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The weight of 338-06 FN Mauser seems about right, neither light nor heavy.. 22" barrel. A heavier longer barreled rifle is much easier for accurate shots , though. I have a P-17, the anchor on the Queen Mary was a bit lighter, chambered 308Norma. My son on firing it said how can you miss with this!!. With the 338-06 I use 225gr at 2650fps , pretty close to a 338WM. Recoil has never been an issue. But I redid a Parker Hale stock to fit me and my bifocals.With bifocals, I use medium rings. Burris also had a deluxe low power variable.


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I’m part of the crowd that likes lightweight, compact rifles with “mini hubbles” mounted on them 😉.
Actually I’m not sure if Bushnell LRHS 3-12 meets the mini Hubble definition or not.

My hunting is all on foot with pack, and my most important hunt every year for the past 18 yrs is sheep hunting, so I’ve always been obsessed with lightweight rifles. I also used to always use the lightest scopes possible and that resulted in my longtime main hunting rifle weighing 5.5lbs with rings + scope and I used it to take rams, goats, caribou, etc.

In my experience a light, compact rifle can be plenty accurate, but the scope can be a limiter for durability and difficult shooting.

My rifles are still very light and compact but now with a heavier, more capable scope, my shooting has improved. I’m still dealing with a total weight under 7lbs.

I don’t use any magnum cartridges, and for years I used 284Winchester before a rebarrel to 6.5CM in 2015 so recoil has never been a big factor.
The combo of lightweight, compact rifle with a heavier scope makes for a very capable package(hunting or at the range) and still within 7lbs total weight.

I like synthetic stocks because it doesn’t bother me when they get banged up. A wood stock with a blemish in it is a real mental problem for me so I avoid them.

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Balance...


Originally Posted by raybass
I try to stick with the basics, they do so well. Nothing fancy mind you, just plain jane will get it done with style.
Originally Posted by Pharmseller
You want to see an animal drop right now? Shoot him in the ear hole.

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I worry far more about accuracy, durability, and cartridge function, than weight. If you are in good condition, the weight of the rifle should not be a factor.

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True, but Time happens. Huge difference between say 60, and 69 for instance. It helps to get the stuff out if your pack that’s not gotten used in 10 years or so, and switching from Filson wool to synthetics, but if it’s daylight, my rifle is in my hands or in the crook of my arm, occasionally slung upside-down on my left shoulder with my hand on the forend (try it). 7 pounds carries easy in all those positions.

Used to carry a 10-pound M70, wear wool, tote a Stanley full of coffee and a nice lunch. Now, not so much, except during the Mountaineer Heritage season I used my PH 1858 Enfield, which runs about 9lbs or so.

Gotta adapt, or stay home.


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I don't worry about weight too much but appreciate lightness more as time passes. As important as weight are balance and the contour of that portion I am carrying in my hand. I have a Hawken replica which is pretty heavy (about 10 pounds) but fits in the hand very nicely and balances well. It is much nicer for me to carry than is a 7.5 pound rifle which is a little too fat in the middle. Now, as I approach 72, it doesn't take much to make my hands start to hurt and a fat stock makes it worse. An old Model 70 is heavy but fits and balances pretty well.
I have no problem hitting the 500 meter rams at the silhouette range with rifles wearing a fixed 4X scope so I am happy with that for hunting. Last time I was out with my 6.5x55, I fired a 4 inch, 5 shot group, at 300 meters from a sitting position with a sling. I could maybe do better with a big 6-24 variable but it would bum me out having to carry it! GD

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Not to much yet. I will shorten the barrel fairly soon though. The trigger on my Miroku made rifle is quite good

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Balance does matter as well, as our forefathers figured out.

I bought an 1895 Marlin Cowboy with a 26" barrel, on the recommendation of an owner in another forum. He said that you hardly notice the extra weight from the longer barrel.

He was right. Because the octagon barrel is a light sporting width, and not a heavy width, and because it tapers from breech to muzzle, it balances very well and does not seem heavy at all.


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Originally Posted by saddlegun
Well, as a lever action afficianado, I can say this. Weight matters.

I mean, if you have a 6 1/2 pound 1894 Marlin in .44 Magnum, you know that this is right in the Goldilocks zone. Neither too heavy nor too light.

But, if you have a Henry Big Boy Classic brass at 8 1/2 pounds in .44 magnum, the thing is a brick. A beautiful brick, but way too heavy.

A Marlin 336 in .30-30 at 7 1/2 pounds seems just right too me, although 7 pounds would be okay too.

