Getting the right weight rifle

To me a "mountain rifle" is used in terrain where you walk with your feet AND hands. At that point ounces make pounds and pounds hurt. I want a 7lb or less loaded rifle. It gets very expensive the lighter you go. 7-08, 300wsm, 6.5x284 type cartridges are going to be my choice for a lightweight build.

A good sling will help distribute walking weight.

A good directional brake "not radial, I despise radial brakes" can mitigate recoil in any rifle. Much more so than a suppressor. I'm not knocking the use of a suppressor but they seem to get in the way more than they help mitigate recoil....but thats not what their main function is. A directional brake is going to "pull" the recoil impulse toward the muzzle and do more to mitigate felt recoil than 2-3 more pounds of weight added to a rifle.

I personally leave the suppressor work to sub sonic 300blk and similar. Spending $800-$1400 on a suppressor plus the $250 "right to bear arms<tyranny tax stamp" just to have a rifle you can still hear 300yds away is weird to me. Now if muzzle flash mitigation is what your after then I get it. Or if you are thermal hunting hogs with 3 or 4 buddies and yall are about to "make hate" on a sounder of hogs and rattle off 60-80 rounds....put a can on it.

I'd rather have an 8lb 300wm with a good break and a 26" barrel than a +10# 300wm neutered with a 22" barrel to facilitate the use of suppressor. Mitigate as much recoil as possible, wear muffs during range work, the walker's type electronic ear plugs in the field. It's a bolt action not a belt fed. So the number of rounds fired isn't going to be that high.
 
This thread is an interesting read. As we get older a lot of things seem to change. I'm right at 160 lbs. and over 60 years old. Recoil has never been a problem while hunting, except when shooting very heavy shotgun loads from a duck blind. Those wood beams behind your head hurt when shooting shooting too close. I'm excited to get a build complete on 280ai in the 8.5 lb. range ready to hunt. I think this will be a sweet spot for me. I have lighter rifles and much heavier. Heavy are great at the range or when stationary, but light is awesome a few miles into the woods.
 
mountain rifle= 26 '' 338NM 7-2OZ BARE.Bout 9 # loaded/sling hunting.Its been all over the mountains last 12 years
IMG_3362.jpeg
 
Top