Hello Friends,
I realized this week that this rifle has served its purpose beautifully, but we no longer need it.
When my first child was born I found a circa 1954-1956 pre-64 winchester featherweight in 243. I had a lot of work done to the stock to make it child-suitable. We reduced the bulk in the stock, adjusted comb, length of pull, got a proper red oil finish on it, recut the checkering, and had two quick-change recoil pads made for it. (both London Red, but different lengths). As it is shown, it fits the face of a 5-7 year old child. My daughter took her first red deer with it when she was 5 or 6, then her first bear when she was 8. It then went to my six year old son who took his first several white tail deer with it. It then past to my youngest son who took his first couple of white tail deer with it as 7-8-9 years old.
Well, time has moved on and my kids each have their safari and North America rifles, they are drivers or getting ready to get behind the wheel, and this beautiful rifle just sits in the cabinet.
Its present condition is NRA antique Excellent+, I noted no significant wear other than lightening of the floor plate color which is common.
The gun is offered with Talley bases (it was factory drilled and tapped). To an AH member that is a dad or grandpa, I'll sell the rifle with Talley bases for $2650. I'll include the African sling and the soft leather cheek pad too. (you'll want the pad on the stock until a child is about ten years old and their skull is larger) It also includes the two quick-detach London red pads. One is I think .75" long, the other is 1.25" long. Accuracy was excellent with all but one of this gun being one-shot kills out to just under 200 yards. I may also have some diminished recoil .243 factory hunting loads available for a nominal charge. The felt recoil of this rifle is about 6lbs so zero issues for a young hunter. We also had exceptional results when they were more recoil tolerant with Barnes Factory 80TTSX loads that killed instantly on deer and bear.
If you want it with the 1.25-4x straight tube schmidt and bender optic and the Talley QD LOW 30mm rings, the total package is $3550.
As a bonus (no affiliation, just pointing it out), an AH member put a period correct pre-64 all original stock on the classifieds for a paltry $200 recently. If you get that, you have a gun your child can enjoy until they're 80.
I'm asking simply what I put into it in costs to make a rifle that is 100% reliable for a youth hunter. I trusted it for my three kids and hope it brings another dad or grandfather the same level of enjoyment. Life is too short to shoot low quality guns and honestly, all the youth guns on the market are using the UN definition of a youth: ages 14-26, they just do not fit children.
Free advice: Get your kids excited about guns. Get them to pass hunter safety before they can shoot. Encourage them to hunt before they're addicted to video games and the opposite sex. If I hadn't started my kids at tender ages with this rifle, I wouldn't have ended up with safari and hunting companions in their teen years.
I realized this week that this rifle has served its purpose beautifully, but we no longer need it.
When my first child was born I found a circa 1954-1956 pre-64 winchester featherweight in 243. I had a lot of work done to the stock to make it child-suitable. We reduced the bulk in the stock, adjusted comb, length of pull, got a proper red oil finish on it, recut the checkering, and had two quick-change recoil pads made for it. (both London Red, but different lengths). As it is shown, it fits the face of a 5-7 year old child. My daughter took her first red deer with it when she was 5 or 6, then her first bear when she was 8. It then went to my six year old son who took his first several white tail deer with it. It then past to my youngest son who took his first couple of white tail deer with it as 7-8-9 years old.
Well, time has moved on and my kids each have their safari and North America rifles, they are drivers or getting ready to get behind the wheel, and this beautiful rifle just sits in the cabinet.
Its present condition is NRA antique Excellent+, I noted no significant wear other than lightening of the floor plate color which is common.
The gun is offered with Talley bases (it was factory drilled and tapped). To an AH member that is a dad or grandpa, I'll sell the rifle with Talley bases for $2650. I'll include the African sling and the soft leather cheek pad too. (you'll want the pad on the stock until a child is about ten years old and their skull is larger) It also includes the two quick-detach London red pads. One is I think .75" long, the other is 1.25" long. Accuracy was excellent with all but one of this gun being one-shot kills out to just under 200 yards. I may also have some diminished recoil .243 factory hunting loads available for a nominal charge. The felt recoil of this rifle is about 6lbs so zero issues for a young hunter. We also had exceptional results when they were more recoil tolerant with Barnes Factory 80TTSX loads that killed instantly on deer and bear.
If you want it with the 1.25-4x straight tube schmidt and bender optic and the Talley QD LOW 30mm rings, the total package is $3550.
As a bonus (no affiliation, just pointing it out), an AH member put a period correct pre-64 all original stock on the classifieds for a paltry $200 recently. If you get that, you have a gun your child can enjoy until they're 80.
I'm asking simply what I put into it in costs to make a rifle that is 100% reliable for a youth hunter. I trusted it for my three kids and hope it brings another dad or grandfather the same level of enjoyment. Life is too short to shoot low quality guns and honestly, all the youth guns on the market are using the UN definition of a youth: ages 14-26, they just do not fit children.
Free advice: Get your kids excited about guns. Get them to pass hunter safety before they can shoot. Encourage them to hunt before they're addicted to video games and the opposite sex. If I hadn't started my kids at tender ages with this rifle, I wouldn't have ended up with safari and hunting companions in their teen years.
