Told him about your webbing offer and he was mad. Wants to buy a Bell and Carlson and send it too you. lol

He loves Kacee's rig, and her bobcat.

Thanks for the input. Lots of good optionsand opinions here. Seems a lot of people think 30-30 is too much gun. I did not just put him behind a 30-30 with out first doing my research. I chose the gun because it actually has less felt recoil than many of the other popular youth rounds and its ballistics are well suited for our hunting situation. I wonder how many who say its too much gun have actually compared the 30-30 recoil side by side with. 243 or 7mm-08.... I have. The 30-30 has less recoil, especially this ole heavy wood stock . Not only do the numbers prove that, but my personal experince does as well. Also The LOP on the lever guns are more suited for him than even some of the youth guns in other calibers. Were we hunt at you never get a shot past 100yds so the 30-30 is good option. Plus I like being able to use heavier bullets. I guess i should of also mentioned that this is not his first gun. He started with a .22 at age 5, and was shooting my. 223 and 22-250 and his .410 since 7 and has been shooting this 30-30 now for 2yrs.

I do agree that a bolt gun would probably offer a better trigger. Im sure he probably just had girls on the brain and wasn't concetrating and I overreacted. We will see how he shoots tomorrow after school, and if he's still having problems then we wont hunt this weekend and instead spend time at the range starting over again. Thanks again

My son went through that last season. I took him to the range with 2 boxes of ammo. Every so often I would not put a bullet in the gun. He never knew if there was a live round in it or not so he really started concentrating on the shot more. Nothing like jerking the gun with both eyes closed only to hear a click. After that, he was fine and did really well throughout the season.

I'd say go with a .25-06 if you were getting him a new gun. Very light recoil, and will definitely kill a whitetail.

Limbsaver (recoil pad) and Managed Recoil loads (remington 125gr corelocks) = problem solved!!

Cheap and immediate fix; buy a couple boxes of the manged recoil, and get him back to the range quick; he'll enjoy the gun more.

Take a .22 to the range as well, but I don't thing you'll need to go down that low if you do the two things above.

Heavier may not be fun to tote around, but it won't kick near as bad and will be much more steady.

He's overthinking. Too much anticipation because he IS focused. Gun/caliber doesn't matter. Have him take a couple of quick shots, like jumping a deer. Shoulder/aim/fire/FAST. Do this a couple times, then have him shoulder quick but slow the aim a second or two - like leading a shot. Next shot have him shoulder quick/steady aim, slow squeeze. He'll be on the money, tracking closer each shot.

What do you mean gun caliber doesn't matter? I know for a fact it does, because I am 6' and 195 lbs,, and I wont lie, there are times when I dont want to sight in my .270 with 150 grain bullets. I don't like pain, so it does kind of bother me. Now, don't get me wrong, it doesn't stop me from going to shoot, I just don't like it all the time. But maybe I'm different, because I can go shoot a 12 ga. shotgun all day long, and it never bothers or phases me.

Some days you just need to stop shooting. Not knowing how many days a week he has been practicing, how many rounds per session, what positions, etc... Is it possible the kid has a sore shoulder? There is a big difference in how my shoulder might feel after a 100 round day vs a 20 round day and how a young kids' shoulder will feel after the same schedule.
Also, take a step back and review in your own head the week leading up to the bad session, how were you talking about the whole thing? What were you emphasizing? It is really easy to get a kid worried that a practice failure means no deer hunt, and that can spiral out of control.
Putting the kid behind a .22 to help work on the fundamentals should not be presented as a step backwards, but as an opportunity to improve.

Lastly, put the shoot out of everyone's mind for a spell.
A trip to Dairy Queen and the only thing talked about is the hunt, all the good positive things, like the stand, the wind, does, bucks, rain, cold, etc... With no mention of the shooting session is what the doctor is prescribing.

You mentioned that he may have gotten hit in the eye with the scope. Eye relief is a major consideration, especially for kids.

The 3-9 Zeiss Conquest has a lot of eye relief throughout the power range. Most scopes make you get a lot closer when you crank them up in power. Try turning the power down from max on his scope & see if it allows him to move his eye back a bit. Then explain to him that he won't get hit & show him why. He needs to regain his confidence.

Or get a 3-9 Conquest, 6x42 Leupold, or even a cheaper fixed power that has better eye relief. 30-30 is just fine. It uses a good bit less powder than a 243, 7-08 & most other cartridges.

is it a Marlin?

http://www.midwayusa.com/Find?userSearchQuery=wild+west+trigger

pretty easy to install yourself.

if you say he hit his nose on the scope then that is the problem right there. It is not the sound or the impact of the gun kicking his shoulder. it was the shock of that damn scope hitting his nose. how do i know this? cuz when i was around that age my dad had me practice. never forget how that scope knocked the hell out of my nose, felt like i was bleeding, not to mention i also had a bruise near my nose underneath my eye.

Did i want to shoot again? hell no, in fact for a while when i would shoot i would squeeze the trigger and immediately lift my head up to avoid any chance of getting hit again. took a while to quit doing that. if he got hit by the scope he is going to not want to get hit again.

Hornady Managed Recoil 243 Win is one answer at Cabela's