My preacher has a son that wants to get into deer hunting. The young man is 12 and I'm helping him get his grandfather's Remington 600 in a .308 hunting ready. I've bought him a scope and am going to try to load him him some bullets that are a bit lighter than normal. I've never reloaded for a .308 so I'll need to buy the dies, brass, and such.
Do any of you know of a load that might be good for this new hunter?

Vic

are you sitting down?????...here's a load I've given youngsters that have borrowed my small ring '98 in .308.....Use a 125 grain Nosler BT and 47 grains of RL-15.....this is a tad under 3,000'/sec and is a fairly polite load.....and yes it kills deer.

Spring I have loaded the 150 grain bullets designed for the 30-30 with 36 grains of IMR 3031. They killed deer real well.
Also Federal and Remington both have Low Recoil loads out for the 308.

If you're looking for a practice load, 18.5 gr of blue dot under a 125-165 gr bullet is very mild, and suprisingly accurate. With hornady 165 gr bt's, I get sub moa accuracy. Velocity is in the 2000 fps range, a bit slower than I'd want for deer, but perfect for practice.

Spring,
I've got another suggestion for you depending on "reduced recoil" you want the load to be. Last fall I developed a reduced recoil load for my 10 year old son in 308 Winchester. Here's the thread I posted.
https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tp.../130105351#130105351
I was VERY pleased w/ the results as he ended up killing 2 deer w/ two shots. I thought the bullet (125 gr NBT) performed well within my expectations. I've already started loading some more for this year's deer season. Gary T.

Similar gun (Rem 660 instead of 600) in .308 has worked well with any of the 125gr-135gr bullets out there. They're flat shooting and up to the job as long as you don't try and shove them at magnum velocities. I've been using either 3031/Benchmark/4895 powder for loads to keep the velocity in check.

Federal cases, Rem 9 1/2 primer, 41,5 gr Reloader 7 and Rem 125 gr. bullet.
Hector

If Blue Dot doesn't float your boat: Win case, WLR primer. 125 Nosler BT, SR4759 around 23 gr (I use 22.9); V=2200 fps, ES=14, SD=7. Accurate in my 20" M7. Recoil like a 22 Mag rimfire round.