I always thought if my daughter would have hunted I would have had a bolt gun built in .300 Savage.

Spinedoc--

Stonecreek is right on.

My .02 (thanks to boys 13 and 14 now) is to think of what they want to shoot. Each kid is different....

So take a hard look at a T/C Encore with a bantam lenth stock. You can get lots of barrels depending on what you are hunting....I recommend the min legal caliber. Look at both recoil and rifle weight (for attempting to hold up and shooting offhand).

Short, simple, light, and light recoiling will help you gain a hunting partner.

Besides, there's lots of opportunities for expansion as they grow.....

Wish I'd done this for mine....

Cheers,

Dan

Dan H,

Thanks for the tip. I checked out the T/C site. Very nice stuff. They are quite a bit more than the Rossi guns, but I do like the interchangeable barrels. I still am leaning towards the Rossi single shot in .308. The folks at Rossi said they may offer a barrel exchange in the future to upgrade to different barrels on the same reciever, but they don't do that now.

I would guess, based on reading the musings of others, that something along the lines of:

1) Cartridge chambering like the 250 Savage, 6.5x55 Swedish, 300 Savage or an 'exotic', possibly, like the 6.5 Grendel.

2) Bolt action rifle with not too short a barrel, to keep muzzle blast away etc. For this reason, I prefer to avoid the fast/light options like the .243 Win.

3)Bargain basement plain birch wood stock or a synthetic stock set up like the Steyr sniper rifles, which can have stock spacers / lengthening pieces attached for length of pull adjustment as the child grows.

But it depends upon your definition of a child. I was thinking more along the lines of 14-17 years old. And I am unsure whether even this is legal now in the UK.

Quick brag / less 'informed times', I was shooting .270, 7x57 and .308 class bolt action 'deer rifles' over farmer's fields / private land when I was 15 years old. But I remember the recoil was not pleasant after 10-15 rounds fired at a target. Shooting was done prone.