I’m strong believer in good fundamentals. Teach her how to shoot and shoot correctly and not to be afraid of the gun. For that I would use a 22 cal that has zero to no recoil.

Once she is comfortable with the shooting and the gun then I would introduce her to larger caliber.

My 2cents.

It does seem sensible to begin with an introduction to basic marksmanship and small-game hunting first. Deer hunting can be a rough game for a newcomer. Heck, its even rough for me sometimes!

AlphaMan.....you can't go wrong with a .257 Roberts.....an excellent white tail rifle as well as an excellent rifle for lighter weight and smaller frame people, especially just starting out. Just MHO!

I shoot a 243 Featherweight and find its an ideal rifle for a woman. I'm 5'4" and it fits me well and is easy to shoot. This rifle does the job for mule deer and antelope, so should work well on whitetail too.

Mine is an older model, not sure what year. My husband bought it for me over 20 years ago and he himself has used it on deer. Its been a good rifle.

For deer. My vote goes to the 243 win or 260 rem.

Cowgal
What load works best for you in your rifle?

I have a Remington 700 ADL Synthetic in 243, it's a good gun, doesn't kick much at all, but the thing about it is it still might startle someone who isn't used to shooting guns and isn't expecting it to happen the way it happens. She'd more than likely get used to it and become more comfortable, but that first couple of shots are probably going to be a bit of a surprise.

Fuzzybear, my husband does all the reloading, so I reviewed his notes. He keeps meticulous notes on all his reloads, then makes comments on how they worked.

The 90 grain speer spitzer bullet worked well, but only if you did not use the max powder. Max is 42.6, but that did NOT work well, lowering the powder to about 40.5 worked much better and gave 1" groupings. The max load would throw about a 3" grouping. This one was good for antelope, but a bit light for mule deer.

For mule deer I like a 100 grain boattail, with 42 grains powder. This load has taken several mule deer.

Another one I liked is a 70 grain HP boattail with 39.5 to 39.7 grains of powder. That gave a 1/2 to 3/4" grouping.

The powder we used was 4350.

Cowgal
Thanks
After 20 yrs of using a 243 I figured you would have a few favorite loads.
The 70 gr Hollow point is interesting.

I've been considering the Speer 90gr spitzer. The Speer 80gr spitzers and 85gr SPBT are favorites of mine with H4350.

It was just a curiosity. Thanks again.