I'm pretty sure the Ruger M77 (which has been mentioned on this post) is more than $400 probably closer to $700+. One can easily build an AR for that or less.

I was just in the same situation, and bought mine the Savage youth .243 Trophy Hunter package in 'Muddy Girl' camo (model 10/11 action, comes with a decent Nikon 3*9) through Bud's in the $500 range. It also comes with a voucher good for 5 yrs. to purchase a discounted full-length stock if she grows out of the youth.

Another member on here had a Weatherby S2 youth that he said shot well and his daughter liked.

An Axis would do the job and is more in your price range, (it is approximately $100 less), but I wouldn't let that get in the way of getting an overall better rifle.

I thought about going the AR route myself, but wanted her to have more knockdown power than a .223, and wasn't going to pay for a .243 AR for her first rifle. She can earn that one.

Gunbroker usually has some decent deals on used youth models. The Muddy Girl pattern came out earlier this year so there won't be any on the used market for a while.

I get the birthday thing, but don't get in a hurry and do your homework.

Remington 700 is my first choice, but the Marlin XL7 is another really good gun with very good accuracy. We have one for a ranch rifle and it can drive tacks with factory loads.

It may have been in a thread on this forum, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that the ammo manufacturers only make 243 around hunting season. After that, you are left with whatever is on the shelves. Not sure how true that may be, but it seems to match what I have seen in a few Academy's around me. Before hunting season, the shelves were full of 243. As the season went on, the selection of 243 got smaller and smaller and now I don't see it at all.

For the topic at hand, my son (8) and daughter (10) love their Weatherby S2 in 243. However, you are looking at around $550 for one of those. I put my kids S2 in a Blackhawk Axion stock and since it's adjustable, all three of us can use it. You're looking at another $150 for the stock and another $20 for a good recoil pad. So at this point, you are closer to $750 and well over the 400 you were looking to spend.

How much are the youth model 700 these days? Hard to beat that little gun I kept one Ina ranch truck and was a great rifle.. I actually liked it better than a full size 700

I would seriously consider getting a Weatherby even if it is a little extra coin. Guarantees 1 in MOA groupings, you get a lot of rifle for the money.

Of the 3 you gave I would go with the Savage. I have shot a Savage in .243 and a Ruger American in .270. I liked the Savage much better, bolt was smoother and their triggers are outstanding. If you get the Remington I would drop a Timney trigger in it to ensure it is safe, that is an additional 100+ but worth every penny when considering a miss-fire.

There is a .243 Weatherby for sale in the Classifieds, I do not remember the price but I am sure you can find it.

I have a .243 Remington 700 with a Timney trigger, I handload with Barnes 85 grain TSX. I have not shot a deer with it yet but from what I have read, it is a great bullet.

H&R single shot 243 with wood stock. Should be less than $300 including scope. Bought one 2 years ago for my then 8 year old. Replaced the factory scope with a Barska 3x9 for $26. Been an great gun and scope combo, and in two years he's taken several whitetail, a catalina, hogs, porcupine, and raccoons. I had the wood butt stock cut down to match his size and it has been a fantastic weapon. Every whitetail has dropped in it's tracks or gone no more than 10ft, with shots as far away as 125 yards.

I recently posted about the CVA Hunter. I had bought a Savage Axis in .223 recently and that thing is like lightning. My daughter got herself a Whitetail hunt from a local rancher who was impressed with her motivation and drive in 4-H this year. Only rule he has is that rifle had to be either a .243 or .270. My daughter is extremely petite and with another daughter graduating in June, Money is tight, so I figured I better get something now with a little overtime money I earned.

For less than 250.00 I picked up a CVA Hunter with a short 22 inch barrel and it is youth sized from Academy Sports for 189.99, a dead-on scope mount for 23.00 and a box of Winchester 100 grain bulets. It has fiber optic sights and is made in Spain by bergara. I fired the rifle and it is accurate with the sights. I hit 3 one gallon milk jugs at about 75 yards with the sights. I need to save money for a decent scope, but have til november. For now the sights are adequate. There are diferent models, but get the one with sights. The others are bull barrels and have no sights. The rifle comes in either .243 or 7mm-08. It has a great trigger and fits her great.The recoil is not much more than her .223.
http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/cva-hunter-243-break-action-rifle/pid-543970?N=39632024

I started out with a ruger M77 compact in 243. That gun has killed more animals thamn any of my others combined and it having a 12 in length of pull and a 16 inch barrel makes for an awesome truck gun!

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=410896379

Savage Stevens Model 200 243 Win 4 Rounds 22" Brl

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=411153469

HOWA Model 1500 Rifle 243 CAL (NIB)

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=412557740

Howa Model 1500 .243 w/ Scope 243 HWR66209

Best deal there is on a new gun: http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/78124/Savage+11+TH+XP+243+NIKON

I the stainless model in 22-250 and love the thing.

http://www.sgammo.com/catalog/rifle-ammunition/243

Not much here either....

I bought my 12 year old daughter the savage 11 bundle in .223 (W/Nikon scope) and she loves it. Also just bought her the Browning X-bolt micro in .243 (a little more pricey) and putting on a Zeiss Terra 3x9x42. I don't think she will ever grow out of the Browning and if she does, I will take it!

