Why not just stick with a 30-30 he is using now? If you need a little more distance buy or load the lever evolution style ammo. That way you would still have light recoil and the gun he actually picked to shoot. Then when he gets big enough to handle it by him a 30-06 and be done.

I know I’ve got a little time but I’m excited! Always wondered how my dad could stand it when we were growing up and he gave up his lease so my brother and I could hunt. I know he missed not hunting a few years but I understand better now, pretty great to share something like hunting and fishing with your kiddos

I’m sure the 30-30 will be his some day too and he is welcome to shoot any of my guns whenever he wants, but I’d like to get him his own if he is interested.

Somebody mentioned the Browning Micro Midas rifle. I think that was a good suggestion. 6.5 CM or 243. 6 pounds and 12 1/2” LOP. And the LOP isn’t too short when he grows bigger.

I love Tikka's! My boys all started off with a .243 Win shooting Barns 85 gr TSX ammo/bullets. Two of them still use them today, one moved to a .Tikka 308 win. There boys will be ready in another three or four years to hunt. They'll start off with a .243 win. A 243 win or 7mm-08 are great choices. Recoil is not bad, add a break or suppressor and and recoil becomes next to nothing.

I am a huge 7mm-08 fan. I have or have had a 30-30, 6.5 C, .243, 6.8 SPC, 300 Ham'r, 223, 6.5 Grendal, 30-06 and others I may not remember. But I have three 7-08s. A Remington Model 7, an AR 10 built around a Wilson Combat barrel and a 7mm-08 AI based off a Tikka action that JG (on this forum) did a great job of building.

I like all of the 7-08s but the AI is King of the hill!

yes. if he wants a wood stock, it's hard to beat in the micro model.

problem , like the tikka, they dont come threaded

Browning

Observations from my childhood and my children's is that trying to fit one rifle (size of rifle and cartridge) for a 10 year old and also to a 16 year old is difficult. The next few years there will be a lot of changes happening... physical size and also shooting skills. Buy the rifle your boy needs today. When he gets through puberty and fills out then buy him the next rifle that will fit his frame (adult-size).

What a lot of these types of posts generate is adult shooters telling you about their favorite personal cartridges that they like shooting as adults, or their childhood experience shaped around generational misguidance of "bigger is better". Take a 10 year old out to the range with a Model 7 or Winchester featherweight and have them shoot 20 rounds of a larger cartridge (243, 308 or 7-08, 270, 25-06 etc) over a 2-hours period and see how their shooting turns out. What you will notice is the child's growing resistance to going shooting reinforced with and some decent bruising. Don't get me wrong there are some exceptions to this, but for the majority this is the result. It is counterproductive.... you want your son to enjoy the experience and want to continue shooting and improving.

Match the cartridge to the game is just as important as matching the cartridge to the Shooter. Don't rattle his brain with concussion and recoil of a cartridge bigger than he needs. Go buy something like a 6.5 Grendel or 6ARC, both very accurate and lethal well beyond 400 yards. The reduced recoil will make the shooting experience more enjoyable and lead to willingness to do more practice. I don't want my kids to be telling the same BS stories that my brothers' share of dad having us shooting large rifles that were difficult to handle or damaged their hearing. I would rather them tell stories of all the times they asked dad to take them out shooting. My 2 cents.

Save the Creedmoor or 7-08 for his next rifle

I miss the good old days when a kid was given a 243 and taught to hunt rather than how to try and be a sniper. I killed a truck load of mule deer and two truck loads of white tails with mine.

I’m definitely not pushing him to shoot a bigger gun. I nudged to get him to shoot the blackout last year for practice before going hunting and developed a good flinch. A bit of 22 lr and 223 worked it out. The 223 was a hair big but with zero recoil he shot it well. He has practiced and done well with the current reduced load 30-30 and can shoot it till he is ready for something else. I’m planning for the next step.

Also I can download any larger rifle to make it comfortable. He just isn’t going to shoot the current setup forever and looking for what will be a good step moving forward.

My philosophy is buy him a high quality short barreled suppressor ready etc gun that he will be proud of forever and not want to change or wish otherwise. Future proof it

I recently went through this and I just gave him one of my older customs in 6.5 creedmoor

I have 3030 and a 3006 I lm not a fan of I got when I was a kid

I shot out a barrel on mine. I had it recharged to 6.5 CM, wish the 6cm was an available standardized cartridge bak them.

