December's Column:

A Woman's First Gun: One Man's Opinion

Reprinted from the  rec.hunting newsgroup with permission of the Author: Robert Wieland

In a way, the first gun purchase is the hardest.  At first,
the beginning hunter not merely doesn't know where to go for
answers, (s)he doesn't know what questions (s)he should be asking.
By the time (s)he has sent 200 bullets through paper targets and
spent a season afield and spent a few dozen hours talking with
other hunters/shooters, (s)he will have a solid list of things that
are right and that need to be changed: for example, "My scope works
fine, this stock is too long, I need a longer-range cartridge." By
then, they will be able to describe what they want in a way that a
dealer/gunsmith can understand.
     For this reason, I would give the advice that the first gun
should above all be mainstream.  This is partly to cash in on all
your fellow-hunters' experience (what works for your neighbors is
an excellent bet to work for you, and what doesn't work for them,
likewise), and partly to make the gun easily salable if you should
decide that you really need something substantially different.
That you will not spend your life with your first gun is entirely
possible:  no matter how good the advice you get, the first gun is
somebody else's idea of what you need, and they will never know as
much about that subject as you ultimately will.  I would therefore
strongly oppose the idea that the first gun should be exotic in any
way, even to being expensive & extra-quality.
     Unless the woman is quite small of stature, you cannot go far
wrong by getting any modern bolt action in .257 Roberts or 7mm-08
or .260 Remington (or maybe 25-06, .270 or .308, if neither the
shooter nor the rifle is a lightweight).  You might turn up a sound
used rifle in an older moderate-recoil cartridge, such as the .250
or .300 Savage.  They're fine, too.  Also in the power range you
want would be two old militaries, 7X57 Mauser and 6.5X55 Swedish
Mauser.  Have the barrel as long as practical, which will probably
be 22" these days.  Get as heavy a gun as (s)he can readily handle.
An old rule-of-thumb is that a gun should not exceed 5% of the
shooter's weight.  Abandon that rule when the weight of the gun &
scope starts to get below maybe seven pounds; you need that much
weight for steady holding, and to control the recoil on any gun
that will be used for practice.
     You may notice that I left out the .243 Winchester.  While I
know and have corresponded with a number of accomplished hunters
who use it with complete satisfaction for deer (and sometimes elk),
it is not a beginner's deer cartridge.  It is just enough to do the
job, with little to spare, in the hands of a knowledgeable hunter
& practiced marksman.  Forgive me the slander if you're the
exception, but 99% of beginning hunters are neither of those
things: in fact, 95% of the "gun stays in the closet until the week
before the season" types are neither of those things, even the ones
who've hunted for decades.  The 243 is not for everybody.
     If the woman is so small of stature that nothing but a light
carbine will do, be prepared to make some ballistic sacrifice.
There are sound reasons why the mild old 30-30 is still the most
popular chambering for the six-pound Winchester 94, even among
grown men.  (They made that rifle in .307 Winchester, same power as
the .308 Winchester, and shooters stayed away in droves.)  Do not
buy a bolt-action carbine or "mountain rifle" in a major caliber
unless you can try it out on the range first.  These cut-downs are
not designed as guns for little people, but as maximum-performance-
per-pound guns for the highly motivated; they kick!  And try to get
a 20" barrel instead of an 18", the difference in loudness is
noticeable.  The 30-30 Winchester 94 and Marlin 336 remain classics
in the carbine category, don't overlook them, they still work fine
as far out as iron sights are good for (about 150 yards).
     Your rifle, in any caliber good to 200 yards or beyond, will
need a scope.  May I suggest, if you're not ready to invest big
bucks (it is possible to spend more for the scope than for the
rifle), get a medium-priced 4X fixed power.  For technical reasons
(fewer lenses, fewer moving parts, fewer seals), an inexpensive
fixed scope is likely to hold up better than an inexpensive
variable; and, for other technical reasons, (fewer pieces of glass,
relaxed design goals) a fixed power is usually brighter & sharper
than a variable of the same money.  Be sure to price the mounting
of the scope, if it will not come already on the rifle.  (That is
the "catch" to most of the attractively-priced military surplus
rifles on the market now, it takes $100+ of gunsmithing to mount a
scope on them.)
     Get swivels & a sling on any game rifle; pay a gunsmith to do
it if you have to.  I'm talking about a plain carry sling, not a
shooting sling like the competition shooters use.  You keep this
sling off the rifle when hunting, unless you're going where walking
requires both hands.  But dragging out a game animal with only one
hand, because you need the other to carry the rifle, is for the
birds.  Even the dullest ones don't do it twice.
     Have the 'smith check her mounting of the gun; the average
factory stock is too long for the average woman.  If the stock
needs to be shortened, have it done, and have a premium recoil pad
put on at the same time; pay the money, the more expensive pads
*are* better.  Personally, I've put a first-rate recoil pad on
every stock I've had shortened.  Unless doing this would puncture
the budget, I don't see how it could be a mistake; there is no such
thing as a gun that doesn't recoil enough, that is too comfortable
to shoot.
     One wrinkle you might investigate is that most rifle
manufacturers have in their line somewhere a "youth" and/or
"Ladies" model, with a shorter stock, often cheaper wood, and
sometimes a lightened barrel.  (But remember the caution about
lightweights in major calibers.)  Some also have in their lines an
economy model, with a "walnut-finished hardwood" stock (usually
birch); if you're going to "chop" the woodwork anyhow, no need to
pay for finished walnut, which is quite expensive these days.  (May
I direct your attention to Savage: their Youth/Ladies model has
their standard action & 22" barrel, a "hardwood" stock, and comes
with a recoil pad.  It can be had in 300 Savage.  And it's list
price is low, although you may have to shop hard to find it.)
(UPDATE FOR 1998: Savage has blown it!  Their new youth/ladies gun
now comes only in .223, .243, & .308 Winchester.  The .243 I do not
recommend, and the .308 will loosen your fillings fired in a gun
that light.  If they only chambered it in .260 Remington... but
then, if pigs had wings, they'd fly.  The one good thing they do
say is that the gun uses their standard action & barrel, and you
can easily buy another stock later to change it into an "adult"
gun.)
     Another wrinkle would be, do you know anybody who handloads?
If so, (s)he may be willing to get you fixed up with major-caliber
ammunition loaded down to minor-league recoil specs:  for example,
.308 Win. cases can be filled with powder charges taken from he
.300 Savage loading table, to make ammo that is great for practice,
and perfectly adequate for whitetail.