Grandson's First Deer Rifle

[Spirithawk]

Here's my grandson's first deer rifle. I think it will make him a good one;

H & R .243 Bull Barrel


Here's a little better pic;

[reclusej]

 Spirithawk , I see you are a vet and I salute you for the work you have done. Cool weapon . We use that kind of gun and caliber for Hunter Safety / Education course we teach up in the north country.
             Be safe, reclusej

[S.E.Ak]

Same gun my bride uses and its a shooter

[bikerbeans]

Lucky kid, has a great grandpaw!

[petemi]

Can I be so crude to ask, but why the bull barrel for a youngster?  That's a lot to lug around.   I would go for a larger, slower bullet with more meplat in a standard contour barrel.  The larger bore would reduce some of the weight, and yield a larger wound channel.  .44 Mag would be a suggestion, also .357 Max or .45LC.  Recoil should be about the same I think.

Don't get me wrong, It is a beautiful rifle.  It's just that I got rid of my small caliber bull barrelled rifles long ago.  They're fine for bench or varmint shooting, but nasty to lug around in the woods.  They won't sling properly unless upside down.  I'm also not fond of .243/6mm for deer.  I have other Handis that kill more efficiently.  My 6mm Rem Model 7 poked right through deer, and they ran and died.  Where?  Now it's time to go find him and drag him out.  Not fun.  Hit with a .445 super mag or a .45.70 in the same vitals, they crash right there and don't get up.

You're a neat grandpa, and I'm trying to do the same with my two grandsons.  One's getting a 7mm-08 and the other a .357 Max.  Both Handis.

Sorry to sound like a nay sayer, I really do think what you're doing is very cool.

Pete 

[Kal52]

Nice rifle,  I think itll be a good gun.  Up here alot of folks, most of my family use a .243, myself included out of a encore handgun that I had, and It does just fine, and we hunt the wide open plains good fast straight shooin for some of the longer shots, which up here happen ALOT. 

your grandson will be very happy! hes a lucky kid!

Dave

[Spirithawk]

What was the recoil like on that Encore? My son is wanting to get one in that caliber.

[Kal52]

pretyy easy actually, I thought it would be more, id say its somewhere in between a 357mag and a 44mag. Kinda hard to explain since we all perceive it differently, but I hope im giving you an idea. 

I was a fun gun, I just found that the contender fit my hand alot better so I traded it for the contender.

Good luck.

Dave

[bunkysdad]

I've had real good luck hunting with a .243. I remember well the first, and largest deer I killed with it. It dressed out at 175 lb and the .243 put him, and I do mean down. He sisn't go 5 yards. I killed a few more just as clean too. I was using the Remington 100 jsp, and that was before all of the new special loads they have now. My dad always liked to hunt with  80 gr HP in his .243, but I just didn't like that too much. Oh well, sometimes we hunt with what we got, and if we get bit by the bug, what we have is forever expanding. If you gave him that handi rifle, it is gonna always be special to him, and that's is why we all think you are a great super cool grandpa!

[spikehorn]

My son killed his first deer (a spikehorn) with a 308 I handed down to him and the next day I killed a deer with the new 308 ultra varmint I bought to replace the one I gave my son. We made great memories that weekend and I know he cherrishes that rifle and will probably someday hand it down to his son. My dad didn't hunt said he had enough of guns in WWII. I'm looking foward to the day when there is three generations of use in the woods. Kudos to you spirithawk for getting another youngster involved in the outdoors.
PS thats a nice looking rifle.

[v8r]

Spikehorn I know what you mean.My grandpa never took me hunting either.He grew up during the Depression as the only son,and always had the task of slaughtering what little livestock they had, or had to hunt.He always told me he had done enough killing in his lifetime.He also went into the millitary towards the end of WWII.He taught me lots of things like Integrity,respect,and how to work, but never taught me how to hunt.I think it is a skill that people should know because there may come a day when we all may have to hunt to survive.