Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Max weight of your hunting rigs

Wondering what everybody's hunting rigs weigh as far as your heaviest rifle, all in with bipod, scope, etc.
My heaviest I ever used was just under 12 pounds , but it was a rifle I built for special conditions , my main rifle weighs just under 8 IIRC.
Cat

My heaviest rifle is a M98 action, a fairly heavy wood stock, and a heavy 27" bbl in 30-06. About 11 lbs., including sling, 3.5-10X scope and 5 rounds.

If I can hold it steady enough on a good rest, it consistently will put 3 into about an inch at 300 yards with any/all factory ammo that I have tried.

Not something one wants to take sheep hunting, but it works well off an ATV or snow machine.

Heaviest is a BAR Safari MKIII 30-06 with a 56mm scope.

It’s hard to beat at last shooting light, but it’s a brute to carry!

Weatherby Mk V Hunter in .270 Wby with a Vortex Viper HS 2.5-10x44. Add in rings and it’s right about 8.5 lbs without ammo.

I've never weighed a rifle. I am much more concerned with ergonomics than with weight. I categorize my hunting rifles as light, normal and heavy. The only rifle I have that I consider heavy is a Ruger 77V tanger in .220 Swift with a heavy, 26" barrel and a Leupold fixed 16X scope. It's about as heavy a rifle as I care to walk around with and then just varmint hunting, not around in the woods. The only ones I have that I consider light are my Kimber 8400 .300 WSM and my old Ruger .44 carbine. Everything else is between those two extremes, bolt guns and Ruger No 1's. I think I can shoot a rifle better that's got a little heft to it. Maybe if I hunted more in steep places at high altitudes I'd feel different about it.

The reason I am asking is I am setting up a hunting rifle match at our club, and the various hunter matches and rifle rodeos I have attended over the years have rules that are all over the map. One I know of even disallows " bull Barrels" - whatever that means. A fella I know was not allowed to enter his rifle with an aftermarket barrel on it even though it was the same profile as a varmint rig that the company sold! I have never attended that one one , mind you.
Others do not have a weight limit , and often you see rifles that would never be considered to take hunting in these things.
However,many hunters these days hunt from boats, or access country by ATV, or hunt from a blind, so you tend to see some "heavier than I would use " rigs! LOL.
I see lot of rifles these days that are hunted employing chassis, barrels and scopes that are heavier than normal, so I want to make sure these guns are allowed.
Cat

NRA Silhouette has a "Hunter" class. It looks like a pretty good definition of a hunting rifle. They addressed the bull barrel too.

3.1.1 High Power Hunting Silhouette Rifle - A hunting style rifle
having a maximum weight of 9 pounds, including sights and if applicable,
an empty magazine or clip. The intent of this rule is to describe a common
hunting rifle.
(a) Caliber: 6mm or larger, provided that no belted cartridges or
Magnums are allowed.
(b) Sights: any telescopic or metallic sight may be used. Scopes may not
be more than 1.5 inches above the rifle, as measured from the top of
the receiver to the underside of the scope tube, nor may the scope be
offset from the centerline of the bore. Exception: for rifles that eject
the empty cartridge case straight up and that normally use an offset
scope, the scope may be offset. Any sighting device programmed to
activate the firing mechanism is prohibited.
(c) Stock: A hunting style stock; thumbhole-type stocks are not permitted. Attachments, either removable or permanent, are not permitted.
Swivels and slings are permitted, but slings may not be used for arm
support in shooting. Dimensions may not exceed those described in
3.1(d).
(d) Trigger: Trigger pull shall not be less than 2 pounds. In the event of
an accidental discharge, range officers shall require adjustment of
the trigger or replacement of the rifle. Rifles must be equipped with
a functional safety.
All safety features, including any manual safety, must be functional.
(e) Barrel: A hunting style contoured barrel that tapers from chamber to
muzzle. Bull barrels are not permitted. A factory tuner that does not
act as a muzzle brake or compensator is permitted. Maximum barrel
length is 26 inches, including tuner. (See Rule 3.16.1).
(f) Magazines: Magazines may not be loaded with more than 5 rounds.

LHS

I’ve never weighed a rifle, mostly hunt out of a stand.

Silhouette rules disqualify a vast number of hunting rifles in the weight category not to mention that the " bull barrel" thing is not really addressed, just not allowed.
Belted magnums are more common than not, and many shooters are using triggers less than two pounds these days.

