Choice for 10 year old hunter hunting from a blind

[Good Cheer]

This is January so I'm guessing... you're planning on next season?
What I'd do is develop a heavy boolit load for the .357.

Here's why.
Novice hunters sometimes get excited. They can sometimes be better off with a bigger hole for tracking. More penetration punch through; more is better. So, that said, I'd go for a flat point gas checked heavy cast soft and hot loaded with lots of H110 or 296 or some such.
Being for next year there's time for him to grow into it. Heck, I'd let him cast the boolits and teach him reloading.

[Grayone]

This is January so I'm guessing... you're planning on next season?
What I'd do is develop a heavy boolit load for the .357.

Here's why.
Novice hunters sometimes get excited. They can sometimes be better off with a bigger hole for tracking. More penetration punch through; more is better. So, that said, I'd go for a flat point gas checked heavy cast soft and hot loaded with lots of H110 or 296 or some such.
Being for next year there's time for him to grow into it. Heck, I'd let him cast the boolits and teach him reloading.

Now THIS sounds like a good plan due to teaching fundamentals of casting and reloading for the future.

[dverna]

I am reluctant to have the boy cast. He is a step-grandson (of my fiancé) and if he got burned casting, I would never hear the end of it, and it could kill our plan to get him into shooting. The paternal grandmother is a nut case and against even target shooting. She has already attempted to taint the boy.

I know it is blasphemy on this forum, but I prefer hunting with jacketed bullets. It sends the wrong message to the boy to use cast when the old man is using something "better". And IMO the .357 is not much more than a 100 yard deer gun. At the location we will be setting up, the range is typically 120-135 yards, with a max of 200 yards.

At this point, the suggestion Lloyd made makes the most sense to me. He reports the 110 gr Barnes bullet works very well and with a velocity of 2400 fps it will give a flat enough trajectory to have a PBR of 200 yards. I expect it will group in the 1.5-2 MOA area and that will be confidence inspiring. A cast bullet shooting 4 MOA out of lever action (all my .357's are lever actions) is less so.

[popper]

Or use the FTX/GMX. Also suggest as it is a known 'shooting alley' to place flags on the trees to estimate range easier. Good luck in your endever.

[gumbo333]

With the .223 something fairly heavy and soft/ partition, if they can be found. If you have a 30/30 load a 170 FP light. Kids love levers. Or a 257 Rob. / 250 Sav if you have one. So many but what he likes best. A whole year to work it out, lucky you.

[popper]

Don - more info on the kid hunt attended. Had to qualify @ 100 to be allowed, just sitting and front bag. Slightly elevated box stand with guide, parent and shooter. Bamburg ranch hi $ hunt ranch, IIRC normally 8k$/day hunt. I saw MANY trophy sized bucks there! Many still had to track 100 yds after the shot. Kids skinned their animal, with professional guidance. Personally I wouldn't allow a > 100 yd shot from first time hunter no matter what gun. As someone stated earlier, move the stand or plot much closer. You got to get out of the stand, walk down to the shot and then probably track another 100 into the brush to find the animal. You don't want the kid to lose his first animal. My GS hit just a tad low, got the ribs and got to track ~ 80 yds in scrub brush area. I wasn't in the stand that day but the guide had been doing this for years and was a good tracker.

[versa-06]

Well it sounds as though the decision is made , .308 Dia. Barnes 110 gr. & 2400 fps. I would want to see penetration & expansion test @ 200 yds if it were me, but it's not. Good luck on this venture.

[farmbif]

Just saw the 70 grain Speers are still out there. I would buy them and not look back. I have an old article on them as deer bullets in a 22-250.
Tony

22-250 was what I took my first ever deer with, 275lber with 52 grain Remington factory load soft point, took out both lungs. very effective.
problem is finding a factory stock gun with a twist rate that will stabilize a 70 grain bullet in the 22-250

[megasupermagnum]

This is January so I'm guessing... you're planning on next season?
What I'd do is develop a heavy boolit load for the .357.

