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Field Ethos
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By Mike Schoby
“That was AWESOME! My legs are shaking! My heart is pounding in my chest—feel it! He was a ten pointer, right? I can’t believe he flopped over right there. Can I quit school and just deer hunt every day?” This stream of consciousness poured out of my daughter as a single run-on sentence in one long breath. It was the afternoon of her 8th birthday and her first whitetail buck (and only her second deer, the first being a doe shot the morning before).
It was the emotional overload every father who has had the pleasure of taking their kids hunting gets to experience. As excited as she was, honestly, I was probably more so.
Unlike my first deer—where I borrowed the only suitable deer rifle in the house—my father’s Remington 742 Woodmaster .308 with a 3-9x Redfield Wideview scope, I own enough rifles, as well as have enough buddies who manufacturer guns, that I could pretty much create for her the ultimate kids’ deer rifle. So, when there are no guardrails, what do you build?
My first thought was to build something lightweight, short, and easy to carry in a diminutive caliber like .223. Loaded with Barnes TTSX, .223 is deadly on southern whitetails—after all, she was only 7 when we started practicing and topped the scales at a whopping 47 pounds.
But the more I thought about it, she wasn’t going to be carrying the rifle at all. We were hunting at our friends’ cattle ranch in Texas. We would be sitting in an elevated blind, and I could set up the rifle on a tripod well before deer started to move. So, length, size and weight really didn’t matter. In fact, the more weight the better. It would make the rifle steadier on target as well as help tame recoil, which is something I was concerned about. She had shot lots of .22 LRs and .22 magnums, and showed no sign of flinching, but I didn’t want the kick of a centerfire rifle to ruin her.
The gun also had to be threaded, as a suppressor was going to be a must have. Not only for the recoil reduction but the blast elimination that contributes so much to a flinch.
I was kicking the ultimate gun idea around with Jason Vincent when he mentioned he just bought the Steyr Youth Pro Hunter III for his boy’s Christmas present. “It is great deal. You can take the spacers out of the stock to reduce the length. It is also the safest bolt gun out there.”
It was enough for me to investigate. He was right. Spacers between the stock and the pad allow for adjustment between 12.25 to 13.75 inches in length of pull. The three-position, ambidextrous tang roller safety was easy to use, plus you can push the bolt down and lock out the firing pin completely. While the safety is impressive, the action itself is pretty bomb proof. It uses a full-diameter bolt with four locking lugs and a design that would redirect gases away from the shooter, not down the bolt into the shooter’s eye in a catastrophic failure event—something that should be considered when dealing with a child that may not be as observant about barrel obstructions such as mud, or snow, or possibly a #2 Ticonderoga pencil that they just wanted to see if it fit.
Steyr chambers the Youth Pro Hunter III in multiple calibers including 7mm-08, which is nearly the perfect mid-sized game cartridge not only for kids, but for about anyone. I knew a couple of manufacturers make reduced recoil loads for it and of course the standard load with a good, quality bullet kills extremely well. As a side note: my wife borrowed a 7mm-08 from a professional hunter in Africa to take about a dozen big-game animals with it—including an eland cow. I say all this to say, the caliber punches far above its weight.
When I got the rifle I started setting it up. I topped it with a Leupold VX-6HD 3-18X—more than enough for the limited range we would be shooting. Also, my daughter was familiar with the scope and reticle, as I have the same set up on a Volquartsen Summit she had shot all summer.
I then screwed on a Silencerco Scythe Ti. As it came from the factory, the Scythe had a single port brake, but for this application, I replaced it with the company’s Bravo Directional Anchor brake, which featured two large ports. Probably overkill, but I wanted to reduce as much recoil as possible.
Before giving it to her, I decided to shoot the rifle for accuracy and to determine if recoil was going to be an issue. My first pull of the trigger left me grinning. The rifle literally had about the same recoil as a .22 magnum. The accuracy was also phenomenal with groups clustered into a ragged hole at 50 yards—about the distance we would be shooting. But I still checked it at 100 yards, and it was dead on and way sub-MOA. But that has been my experience with Steyr and their precision hammer-forged barrels. I have yet to find one that doesn’t shoot well.
I set her up with a Spartan Precision tripod with a Leupold Shooting Saddle atop it. I like this system, as I could position the rifle in about any configuration to work in the blind and securely clamp it down. As it turned out, we needed every bit of its help as her “ten pointer” was about 130 yards away. Standing broadside, I asked her repeatedly if she was solid on him. She confirmed she was and let it fly, hitting the buck perfectly in the lungs. The 7mm-08 bullet passed completely through the buck and exited. The deer fell within sight, making for a good memory, not a long tracking job.
As we do more hunting, she will invariably get different rifles for different applications, but for a first deer gun, hunting out of a stationary position and a willing father to carry the rifle, the Steyr Youth Pro Hunter III is ideal and can grow with her for life.
Cost: $1,299.
Pro: Safe, accurate and adjustable.
Cons: As if we don’t have enough problems keeping kids away from bad things in life, Steyr also offers this rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor.
The post Designing The Perfect Kid Rifle appeared first on Field Ethos.
Continue reading...
