"small-caliber deer rounds for beginners"
post #27 ditto
what worked for me
(3 generations of newbies, and will be working on generation #4, if I last a few more years)...
NEF
single shot in 243, scoped low X
Remington model 7
bolt carbine in 243 (with and/or without scope)
Marlin 18" in 30-30
lever action (with and/or without scope)
Marlin 1894 carbine in 357
(generation #4 will get their choice of that flavor w/ low X scope or red dot.. or a '92 lever action 357 w/ open irons)
but we shoot at whitetails <50 yards, not at antelope at 300 yards, because we won't even see 'em in places I take 'em, not even at 50 yards
(not knockin' any long range hunters here, but this ain't Montana, and if they can't do a one shot kill at 50 yards, they don't need to try a 300 yard shot, nor a followup shot on the run.. and they won't try, not unless they do not plan on me taking 'em out again to learn how before age 37)
never had any complaints, did have a lot of safe well supervised hunting fun, and whichever one they carried, I carried one of the others on that short list (or none)
no reason to carry other than, for where/what/how we hunt together
a whole lot more goes with hunting than length or caliber or action type
hardly anything matters as much in gun selection as "fit" and "hit", newbie or oldie
all of those guns mentioned are still in the family.. none of 'em likely to disappear from family either, because too many of those people are standing in line to see who gets what (knowing that in the meantime they are all welcome to borrow any of 'em for a day in the woods, or maybe two guns, if it's them with wife or child, and they do sometimes do that)
but they pretty much all are cursed with "bad attitude", and prone to teach theirs like I was taught way-back-when T-Rex ruled, no matter what caliber or action you carried
you get told ONCE
be it single shot, or bolt, or lever action, pay attention
or plan on your next hunting trip with me, shooting "my" guns, when you are 37 years old
but whatever we pull out of the safe, we are first going to see how it fits you, and then find out if you can hit a paper target unstressed before we ever go for a walk in the woods.. but if you cannot load, unload, or safely drop a hammer as taught.. consider fishing, it's a really great thing, too, it really is
single shots have been around a lot longer than ARs and AKs
so have
lever actions
so have
bolts
if they can't learn basic safety with
any one of those three, somebody is doing it wrong, maybe you or maybe them, but a different gun is not the answer
(nothing against ARs, mind you, but newbies don't need a 30 round clip to shoot a whitetail, and they just might ougta' learn how to hit with one shot, before they get into hittin' with 30 round mag dumps)
no whitetail I ever met in the woods ever waited around long enough to see if I could miss twice in a row anyway... bambi be smarter than me, I guess
worse things can happen to a newbie than dropping a hammer on a hammer block, or finding out how stiff a trigger pull can be with the safety still on (it's a learning experience, but if the lesson learned is "don't use safeties, or bambi will run away", somebody has their priorities seriously screwed up)
never yet met a newbie I would be inclined to start out with black magic
never yet met one I would hesitate to start out with any of the others
which one to start them with is about fit, not action type
which caliber to start them with is about game & distance, and practical expectations of a quick kill at that distance with a good kill zone hit
YMMV
but if it does, do be safe, and do remember that it's not about you, it is about them.. we have a real serious shortage of newbies these days, especially in hunting
do it your way, not my way, but bring just one more into the fold, and we can both be happy
PS
if you keep that in mind, they won't even get upset when you say "hey kid, go drag bambi up that #*&% hill, I am going to go sit down and rest myself a while"
(they might laugh, but they
will do it, trust me on that much)
helps a bit if they are 6'3" tall and only 30 years old, of course
