Best rifle for. 9 yo youth

I like 223 myself for deer I use the Barnes or Hornady all copper offerings and it’s a fine round for most hunting situations under a couple hundred yards.
 
I've used a .243 for 26 years and now a 6.5 creedmore for 2. Have never wounded a deer. I'd be curious to know how many of these wounded deer were on shots well beyond the skill of the shooter. Most of my shots are less than 100 yards. I've seen probably 80% of the deer I've shot fall. Some right in their tracks. There are no bad calibers, just bad shooters. Or bad decision makers.
 
I keep leaning toward a Howa mini with an AR-like chassis stock. Mostly likely getting a 6.5 Grendel but thinking about the 6ARC.

My 11yr old daughter keeps talking about how much she wants to go hunting. Probably better get the rifle now while she’s more interested in deer than dating.
 
I like chassis guns but they are very cold to the touch just ripping the warmth out of your hands in cold hunting conditions. I will use AR’s for hunting but preferably with plastic or better yet carbon fiber hand guards making them much more tolerable to hold onto when it’s cold out. An aluminum chassis or hand guard is miserable to touch in the cold.
 
I took my grandson out a couple more times, and at 100 yards and below he is within a 4 inch circle, which to me is good enough to hunt. We will only be able to practice a couple more times this summer, and he will be back to school about 350 miles away from me. While is accuracy is good, he is taking way too long to pull the trigger. He takes at least a minute to commit to pulling the trigger.

I let him lob a few at 300 yards just to see what the gun was capable of, and he never hit the target, I tried as well, and aimed at the top of the target and missed the target. That makes no difference to me, because hunting my land, his longest shot may be 60-75 yards at most. We just need to work on the the faster aiming.
 
Going thru alot of the same with my 10yr old grandson. The only issue I have is trying to not step on my own son's toes when teaching him, lol. I can't help it!
 
I like chassis guns but they are very cold to the touch just ripping the warmth out of your hands in cold hunting conditions…
Thanks for that comment. I hasn’t thought of that.
 
I'm a big fan of the KRG bravo chassis which is more of a stock shape and has all plastic skins so no hands on metal in the cold. Min LOP of 12.8" so not quite as short as something with a collapsible AR style stocks for the little ones unfortunately but still shorter than most rifles. MDT just released a nice low price model similar to the bravo too.
 
Have him do dry fire exercises point at birds squirrels etc. we do that a bunch with my kids also do it in the blind when deer first come out with an unloaded rifle to get comfortable and make sure everything is set up correctly.

I know it breaks the rules of don’t aim at anything you don’t intend to shoot and treat the gun as if it’s always loaded but it has helped my kids tremendously in acquiring the target and pulling the trigger quicker. He will get better the more he practices. Kids are challenging and we have had a lot of deer walk out of range/open shots because they weren’t comfortable including some really big deer it is Just part of it.


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Have him do dry fire exercises point at birds squirrels etc. we do that a bunch with my kids also do it in the blind when deer first come out with an unloaded rifle to get comfortable and make sure everything is set up correctly.

I know it breaks the rules of don’t aim at anything you don’t intend to shoot and treat the gun as if it’s always loaded but it has helped my kids tremendously in acquiring the target and pulling the trigger quicker. He will get better the more he practices. Kids are challenging and we have had a lot of deer walk out of range/open shots because they weren’t comfortable including some really big deer it is Just part of it.


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We also practice a lot with a .22, and he can be slow at that as well.
 
Lots of BB gun and .22 practice gets that natural ability to point and steady on the target.

I used to take for granted those thousands of BBs killing cans and every sparrow, blackbird, chipmunk, or squirrel that dared get within daisy one pump range. That stuff makes a difference.
 
I'll add my two cents for the 300 Blackout. A good 125 grain supersonic does the job for me better than a .223/5.56. Neither would i use further than 150 yards though. There are good rifle options in bolt and AR platforms.
 
I started my first son out with a 30-30 Winchester Model 94 because he was small and it was light. He had no problem using it at the age of 12. My last son started hunting with a 20 gauge Topper but he was turkey hunting and dove hunting. That was soon replaced with youth model Remington 870 in 20 gauge. At about 12 he killed his first deer with his mom’s Model 7 .260 Remington which I think is the perfect kid’s gun. She then “retired” from hunting and gave it to him. Sorry to say he no longer hunts, (still has all his guns), but the oldest has more guns than I do. The youngest has nothing against it, but he just doesn’t enjoy it like we do. Any gun that has the necessary power to cleanly kill a deer and doesn’t have too much recoil will do.
 
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