Well out of the blue my wife jokingly said she could kill a deer before me if she wanted to this year. Next thing I know she is serious about it and registered for the hunter safety course. She wants to get a rifle and I am leaning towards finding an "affordable" bolt-action in .243. I figure with a well placed shot that should be enough for deer and it shouldn't have too much recoil for her. I plan on taking her out to shoot my .22, and then moving her up to a buddies .410, and so on until I am sure she isn't going to develop a flinch from too much recoil.
Any thoughts about the .243 good or bad? Any other suggestions?
A 243 will kill an Elk, so it has the power to take a deer. I have seen a 95 pound woman shoot a 300 Win Mag and I also seen a 175 pound woman shoot a 223 and complain about the muzzle blast and recoil. It boils down to this, its not the dog in the fight, its the fight in the dog.
Amen on that one Dan!
true enough for sure...she has shot mu taurus millenium pistol which is a somewhat compact polymer framed .40 S&W and she didn't mind the recoil too much, but didn't really like it too much either.
Stevens 200 or a Savage with the accutrigger for a bit more money. Burris 3X9 with the Ballistic plex and have her shoot it at 100,200,300 yards so she can get use to the B. Plex.
yeah i actually saw one of the stevens 200s today...anyone have any first hand experience with them? Not too sure I would put her in a stand where she would shoot over 100 yds until she gets her confidence built up...how are those Burris scopes priced?
I haven't shot the Stevens 200. I read alot about how good they shoot. They are a Savage without the accutrigger and a uglier stock, the burris 3X9 FFII B-Plex can be bought for $199 with a compact spoting scope or if you buy from ebay they can be had for around 150-160 without the spotting scope. I have the Burris 4.5X14 FFII B-Plex on my AR and love it. It's about another $100 though. You can do some work to the Stevens trigger and sand and paint the stock and have a real nice/affordable deer rifle. If you want to know more about the Stevens try this place. http://www.savageshooters.net/SavageForum/index.php
thanks for the link, I will check it out
I think that the 243 would make a fine deer rifle and if she wants to get into shooting varmints later it is good for that to.As far as the Stevens goes I think that they are a great little rifle.I recently bought one of them in 22-250.It really supprised me.It will shoot under MOA with factory winchester ammo.I have owned sevral savage rifles in the past and never had a bad one.Good luck,I hope she gets her deer.