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Rifles for daughters

silentnswift

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Jun 13, 2012
172
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36
Kentucky
Looking to upgrade my daughters to better rifles. The oldest 13, currently has a ruger American in 7mm-08. I won it in a raffle and gave to her for whitetail hunting. The middle 11, shoots a savage axis in .223. My oldest likes her rifle and caliber, but I would like to get her a nicer rifle. Something she can keep. The middle is ready to move up to something bigger. I am thinking a .243, 6mm, 6.5 something in that range. Also would like a nicer rifle. Would have to be a youth model for her. Maybe adjustable lop. Thought about an AR-10. But would like to stick with a bolt gun.

TL:DR looking for a decent model bolt rifle for my daughters 13 and 11. One needs to be short lop
 
Started mine on 15-22’s. All their first animals were with ARs. Oldest one still goes hunting enough to justify buying the license but that’s about it. Second (13) girl loves shooting and got a bolt 6.5C for her birthday and shoots gumballs at 100m for fun. Youngest girl loves to shoot but hasn’t decided what she likes best so she still has the AR.

My thought process was it will probably be easy to get them a bolt gun and train them on it later if they want. AR maybe not so much. On the flip side teaching the importance of each round is a little harder on a semi auto platform.
 
started both my older girls on a .22 cricket with iron sights. They both deer, turkey, waterfowl and squirrel hunt. Trying to get them started bow hunting now. Working their way up in draw weight. Needing to move the middle up to a larger caliber, and want to get them something nicer than current rifles. Not full custom nice but nicer than axis/ ruger American.

The oldest is mostly interested in shotgun. Clays/ wing shooting. The middle is between rifle and handguns. She does like rifle shooting at the steel with me. Not hitting gum balls at 100m yet though. That’s awesome!
 
Have you considered building their rifles with them? Buy a new action, barrel and stock of their liking then assemble. It’ll mean more to y’all and when they’re older they can tell their children the stories associated with the build and such.
 
Have you considered building their rifles with them? Buy a new action, barrel and stock of their liking then assemble. It’ll mean more to y’all and when they’re older they can tell their children the stories associated with the build and such.
I have, that’s were I’m at now I think.
 
I really like Ruger Americans and wish I started with them, just putting it into a Magpul Hunter stock or something else. I started with a Savage Axis... accurate but... meh. Do they really need a new gun/action? What about a new barrel and a new stock? At least the 7mm-08 one. That's a great cartridge.
 
I really like Ruger Americans and wish I started with them, just putting it into a Magpul Hunter stock or something else. I started with a Savage Axis... accurate but... meh. Do they really need a new gun/action? What about a new barrel and a new stock? At least the 7mm-08 one. That's a great cartridge.
Actually the oldest said she would just rather get a laminate stock for her rifle and keep everything else the way it is. I like the caliber especially for deer.
 
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Ruger's have that double lug design which is sweet. Slap it into a good stock that fits her all custom like and then buy her some jewelry, haha.
 
My 9 year old doesn’t hunt but likes to hit the range with me.

Got her a tikka t1x in a mdt acc that she loves and a 224 Valkyrie,tl3 in a mpa chassis. She likes the acc better. The grip can be moved closer to the trigger but she does fine with the mpa.

She does great out to 700 with the Valkyrie. Still doesn’t like the noise so ultra 7 is in jail (coming up on 9 months).
 
Another suggestion is to go with a Tikka T3x CTR in 6.5

Most likely the stock will fit the older one, then for the younger one you get an aftermarket stock & keep the factory stock for later on.

That gives you a great base rifle for each of them that they could keep for a very long time to come.
Has great aftermarket support.

They are also a rifle that can easily be taken to competitions as well as hunting.

A bit more money than the others, but it means they won't "grow out of it," and could possibly get a lifetime of use out of it.
 
Any of the Tikka's would be a good buy. Great action, great trigger, very accurate for a factory >$700 rifle. And there's enough aftermarket support, if they wanted to re-stock or re-barrel down the road, they could change it into a completely different kind of rifle and not be lacking in the action still.
 
Actually the oldest said she would just rather get a laminate stock for her rifle and keep everything else the way it is. I like the caliber especially for deer.
If you were to build I recommend going with a barrel nut setup. Pick up extra barrels from time to time for different types of shooting. Then your girls can hunt with one or target shooting with the other. You can swap out with shouldered barrels too but it costs more and of course you can only use them for the action they were fitted to.