12 year old youth season help needed

[BigfishCanada]

guys, we are wanting to take a 12 year old out for youth season. We dont want to scare him off shooting. This week we will take him to the range but scared on what rifle to get him to try. He has shot a 22 but never a deer gun.

We have a 222, 3030, or a 308. Is a 222 good enough for a small buck (100 yards tops)? We are worried if he shoots a 3030 or a 308 it m ake make him nervous that its too much gun? Any suggestions? Has a 308 or 3030 got too much kick for a 12 year old? What amount a 3030 with a small grain?

[Wolfman]

A 30-30 with a light load shouldn't be too much.

Wolfman

[Koot]

My 12 year old son shot 30-30 loads out of a 30-06 last year and it was not a problem for him.It was a 170 grn but I can't remember what fps.
He now shoots a 270 that I load down a little and it is also is good on the shoulder.
Koot

[Wild one]

It depends on your kid I would let him try them all but start with the 3030 and work up from there.At 12 my brother and I had no problem shooting a 7mm so I would not be shocked if he was fine with the 308.

[Tom_28]

Well two years ago when I was twelve and went hunting for deer the gun I was using was 243 and that was the first time i ever shot and found it fine. But it all depends how big he is and if he is scared of the recoil. 2 years ago I was about 155lbs and about 5 foot 7 so if that helps you decide. When you go to the range just start with the 222 and work your way up, and if he can handle a 308 that would probably be the best I think.

[Mr. Friendly]

I'd say work him with the .222 to see how he does. if he's excited/enthusiastic about it, let him try something larger.

could be a good idea to invest in something like a .243 as well. more then good enough for a lot of game. :)

[sparkymacker]

I bought a Marlin 30-30 for my 12 year old, he can handle it fairly well and he is a bit on the smallish side.

[Squirrelnuts]

Maybe worth trying Remington's managed recoil ammo? I'm pretty sure they make it for the .308.

Edit: Yup, they do:


New Managed-Recoil Centerfire Ammunition delivers the trusted Remington® field proven hunting performance out to 200 yards with half the recoil. How? Through a specialized new bullet that was developed specifically to perform at these cartridge’s velocity levels. These bullets are optimized to provide 2x expansion with over 75% weight retention on shots inside of 50 yards and out to 200 yards. The end result is a high performance bullet optimized to provide the on-game results you've come to expect from Remington Ammunition with just half the felt recoil.

[TimberPig]

guys, we are wanting to take a 12 year old out for youth season. We dont want to scare him off shooting. This week we will take him to the range but scared on what rifle to get him to try. He has shot a 22 but never a deer gun.

We have a 222, 3030, or a 308. Is a 222 good enough for a small buck (100 yards tops)? We are worried if he shoots a 3030 or a 308 it m ake make him nervous that its too much gun? Any suggestions? Has a 308 or 3030 got too much kick for a 12 year old? What amount a 3030 with a small grain?

A .222 is only a suitable deer gun for shorter range shots, with good bullets, and in expert hands. It isn't a particularly good choice for a first gun on deer.

A .30-30 should be fine, even 170 grain loads don't kick hard.

A .308 may be fine, or it may not depending upon the child involved. Many 12 year olds can handle it, some cannot. Sticking to lighter bullet weights, or Managed Recoil loads (or equivalent handloads) will help reduce the amount of recoil.

As already suggested, take him to the range, start him out with the .222 and work up from there to see how he does. Don't make a big deal out of the recoil, let him see how it is. If you tell him its going to kick hard, he's going to make it worse, because he is expecting and fearing a big thump. A large amount of recoil is psychological and not even the actual effect of being hit by the butt of the rifle, but by expecting it to hurt and convincing yourself that it does hurt, when it really does not.

[hunter1947]

A 30-30 with a light load will work fine for your boy ,just make sure he had ear muffs and safety glasses on when he is shooting.

My boy that was 12 shot a bigger rifle it was a 30-30 ,he had been shooting a .22 all the time.
He was little scared when he bench shot this 30-30.

After talking to him for about 5 minutes on what he should expect made him feel a lot more comfortable.