Here's why.
Novice hunters sometimes get excited. They can sometimes be better off with a bigger hole for tracking. More penetration punch through; more is better. So, that said, I'd go for a flat point gas checked heavy cast soft and hot loaded with lots of H110 or 296 or some such.
Being for next year there's time for him to grow into it. Heck, I'd let him cast the boolits and teach him reloading.

I love the 357 magnum as much as the next guy, but it is not going to produce a larger hole than 223. You have a point that it will pass through, where it's possible a 223 wont always. Ultimately all three options presented are about equal effectiveness, you will never know the difference on game between them. The big difference is the effective range of each. The 223 is presumably very accurate, well beyond what is needed for the stated 125 yards. While it is possible to get a lever action that accurate, there's no way I'd ever trust a lever action rifle, likely with open sights, to be good enough for a 125 yard shot without a ton of work. It will never be good enough to hand to a kid for that range. If one of them had a scope on them it would be different, a 30-30 and 357 magnum are close enough you won't see a difference on deer.

I already said it, but I really don't understand why you would expect a kid to make a 125 yard shot when it is totally preventable. I don't care how much you have him practice, I have yet to see a 10 year old capable of making a 125 yard shot on a deer, much less his first time. There's a food plot out there. There is no reason at all not to set up 30-50 yards from that food plot.

[Texas by God]

I used the Speer and Sisk 70 gr .224" semi-spitzers for several deer in different 22-250s with the 14" twist. At around 3400 fps they grouped around 1-1/2" @100yds- and killed deer dead.
Dverna, if you download your .308 don't overlook the 125gr Nosler ballistic tip. My 30-30 scoots them along around 2500fps very accurately with not enough recoil to worry about.

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[dverna]

MSM,

Promise not to laugh....I cannot easily move the “blind”

The “blind” is the back porch. A Caldwell portable shooting bench is set up and I hang camo netting from the top of the porch roof. The shooting lane also serves as my rifle range....thus the maximum 200 yard possible shot. The shooting lane is planted, and there is a food plot to the right 125 yards from the porch.

It is more like deer murder than deer hunting...lol

The boy will be shooting from a spot he is used to shooting from. For training, I will have him clang 8” steel at 200 yards and he will likely hit it every shot. I will tell him “dead deer” when he nails it. Lots of positive reinforcement. When he gets bored “killing deer” at 200 yards, we will shoot the PCP at 50 yards at paper deer targets to ingrain shot placement.

A deer at 125 yards will look huge.

I am lucky to be able to invest in “doing it right”. Been thinking about getting a Boyd’s At-One stock for the Compass so it will fit him better, and still be useable by me. The stock is adjustable and can be adapted as he gets bigger.

Down the road, it would be neat to gift him that Compass...the gun he downed his first deer with. I would hope it would be one of those guns he never sells.

[megasupermagnum]

That makes more sense. Sitting on a porch, shooting off a benchrest like that definitely changes things.

[Lloyd Smale]

Change the AR to a 6.5 Grendel with ease. Excellent round for deer, low recoil, good range and stopping power.

ive killed a few with my grendel ar. longest shot was just under 300 yards. It killed well. Every bit as well as a 243. A little ruger american in that caliber would make a nice low recoil deer rifle for a kid. Only downside is finding brass or ammo.

[Lloyd Smale]

Lloyd,
The other advantage of downloading a "real" rifle is that it gets the boy into reloading. He will never be dependent on factory ammunition again.

Just as some get excited about harvesting a deer with a homemade cast bullet, a kid will feel the same downing a deer with a cartridge he helped reload. I planned to have him reload a box of the ammunition we were going to use to hunt with after I do the load development work. It enhances the experience and the story he will tell his buddies.

good point don. We need young people to keep reloading alive or the politicians will eventually ban it.

[jonp]

ive killed a few with my grendel ar. longest shot was just under 300 yards. It killed well. Every bit as well as a 243. A little ruger american in that caliber would make a nice low recoil deer rifle for a kid. Only downside is finding brass or ammo.

What bullet did you use lloyd?