Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Your favorite lightweight short barreled deer rifle???

As the Tikkas get around 20" and under do you guys find em hard to hold steady? Shooting a short, very light rifle is a bit of a challenge for me. Most of my rifles that were 16-20 inch had heavier barrels than that, which defeats the "lightweight" purpose

Not that say a Howa mini has a super heavy barrel

Think the only rifle I have that qualifies right now is a Weatherby Vanguard in 350 Legend with 20" barrel but again, not lightweight. The Howa 1500 Mini has a 16" barrel and is lighter.

Marlin 336Y 30-30 and Marlin 1895G 45-70

358s
45-70s
350rem mags.

Glad we aren't talking about short barreled moose rifles......might have to drag out 404s, 416s and maybe 50BMGs.

Not really, haha.

I guess anything has a price but you'd have to get pretty persuasive for that one...

Kimber Montana in 257 Roberts or Rem Seven in 260, 7mm-08 or 308 here. I could be pushed to try a Seven in 338 fed or 35 Rem though!

I turned my Remington 700 in .223 into a 7TCU for this very application.

Went with a Remage setup using a Wilson barrel from Ragged Hole Barrels, #4 contour, 18" long and threaded for use with a suppressor. Stocky's fiberglass stock, which I am probably going to change out to a Stocky's VG2 stock sometime here in the near future. Kept the BDL arrangement, but replaced the .223 spacer in the mag box with a piece of 1/4" aluminum flat bar stock, cut to fit and epoxied in. Using the regular .223 follower, I can load out to over 2.550". My go to load is a 120 grain Nosler BT over 23.2 grains of H4198. I am probably going to have to find a new load soon as H4198 has disappeared.

I have changed out the scope since this picture to a Sightron S1 3-9X40.

A Marlin Guide Gun in 45-70! If not that my handgun…..but now the range is reduced to under 150, and preferably under 100! memtb

I have a M7 that I barreled with a Douglas I turned to the Remington SAUM contour and chambered for 300 Savage. It was an aborted heavy barrel 300WSM blank that had already been cut pretty short and by the time I cut the chamber off and started over I ended up with a short finished length, I think it’s right at 18”.

Bedded the whole works into a Bansner Sheephunter.

It shoots great and is a dream to carry. But it really doesn’t handle very well, hard to shoot offhand. And it’s pretty loud. I think after I thread it and put my silencer on it will be much better both balance and blast wise.

My 700 I duped the same contour on and chambered for 7TCU but cut at 20” balances and handles much better. For bolt rifles not being used with a suppressor I would never go less than 20” again.

Ditto!

I generally prefer a 24” barrel for hunting rifles but I do have a Savage 99 E in .308 WCF with a Leupold M8-4x on top. It is a delight to carry and works great in timber and mixed open country.

Remington model seven FS. .308, 18.5" barrel, brown precision stock. 6.2# as pictured. I have plenty of hunting rifles but almost always grab this one.

Remington model 7. 7mm-08

Savage hog hunter in 308 is another

Mauser M12 Impact. 308

20" barrel

Tikka boar hunter in 30-06. Has a 21” barrel and will drive nails.

Weatherby Mark V lightweight sporter .30-06 24” barrel that started new with a wood stock replaced with a factory composite stock, Swarovski 3-10x42.

Looks like you have enough actions and scopes to build 2 rifles. I'd do a 308 or 708 on the model 7 and a 358 on the 700. A 250 savage would be a sweet heart on that model 7. Look at banser for the stocks.

This will probably make you cringe , but I have been using a Ruger American compact in 308 that has accounted for several deer .
Short , light , and pretty darn accurate.
Most any load I work up for it shoots 1.25” down to .6”
Vortex 2-8x32 with side focus makes it a very workable and compact deer rifle
Kenneth

But if Remington is we’re you wanna be , contact urban rifleman and he’ll make the barrel configuration you want and the barrels he used do shoot , I can vouch for that
Stocks , inny , Minnie , minny , moe
Lots to choose from , I like a good looking wood stock property bedded and floated , Remington made some decent looking laminate stocks
Kenneth

Hard to find; but if you find one , Buy It
Weatherby Mark V Stainless Carbine, 7mm-08 ,6 lug, 20" barrel. Mine is 7lbs/1oz with a Zeiss Diavari Victory 2.5-10x42. Perfect whitetail rifle, IMO.

Ruger Americans don't make me cringe. But I'm not an elitist snob like Shrapnel either