Life long rifle for teen

Depends on his size. My grandson started with an AR so he could shorten the stock. Next, I had a Remington 700 in 243 that I bought a youth stock for on Ebay. He started on that when he was twelve. He loves that rifle. Shot 2 or 3 deer and coyote with it. One shot kills. I shoot a Tikka in 7-08 and really like it. Several cartridges would do. 6.5 Creedmoor is just a little less than the 7-08 and popular right now. 6.5 Swede is great but less popular.
That said, I don't see anything wrong with your original plan. It seems stocks are more expensive and more necessary for a Savage but not a big deal.

I was gifted a rifle when i completed hunter's safety at 14. It is a 1979 Remington 700 BDL Varmint Special in .243 Winchester. My pops was a .243 guy so thats what i wanted too. I have acquired many more rifles over the last 20 years but that R700 will always have a soft spot in my heart. Im far from an avid hunter, but that gun has shot both of my little whitetail bucks. Its what i always take. And i wouldnt change a thing about it.

If i were in the OP's shoes, i really like the idea of the 6.5x55. Moderate power, moderate recoil, and versatility.

I have a lot of thoughts around this topic, largely because I have put so much thought into teaching young people to shoot in my life, including the “highest criticality” of such consideration when doing so for my own son.

1) Personally, I cut my teeth on long action hunting rifles as a kid, but have grown to largely no longer have interest in the .30-06 I grew up, the first rifle I bought for myself - so it sits in the safe. My brother received our grandfather’s .270win which was the first rifle with which I hunted as a kid - again, it sits in his safe, unused. I hunted a lot of game with my .30-06, in over a dozen states, but now, I just don’t find use for it… I use a long action magnum when I go after big game out of state, and when I’m home in KS, I use a short action cartridge… so for me, a long action would be a mistake.

2) A long action also eats more powder and punishes more recoil than a short action round when you’re not killing something on the muzzle end. You mentioned converting to 284win if he doesn’t find hunting interesting - what’s he going to do with a 284win? That’s a pretty specific niche that 284win fills, which not many people pursue (and most being of older generations). Is he shooting LR BR or F-Class currently? So again, long action doesn’t tickle my fancy as a life-long, adaptable option…

3) In a short action, a model with interchangeable bolts/bolt heads & mags/mag box assy’s would allow access to WSM’s, 6.5 PRC, RSAUM’s for hunting as well as having access to 223/5.56 or some short action standard cartridge like 308, 7-08, 6 Dasher, etc…

4) Let’s be a LITTLE realistic about adaptability, just for a second. Beyond pleasure plinking and hunting, factory repeater actions don’t play most competitive games. Long gone are the days of sitting on a competitive firing line and telling a fellow shooter about your rifle which “started life” as grandpa’s hunting rifle. A guy MIGHT get away with that shooting PRS, but again, that won’t be a long action rifle, so I wouldn’t spend much time looking in that direction - it’s likely to be a pleasure plinker or hunting rifle. Not likely any other use - so make sure it’s good for pleasure shooting.

5) At 13, he’s not too far off of fully grown. He MIGHT be a couple inches shorter than he will be at 18, 28, or 58, and longer term under the effect of gravity seems to increase our burden on the scale, but he’s probably somewhere considerably north of 50% of his future body mass, more likely within 20-50lbs of his adult weight. Temporary adaptations to his rifle could make it grow with him as well as help him manage recoil today - and forever. Also long gone are the days where our only options were a youth model in 243win and a standard in 30-06 - and thankfully long gone with them are the days when it was acceptable (and seemed sensible) for a father to put a son behind a heavy recoiling rifle, saying, “suck it up, Mary, it doesn’t kick THAT hard.” A guy can stick a brake out front to reduce recoil, shorten the stock to fit shorter arms or buy an adaptable stock, use a smaller cartridge up front and rebarrel later - or buy multiple barrels up front - etc etc etc. But the easy button would be something in the order of 7-08, 243win, 260, 6.5 creed which will hang on to utility forever and will never have excessive recoil beyond its capabilities. I say often: deer hunting is best done with 100-140grn over 35-45grn powder at 2700-3000fps, and this isn’t age, gender, or physical size specific.

