Deer rifle for a 100 pound girl

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There was a group buy on another forum for that Tikka at Whittaker's that I could have got in on. And though I'd rather have a 1:7, a 1:8 would do.

The reason I didn't is purely personal and has nothing to do with Tikka quality which is excellent. I can't stand DBMs and small loading/ejection ports. The port on the T3x is larger than on the T3 but still too small for me.
 
The age ole question....what gun should a MAN get for a WOMAN....

Guys I hate to tell you this, but if you have not noticed some girls are built a little different then most men.

Also some women are very as in VERY recoil sensitive. My wife shot her first CMP match with an M1 carbine. She had a nice bruise the shape of the butt stock on her shoulder....and yes it was tight to her shoulder....and a very nice indention where her bra strap was. First thing I would suggest for your daughter is get a sports bra for shooting....nice wide shoulder straps, it will help trust me.....I had a boy....not sure how you approach that with a girl? Hay honey...what kind of bra do you wear.....hello DFS...my dad is asking about my under ware.....perhaps mom should ask.

But all kidding aside it will really make her shooting more pleasant....my wife is 5'2" and 100lbs soaking wet with rocks in her pockets....very small girl and it helped her.

Next anything that is not an automatic will recoil harder....just the way the gun works.

Aside from that....you have to let her try them....that is the only thing you can do. If you have friends that shoot lay fingers on as many things as you can.....I have yet to come across a shooter yet that would not do everything possible to get a young person interested in firearms.

But if you go with a bolt or lever gun, more mass in the gun generally means a lighter "kicking" gun....sucks to haul around the woods....let us know what you end up with.
 
Orcon;

Because it may very well be an ideal combination for his daughter. Life is about choices, & it sucks to later realize that you missed a good choice simply because you didn't know about it. Most people believe that more information is better than less. However there are exceptions.

900F
 
223 with 60g nosler partition does the job here with heart and lung shots. I have taken quite a few this way, but limit the range. Inside of 150 yards, (maybe 200 is okay too, havent had the chance with it) I know it will do well. If she is already comfortable and can shoot that rifle, then I think THAT is the most important thing to consider here. She will feel confident AND be able to hit her target without having to relearn anything. She will shoot better and enjoy herself more this way. 223 makes for affordable practice as well!

Assuming there is an optic on the ar15? Probably make things a lot easier for her that way.

Growing up I hunted with a pump action 30 06. I hated that rifle. No soft recoil pad, light weight little monster. I honestly never shot it well because it scared me, AND it hurt bony little me to shoot it lol. I was probably a bit smaller than your daughter at the time. WHAT I DID LIKE to hunt with was the mini 14. Did not scare me, and I could put the bullets where I wanted. I was confident I could hit the deer in the lungs, while the 30 06 just did not feel that way. Once I got dad convinced to go along with that I did much better fwiw. Killed my first buck (biggest as well to date) with that little rifle.

As was mentioned, the 243 is just about perfect for a light, low recoil deer hammer. I understand not wanting to add more calibers, but in this case you might wind up shooting it too lol. I have had some good success on a couple deer with this caliber. VERY flat shooting compared to a 308 win at normal hunting range.

Another option of course is to handload. If that is something you can swing, then your options greatly increase. You can load up 223 caliber rounds to fit your needs as well. 308 3006 etc can all be downloaded with a lighter 30 30 style bullet going about 2000 FPS. Great deer medicine inside 200 yards. I have gone this route a couple times and it did just fine. Longest shot was about 100 and some odd yards. No complaints from shooter or deer. That 44 can be loaded down a bit too for the close shots and still whack them.

I do believe they make factory loaded reduced recoil loads for the 308 too, but I have not personally used them.

I would use what you already have (edge to familiar 223). No reason that 223, if loaded appropriately, cant do the job. Factory low recoil 308s OR a GOOD hunting bullet in 223 (no fmj, varmint style etc) are the two routes I would take. Make sure the shots are appropriate and you will not have a problem.
 
