Where we hunt you might shoot 25 yards or 300and a couple times when I go through the thickets I only take a revolver. If he ends up with a medium powered rifle he will be limited to 150ish yards so not much of a scope would be needed. That said, my daughters first deer was 155 yards with a Skinner peep on her 30-30.
Since she is off to AmeriCorps he may just use her Marlin this year again.
Now, if it were me getting my first rifle it would be a Model 760 Carbine in 30-06.
I suppose if he ends up with the AK, maybe a Palmetto?, he can use dad's custom 6mm for longer range. That thing has little recoil because it is heavy. The guy dad bought it from had it custom built for 500-600 yard match shooting and varmints. The guy then needed money and sold it to dad with a 6x scope for $150 back in the early 80s. I don't know where he finds these deals.
Aigel, I grew up using a 760 with a 4x scope but it had flip off mounts for close in stuff. Never, ever lost its zero flipping the scope.
Heck, maybe I should get a 760 and the boy can use my -06 semi-auto.
