Gun Digest Presents 10 Best Youth Deer Guns: The right guns, in the right size, plus ammo, accessories, and tips to help every young hunter be successful in the field.

By Jennifer Pearsall

Getting young hunters started in the field brings a variety of challenges. One of those challenges is finding guns and gear that works for small-statured and often inexperienced shooters. Our Top Ten Youth Guns provide a variety of firearms options, from action type to caliber to stock length. There are also optics, ammo, and accessory choices, all aimed at helping adults get their young hunters started correctly and making their first hunts afield a success.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gun Digest Books
• Release date: Jan 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781440232459

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Contents

Cover

#1 - Remington’s 770 Compact, .243 Winchester Youth

#2 - Winchester Model 70 Featherweight Compact

#3 - Marlin 336W

#4 - Browning ShortTrac

#5 - Harrington & Richardson Superlight Handi-Rifle Compact

#6 - Savage Model 11/111 Lady Hunter

#7 - Ruger Mini 30

#8 - Tikka T3 Lite

#9 - Ruger No. 1 Light Sporter

#10 - Rossi Single-Shot Youth-Size Rifle

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Remington’s 770 Compact, .243 Winchester Youth

#1 - Remington’s 770 Compact, .243 Winchester Youth

This is one setup that will speed things up and get your kids in the woods for a shot or two if you have a few weeks left in your deer season this year, because the 770 Compact, a revamped upgraded version of Remington’s Model 710, already comes with a pre-mounted and pre-bore sighted 3-9x40mm scope. (Some pictures from Remington clearly show this scope as being one of Bushnell’s, while others are nondescript, so I’m assuming the company is sourcing the optics from more than one place. It really doesn’t matter; with so few truly bad quality optics out there, so long as the one on the 770 Compact you buy is screwed on straight and tight, you should be good to go.)

Couple things I really like about this gun for younger, shorter youth shooters (or women of shorter stature).

First, it comes chambered in .243 in the .243 Winchester Youth version, probably my ideal pick for a factory round that will get the job done on whitetail deer that aren’t too far out. You don’t really want newer and relatively inexperienced rifle shooters taking shots at yardages they’re not familiar enough with and don’t have the ability to judge well, so this round, with enough time on the bench and the right coaching from you and, should help keep them reigned in to the 100- to 150-yard range that would effect a clean, humane kill.

Second, this gun has a bevy of kid-friendly stock features. Topping the list is the gun’s synthetic stock. Face it, youngsters just aren’t as aware of their surroundings as adults are—they’re bound to bump the stock of their first rifle hard into a tree, tree-stand, and even drop it trying to get it into a case. Synthetic takes the bumps. Overall, the .243 Winchester Youth gun is kid-friendly short both in overall length (39 1/2) and in length of pull (12 3/8). Additionally, the gun gets thumbs-up for its groovy-textured fore-end, a safety benefit for small hands, especially those that are gloved. In