Looking for a mountain rifle

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.264 Win Mag

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Looking for a nice light rifle for mountain hunting. Under 6.5 LBS, and no more than $1500. Also for the Heck of it throw in your favorite calibre.
 
Remington 700 LSS mtn rifle in 280 Remington for $900, sell the laminate stock for $200-250, buy a McMillan Edge for $600, add Gretan light shroud/firing pin $75 and some Talley lightweight rings $50 and you're @ $1400 & about 5.75 lbs w/o scope

140 gr Barnes TTSX @ 3000 fps will kill anything in Canada out to 500 yards if you can shoot
 
Todd's recipe will certainly work.

As will a stock factory Kimber Montana M84 in 7mm-08. In fact you would be hard pressed to do better than that exact rifle. With a scope on board you can keep it under 6.5 pounds easily.
 
Brno 21H in 7x57 with a 3-9x Leupold Compact.

Edit - or, if you can't find a 21H, then a Husky featherweight in the same caliber with the same scope.
 
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1899 said:
Brno 21H in 7x57 with a 3-9x Leupold Compact.

Edit - or, if you can't find a 21H, then a Husky featherweight in the same caliber with the same scope.
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FWIW the Husky has a slower rate of twist and might not stabilize the medium and heavier projectiles. I'll leave that for Ted to confirm.;)

As for 1899's recommendation of the 21H I fully endorse that, only use a Kahles scope instead, they just look a bit more at home on these little gems.

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Also, RickF and Dr. B nailed it if you prefer the Synthetic approach. Go light but don't sacrifice the strength. I would lean more for the Kimber but your preference may vary there. Each to their own.
 
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I like the new Ruger Hawkeye rifles, and one of those would leave enough money left in the budget to upgrade the stock. The cartridge problem is suitably answered by the .270 Winchester, but if it was me, I'd go .30/06.
 
Noel is correct about the Husqvarna 7X57 having a slow twist. They are 1:12 and will not stabilize long bullets such as 160 gr Accubonds or TX.

They will, however, handle heavier bullets in round nose design, even the 175 gr.

Ted
 
If I was going to walk into a store and buy a mountain or light walking rig today I'd go for one of the Rem 700 Mtn Lss's, but if you want to do some digging, you can find or slap together something like this:

Rem mod 7 SS .308 Win
Factory Lam
Gre-tan Pin & Shroud
Talley Rings
Leupold Euro-30 2-7x33mm

7lbs all up. Swap the lam for an Edge and you'll go under 6.5lbs easy

ModelSeven308.jpg
 
.264 Win Mag said:
Looking for a nice light rifle for mountain hunting. Under 6.5 LBS, and no more than $1500. Also for the Heck of it throw in your favorite calibre.
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Tikka T3 Lite/stainless, Talley rings, and ultra-light Leupold scope - 6.85-ish lbs, scope and all, and about $1200. For less than the $300 still left in the budget, a gunsmith can shave the extra .35 lbs (and then some) off the gun for you; a Tikka has a fairly heavy barrel, lots of meat could come off of it.

Caliber - 308 Winchester; common, affordable, comfortable, available, will not be as deafening or suffer as much velocity loss as a magnum after the smith shortens the barrel a couple of inches as noted above, and when suitably loaded for the game in question - if a 308 Winchester ain't 'enough gun', then you probably need something more like a 375 anyway.


Rem 700's ain't bad either, but it just bothers me to no end to have to buy a gun and then spend a pile of money on it to get what you really wanted in the first place.
 
brotherjack said:
Rem 700's ain't bad either, but it just bothers me to no end to have to buy a gun and then spend a pile of money on it to get what you really wanted in the first place.
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so by buying a tikka you're saying you really want cheap & plastic? :)


spending a pile of money? buy Mtn Rifle, add rings and scope. go chase sheep.
 
RickF said:
Todd's recipe will certainly work.

As will a stock factory Kimber Montana M84 in 7mm-08. In fact you would be hard pressed to do better than that exact rifle. With a scope on board you can keep it under 6.5 pounds easily.
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Kimber Montana 84M 7mm-08 is the best advice so far.
 
chuck nelson said:
Kimber Montana 84M 7mm-08 is the best advice so far.
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A quick search on the intraweb shows that Kimbers appear to be hit and miss with respect to quality and accuracy. There was a CGN thread on that topic a while ago, and IIRC there were a couple of our members that had really bad experiences with Kimber 84s.
 
Amphibious said:
so by buying a tikka you're saying you really want cheap & plastic? :)


spending a pile of money? buy Mtn Rifle, add rings and scope. go chase sheep.
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Either that or save a lot of money....add rings and scope and go hunt sheep. For all the bad mouthing Tikkas get about being cheap plastic, they consistently shoot better than most off the shelf rifles and I've yet to hear of one having that cheap plastic break. Truly, for the abuse that mountain rifles see....why worry about how a gun looks and worry more about how it stands up. Still never heard of a Tikka letting a sheep hunter down but know plenty of sheep hunters that have killed rams with them. I personally went for an A7 just because of the way the stock fit me but wouldn't hesitate to buy a Tikka. There are some phenominal values out there right now for off-the-shelf mountain rifles, including the Tikka, A7 and X-Bolt. Flawless performance, sub MOA accuracy, lightweight, durability and a price that all can afford. Custom gun makers must be shaking their heads!
 
1899 said:
A quick search on the intraweb shows that Kimbers appear to be hit and miss with respect to quality and accuracy. There was a CGN thread on that topic a while ago, and IIRC there were a couple of our members that had really bad experiences with Kimber 84s.
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I did the load development for my Dad's 84M 7mm-08 and that has to be on of the least fussy rifles I've worked with. My brother just picked up a Montana chambered for same. I'll let you know how it shoots.
 
Amphibious said:
so by buying a tikka you're saying you really want cheap & plastic? :)


spending a pile of money? buy Mtn Rifle, add rings and scope. go chase sheep.
Click to expand...

I've never seen a factory stock Remington 700 that I didn't think needed a Gentry (or other non-crappy) safety put on it, a lightweight aftermarket stock, some gunsmithing to lighten the whole rig up a bit, and a good trigger job. With all of the above done to one (and depending on the luck of the draw, the accurizing work needed to make it shoot straight) - yeah, they're awesome little rifles, IMHO. ;)

My "cheap plastic" Tikka's needed none of the above. Just add scope and rings, loose up the trigger adjustment, handload some rounds, and done.
 
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