Originally Posted by Mule Deer
Originally Posted by jorgeI
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 smile . 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.




Rhetorical question smile ? Still. I've "packed out" smallshit like deer in the PA mountains (yeah I know "hills" to you Monrana supermen) and hogs/deer out of the swamps and thickets here in the south and frankly, I don't think it would matter. Now if I was packing out for a long haul with everything on my back where every ounce counts, I can obviously see the advantages of lighter weight fire arms, but the Synstheric Weatherbys I've owned were no lighter than my wood stocked ones and my son's McMillan stocked 06 Vanguard I just don't see the issue with a few extra ounces.

A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”