i need a good rifle that will work for practice shooting, but be good for hunting. help?

Lets start with how recoil works:

Imagine a Ford sedan. Next to it is a large pickup truck. They both run on gasoline. It will take a lot less energy for the sedan to reach 60 mph, while it will take much more energy for the truck to reach the same speed. That same principle applies to bullets. The heavier the bullet, the more energy it takes to push it at the same speed as a lighter one, and that energy is felt in recoil.

For your second question, a 30-06 is an excellent round for all game in North America. It has a range from 150 grain to 220 grain, offering a wide variety of uses. And whoah! Nobody in their right mind would let a 13 year old shoot a .375 H&H Magnum. That is a very high recoiling round, even I don’t enjoy shooting it. A 30-06 with 150 grain bullets should kick roughly half of a 300 grain round from a .375. If you find yourself to be a little recoil sensitive, get a wood stock. The heavier the gun, the more counterweight against the recoil, resulting in less felt kick. Then again, you don’t want to be hauling a 13lb gun around while hunting, so finding something in the middle is a good idea.

Good luck on your first hunt!

(A little advice, Alaska has a lot more animals to worry about than in california. If you find yourself doing OK with the 30-06, you might want to step it up to a larger caliber for a bigger “insurance policy”, or at least get comfortable with a good handgun caliber for a sidearm.)

EDIT::

150 grain: Target shooting, deer

165 grain: Target, deer, elk

180 grain: elk, moose

200 grain: elk, moose, bear

220 grain: elk, moose, bear

I personally have had good luck with 180 grain XP3.

These will be expensive to shoot, but the accuracy and stopping power is unreal. Last year I dropped my elk with the XP3 180 grain at 580 yards, which is really pushing it for the 30-06.

The 30-06 is the most common hunting round in the world.

It has the most available bullet weights of any commercial cartridge, and is suitable for ANY north american game animal.

The recoil will be considerably LESS than a 375 H&H Mag. You can ALSO get a rifle with a good recoil pad on the butt of the stock, which will help.

The most commonly used bullet weights are:
150gr – target, deer, elk (maybe)
180gr – deer, elk, bear (maybe)
220gr – elk, moose, bear
The “maybe” means AT REASONABLE ranges, like 200 yards or less, with GOOD bullet placement.

Since EACH bullet weight will fire to a different “zero point” you need to fire the bullet you will use hunting when getting ready to hunt; but for learning HOW IT SHOOTS, and general practice/targets, the 150gr is the best ALL AROUND load in MOST rifles. (Some rifles will NOT “like” it as well as others.)
Different brands/types of cartridges also will shoot differently.
Practice for hunting, AND HUNT, with the same brand/type of cartridge.