I went and did it....

[Mudshack]

....I forked out the cash and bought my son his deer rifle. After having gone to Bass Pro and Cabelas to test the waters, I saw that the "affordable" .243's were "threatened and endangered." So I called around and found what I wanted at Academy for $75 less than I could find it anywhere else:

Savage 11 Trophy Hunter with 3-9x40 BDC Nikon scope. Bought some flip up caps and a sling. Then bought a couple of boxes of 58gr bullets for my son to get used to shooting.

The gun is a tack driver. I sighted it in prior to handing it over to my son. And it was stacking bullets. As you can see in the picture, I was able to walk the scope into a Bullseye. Fun shooting gun.

So excited to see him put down his first deer!!! (he said he is holding out for one of the two deer shown in our trail cam pics below. lol)

[AgBass01]

Awesome! Love my savage!

[ttubudd]

way to go!

[3DW5]

That's really cool, nothing like a sweet shootin .243.

[dac6933]

Nice

[1RutNBuc]

Congrats to both! Fun times ahead.

[Chew]

Nice rifle! Good luck to y'all this year.

[Avezorak]

Good buy! Good luck.

[catslayer]

58 grain???? I'd go up a bit... BUT other than that GREAT BUY

[Winman]

58 gr bullets??????be sure and get some 100 gr for deer hunting and 're check the point of aim......

[BeerMe]

Good job Dad! More youngsters into the sport the better!

[Riptide369]

Awesome

[Outback77]

Good luck to him, hope to see some LDP's

[Mudshack]

58 gr bullets??????be sure and get some 100 gr for deer hunting and 're check the point of aim......

Absolutely!!! The 58gr were just to break him into the deer rifle. I have 100rds of custom "Federal Premium" with Sierra GameKings 100gr on their way from a reloading friend of mine.

[2B4Him]

Good choice.
I got my son a similar Savage .243 as his first gun a while back. He has put down several deer and hogs with it.
Not near the kick of my .270, yet it will handle any of our game in Texas.