Lightweight hunting rifles

my favortie rifle is a old model 7 Remington in 243. I don't know how much it weighs with a bushnell 3x9 scope on it, but its not much.

ive killed im sure over 50 deer with it and no telling how many coyotes.

I once made a shot on a coyote at prob close to 300 yrds. I rested the gun on top of a fencepost. my dad was right beside me. when I shot, I said well he is dead. my dad said oh BS! he had never owned a scoped rifle in his life so to him its was amazing when we found the yote dead right where I shot him.

the model 7 has the skinny barrel and it heats up quick and its hard to get a good group if you don't wait 5 to 10 min between shots.it needs a dead cold barrel. funny thing is it always puts the first shot dead center so another one is rarely needed.

I have a tikka t3 lite in 308 it’s right around 7lbs and I love it for its light weight it makes stalking deer easier

Winchester 70 Featherweight in .30-06, with Bell & Carlson stock.

Close to perfect, IMHO.

One favorite is an old Sako L579 Forester 19" carbine in .243. Ready to hunt with a 2-7 scope, it weighs seven pounds.

My legs cheated on me and went and got old. I parked my rather-heavy '06 and bought a 700 Ti in 7mm08. With 3-9 scope, ammo and sling, it's 6.5 pounds. It added a couple of years to my walking-hunting.

I'll second the featherweight .06. It's a pleasure to carry but has the recoil of a very angry mule. I once shot 10 rounds when I struggled on some scope adjustment, and had a bruised shoulder when it was over

My Browning Abolt, while not a light weight by any means, is fairly light for a .375 Ruger at 8lbs, 4oz scoped.
Being properly fitted, and having a nice kickeez pad on there tho, makes recoil much more manageable than it would otherwise be.



I shootsit well, and used it on our last trip home to take a pair of Axis deer with running shots.
The first was crossing at 175ish yds (thought it was shorter, which explains hitting it farther back than I expected), and the other was dead away at something over 200.

Model 7 in .260 Rem at around 6.5 lbs.

I've got M70 Featherweights in .264WM and .30-06. The -06 will likely become something else - a .280AI or maybe .30-06AI being most likely. I really dislike the comparatively poor performance of the -06. Both are candidates for future hunts.

I had a Kimber classic select in 7mm-08 that was less than 6 lbs that no one was ever able to get to shoot better than 2MOA. No one could figure out the problem either - the bedding looked OK, the barrel looked OK through a bore scope, nothing else looked wrong, scope was known-good. But it refused to group. I'm glad it's gone, as the the cost of the wasted time long ago exceeded the cost of the rifle.

I've got a CZ 550 Sonoran in 7mm magnum that's surprisingly light for what it is (26", long action magnum, heavy (but fluted) barrel, big exposed turret scope). I think it comes in around 8.5 lbs thanks to the Manners fiberglass stock. It's a nice compromise - lots of reach even with the un-aerodynamic A-Frames, weatherproof, not too heavy. It's only a couple ounces heavier than the featherweights, but hits way harder than the .30-06 and a little harder than the .264WM.

I don't have any real lightweights since I sold the Kimber.

I guess my only real featherweight is my 20" 6.5 CM Kimber Montana. I really like the combo because, even though the rifle is very light, it's still not punishing to shoot a few boxes worth of ammo in range trip.


7lb 1.1 oz with can and sling
5lb 14 oz with just a VX-3i 2.5-8x36 mounted

It's struck once last year, and two times this year, and is a joy to carry around the mountains.

Kimber 84M CC in .308; “pretty”, accurate, about 6.5 pounds w/ scope - great to hunt with, a little hellish at the bench BUT, a nice piece.

My lightest. Remington 700 Ti in 260 Ackley.

When in college during the 1970's I got a chance to hunt some really steep terrain and cover a lot of miles each day. I've been chasing light weight rifles ever since and have tried a lot of different ones. I bought one of the 1st lighweight fiberglass stocks from Brown Precision in 1983 to lighten up my rifle. Some observations. I prefer a barrel with a little more meat in it and generally like 22". Weight is better reduced elsewhere. "Quality" synthetics are the only way to go. Most cheaper synthetics don't weigh any less than wood, and many weigh more than wood.

