my wife got interested in deer hunting a few years back, but had only shot rimfires until that time. she is petite, so, we bought a super-light youth in .223 as a transitional rifle. mounted a tasco 2x8 compact scope and went shooting. this combo worked for her, but i felt the caliber was to light. i handload, so we ended up buying a .308 barrel from h&r. loaded with 130 gr bullets around 2500 fps. she transitioned just fine,but, we never got a buck in front of her. wouldn't you know that while looking for a buck we saw some elk !!! yes, there is a season for them here, so the next year she applied for and drew a tag for an antlerless elk. back to the loading bench ! with a dose of imr 4064 and 165 gr hornady- inter-bond bullets we went hunting, had a great time, but got no elk. the day the elk season ended i commandeered her handi and took out after white-tail the next morning. what a great deer rig that rifle turned out to be ! a pleasure to carry, and even if the 'deer' get to be big (like... elk big) i'm sure it's up to the task. love them handi's! dinger.