6) Of note - fathers give things to sons, fathers loan things to sons, and fathers leave things to sons when we pass. So if your son does find need for a more powerful rifle which you happen to have - especially a limited, one time need - he can borrow yours, or eventually, when you pass or get too old to make use yourself, he can have yours. This might be a gift, might be a burden - such as a dozen rifles and shotguns I have in my safe which were my wife’s or my fathers’ or grandfathers’ before us, and will be our son’s someday, for most of which we have to fabricate intentional uses, just to justify getting them out of the safe. Building what he’ll always use makes more sense than building something he might use, maybe, someday, if he likes a certain thing for a certain time…

7) Finally - what I did for my son:

At 2, I bought a Marlin 60 and a Savage Mark II 22LR, and I bought 3 spare stocks for each. I cut one set down to 8”, the other down to 11” which I installed when he turned 6, and the final pair to be left alone for when he’s grown. I also bought a new stock for my great-grandpa’s old 410 single shot shotgun, also cutting it down to 10.5” when he was 7, leaving the factory stock alone for when he grows. He started shooting AR’s at 5, naturally, with the carbine stocks telescoped all the way in. At 8, I ordered a Defiance Ruckus with two bolts and a Manners Compact Gen 2 stock. So I can put a 20” carbon fiber 6 Dasher barrel out front when it arrives (he’s shooting my barreled action out of his stock currently for this deer season), he shot my 6.8 SPC 18” and 10.5” the last three seasons. He’s asked to get a new stock for his grandpa’s 30-30 which will fit him, so we might have that in order. He shoots specialty pistols which don’t bring the burden of a stock to fit his body. He carries rifles a little heavier than he’d like so he can manage recoil better, and everything he shoots has brakes or cans. His Ruckus’ second bolt is a magnum bolt face, so it can become a 6.5 PRC if he wants to hunt with the rifle later.

(Same strategy I used for my own rifles - I have two boltheads for my Seekins Havak so I can shoot 6 Creed and 6.5 PRC. I also have a 458win mag barrel for my 300win mag, and my wife has 416 Ruger and a 338wm barrels for her 7rm).

For my niece, when she turned 5, I built two left hand Stag uppers, one a 16” 5.56 and the other an 18” 6.5 Grendel, so she could hunt with one and train with the other. Pretty good survivability on both of these options when mated with a carbine stocked lower.

Best laid plans of mice and men - manufacturing heirlooms isn’t a high likelihood game. But we can make sensible plans which have greater likelihood of surviving contact than less sensible plans.

WisBorn said:

I like the 308win. If lighter recoil is needed now you can use reduced recoil loads.

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redneck2 said:

From what I see in the O.P., it seems a 6.5 Creed would be the program.

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Nice thing about .308 and 6.5CM is the bolt is the same, I believe. If you bought, say, a Savage 10 or 12 in 6.5, you could rebarrel to .308 easy peasy if the need arose.

If you are going to need the bullet weight, I'd opt for the .308. I handload the 110grn V-max and it's like shooting a 5.56mm (to me,) but there are some really good bullets in the 110-150grn range for hunting. As someone suggested, H4895 can reduce to 60% for a lighter recoiling round.

I know people make fun of the 6.5 ManBun, but it has the goods. I'm always surprised at how easy it is to shoot, and the fact that it doesn't beat you up as much as a .308 does. It would be real hard to say no to that, unless you just need bullet weight. I load 140's for my friends RPR and AR-10. I'll bet I know a guy that can get you some 6.5CM brass real cheap, too...

Get him a rifle that will serve him well now. He'll be able to get another down the road. 243, 6 Creed, 25-06, 6.5 Creed and 7-08 will work for everything up to elk.

My brother solved this problem for his then-13 year old granddaughter (now 5'11" and thin as a rail) with a Savage Lady Hunter in 6.5 CM. She isn't complaining.

I know it will shock and amaze many here, so if you have a weak heart you may want to not read this, but....

The total truth is that it makes absolutely zero difference what the cartridge is, or the head stamp, or the heritage, or the parent case. It doesn’t matter one ounce if the shoulder angle is 23 degrees or 23 1/2 degrees. It doesn’t matter at all if the cartridge was developed in 1920 or 2020. Doesn’t matter if the case is belted, not belted, or double belted. Guys are ready to go out in the back alley and duke it out because someone poo-poo’s their latest, greatest or grandpa’s most favorite caliber.

Guys get all wrapped around the axle about their pet cartridge. Truth is, a given amount of a certain powder is going to give a certain bullet a consistent velocity whether or not it has your pet shoulder angle or belt/no belt or length/width ratio. A 140 grain bullet at 2,300 FPS will perform exactly the same no matter the head stamp on the case, the length to width ratio, or shoulder angle.

