Great rifle, great bargain, great idea. My only concern would be the sights. Working with teenagers has shown me that patience is not their strong point. You said he had plans to modify, so to save him time and money, a scout scope is a great remedy for the fact that they shoot high, and while they do make rear sight replacement mounts that work, they often cost as much as the gun. What I did, and what others have done successfully, is get .22 rings instead of a scout mount, because good .22 rings (3/8" dovetail) are still much cheaper than a mount. take off the rear mount and use the dovetail on which it sat. Directions for how to do this are easily found on the internet. removing the front sight was the hardest part of the whole process for me, and that wasn't that hard... just took some effort because the SOB was REALLY stuck in there. Doing that makes shooting the rifle more fun and less frustrating at 100 yards, and doing it that way means you can easily take the thing back to its original condition. Ad a sporter stock from ATI and you have yourself a very nice, modern looking/feeling rifle for pennies on the dollar. Accurate too.
As to the trigger pull, it's a crap shoot. I know some are terrible, but one of mine is great (1942), the other (1925 hex receiver) is how i know that some are terrible.
I ordered mine for 60 and 79 dollars respectively from AIMsurplus, and both had real matching numbers, not electropenciled.
I hope my nephew gets more responsible or my nieces want to shoot, so I can be the cool uncle like you one day.