Balrog wrote:
I have a 100 pound 16 yr old daughter that wants to go deer hunting this fall.
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Not quite as "stylish" as some of the other recommendations, but a perennial favorite for short distance deer harvesting has been the lever-action 30/30. Light, inexpensive, safe, intuitive, effective out to about 200 yards and you can still get it in quality guns made in America.
 
"...have a 100 pound 16 yr old..." Had one of those who could shoot circles around most of the big, strapping, guys with a 12 pound C1A1(Canadian FAL in 7.62NATO/.308) or a .303 British, No. 4 Lee-Enfield when I ran the CF Army Cadet Corps long ago.
If your daughter doesn't like a bolt action .44 Mag's felt recoil(a 240 grain bullet at 1760 fps has 11.2 ft-lbs. out of a 7.5 lb. rifle), she probably won't like a bolt action .243(100 grains at 2960 fps has 8.8 ft-lbs. out of a 7.5 pound rifle) or reduced loads .308(150 at 2800 fps has 15.8 ft-lbs. out of a 7.5 lb. rifle) either. Even with a recoil pad.
Her AR, with the right bullet, and assuming it's legal for deer where you are, will do nicely. Any semi-auto in any suitable chambering like a .300 BO or the like, will also do nicely. Wouldn't considered any SKS or AK though. Sights aren't good enough.
 
hdwhit said:
Not quite as "stylish" as some of the other recommendations, but a perennial favorite for short distance deer harvesting has been the lever-action 30/30. Light, inexpensive, safe, intuitive, effective out to about 200 yards and you can still get it in quality guns made in America.
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If the OP gets one with a 20" barrel the stock would have to be cut down. I like the 30-30, own a Marlin but agree with a previous poster that felt recoil in a 30-30 is harsher than one would think.
 
cdb1 said:
Call me stupid but what is Orcon? And is the body of your post a comment on the post made by fpgt72?
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ORCON is me... it's also a classified information handling caveat that stands for "originator controlled".
 
Orcon said:
ORCON is me... it's also a classified information handling caveat that stands for "originator controlled".
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Sorry about that. I went back and looked and saw where you had posted earlier in the thread. I flat out missed it.
 
If you can scope that AR it will be even better, and will work with good ammo for sure. If you are wanting to get her a rifle that will handle bigger deer, or last her into her adulthood, then how about a Mod 750 Remington or BAR in .243? It is a sweet heart.
 
AND if you handload, you can load up some of those mentioned Nosler 125BTs over a reduced "Youth Load" of H4895. You can reduce H4895 as much as 60% of the Max load. IOW, it will be a kitten in your .308
 
RevJim said:
If you can scope that AR it will be even better, and will work with good ammo for sure. If you are wanting to get her a rifle that will handle bigger deer, or last her into her adulthood, then how about a Mod 750 Remington or BAR in .243? It is a sweet heart.
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A BAR would be great if the OP was willing to have the stock cut down. And maybe a trigger job, they do have pretty crappy triggers IMO.
 
Just checked for you...start off with the Nosler 125Bt, 38gr H4895 and standard primer. You can work up a grain at a time if needed for accuracy or speed. Try to get around 2600-2650 velocity and you will be good to around 250yds! Have a ball...
 
Sunray said:
"...have a 100 pound 16 yr old..." Had one of those who could shoot circles around most of the big, strapping, guys with a 12 pound C1A1(Canadian FAL in 7.62NATO/.308) or a .303 British, No. 4 Lee-Enfield when I ran the CF Army Cadet Corps long ago.
If your daughter doesn't like a bolt action .44 Mag's felt recoil(a 240 grain bullet at 1760 fps has 11.2 ft-lbs. out of a 7.5 lb. rifle), she probably won't like a bolt action .243(100 grains at 2960 fps has 8.8 ft-lbs. out of a 7.5 pound rifle) or reduced loads .308(150 at 2800 fps has 15.8 ft-lbs. out of a 7.5 lb. rifle) either. Even with a recoil pad.
Her AR, with the right bullet, and assuming it's legal for deer where you are, will do nicely. Any semi-auto in any suitable chambering like a .300 BO or the like, will also do nicely. Wouldn't considered any SKS or AK though. Sights aren't good enough.
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You didn't factor in reduced loads for the .243, an 85 gr Barnes, Sierra hpbt, or partition over h4895, starting at 2400 fps and working up to wherever you want with a Max of ~3089 (hodgdon info) could produce some quite lethal 200 yd deer puff loads with significantly less recoil.
 