If you want more velocity, add more powder. Adding 25% more powder typically increases velocity 10%, at the cost of more muzzle blast, more recoil, shorter barrel life, and slightly higher expense per shot You can drop the amount of powder but get less velocity so it’s less forgiving on drop, and less energy along with more wind drift. Can’t cheat the laws of physics.

So, if you can set aside your ego, biases, and hurt feelings, what I would do is approach it logically, something firearm enthusiasts very rarely do. Pick the objective. Deer, elk, target, or a combination..... whatever. Then pick the performance characteristics required. Elk at 500 is significantly different from target shooting at 100.

From a strictly common sense standpoint, I’d choose something that’s going to have common ammo availability with a good selection. A 6.5 Swede will obviously work well, but a 6.5 Creed will push the same bullet just as effectively but ammo will be way, way easier to find and have a far better selection

A few guys jumped on the SAUM, WSSM, RAUM bandwagon(s). Good luck finding ammo 20 years from now. Boutique calibers are a crap shoot. I was basically in the same situation you are some years back. I picked a 7 Rem mag simply because I thought I might go on an elk hunt and the rifle I chose mitigated the recoil to tolerable levels and was a screaming deal. I chose performance, then the rifle I wanted, then the cartridge which is widely available.

They had an identical rifle in .270. Would that have worked? Well, for deer, antelope, Black Bears one is no better than another. But, for me a 400 yard shot on elk, no. With the 7 mag a 400 yard shot on elk is acceptable

redneck2 said:

A few guys jumped of the SAUM, WSSM, RAUM bandwagon(s). Good luck finding ammo 20 years from now.

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Guys said that 20 yrs ago when the WSM’s and RSAUM’s came out - guess what… they were wrong… brass is still available, and even more short action magnums have hit the market since then…

I had an AR in a WSSM. Go out and find brass and get back to me.

And for your list, try to find ammo easily, locally. And what is the selection? And cost?

Varminterror said:

Guys said that 20 yrs ago when the WSM’s and RSAUM’s came out - guess what… they were wrong… brass is still available, and even more short action magnums have hit the market since then…

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Varminterror is an opinionated son-of-a…, but he puts a lot thought in his posts (most of the time). See his post above. I sometimes disagree but often learn from these posts. In fact, one series of posts led me to conclude that the .300WSM is the best (or most efficient) hunting .30 cal. Varminterror did not like my analysis but never offered more than “overdetermined” in the way of feedback.

That said, I followed his advice regarding getting my son going with a .22lr and it is working out quite well. The discussion above seems quite similar so, consider what Varminterror is suggesting.

If he develops a strong interest later on he could buy lots of rifles, but if you just want to make sure he has something to work with - get a .308. Ammo is available (even during shortages), its cheap, and the cartridge has reasonable recoil and can be used for a very wide variety of game animals.

As mentioned by some other posters, if he's recoil sensitive on it you could download it. Just sticking to starting loads will put you 200-300 fps below max and/or factory loads (with a corresponding reduction in recoil).

Have him help make the decision, as to caliber, then have him help build it. Will respect it better if he put in the work too.

Here's my sweede, Bishop stock, Dwm action, Burris ff2 4.5-14x42. I do have to square the muzzle and recrown this weekend, just noticed an issue Saturday evening.

Good thread, thoughtful response by most. I’m considering putting a rifle together myself but am still thinking about what chambering so this is helpful to me.

That said, you guys who don’t reload boggle my mind

AJC1 said:

So I've been all over the map trying to figure out a good plan for my son. I was tossing the idea of a 280 around and I still like the round but I think it may be to much. I'm thinking about trying to find a savage 6.5x55 for him to shoot and hunt with now and that leaves the door wide open for all standard length loadings with just a barrel swap. So the 280 or 270 or 30-06 are just a barrel away when he wants. I do this currently with the two short actions I have but I don't need any horsepower for hunting.... sound reasonable or is there a better plan.

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If you put a Pachmeyer decelerator on it and load 140s with IMR 4831. A teen can shoot a 280 AI.
My 13 year old niece has shoot my brother's a fair amount. She likes her 6.5x55 with 123s that I gave her though.

Let him study the different rifles and chamberings. He can choose for himself. If he chooses something that might be a little much. Pull some of the recoil by using a good recoil pad, lighter bullet and slow burning powder. He can always load it to its full potential as he grows.

My immediate input:

A .243, with Boyd's wood stock. Impressive enough he'll keep it throughout his lifetime. Or a Howa .223, blued. Pretty enough for the same purpose and in a caliber he's used to.

