to him. My Dad didnt hunt, so I dont really have feel when is the right time to get him shooting a hunting rifle. I told him if this .243 is still too much we will just put it in the gun safe and let him grow, it needs to be a positive thing even though he really wants to please the old man. Thanks again

Dave, I think you'll find the .243 will be the perfect round for your boy. He'll have a rifle to grow with him. I bought one many years ago for my wife and before too long, I adopted it for myself and have taken more game with it than I care to admit to. As well as the past pad, I'd recommend seeing if your reloading buddies can load you up some mild 75-85 grain loads to start with. let him get used to the mild recoil then bump him up to the 100 grainers, if you want. You mentioned the noise. Think you'll find the .243 cracks pretty good too. Get him some ear plugs to wear WITH muffs to quiet things down good. Midway also has some electronic muffs on sale now for under $50 that really work great. Good luck and keep us posted!

man I know what you are going thorugh, when I was 10 my father bought me an H&R .410 shotgun for christmas, and that little sucker kicked like a mule for being a "kids" model. He took me into a hayfield and let me shoot it. Well after the first shot I was headin back acrossed the field towards home with tears in my eyes! It was because I didnt have any hearing protection on and didnt know what to expect. By summer, I was shooting trap (a little closer than the big boys) on a regular basis at the gun club with hearing protection!!! Give it time and be patient with him (which its sounds like you are). Side note, my father that day in the hayfield didnt say a word to me, but the look on his face wasnt pleasant. I just wished he would have been more understanding. That could have turned me off of shooting for life.

The extra plugs are great idea. I talked to a buddy tonight who has a set of dies in .243 so Ill see what we can come up with. I think Ill end up getting attached to this rifle too. The 7mm mag does a great job on the muleys and black tails around here and Ill always use it on elk, but every time I skin a critter Ive poked with it, I wonder if its not really over kill.
Thanks Dave