“That was AWESOME! My legs are shaking! My heart is pounding in my chest—feel it! He was a ten pointer, right? I can’t believe he flopped over right there. Can I quit school and just deer hunt every day?” This stream of consciousness poured out of my daughter as a single run-on sentence in one long breath. It was the afternoon of her 8th birthday and her first whitetail buck (and only her second deer, the first being a doe shot the morning before).
It was the emotional overload every father who has had the pleasure of taking their kids hunting gets to experience. As excited as she was, honestly, I was probably more so.
Unlike my first deer—where I borrowed the only suitable deer rifle in the house—my father’s Remington 742 Woodmaster .308 with a 3-9x Redfield Wideview scope, I own enough rifles, as well as have enough buddies who manufacturer guns, that I could pretty much create for her the ultimate kids’ deer rifle. So, when there are no guardrails, what do you build?
The Ultimate Youth Rifle
My first thought was to build something lightweight, short, and easy to carry in a diminutive caliber like .223. Loaded with Barnes TTSX, .223 is deadly on southern whitetails—after all, she was only 7 when we started practicing and topped the scales at a whopping 47 pounds.
But the more I thought about it, she wasn’t going to be carrying the rifle at all. We were hunting at our friends’ cattle ranch in Texas. We would be sitting in an elevated blind, and I could set up the rifle on a tripod well before deer started to move. So, length, size and weight really didn’t matter. In fact, the more weight the better. It would make the rifle steadier on target as well as help tame recoil, which is something I was concerned about. She had shot lots of .22 LRs and .22 magnums, and showed no sign of flinching, but I didn’t want the kick of a centerfire rifle to ruin her.
The gun also had to be threaded, as a suppressor was going to be a must have. Not only for the recoil reduction but the blast elimination that contributes so much to a flinch.
I was kicking the ultimate gun idea around with Jason Vincent when he mentioned he just bought the Steyr Youth Pro Hunter III for his boy’s Christmas present. “It is great deal. You can take the spacers out of the stock to reduce the length. It is also the safest bolt gun out there.”
Steyr Youth Pro Hunter III Details
It was enough for me to investigate. He was right. Spacers between the stock and the pad allow for adjustment between 12.25 to 13.75 inches in length of pull. The three-position, ambidextrous tang roller safety was easy to use, plus you can push the bolt down and lock out the firing pin completely. While the safety is impressive, the action itself is pretty bomb proof. It uses a full-diameter bolt with four locking lugs and a design that would redirect gases away from the shooter, not down the bolt into the shooter’s eye in a catastrophic failure event—something that should be considered when dealing with a child that may not be as observant about barrel obstructions such as mud, or snow, or possibly a #2 Ticonderoga pencil that they just wanted to see if it fit.
Steyr chambers the Youth Pro Hunter III in multiple calibers including 7mm-08, which is nearly the perfect mid-sized game cartridge not only for kids, but for about anyone. I knew a couple of manufacturers make reduced recoil loads for it and of course the standard load with a good, quality bullet kills extremely well. As a side note: my wife borrowed a 7mm-08 from a professional hunter in Africa to take about a dozen big-game animals with it—including an eland cow. I say all this to say, the caliber punches far above its weight.
When I got the rifle I started setting it up. I topped it with a Leupold VX-6HD 3-18X—more than enough for the limited range we would be shooting. Also, my daughter was familiar with the scope and reticle, as I have the same set up on a Volquartsen Summit she had shot all summer.
I then screwed on a Silencerco Scythe Ti. As it came from the factory, the Scythe had a single port brake, but for this application, I replaced it with the company’s Bravo Directional Anchor brake, which featured two large ports. Probably overkill, but I wanted to reduce as much recoil as possible.
Before giving it to her, I decided to shoot the rifle for accuracy and to determine if recoil was going to be an issue. My first pull of the trigger left me grinning. The rifle literally had about the same recoil as a .22 magnum. The accuracy was also phenomenal with groups clustered into a ragged hole at 50 yards—about the distance we would be shooting. But I still checked it at 100 yards, and it was dead on and way sub-MOA. But that has been my experience with Steyr and their precision hammer-forged barrels. I have yet to find one that doesn’t shoot well.
Making Memories
I set her up with a Spartan Precision tripod with a Leupold Shooting Saddle atop it. I like this system, as I could position the rifle in about any configuration to work in the blind and securely clamp it down. As it turned out, we needed every bit of its help as her “ten pointer” was about 130 yards away. Standing broadside, I asked her repeatedly if she was solid on him. She confirmed she was and let it fly, hitting the buck perfectly in the lungs. The 7mm-08 bullet passed completely through the buck and exited. The deer fell within sight, making for a good memory, not a long tracking job.
As we do more hunting, she will invariably get different rifles for different applications, but for a first deer gun, hunting out of a stationary position and a willing father to carry the rifle, the Steyr Youth Pro Hunter III is ideal and can grow with her for life.
Cost: $1,299.
Pro: Safe, accurate and adjustable.
Cons: As if we don’t have enough problems keeping kids away from bad things in life, Steyr also offers this rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor.
The post Designing The Perfect Kid Rifle appeared first on Field Ethos.
Continue reading...
