Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Your choice of lightweight bolt rifle

John,I would rule out the Sako on a light weight rifle simply because of the scope mounting issues. There are no light weight scope mounts for Sako except the Leupold Ringmounts and they have to be in the last 1/3 of the dovetail before they will tighten on the dovetail. This leaves you trying to pick a scope with a tube long enough or with eye relief long enough to have a good sight picture when mounting without having to adjust your head.


After that the top picks for me would be
1. NULA
2.Barrett Fieldcraft
3.Cooper Excalibur
4 Kimber Mountain Ascent or Montana


The NULA is $3500 and I have no idea how long on delivery. The action won't be stainless if that matters to you. The stock is thicker in the wrist than on a Kimber and I prefer the Kimber 3 position safety.

The Barrett Fieldcraft looks promising but it's basically an unknown right now. If anyone can do one right however Barrett should be able to.

The Cooper is a bit heavier than the rest but it does come with a 1/2 MOA guarantee. The non bolt locking safety turns me off and is the reason I haven't bought one. They do have an all stainless version.

The Kimber may require a bit of work to get it perfect. You may have to bed it,and worse case replace the barrel. It has the best stock of any I listed and the ergo's are the best IMHO.The good news is that even if you replace the barrel and have it bedded by a competent smith,you are still at the price of the next lowest priced in the list,(unless you go Ascent). Kimber has been producing good rifles as of late so it's also a good chance it will be perfect as received.

I own a Kimber Montana and I will be buying the Barrett next year.