Hello
@Ridgewalker;
This all made me wonder: how light and short is the gun the 3 daughters learned on? So, I dug it out of the safe, if only out of curiosity. Here is my 'real-life' entry in the competition: Sako Forester .243 Win. with Zeiss Diatal C 4x32 and home-shortened stock to 12.5" length of pull.
Allow me Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury to make my case:
1) You specified up to 6 3/4 lbs (i.e. 6 lbs 12 oz), this one comes at 7 lbs 1.6 oz (if you zoom up the pic you will see that there is a decimal point between the 1 and the 6 on the scale). It is unlikely that 5 additional oz will make or break the deal in term of carry weight (and a bit more weight will soak up a bit more recoil).
2) .243 Win is a great caliber. It always was but it is now even better with the new bullet technologies. In the 70's, when I started, the .243 Win 100 gr Nosler Partition was (and still is) famous in the European Alps as a near ideal caliber/bullet combo for goat, sheep, deer, pigs, etc. By my consistent record keeping of Partition bullets recovered, they loose between 30% and 40% of their weight from the front half of the core. So, after the first inch or so of penetration, you have at best 70 gr of bullet plowing through. An 80 gr TTSX beats that, and gives you a better BC ... and is lead free, which is not an idle consideration when feeding the meat to kids. It will kill any deer or black bear that walks, and most African plain games, and in term of recoil, it is ... nothing: a .243 Win. 80 gr TTSX at 3,350 in a 7.25 lbs gun generates 10 ft/lbs or free recoil. For comparison the 6.5 x55 or Creedmoor, or the 7-08 generate 12 ft/lbs. Maybe a tad too much to start with?
3) One thing I like about that little Forester is that despite being 7 lbs scoped, it almost has a bull barrel, and the joke on me at home has long been that the most accurate gun in the safe is ... the kids' gun. That thing truly shoots 1/4" groups at 100 yd with 100 gr Partitions, which was a great confidence/pride booster for the kids, and drove them to achieve it, i.e. implicitly learn about taking their shot.
4) 4x scope is all that anyone needs anywhere for big game hunting, regardless of modern marketing ;-)
5) I always endeavored to give the kids nice guns to develop pride of ownership and encourage the hunting vocation. To do so without going bankrupt, I bought used. Actually, the more I advance in life, the less I buy new (cars, motorcycles, guns...). It is just amazing what one can find on GunBroker, eBay, CraigsList, etc. with a little patience and a little discernment. I put this rifle together way before Internet existed (probably around 1993 to 1995 when our first daughter was reaching 8 to 10) but I remember buying the gun and scope used ... and cheap. If one knows a bit about what one is buying, there are some great deals out there for barely used top quality at discount price (e.g. a quick search on GunBroker shows right now two Sako Forester .243 around $800).
To this day, I think that the combo 7 lbs scoped, 4x scope, .243 Win, Sako quality, (and, I will confess, stutzen stock, 'like Daddy's gun') was dang near perfect. It will be another 3 to 4 years, but my grandson will learn on the very same gun his Mom learned on...
Good luck
@Ridgewalker, I can't wait for my grand son to get there. He will start on the .22lr Chipmunk (notice the hand rub linseed oil finish and hand-cut checkering - 'like Daddy's gun' ;-) and will soon enough get to the .243...
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