Ok... I gotta admit that I'm going to love this discussion/argument.
For starters... As far as I am concerned... if you can carry a 10+ lb gun hunting you are a bigger/better man or woman then I am. The only people who take 12 lb rifles hunting are those that are paying someone to carry it or are 100% road hunters where the gun sits on the console until your ready to shoot at something. I am finding that even my 9+ lb magnums (30-378, 300 RUM, etc) are getting too heavy to carry walking a half mile along coulee edges and fields. I want my ultralights more and more lol.
I have a Rem 700 BDL in 300 Win Mag that will shoot 0.5" 5 shot groups with 165 and 180 grain loads. IF... I do my part and I have learnt that I am not good enough to regularly do it AT ALL. Back when I was doing lots of practicing maybe I would have been cocky enough to think about it, but I don't think I was ever nieve enough to take on that bet.
I used to obsess with my hunting guns had to shoot tiny 5 shot groups. NOT 3 shot groups. Bedding them... trigger jobs... load development. Some would get there others wouldnt get close.
Then I realized a big thing (for me anyways) and it came with a Sako AIII in 300 RUM that the first 2 shots were 0.5" apart CONSISTENTLY and the third shot goes 6" high. It has a pencil thin barrel and it heats up FAST. Yet that gun had become a favorite because when it comes to shooting a running bull elk... it made the shot just so easy. You knew when you pulled the trigger that you were hitting what was in the cross hairs.
So here's a question... how important is it that your first shot be precisely where you are aiming? I don't care if the gun shots a 5" group... but the first shot hits exactly where you want it every time.
Don't know about you folks but after shot 1... the deer etc has gone from standing to I'm going somewhere else. After the second shot, the animal has found overdrive and if there's a third... the animal is doing MACH CHICKEN to the next galaxy.
Can say one thing... I have emptied a 5 shot clip at a coyote out to 800 yards and I swear he found a higher gear with each shot. The shots were close. A friend turned and said... well he won't have to rake a schite for a week his pipes are so clean.
. So far i've hunted with 7.5, 8.5 and 9.5lb rifles. I'm looking forward to the added stability. Hopefully it doesn't kill me packing it around this season haha.
memtb