I dont think the deer care much what caliber is shooting at them, and the work starts AFTER the shot. Better learn that part well. My 10 year old grandson had a buck down with one shot from his big brothers 30-30 marlin yesterday in fact that’s about all we use on deer anymore because they knock um down quick and easy to handle.

There is likely more available .30 cal load data than any other.
The .308 ammo supply has as broad a selection as any.
It is sure to remain very popular, therefore available.
It will kill anything in the lower 48 without any problems.

Most of one’s lifetime isn’t spent as a teenager, so the fact that I was buying it for one wouldn’t influence me much. My first rifle was a Remington 788, chambered in 243. I still hunt with it occasionally and likely will for the rest of my life, it would get significantly more use if it were in a larger caliber. It would likely be my primary hunting rifle rather than one I use because of the sentimental value.

The 308 just seems to me like the obvious choice for a “lifetime” rifle caliber, but I’m not the one buying it.

jmr40 said:

Don't live in the past. 270, 280, 30-06, and 7X57 are the guns of my father's generation and I'm 64. Those are all fading fast among younger shooters. What interests you probably won't interest your son.

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I guess I live in the past. 270, 280, 30-06, and 7x57 are all wonderful cartridges. I don't think a deer will notice the difference between a "new" versus "old" cartridge. I plan on building a 7x57 for my son when he is a tad older because it's a family tradition going back 3 generations now. After that, he can buy or build anything he wants. For my daughter, I'll likely do a 250 Savage or 6.5 Swede.

I look at it differently in that I want to keep these older great cartridges around for generations to come.

As a 280 fan, my bias will show; more specifically towards the .284" calibers.

My kids are getting to hunting age and I will look into getting a 7mm08 Win70 (or possibly a 308 win) for them to share as a lightweight hunting rifle. As they get older I will give them opportunity to hunt with my 280ai Win70 and if they take to it I will gladly help them put together their own hunting rifle to take with them. Personally, I would suggest to them at the point of their consideration of "their" rifle to strongly consider the 280ai, just because it strikes a very good balance across, recoil, bullet weights, ballistics, and weight of rifles for western hunting.

If your kids have to have the latest craze the 6.5PRC is pretty much a ballistic twin to the 280ai.

I enjoyed every post here, I have a 13 YO Grandson who has been introduced to gun safety and use for a few years now but his Dad Holds the fire arms I ve given him in .22lr and 20 gauge locked in a safe as they IMHO should be around kids. My input would be a Mossberg Scout/Patrol rifle in .223 or .308 . The point of my useage is that I moved from NJ to Ca. in 1971 to escape "guncontrol" I worked all my life in Ca. and watched the "guncontrol" situation in Ca. erode until even as retired military and a LEO certified reservist it forced me to develop "outlaw" mentality until I escaped to Oregon after retirement in 2017. In Ca. you can't easily even buy ammo ! Now suddenly and as in Calif at first a draconian "Guncontrol" is passed in Oregon by a few counties surrounding the fallen Portland nightmare and here I and my two son's families are bunkered up again. My son's are very law abiding and use safes and we all have concealed Carry Permits from the wonderful sheriffs in our counties.
The future for the children however looks bleak , and don't think Tenn . will be immune from this socialist take over that is roaring down the pike ! To that end I highly recommend life long rifle gifts be given to children in military calibers in use today , or at least the parent case of another caliber (IE .243 ect.) and the have access to inheritence of reloading equipment and even bullet mold if not the parent case of .223 or .308 . >223 with a 64- 77 grainbullet is a great deer round. .308 will take any North American game. A Mossberg Patrol in either caliber is my choice

Of course in the mean time any of the options named are good choices , but a "life long rifle" I would chose as I said for obvious reasons. My reasoned feelings and that is that !

BreechFace said:

As a 280 fan, my bias will show; more specifically towards the .284" calibers.

My kids are getting to hunting age and I will look into getting a 7mm08 Win70 (or possibly a 308 win) for them to share as a lightweight hunting rifle. As they get older I will give them opportunity to hunt with my 280ai Win70 and if they take to it I will gladly help them put together their own hunting rifle to take with them. Personally, I would suggest to them at the point of their consideration of "their" rifle to strongly consider the 280ai, just because it strikes a very good balance across, recoil, bullet weights, ballistics, and weight of rifles for western hunting.

If your kids have to have the latest craze the 6.5PRC is pretty much a ballistic twin to the 280ai.

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I came up with the same idea and built one in a large ring Mauser. My brother has switched from his 300WM to it since I built it. He calls it Thor's hammer.