Savage A is youth 7mm-08

Is this too much gun for the average 5-6 yr old? Wanting to get my son a rifle to practice on to get ready for next deer season and hogs.

My opinion is yes

6.8 is a good one with the adjustable stock

I’d say yes. I’d be more comfortable with a .223

Agreed

I'd go 223, 22-250, or maybe a 243/257 Roberts. But, I'd lean towards one the 22 centerfires.

Would probably be fine using "lite" loads. That's what my wife shoots and she's a little thing.

He already has a 22lr looking for something he can hunt with for the next 5 yrs or so. I thought someone said their kid shoots 7mm-08 with light recoil loads. He has shot my 6.8s one with a red dot but it’s an SBR and has more recoil than my 16 inch but it has either a thermal or VORTEX PST on top and the reticle is prob too busy for him. May get a kynshot hydraulic buffer and try and tune the recoil to as light as possible for the SBR.

Without personally having shot the lite loads, I’d still say there is a big difference in a small framed adult female and a 5 year old kid.

Bolt action 6.5 Grendel

I went the .243 route with my daughter, if I had to do over I'd start her on the 22-250 bull barrel and focus on accuracy. Would be something for the next 5 years and beyond.

I agree, I have the Howa heavy barrel and it's recoil is very light IMO.

Get the 7mm08 and shoot reduced recoil ammo. Bet chad could easily make a reduced load with low recoil and would work like a charm and still leave him a great caliber to grow into.

Also agree, any 22 cal center fire and especially a 22-250 and don't be surprised if he wants to use it the rest of his life.

I don't own a 7-08, but I did some searching (I thought a full power .22-250 would have more recoil than a reduced recoil 7-08) and even with the Remington Reduced Recoil ammunition in a 7lb rifle it's going to have 12.35 ft lbs of recoil energy. A .22-250 using a 62 gr bullet at 3,500 fps in the same weight rifle will have 6.61 ft lbs of recoil energy and a .223 with a 64 gr bullet at 2900 fps will have 4.51 ft lbs of recoil energy.

So the 7mm-08 with reduced recoil loads has about twice the recoil of a .22-250 and almost three times the recoil of a .223 given the same weight rifle.

I used to do a lot of junior rifle coaching, biggest problem with a 5-6 yr old kid is getting a rifle that fits them properly. You need a really short length of pull. And if you want the rifle to grow with them that's a lot of adjustment from 6 yrs old to adult. I think your best bet is an AR15 M4 style carbine. But I would go .300 BLK. I know plenty of folks use a .223 on deer and hogs, but in my experience the .300 blk just hammers them much harder. The .300 blk with a 110 gr bullet at 2180 fps will have about 5 ft lbs of recoil energy in that same 7lb rifle as I used in all my other calculations. It has plenty of power for deer and hogs out to 150 yards which is plenty far for a 6 year old.

Where did you get the recoil figures from?

I just ran some stuff through an on line recoil calculator and with reduced loads you can get a 100 grain soft points in the 2500 fps range with same recoil as factory full power 55 grain 22-250.

Can't go wrong with a blackout.

I searched for a while, but finally found my boy's first deer rifle. Rossi .357 single shot. Very little recoil, and is good out to 100 yards.

Way too much gun.

http://www.shooterscalculator.com/recoil-calculator.php

Used figures from Nosler handloading data for powder amounts.

If you hand him a box of full house 140 grainers sure. If you buy a pound of H4895 and load 20-30 grains under a 100 grain soft point you will have a deer killing machine with recoil between a 223 and 22250.