Let me know when you get your time machine and I ll go back and find out
Heavy sporting rifles
- Thread starter Buckmastr
- Start date
No thanks I ll stick to my 76View attachment 682581
and my 86View attachment 682583
and you can keep your shorts lol
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Hunted with both my L1A1 and an M14, long ago. And a full wood No 4. They're certainly heavy by modern standards, but really not that bad. I have built light weight rifles for mountain hunting. Put weaver aluminum bases and rings on, a 6x Leupold. A light stock. It was just part of an overall lighten all the equipment before going up the cliff. - dan
I like a rifle right around 6-7 pounds in most cartridges (.270, .30-06, 7mm Rem Mag region). 7-8 pounds for a .30-cal magnum or 7mm super magnum, like a .28 Nosler. No brake, unscoped. Scopes these days certainly aren't getting any lighter but most of them aren't worth the extra weight. I like 16 ounces or less, clamped into a set of Talleys to keep it easy to pack. That does limit me to certain models/brands.
I do have a Mark V that weighs in a whopping 7 pounds dead in .300 Wby Mag - that one needs a brake or a 30oz scope (or both). Even with favorable stock geometry and a decent factory pad it's still pretty kicky. I just don't like brakes on hunting rifles.
My 7-mag is a T3X with a VX-3HD on it - feels very "packable" but I haven't had a chance to fire it yet. With PR Precision bottom metal I'll say 8 pounds-ish.
I do have a Mark V that weighs in a whopping 7 pounds dead in .300 Wby Mag - that one needs a brake or a 30oz scope (or both). Even with favorable stock geometry and a decent factory pad it's still pretty kicky. I just don't like brakes on hunting rifles.
My 7-mag is a T3X with a VX-3HD on it - feels very "packable" but I haven't had a chance to fire it yet. With PR Precision bottom metal I'll say 8 pounds-ish.
The KS Mountain rifle is a nice packable weight. 8# scoped or 9# full loaded and set up.
Always wanted a KS in .280 and an AWR in .300, I feel those are both right in the pocket for what I want weight-wise as well.
The KS Mountain rifle is a nice packable weight. 8# scoped or 9# full loaded and set up.
Sweet photo!
I missed the two recent 700 AWRs on the EE by hours. One 300WM and a 7mmRM. Those were both tough days haha..
Wolverine Supplies had an AWR in .300 Win Mag in stock for a long time, I had been looking at it for more than a few months at least and when I finally had the dinero saved up it was gone. Literally the same day I was ready to buy - it was definitely in stock the day before. Ended up paying more for a (still really awesome) Mark V and doing the Wby Mag thing.
I don't shoot or hunt with light rifles. All of my rifles weight a minium of 8.5 pounds. It's not pleasant to conduct load development with a light rifle, not sturdy when shooting freehand, kneeling, sitting or prone. When hunting big game, I only walk about 2 to 3 miles per day on flat terrain, therefore a heavy rifle has very little burden; not like yester-years when I walked 10 miles over hills and mountains.
Agree on scope weight and muzzle brakes. On general-purpose big-game hunting rifles, I've limited myself almost entirely to scopes weighing 16 oz. or less (the single exception being my Swarovski Z6 1.7-10x42 which weighs 16.6 oz.). Back in the day, I used a lot of Leupold scopes, and they were light then (Vari-Xs, VXs), and in the last 20-30 years, I've gone almost exclusively with Swarovski Z3 3-9x36 scopes--the scope that in my opinion is the all-time best general-purpose hunting scope. It is 12" long, weighs 12 oz., gives a wide 39 ft. FOV at 100 yards, provides good eye relief, decent eye-position flexibility, and, of course, great Swarovski glass. With its relatively small 36 mm. objective lens, it can be mounted very low, a feature I like.
On my general-purpose hunting rifles, I've tried to keep overall rifle + scope weight to around 8½ lbs. ± a few ounces on everything from a .270 Win. to a .300 mag. I'm not sure more weight would make for better shooting on my part (which I must admit could certainly use some improvement), and I find that weight range comfortable and easy enough to pack around in the field.
I agree wholeheartedly about muzzle brakes. There are other ways to mitigate recoil that don’t entail the aesthetic damage (a trivial defect perhaps to some) and, more importantly, the deafening concussive roar that impacts everyone nearby (pity the poor guy shooting on a bench near you) and invites hearing damage. If you are recoil-sensitive when doing load-development from the bench with a heavy-recoiling hunting rifle, there are recoil shields (link below) that can be worn over your shirt or jacket that will take all the punch out of the recoil. And, of course, in the field (where you wouldn’t wear one), you’ll never notice recoil when taking a shot at game.
https://www.caldwellshooting.com/sa...g-plus-recoil-shield-ambidextrous/310010.html
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When you're intensely locked-in on holding steady on a game animal and about to take the shot, do your thoughts wander to the recoil that will come? Mine sure don't; all I'm thinking about is keeping the cross-hairs steady.
Yup ! Me too - not concerned at all about the recoil only the sight picture ! RJ
You don't have to be all that concerned with it to feel it. Or consciously thinking of it to feel it.
Not complaining about it...just saying I don't think I'm as invested in whats happening to the point I stop feeling sensations like 15+ ft/lbs in the arm lol. Yeah, its super focus but not enough to not feel stuff.
A fistfight maybe. Shooting deer and moose, no lol.
Not complaining about it...just saying I don't think I'm as invested in whats happening to the point I stop feeling sensations like 15+ ft/lbs in the arm lol. Yeah, its super focus but not enough to not feel stuff.
A fistfight maybe. Shooting deer and moose, no lol.