We go out to the range and she puts about 50 rounds through it at a time. First 20 are with 1 MOA. She gets a little sloppy on the next 30 and goes to 2 to 3 MOA at 100 yards. All rounds are good enough to put a whitetail or hog down.

We practice more with the .223 and will use the .243 to hunt!

Dave,

Though I've perused these forums for a few years, I literally just signed-up to post on to Texas Hunting Forum (and this is my first post) to respond to your question.

I have three kids and a wife who hunt, and I did a lot of research before choosing calibers and guns for us to use. I've also learned some lessons over the past several years with regard to this topic, and I wanted to share my humble insights with you.

First off, I don't know that I see too much difference amongst the kid-popular calibers (.243, .257 Roberts, 7mm-08, etc.) when hunting whitetail in the Southeast USA (that's where we live). The average sized whitetail when shot within 100 yards (i.e. our normal shooting distance) isn't going to be able to tell the difference, IMHO, when hit with any of the calibers in the correct spot.

When I was growing up (in the 70's and 80's), the .243 seemed to be awfully popular as the kid-friendly caliber for a center-fire rifle. Now, at least in my region of the country, the 7mm-08 seems much more popular. The argument that I most oft hear repeated regarding the superiority of the 7mm-08 over the other kid-friendly calibers is that it can be used later to take bigger game (like elk) with a higher-grained bullet.

We chose to go with the 7mm-08 for our kids' first center-fire rifles, and we went with the Weatherby Vanguard Youth model. The Vanguard Youth models come with a spacer that can be added to the stock to increase the Length of Pull as the child grows older or for use when they're adults. In fact, the Vanguard Youth Model with the spacer in place makes a great "carbine" bolt action for an adult. We have the first version of the Vanguard for our Youth model guns, and though we don't have the newer Vanguard Series 2 in the "Youth Model", I do own one of these Series 2 guns in an adult model, and I really like the trigger on the Series 2 Vanguard (it's a two-stage trigger that is almost as good as some of our German guns). I've been very happy with this combo (the Youth Vanguard in 7mm-08) for our kids. I recommend starting, though, with a recoil-reduced 7mm-08 ammo like Hornady's "Custom Lite" ammo in this caliber. I'm not too big a fan of the Remington reduced-recoil ammo, but neither the Hornady nor the Remington reduced-recoil ammo is overly accurate. The Hornady, at least the last time that I purchased any, could only be had through Cabela's.

I also wanted to mention two other calibers to you that I've come to appreciate as kid and wife-friendly:

I really like the 6.8 SPC caliber in an AR-15 styled gun. When we hunt coyotes or bobcats, we'll use a 5.56, but I personally feel the 5.56 to be too little for pigs or deer. I don't mean to get in to an argument with others who use the 5.56, particularly for pigs, as I realize that it can be very effective (particularly if ammo is chosen carefully), these are just my personal preferences. As an aside, pigs seem awfully smart to me, and I really hate walking up on a not-yet-dead pig and having it look at me - hence my desire to knock them down as quickly and humanly as possible. The 6.8 SPC is essentially a .270 bullet in a .223 cartridge so you can get a higher grained bullet in a cartridge that otherwise has all the benefits of the 5.56 in terms of weight and recoil. The beauty of the AR-15 is the adjustable stock, which makes switching the gun between kids and adults easy, and the very light, 5.56-like recoil of its gas-operated system. The Picatinny rails found on most AR-15s will also facilitate easy movement of "red-dot" / reflex sights and scopes (and they'll also keep their zero) which is really nice for quick configuring. The recoil characteristics, stock adjustability, ease of configuration, and killing power of a 6.8 SPC in an AR-15 platform make it, at least IMHO, an ideal rifle for kids and wives. We've killed several whitetail (and a ton of pigs) with this caliber / gun combo.

One other caliber that I wanted to mention to you that I discovered fairly late in my quest for family-friendly calibers is the 6.5 Swede. This is an awesome caliber that, though old, seems to have terminal ballistics way beyond the recoil that it produces. My kids have used this caliber to kill some fairly large game (red stag, elk, big goats, etc.), and the animals hit with this caliber seem to be touched by the hand of God - they drop instantly as if they've been hit by a much larger and faster caliber. It's a relatively slow moving bullet, but there's something about the 6.5's ballistic coefficient (which I think is very good), its sectional density, etc. that combine to make it incredibly effective. We've been in more than one hunting camp where the guide was dumbfounded by my kids' effectiveness with this old European caliber on big game.

Just my .02,
LA Airhunter

Agreed

Rem. 700 all the way

I bought my grandson the 700 in a 243 and all is well. he like the gun and is accurate with it. I don't thin all of the 700's are in the recall. If you good find one of those with a recent mfg. date it may not be in the recall. The web site will give you the dates of the rifles in the recall. Ours is but I am considering taking it to a gunsmith rather than returning it to Remington.

The 700s from the last decade seem to have quite a few problems. I've heard a lot of people who say stay away from them. There's not currently a recall on any savages as far as I know. And I absolutely love my 111.

I bought a Savage 243 a couple of weeks ago and then I found out ammo is hard to come by for some reason.