The one thing that I told him was to hold onto it vary hard before he was to place the shot.

After he has shot the gun he said that was easy ,he made two excellent shots at 100 yards with open sights ,one being about 3 inches to your left from dead center and the other about 3 inches hi at the same distance ,I said that would have taken down any big game animal ,great shooting son.

So in your case I would say that there will be no problems with your son shooting a 30-30 ,just make sure you talk to him and for him to have the safety equipment on ,good luck.

[5 spike]

243 all the way. the best gun for a young man or women to start out with.

[fowl language]

which ever your choice make sure he has GOOD hearing protection as you will find that noise to a newby is as bad as recoil. make sure that he is slightly leaned into the gun on the rest and not bent backwards. also make sure the gun is snug to his shoulder,spend some time with this and make sure its a good fit,this also gets him more comfortable with the gun. i would suggest the gun with the smallest bullet or the slowest burning powder. good luck ...fowl

[KevinB]

I would agree with TimberPig, a .222 will kill a deer fine but it might not be the best choice for an inexperienced hunter. But it is a great cartridge for him to learn to shoot with, it goes bang like other larger centerfires but with low recoil. Once he is comfortable with that, then try him with the .308 with the managed recoil loads that Squirrelnuts mentioned. You can also get them for the 30-30, if the .308 versions are too much, they use the same weight bullet as the .308 managed recoil load, just a few hundred fps slower. The other thing will be to make sure the rifle that he ends up huntuing with fits him okay, and isn't too large for him to shoot well in the field. What type of rifles are the 30-30 and the .308?

[winbuckhunter]

i hunted with a 3030 at 12 years old.. i shot my dads 30-06 when i was that young too... all depends on the kid i guess

have him shoot a 3030 and see

[Tom_28]

A 222 personally would not be my first choice as a deer gun, only because the biggest bullets you can get in factory loads are 55 grains, and at a hundred yards the bullet only has an energy of about 700/750. I would stick with a light 30-30 or 308 load.

[Shooter]

I started my oldest son out with a .243 and think its a great gun. However if that isn't an option for you, I can tell you that when I was 12 I took my first deer with an old 30-30. I am not a very big guy and the recoil was manageable for me. I am thinking about getting my youngest son to use my old 30-30 for his first deer next year, just for sentimental reasons, and then getting him into a .243 after that.

[gone hunting]

A bit late but here goes. Load up a bunch of 308 with Hornady 110 grain round nose bullets with 12 grains of H110. They go bang and put holes in paper, though a 12 year old is more likely to enjoy tin cans or the like. Then when it's time to go hunting, you sight it in with a good 308 deer load and he won't notice the recoil when shooting a critter.
That's how my son prepared for his first hunting season. At 11 years old, he shot a record book black bear and a moose. ( 300 yards across the arm of a lake) Since then he has taken another moose, an elk, a couple of mule deer and oodles of rabbits and grouse. Last year, he shot his first 4 point with his graduation present, a Sako stainless synthetic in 338 win mag.
A friend's son was scared of his 308 till I gave him a couple of boxes of the above mentioned loads. Anything else is either too light for big game, in the hands of a beginner, or is too much for a 12 year old. That's only my opinion, but I'm right.
PS Make sure the rifle fits him.

[Steeleco]

A bit late but here goes. Load up a bunch of 308 with Hornady 110 grain round nose bullets with 12 grains of H110. They go bang and put holes in paper, though a 12 year old is more likely to enjoy tin cans or the like. Then when it's time to go hunting, you sight it in with a good 308 deer load and he won't notice the recoil when shooting a critter.
That's how my son prepared for his first hunting season. At 11 years old, he shot a record book black bear and a moose. ( 300 yards across the arm of a lake) Since then he has taken another moose, an elk, a couple of mule deer and oodles of rabbits and grouse. Last year, he shot his first 4 point with his graduation present, a Sako stainless synthetic in 338 win mag.
A friend's son was scared of his 308 till I gave him a couple of boxes of the above mentioned loads. Anything else is either too light for big game, in the hands of a beginner, or is too much for a 12 year old. That's only my opinion, but I'm right.
PS Make sure the rifle fits him.

