I second the emotion about having that 17 year old shoot a double barrel shotgun with slugs. Either 20 or 12 gauge.

Only shoot LOW recoil slugs.

I would get a 12 or 20 gauge, short, doubled barreled shotgun. There are so many available right now from Spartans to Huglu's to Baikals... Instead of paying many thousands for a double rifle you would instead put a scant few dollars into a gunsmith's pocket by adding the following:

1) rear V express sight and front express sight, make sure the rear site is adjustable vertically and horizontally

2) Limbsaver or Packmayr---at least 1 inch think recoil pad, and that mightnmean cutting the stock so the THICK pad can be accommodated and still give the young shooter a short stock which would feel better to him, you do not want the stock and recoil pad to be too long because then it will hurt more...

3) sling mounts and sling

4) If the gun does not come with 20 inch barrels, I would cut the barrels down to 20-24 inches, so you get cyl cyl anyway.

This double barrel shotgun set up like a double rifle will cost anywhere from:
A) $250 to $650 for basic gun with....
B) Add-ons anywhere from $200 to $500
C) So you would have a TOTAL of anyhwere from $450 to about a $1000 into this nice double deer gun for a 17 year old... that will not have too much recoil.

It would be an excellent 50-75 yard gun, maybe more. With iron sights that is the most he could realistically expect. Yet, his eyes at 17 should be much better than most of the eyes on this forum...

I would ONLY USE LOW recoil slugs.

He could even start LOADING his own slugs with about $200 bucks worth of basic equipment... loading slugs is much cheaper and easier than shotshells... all the stuff can be bought from Ballistic Products or Midwayusa.

Improved fosters with low powder would be terrific deer gun! Or Collet Cup Sabots... Both could be loaded to fit the barrel and should be VERY accurate. But my preference is good ole round ball slug which can be loaded in LOW recoil and can be very accurate. And geee what a great deer slug. Round Ball. Various sized round balls for either for 20 gauge or 12 gauge. So variety allows a laoder to find the ones that shhot with best accuracy and best knockdown for deer.

I saw a NIB 12 gauge cyl cyl cowboy gun, Spartan, for $243. Put that really good recoil pad on it and those express sites and let your 17 year old learn about using iron sites and having the feel of a double rifle.

If you were to get him a double rifle now and spend $9,000 and UP, what fun would that be?

Plus, with this double shottie he could always load it with anything from 7 and 1/2's to 000.

Plus, I always use the real light recoil, low load shotshells 7/8 ounce of 7 and 1/2's for example for all shooters that do NOT like recoil. Let them blow the snot out of things, jugs, cardboard boxes, etc... at 15-20 yards. It helps with their confidence and eliminates flinch. Then chamber the low recoil slugs. and see where the slugs hit at 25 yards. let him adjust that rear express site until he is shooting ON.

What could be more fun for a 17 year old??