Youth Centerfire cartridge?

[YammyMonkey]

Can't be of much help with the calibers, but when I got my first shotgun at 11 (Browning Citori Lightning) I had to have the stock cut to fit. After I grew out of the short stock my dad make a spacer out of black plastic and I ended up with a full size stock.

I not only have a great gun that I grew up shooting, but it also has a bit of my dad's craftsmanship and when I have a kid it's something that I can (if I can stand to give it up) pass onto him.

 

[Ivy Mike]

My choice would be 6.5x55 for your sons size. For smaller shooters, a .223 or perhaps .204 Ruger for varmints. The new Ruger cartridge is supposed to be better out to longer ranges than the .223.

The 6.5x55 is a great all around rifle cartridge but still easy enough on younger shooters. It will handle any medium game on this continent too.

I'd go CZ550 American, but thats personal preference talking. I've never come across a bad CZ product. If you'd also like an interesting mil-surp project, go find an old type 38 Arisaka and rechamber for the 6.5x55 cartridge. Fun way to get more use from an old Arisaka.

flame suit on. (military purists hate me for mentioning this)

 

[Darkside]

You appear to have settled on the Rem action, which I like, alot. Have you given any thought to the 7mm-08, either in the Mod.7 or the 700ADL youth? I have the Mod 7 in the7mm-08 and load 120gr Noslers to respectable speed with very little recoil. Generaly I don't think very highly of the Nosler Balistic tips for deer sized animals, but the 120 gr. BT(only) is a very good Deer dumper. You can load the Hornady 120 V-Max for a more explosive effect on coyote sized animals and drop them where they stand.

I would get the Mod 7 youth stock version as it is sized for smaller people. You can always buy him an adult stock later.

Two thumbs up on the choice of glass. That 2-7 Loupie resting in a pair of Talley lightweight rings and bases makes me giddy.

I think whichever way you go with this set-up, any son would be Da^^ Gald to hunt with it.

Darkside

 

[ojibweindian]

Were this my child, I'd probably start with a Handi-Rifle in .243.

What is the quality of the Handi-Rifle?

The reason I ask is because I showed my son several differing rifles, and he liked best the looks of the Handi-Rifle. He liked it better, as a matter of fact, than the Model 7 Youth and the 700 ADL Synthetic youth.

I was also thinking of picking up a Swede or M48 barreled action, then buying a Boyd's stock to fit him.

If I go with a M48 action, I'd develop a good reduced load for my son. As he gets older, I would increase the power level as appropriate.

 

[rbernie]

Everyone that I know that has one seems to get good accuracy from it, and they seem to stay fairly tight over time. I've seen a few posts complaining about rough triggers, but that seems to be the extreme exception and not the norm. I've handled about a dozen different examples, and each was tight and had a reasonably good trigger - about as good as production-line triggers get these days.

Do a search here, and you'll find lots of threads on 'em.

 

[mtnbkr]

6.5x55.

The Winchester Compact seemed a tad small for adults to me, so that might be a good starting point for a boy. Rugers tend to have shorter LOP too.

IMO, the swede is perfect because factory loads are pretty light, yet you can handload hotter rounds. A 140gr bullet at 2500fps is easy to shoot, accurate, and great for hunting deer and the like. He'll never "outgrow" it and it's accurate to boot.

I bought my Winchester M70 Featherweight with the idea that my daughter would "inherit" it one day.

Chris

 

[13.45]

here's another vote for the .243win
it's an excellent deer cartridge, and as mentioned earlier, is readily available at retail

 

[Selfdfenz]

I have 3 Handi-Rifles.
They are unbeatable for the price. In some ways a break open has some safety advantages over a bolt gun because if it's open it can't fire and you can see the chamber is empty. The triggers are not wondeful but can be improved by you or NEF (or is it H&R these days). I get confused. Rimmed cases (45-70, 22 hornet) eject very well but I have heard some rimless cases have issues. My HB 233 (no ejection issues) is very accurate with Winchester white box varmit loads from Walmart. Hardly worth the effort to reload. I wish they did 6.5x55 but likely never will.

Down side to the break open design is that you have to take the rifle off the rest to unload and reload which is a PITA not experienced with a bolt outfit.

Saw two HOWAs on gunbroker in 6.5 Swed last night under 400$.

As much as I like my 7-08 Model 7 I think the round has more kick than the Swed. Neither are barn burners, just great rounds that are very accurate and get the job done.

Best
S-

 

[WYO]

We went with the 700 ADL synthetic youth in 7mm-08 but only because elk will be on the menu next year. (I think the synthetic youth was discontinued in 7mm-08, leaving the Model 7 youth as the only Remington youth model in .260 or 7mm-08). I see you live in Alabama, and the .260 looks pretty good to me, although our son, who turns 12 later this month, is very happy with his 7mm-08. Our son has outgrown the youth stock, and we replaced it with a 700 wood takeoff stock and installed a Decelerator but kept the same overall LOP. I have been downloading 7mm-08 with RL-15 in two flavors, a Speer 120 soft point at 2560 and now Nosler 140 grain ballistic tips at 2400. Both recoil at or below the level of a .243 with factory ammo at published velocities, and the BC on the BTs is awesome. With the BTs his first 2 shots at 100 while sighting in were overlapping, and his first 3 shot group at 100 after adjustment was 1.4â€. I just had to shoot it after seeing that and got a .32†group, which is my best group ever. We are heading south this weekend for a whitetail hunt, and we have a lot of confidence that he can do the job.

We did notice that the youth stock and its “classic†straight design did not fit him as well as the 700 takeoff wood stock with the little “dip†at the top of the butt. (Sorry, don’t know the technical term.) The extra weight of the wood stock didn’t hurt from a recoil perspective, either. I wonder if your son has the same issue.

There is a good thread on the .260 running on another forum at http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/371369/an/0/page/0#371369

Whatever you decide, I don’t think you can go wrong choosing between a .260 and a 7mm-08. I am sure that the 6.5 or .257 Roberts would be fine as well, and I also know where you could get a .257 "Bob" Remington 700 Classic that is unfired or mint for a decent price. Oh, and I agree with your choice in scopes as well. I wanted to put the same model on my son’s rifle, but he likes using my first scope, a 20 something year old 2X7 Redfield Widefield.

Question to Darkside. Have you heard of problems with the 140 BTs driven at that low velocity? (I couldn’t find 120’s when I tried to order bullets.) I have kept up with the BT debate on other forums and the complaints seem to come from people driving them at 7 mag velocities. (We will migrate to full house Barnes TSXs before next year’s elk season.)