Great advise, I did that exact thing with my son and a 7-08. He started shooting mild 150 grn loads off the bench, now he's shooting my 444 and 30.06 a few times every time we go to the range.

One reason I chose not to go .243 was because I felt he'd outgrow it faster than a larger centefire.

Whichever way you go, go slow but keep it fun, It's tough keeping them interested when competing with PS3 and computers and such.

Good luck.

A thought! If your in the LML maybe we should take both kids to the range and let my son lend the youngun his gun to see if he likes it? Let me know if that's doable?

[gone hunting]

This is Jesse (the now 18 son). I remember after shooting at my black bear my father asked "how was the recoil?" and I, quite honestly, replied "what recoil?" and this was with my .308 with federal high energy loads. Several months ago I decided to teach my 16 year old, 105 lbs girlfriend to shoot. She had never so much as held a firearm before this. So we took her and another buddy of mine (who will be coming with us on our next moose trip this September) out to the range. We took along a .22, my browning stainless stalker .308 with the loads my father mentioned, my father's .35 whelen for him to site in, and my stainless synthetic .338 with a zeiss 3-9 all new for me to get more practise with. After we explained the safety rules to both of them we set Josh up with the .308 (which he will be using this fall) and Jen with the .22 I was standing beside Jen when she took the first shot of her life, she looked up at me and said "did I F*** it up too bad?" I looked 40 yards down range with my scope and saw a nice little whole less than half a cm from the bull’s eye. After she shot out the centre of the target we decided to give her a try on the .308, now this is where it gets a little more applicable to the thread, she shot off the 4 rounds of the "practise loads" and asked if she could shoot more. So I took the mag and accidentally placed 3 rounds of the practise loads and one hunting load on the top. She lined up at 100 yards and CABOOM she punched a nice little hole in the centre ring. I made sure that was the only hunting load and set her up again and she continued firing till we were out of ammo. My point is that she was comfortable enough after the practise loads to be steady enough to punch a hole in the centre ring at 100 yards (the other 3 from the mag were in a 1.5 inch group) but the hunting loads were far too much for her to practise with.
PTE. Hunt

[Leaseman]

Make sure the gun fits him (or her!) or else it doesn't matter what you use, it will hurt!

Started my son last year with his .308 using the remington reduced loads, by the end of the season he was happy shooting 180's out of her and is ready to rock and roll this Monday...:smile:

I picked him up the weatherby vanguard which comes with a youth and full size stock, will last him until he has money to buy for himself!!!!

Mike

[DBM]

Leaseman,
Where'd you get the remington reduced loads?

[Leaseman]

Got them from Al at Langley guns...if he doesn't carry them in stock, takes him a couple of days to get in....

Mike

[Nooker77]

Get him a 243, great deer gun no kick.....7x57 mausser is also a great rifle..I have both for wife.....she loves em both and could sit at the range all day!!
cheers

[grizzly_taker]

A great way to destroy a young shooter/hunter, is to give him to much gun. He'll tell you it doesn't hurt, but after a few shots, load the gun for him but don't put any ammo in it and what the jerking and flinching happen. Especially a 30-30 they are so poorly stocked, bottom line they kick and knuckle bust. My advise to you is to keep him to a light caliber and be there to back him up. 243 cals are great, even the 257 roberts. If he isgonna use the 222 than get handloads with the barnes x bullet in it!

[kgs]

My nephew is also 12 years old and I have recently bought him a Savage model 200 stevens in .308 with a 22 inch barrel. First thing I did was add some weight to the butt of the rifle. Its a synthetic stock so its hollow. about a pound of weight. Bartell told me of a web site from Hodgon for youth loads using H4895. 38grs with a 125 gr slug. Gun shoots very well loads also shoot very well. Recoil to me feels like a .22 however my nephew is a small 12 year old. At first he was worried about it but once he shot it a few times he got more confortable shooting it. Honestly he will need some more practice with it as he was hitting the target but its a lot bigger than the .22 he has been practicing with and a lot louder.