I'm sure as I get older and weaker a rifle's weight might be an issue. Then again, that'd why Gun bearers were invented . Seriously, I didn't have an issue going up and down some pretty steep hills in Africa with "heavy" rifles. I've only hunted out west twice (Wyoming where it was pretty flat but at altitude) and in Idaho where it was high and steep and didn't do too badly. Then again, some synthetic stocked rifles can be even heavier, but the point of lighter rifles is most definitively a valid one.
Did you pack out any of the game you killed in Wyoming and Idaho? Or were you on guided hunts where getting the game out was primarily the responsibility of the outfitter?
I started using lighter rifles around 40, not because I wasn't in shape (have worked out in various ways constantly long before then) but because a lighter rifle/pack/body not only allowed me to hunt longer and harder, but when I killed something on a hunt where I was responsible for getting it out, any reduction in the overall load helped. Just did it the other day, after killing a mule deer in steep breaks-type country. The pack wasn't all that far, but it was very much up-and-down.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
. Seriously, I didn't have an issue going up and down some pretty steep hills in Africa with "heavy" rifles. I've only hunted out west twice (Wyoming where it was pretty flat but at altitude) and in Idaho where it was high and steep and didn't do too badly. Then again, some synthetic stocked rifles can be even heavier, but the point of lighter rifles is most definitively a valid one.