[Hunting Man]

I would probably start a young hunter with something smaller. 243, 260, I have a couple of 30-06's bolt, pump, I remember watching my 13 year old have tears in his eyes after just 1 shot from my 270 rem mountain rifle, they weren't happy tears. I ended up getting him a Browning A-bolt in 260 rem. This was a great choise for him. The 260 will shoot heavier gr bullets than the 243. My favorite load for the 30-06 is 150 gr with either swift a-frames or nozsler partition bullets. For long range shots out west I'd go to 165 gr boattails maybe one of the new winchester bullets.

 

[Hunting Man]

The real truth is after 50 the 243 looks very nice,very nice indeed. These old shoulders don't like a lot of heavy pounding anymore. In fact I like to use an old Savage 99 in 300 sav. Still a great deer catcher.