RC- Like BIL I have a 30-06 my dad gave that I haven’t shot in 30 years plus years

Same here, have a Remington 742 in 30-06 from 35 years ago and haven’t shot it in 25 probably

I'm still in the 7mm-08 camp. Load it down to comfortable recoil for now. As he grows, work up a stouter load. I've put more meat in the freezer with a 7mm 162 gr than anything else. I don't know when the barrel is shot out. It's likely he will never get there, the rest of his life. If he does, he's a dang good shooter by then, and he won't mind a new barrel and move on. Then shoot it some more.

Don't start a kid out on any long action cartridge. They don't like loud and they don't like recoil.

A suppressed short action is far more enjoyable for them to shoot.

308 suppressed but not a super light rifle. My son has been shooting mine since he was 6 recoil is similar to an AR in 223.

Cool time for you and your boy Red. My son wanted wood for his first bolt gun as well. I bought him a model 7 CDL 7mm-08 when he was 11. Started him off with 120’s down loaded with H-4895. A couple years later he moved up to full house 140’s and Varget. Over the last 14 years he has accumulated a pretty decent bone pile with that 7mm-08. He is 25 now and it is still his favorite rifle. He already has a mule deer/bear tag for Idaho for 2025 and that little model 7 is the rifle he plans to take. The model seven’s light weight barrel contour doesn’t fit your parameters but it handles and points more intuitively than any bolt gun I’ve shot. The 7mm-08 does fit your parameters. Since you reload I would also consider a 6.5x55 swede. Creedmoor is like tits. Everyone has two. 6.5x55 has more case capacity that the Creedmoor and was ahead of its time. With a 26° shoulder angle and a twist rate of 8.66. The standard bullet was 156 grains. You can load it down with light bullets and in a modern rifle you can tip the powder can and load heavies for elk or moose when your boy grows. With hand loads it out performs the 6.5 Creedmoor and has an impressive 100 plus year track record.
All the best to you and your boy, whatever the two of you pick out.

Bergara just came out with the Stoke, that's made for small-statured people. It comes in 7-08 and has spacers that can be added.

I wouldn’t overlook the 308 Win. You can start him off with reduced load 110-125 bullets. As a handloader, 7-08 or 308 would be my top 2 choices because he won’t outgrow them as they are capable of taking larger game down the road.

The model 7 and the 7mm-08 was a match made in heaven. My buddy had a stainless steel version in .260 that I loved. Great rifle.


As for Idaho, hope you bought him a stair stepper for Christmas. He will find out how much of a man he is real quick hunting that country

Didn’t read the whole thread

I don’t think caliber is nearly as important as the gun fitting him. I also have a 10 year old. My AR is the only thing he’s interested in shooting because he loves the fit of an adjustable stock. AR10 are very low recoil and felt recoil will be even less if the gun fits him well.

With all that said, I’d buy a cheap savage 243 to get him started and cut the stock down and if he’s really into it, you can get into a bigger caliber and a bigger gun in a couple years and he’ll always have the $300 savage he started hunting with. They have great triggers and are very accurate and 243 won’t beat him up.

308 all day long load some 135 or 150 soft points.
Room to grow and easy to find components.
I still shoot 308 as a primary rifle, wife and kids use it to.

The boyd’s at one stock is hard to beat also because it’s super adjustable I did a pair of 700’s for my twins and bedded them into that stock. They both are nearly 20 now and shoot them well.

I gotta say I have a 30-06 I love shooting and the 270 I bought under dads direction when I was 10 I still have and shoot although my wife has laid claim to it. They never bothered me. Not planning on buying till he no longer needs a youth size rifle and I’m betting by next year he won’t. I’m leaning pretty hard to 7mm08 because I already have dies/components. But if the 25-06 thing works out it’s also in the running.

redchevy - I am in the same camp of thinking with a short action, shorter barrel length for ease of handling, and selecting a micro-cartridge (Grendel or smaller). I know they are expensive and not everyone can swing it, but a suppressor makes a world of difference especially when considering the sensitivity of a child's hearing. My 8 year old can watch TV at volume level 3 while I am dialing up to at least level 13-15. He can hearing things that I have long since forgotten that existed. The only thing he seems to no be able to hear is criticism, differing of opinions, or his parents telling him to clean his room.

Last Christmas we gifted my twin nephews (10year olds) a set of matching Savage Axis rifles chambered in 300BO. They have been enjoying shooting pigs all year long and also deer in season. My only complaint on the Savage Axis is the bolt lift is famously heavy so I installed a bolt lift kit to lighten it up a bit. Here is an example of what a boy with a right-sized rifle can do all by himself over two days on a hunting trip... notice the Smile!




My 8yo son has a CZ527 (300BO) and a Howa Mini 1500 (6.5 Grendel) both waiting for him to choose when he wants to.

130 grain speer flat point at 2325 fps avg. we got low recoil short range deer killer covered. I’m planning for the next level.