OK, talked to my daughter just now. Had her try these (just dry firing, operating the controls, to see what she would like):
- The V24 Mauser (bolt action)
- The 300Blk AR15 Pistol
- The 308 AR10 Rifle
Results - remember she shoots weekly an olympic 10M air rifle, and her custom 10/22 at the range with me:
- She not only does not care for the bolt action, she found it too hard/unnatural. And she has no interest in learning to use it either.
- The 300Blk AR15 she liked best. Simpler, similar (semi-auto) to her 10/22, not too big/heavy.
- Surprisingly, except for the much heavier bolt spring (which she felt too much/harder than the AR15), she liked the AR10 platform as well. She said weight would not matter since we always shoot from the bench anyways at the range.
We also talked about the difficulty in seeing the tiny/small 22 caliber bullet holes at 100 yards through the scope, and I told her we could step to at least 30 caliber which makes it much easier to spot at 100yards through the scope, without much more recoil. She agreed to go with a larger diameter bullet (I showed her the 30 caliber cast I had on hand).
Since she liked the AR's, we also discussed operating the charging handle each time, for each shot - since that was an option from what Ian found out about subsonics on the AR platform. She almost gave me this "are you crazy?" look. So no, whatever I setup, needs to cycle reliable on its own
Now, she is picky due to her Olympic air rifle, and she likes small groups, so whatever I setup for her, needs to shoot relatively soft/medium, and group really well at 100 yards for her not to get frustrated. But it is obvious it will be an AR platform for her
Since at this point the only loads I got for the AR10 are the full power loads, I rather she tries out first the AR15 300BLK pistol platform and see how she likes it from the bench. The pistol brace on the 300blk pistol is not as comfy as a true rifle stock, but it would at least let her try the platform with something that does not have as much recoil as the 308.
If she really likes the AR15, I can simply convert the other AR15 I have (223) to 300BLK with a barrel swap and setup/adjust that rifle to "her".