A Winchester Featherweight was a light rifle by 1950's standards, but today it is on the heavier end of spectrum. Plus most of the weight loss is in the skinny barrel. I've had 2-3, but just never warmed up to them.

Your Remington Mt rifle certainly has potential, and at just over 7 lbs is a good weight. I normally don't like laminated wood because it is too heavy. But that is a trim design and the rifle is light enough. I've had a few of those over the years and were things I liked about them. The barrels are thinner than I prefer, but all that I owned were pretty accurate for 2-3 rounds. After that groups opened up considerably, but I never considered that a handicap in a hunting rifle But I can't afford to keep everything I like so they went down the road to pay for others that I just liked better.

I've come to the conclusion that somewhere around 7 -7.5 lbs including optics and mounts is a good place to be. I have a Kimber 308 that can weigh under 6 lbs with the right scope on it. Currently 6.25 lbs. It is a good choice for extreme terrain, but I think it too light as an all around rifle.

For the money I think a Tikka is the most rifle out of the box for the money if you want light. Even with a decent sized scope weight can be kept right at 7 lbs and they still have a beefy barrel which helps balance and accuracy.

Some of mine, The Kimber, 308 in factory stock. 6.25 lbs as shown.


A Winchester 70 Sporter 30-06 in a McMillan Edge stock. Is 7.5 lbs as shown



My all around rifle. Winchester 70 EW 308 in a McMillan Edge stock, 7.25 lbs as shown

My CZ 527 in 7.62x39 weighs in at 5.5 pounds with iron sights (and no ammo in the magazine). I bought it for fair weather days when I'm more interested in hunting for sport than meat. Under optimal conditions my max range with the ghost ring and Patridge Post is about 125-150 yards, which is about as far as I'd want to shoot a deer with the 7.62x39.

About all I can claim as a lightweight rifle is a Ruger M77 RSI in .243. It’s about 7.5 lbs scoped w/sling... maybe a bit less.

It’s certainly no ultra lightweight, but it sure fits me nice . Stay safe!

Not super-light at 7.6 lbs, but this .22" fluted barreled Rem 700 Stainless Light Varmint .223 is very comfortable to carry while walking the back 40 and to shoot at the range. It's a half-MOA rifle that has shot 1/4" groups at 100 yards with the right handloads. Epoxy-bedding and Timney trigger set at 2 lbs makes it a very sweet rig and a straight shooter. A relatively flat forend makes it ride the bags well.

Bought it used, without scope, at LL Bean for $550 and it had some ignition/hard cocking problems until I installed a new blued-steel firing pin assembly & shroud. Couldn't be happier with this rifle now, even though I (and it) was failed by one of Remington's "authorized" repair centers. Dummies!

CZ 527 in Grendel. Don’t know the weight, but it’s noticeably lighter than most of my Tikkas. The best part is I can shoot it very well in the field. In most cases I struggle to shoot a lightweight rifle accurately once I’m away from the bench. My failure, not the rifle’s.

Here's a trio of light and semi-light rifles I've hunted with from time to time: At 6.5 pounds the rifle at bottom is lighter than it looks, due to the small ring Mauser action, alloy bottom metal and stock made of very lightweight yama wood. At center is a NULA (New Ultra Light Arms) hits the scale at 6 lbs even despite a relatively heavy scope. The Remington Custom Shop M-7, at top, a .260 Rem, at 6.5 lbs, is only semi-light due to the dense laminated stock.

It's not a true lightweight rifle but it's not all that heavy either. It being a .270 Ruger M77 RL that I bought new back in the '80's. Red rubber butt pad and tang safety. Hard to say how many deer I've killed with it. Started out with a Leupold 2x7 compact that has been replaced with a Bushnell Elite 3x9 firefly - the one that has green glowing cross hairs for about 15 minutes after you shine a flashlight through it. Works for me.