There have been some very good suggestions given. I recently faced the same question for my 16 YO granddaughter, and see very much the same list of alternatives that I worked through. My granddaughter ended up with a 7x57 with a 139 grain Interlock at 2800 FPS. That proved to be quite mild, and she reported that it was enjoyable to shoot.

I have a little Remington 600 (short barrel, light weight) in 308 that started out with enough recoil to make a grown man cry, using 165 grain bullets. A recoil pad and 45 grains of Varget behind a 150 grain Barnes TTSX made it into a pussycat at 2660 FPS. That was on my list of good alternatives. Since you already have one, and don't want to add more chamberings, I think that would top my list of suggestions.

In an AR, I'd feel good about a 62 grain Barnes TTSX. It's not as good a match as the 308, but it will work well enough.

I do have a 30-30 bolt action (Savage/Stevens 325/340). With a Williams peep sight, LeveRevolution, and Hornady FTX, that alternative is good to 250 yards, which is quite an improvement. But it's still not as good as the 308 load mentioned above.

If you decide to add a new cartridge, I'd seriously think about 243 with the old long cut H4831 pushing a 100 grain Partition. That will get you 2950 FPS, and you're into a cartridge that will last her a long time. The 243 sometimes gets a bad rap for wounding animals. I think that probably comes from shooting regular or varmint bullets at high speed. If a regular cup and core bullet impacts at more than about 2800 FPS, it has a strong tendency to fail. On rockchucks or coyotes, it doesn't make a difference. On deer, it does. So the recipe is heavy for caliber premium bullets.
 
If your daughter is already familiar with the AR system, I'd stick with that platform, confidence is important for a young hunter. My kids hunt with ARs because that is at they are familiar with. The first deer my daughter shot with the .223 will probably be the last deer shot with that round in our club. I was not pleased with the performance of the round (Fed Fusion, 62gr.). We've moved on to .300blk and 6.8 spc for our hunting AR's both have proven more effective on SC whitetails than the .223. The 6.8 has a bit longer reach than the .300 so I'd go with that one. Recoil is not significantly increased across the aforementioned calibers but YMMV.
 
Our neighbor lady who would have to put rocks in her pockets to weigh 100 pounds uses a plastic stocked Savage in .243.
 
My youngest daughter is now taller and heavier than my wife, and she still says my Win 57 .22 LR is her favorite rifle. I know a few women who will tolerate recoil because they are just plain tough. But I don't know any women who enjoy it.

A 100 lb. woman shooting a .243 is probably about the same as me (200 lbs) shooting a 7 mag. And I know how much I "enjoy" shooting those.
 
Newtosavage said:
My youngest daughter is now taller and heavier than my wife, and she still says my Win 57 .22 LR is her favorite rifle. I know a few women who will tolerate recoil because they are just plain tough. But I don't know any women who enjoy it.

A 100 lb. woman shooting a .243 is probably about the same as me (200 lbs) shooting a 7 mag. And I know how much I "enjoy" shooting those.
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Someone is in real trouble....
 
Gordon said:
Use the .223 ! No doubt in my mind the best solution for you , incase you want a studied answer from a good old boy :
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Great info on the capability of .223 for deer hunting - but wow that's a lot of lead fragments in the penetration path of the test gel! Meaning there would be a lot of lead in the meat of any deer shot with it. Cutting out the bloodshot meat is not enough, apparently - I read of a study showing how with high velocity ammunition there is a significant amount of tiny lead fragments that get blasted into the meat far outside of the wound channel. For hunting game to eat with a .223, I would suggest staying with lead-free ammo, of which there are some excellent choices.

Here is one offering that gets excellent reviews: https://www.midwayusa.com/product/2...ton-64-grain-hollow-point-boat-tail-lead-free
 
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