Cat

I have 5 bolt action rifles in 308, 6.5CM and 30-06. The weight of the rifle, mounts, and scope varies from 7 lbs even up to 7 3/4.

One would have to be careful with scope selection (weight) if wanting to use a regular (not Featherweight) pre-64 Winchester Model 70 with that 9-pound max. Probably couldn't quite make weight with a Zeiss Conquest, but probably could squeak by with a 3-9x40 Trijicon Accupoint or Burris Fullfield II with a modest weight scope mounting system (not heavy-duty rings and definitely not a rail). That 9-pound limit is certainly constricting for old-school rifles with wood stocks.

Barrel: A hunting style contoured barrel that tapers from chamber to
muzzle. Bull barrels are not permitted.

Pretty clear to me. Tapered, and the whole shebang can weigh no more than 9 pounds.

LHS

Many medium weight barrels are tapered like that but are considered a bull barrel by many.
Not that it matters because silhouette is shot offhand and we will be shooting prone, many with belted magnums.
Cat

My main hunting rifles weigh 7.7 and 8.3 pounds loaded with leather shooting sling IIRC.

Best of luck with your hunting rifle shoots Cat. I helped run our shoots at Phoenix Road Gun Club several years ago. We tried to create realistic scenarios with time limits and improvised shooting positions in some stages, stationary and moving targets. 50 to 500 yards. We used various animal targets with kill zones. One of the most important aspects in my opinion was scoring. Points were applied to a kill (10) , inadvertent kill(5), wound (-15) and miss (-5) as I recall. You also had the option of not taking a particular shot (0). Negative scores on individual stages were fairly common.

It was great practice and eye opening at times. It is good to have some rifle restrictions in place IMO. It wasn't long before the bull barreled varmint rifles started to appear, which was gaming the rules in my opinion. On the other hand we made it clear that it was really practice/training and no prizes were awarded. Feel free to PM for additional info if desired.

Mike I just had a crazy idea! I might have an artist friend who can whip up the likeness of a deer , moose, and elk for me and I could put them on the Shotmarker target frames!
I wanted to use them anyway.
Our rules will be pretty simple:
Legal Alberta big game cartridge - that is a cartridge of minimum 6mm . That gets rid of the 22/50's , 223's etc.

12 pounds max rifle weight. Many of the chassis rifles are approaching that , but I think most are about 10 pounds.

bipod, or pack sack- no fixed bipods or tripod shooting stye sticks. This should help level the playing field a bit.

Any sight and any trigger that is safe.

Distances will be on a draw to start , 200 to 500 and 600 to 900. So, if your first draw is 300, you shoot 5 there, then go to 400, then 500, then down to 200.
Same with 600 to 900

Scores out of 50 ( 5 shots) with the first going on our steel at the appropriate distance as a gimme . before you go onto the shotmarker you must hit the steel.
That will help with keeping our shotmarkers in one peace!
Cat

Once you go over 10 lb max rifle weight and under 2 lb minimum trigger pull weight, you basically have a varmint/sniper rifle competition. You're free to set up your competition however you want, but you may have some people surprised and disappointed when they register for a "hunting rifle match" and show up to see a bunch of sniper/varmint rigs, regardless of whether people hunt big game with those rigs.

You might want to have a separate category for rifles under, say, 9 or 9.25 lb and trigger pull weight over 2 lb.

That's my thinking as well. Really need two classes, as the true lightweight, handy hunting rifles aren't going to be able to compete with 12 lb chassis rigs.

We used the animal targets available from Midway USA, but they are limited on types. I'm sure your friend could come up with some good ones. Silver Mountain now has animal targets that can be downloaded onto their system, but I don't know if Shotmarker does.

I'll email you some of the courses of fire I cane up with when I was match director.

Mine is 9 pounds 1 or 2 ounces, scoped, fully loaded, and slung!

When shooting, I could tolerate mine a couple of pounds heavier……when carrying it, a couple of pounds lighter! 😉

If it weighed 11 pounds, recoil would be a fraction over 48 ft/lbs…..about 10 ft/lbs more than my wife’s 9.0 pound .338 WM! memtb

9 is about maximum that I currently have. 7.5 minimum for what I have. That's a Kimber MT 6.5 with a Trijicon. I might go a bit heavier on a few rigs as only a handful of my hunts require light. The rifle could be 15lbs and not affect the outcome of the hunt. Once I started sticking heavier scopes on rifles I stopped worrying about ounces.