My youngest is wanting to get into hunting this year, 11yr girl about 5'2.
Not super long arms or short.

I had originally planned on her using my Ruger ranch 300blk but now I'm rethinking to ar upper on SBR lower.

I'm thinking a 7-9" upper in 300blk so she can adjust the LOP and be more comfortable

What do your kids use?
Post pics of rifles!

What’s the target animal/ animals? What range ? And I know it’s stupid to ask and the chances of it being an issue are slim but is the kid on the trust? It might be a minute before they are hunting solo but it’s for seeable that they might spend some stand time solo. And a warden with an attitude come raise a fuss?

Forgot to mention white tail deer at least than 100yards, infact 50yards would be pushing it

Kid isn't on trust but I'll be with her while time able to take possession at a moment.
Private land

By the time she hunts solo she would have a dedicated rifle

Grandson shoots a 350 legend sitting in a MPA chassis with the hinge removed . The length of pull is about 11.5" that way and he shoots it well .

I don't see how an SBR would be helpful really.  

My 10 year old is shooting my RRA AR.  He's already killed 1, my daughter killed two with this rifle as well.  

Federal Fusion kills em dead.  No issues.  

I decided to use the AR because of the adjustable LOP and light recoil.  I spent HOURS trying to figure out what caliber I wanted them to shoot...but I ended up just sticking with 223 and it's worked a treat.

My 7yo son used a Ruger Ranch 6.5G suppressed with the compact stock. It worked well for him and he is under 5ft still.

For the other poster an 11yo can't be a Trustee for NFA anyway. Its a non issue if supervised.

A Ruger Ranch in 6.5 Grendel is what I've started all my boys on.

a dedicated rifle would be ideal however for her first hunt I am unsure if she would make the kill/shot or how she would do.

She has expressed interest so I am fostering it thats why I think 300blk 7.5"ish upper on an SBR lower would be perfect.

Light, compact, good for ranges I hunt. If she doesn't like it then I have a new upper to play with. If she likes it work up from there

m16a4. smooth and less boom. best to learn on. 77tmk, 62-70 tsx. payday.

My daughter shot her first deer last year at age 11 with a Weatherby Vanguard youth in .243.  Worked like a charm and she enjoys shooting it.

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Single shot Henry.44 mag Aimpoint 9000L Talley ring mount.

The 8 yr old just took a button buck at 200 yds.

Kids have a lot of difficulty with scope eye relief and a dot or a scout scope ends that problem.
Putting her behind a 7 inch barrel is a recipe for an accident. The length of pull can be wrong and the stock not solid against the shoulder ….  but with a red dot —- what the dot Is on is where the bullet goes. Time practicing makes a difference.
Learn to shoot with a single shot and you will learn to shoot accurately not just make noise.
Go put a SIG Romeo 5 etc on the Ruger ranch rifle and get her on the range a couple of times and build her confidence.

Also if you have not done it yet locktite the base screws and be sure they are torqued properly Ruger failed to do that on mine.

I am also a fan of a good AR in 6.5 Grendel. Great bullets. Low recoil. Adjustable lop. Accurate.

Perfect for kids.

There are plenty of solid options...  My votes are 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 Creedmoor, 243, 257 Roberts, 260 Rem.  300 Blackout can work acceptably IF its a decent  supersonic at full velocity.

Count me as a solid NO vote on the shortie barrel.  a 110 or 125 grain bullet of appropriate construction at 2400 is perfectly acceptable.  Drop teh speed by 300, 400 feet at muzzle and all bets are off.

If your thoughts are "the kid if too small, too shy, too short, too whatever" to handle a 6.5 Grendel or a Creedmoor, I would respectfully suggest the kid is too damned small to handle  hunting deer. End of argument.

smaller-than-traditional cartridges can take deer, but margins of error are decidedly thinner, with less room for a marginal shot. New hunters, first deer, and micro calibers aren't a great recipe for success.  Others think differently. You asked for our opinions....

When my daughter was a tall but skinny 12, it was a Rem Model Seven, .260 Rem, 125 Nosler Ballistic Tips at 2400 FPS, with a second hand eBay wood stock cut down to a 11.5" length of pull (with a recoil pad).  That downloaded 260 was intended to mimic exactly the 6.5 JDJ  round for the TC Contender pistol.  Now?  Why bother?  Its performance is Exactly mimicked by the now-available 6.5 Grendel

If needed, buy a youth stock for the Predator Ruger in .300, shorten it up with a stock swap, load a full speed 110 Barnes or drive a Hornady or Nosler 125 to 2400 fps and call it good.   if the kid cannot adequately handle that, the kid isn't ready.  

A Ruger American in 7mm-08 or 6.5 Creed is hard to beat for a good hunting rifle.

And the Burris Droptine is a solid, inexpensive, clear, 3-9x40 scope to top it with.

My 11 yo niece runs a 243 Youth Savage bolt gun .  I did change the trigger out so the pull is more reasonable 2.5 lbs vs the  stock 6 plus.
She's deadly with it.  She's lefthanded which reduced the options available. For righthanded, a Remington Youth Mohawk would be a nice choice if you could find it.  (243 win, 6mm Remington)

6.5cm gets my vote

Recoil similar to a .243 or 7mm-08 and effectiveness parallel or better than (range-dependent) .308? 6.5 CM is a very versatile cartridge available in a wide range of loads.

6920.  Ambi safety (he's a lefty) Gold Dots and a can.

Double tap

I took her out with the 300blk sbr (buddies upper my registered paid lower)
has 1x prism, blast can and milspec trigger

at 50 yards she was a little high and I could tell the trigger was hard for her along with blast can noise
Noise was her main hangup, perse. recoil was concern of hers but after a couple rounds non-issue

The handguard design and length doesn't give me the option to add a griffin muzzle device for a can sadly

Couple things I will change:
change blast can to flash hider
take advice previously and add a red dot, have a Holosun 503
change trigger to unused Larue
looks like with the YHM Universal adapter I should have enough clearance for the can

Pictures soon

You are going way to complicated.

Both my kids took their first buck with a mid length AR using a 3x9 scope and TSX bullet. It was the same rifle they started high power with. The key to success was several years of small bore training and competition. They graduated to Tikka T3 rifles after they determined they wanted to continue hunting.

My 7 year old was using a 20” 556 and then stepped up to a 16” 308 and was killing it.  But I wasn’t about to haul either of those rifles up a mountain for deer.

I bought a Ruger predator 308 w/ 18” barrel last month, slapped a muzzle break on it to reduce the recoil and it shoots great. Called Ruger and they sent me a compact stock for free to encourage youth shooting. She’s now 8 and the compact stock fits her perfectly. She 49” and under 50lbs.

My daughter has used a 16” M4 contour since she was 10. She can use anything I own, and it’s more than most people, and she picks the AR every time.

227 yards
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Great pictures and good shooting!!

Here's the rifle how she'll take hunting.
Need to zero after adding can and red dot

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