The various stubby 1895 Marlins seem just way too light for the bone-crushing loads that people shoot in them.

But the 22" version is more realistic.


I also have migrated to leverguns during the last 20 years or so.
I have tried most out there, bought and sold.
The journey is far from over.
I really like a narrow, flat receiver and flat forearm/ forend. This alone makes it more portable, in hand or in and out a saddle scabbard, imo
These days a guy has alot of chambering options.
Any levergun with a fat forearm is negated from my list or altered.
I have bought and sold the newer Marlin/ Remains and will not again. The reciever feels like it is made from pot metal to me and is very clunky.
I would like to try the newer Miroku / Browning 1895 some day...it looks ideal to me....my little old opinion

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Does anyone know if the color case on the Miroku 73s is real, or some kind of coating like some Italian ones? My LW Hunter has real CCH, but it’s maybe 20 years old.


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Marlin receivers have always been forged steel. Some have had pretty rough matte surfaces in places. Who knows what Ruger will do?


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comerade;
Top of the morning to you my friend, I trust that this first Sunday in May finds you and yours well and that the weather's behaving.

We got all the bedding plants in yesterday afternoon and had a light rain overnight I see, so here's hoping the new fence keeps the deer out effectively for some garden produce later on! grin

As you know about me, I've had a life long love for lever guns as well, but other than shooting a couple deer with them don't really hunt with levers. Well okay, if we're going to call using a Ruger No. 1 as my horse hunting gun a "lever" then there's that, but I don't usually class any drop block single shot as a lever gun as they're "the same but different" sort of. wink

You likely know as well about me that I'm a student of history and as such, admired so many of the photos of old time hunters here in BC with their Winchester 95's and Savage 99's.

What you might not know is that I had a Winchester 95 in .30US in rifle configuration, as well as a Savage 99 takedown for awhile.

The Savage was in .250, a 1922 model and despite all my efforts and experiments wouldn't group bullets even as light as 75gr much better than 6" at 100yds. That one really hurt as my late father used a 99 in .250 even for Saskatchewan moose and I so wanted one of my own. Dad's shot good enough that he hit gophers with it, but any gopher it by the one I had would have merely been unlucky. So it went down the road via Clay at Prophet River.

Now the 95 was another story in that just for historical purposes I wanted to love it, but the more I handled it, the less I did.

To me, the magazine is exactly in the wrong place to carry it, you know? Again I'm no giant and bigger men with correspondingly larger hands might not find it that way, but it felt "wrong" when carrying it to me.

A buddy offered me more than I had into it and down the road it went as well.

Lastly, any Miroku arm I've handled has been very well built for sure. We've chatted in the past about the B78 in .25-06 my buddy hunted with for years and it was a peach in every way as far as build quality. The trigger was a wee bit fun for sure and I made a different fore end for his that floated it from the action and barrel - and saved the very nice original from taking beatings on the pack frame - but it was well made.

His late father had a 95 carbine with the Lyman receiver sight on it, which he'd hunted with up until he picked up a '58 Model 70 in .270 which along with a Husky .270 was "the thing" in this part of BC in the '60's so he said.

Anyways sir all that to say I'd be interested in your thoughts if you do get a 95. So I read, they're well built and many shoot very well too.

All the best to you folks this spring.

Dwayne


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I find balance is more important than weight. If you have a rifle that off balance because you've added a bipod to it - you will curse it all day long because the rifle will tend to auto rotate around your shoulder as you carry it and you will be adjusting it all day long.

A hunter can African carry it but that can lead to other problems especially if the terrain is rough.

I like a rifle that is not over 8 1/2 lbs all in, and well balanced and with a good shooting sling for carrying.

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Originally Posted by BC30cal
comerade;
Top of the morning to you my friend, I trust that this first Sunday in May finds you and yours well and that the weather's behaving.

We got all the bedding plants in yesterday afternoon and had a light rain overnight I see, so here's hoping the new fence keeps the deer out effectively for some garden produce later on! grin

As you know about me, I've had a life long love for lever guns as well, but other than shooting a couple deer with them don't really hunt with levers. Well okay, if we're going to call using a Ruger No. 1 as my horse hunting gun a "lever" then there's that, but I don't usually class any drop block single shot as a lever gun as they're "the same but different" sort of. wink

You likely know as well about me that I'm a student of history and as such, admired so many of the photos of old time hunters here in BC with their Winchester 95's and Savage 99's.

What you might not know is that I had a Winchester 95 in .30US in rifle configuration, as well as a Savage 99 takedown for awhile.

The Savage was in .250, a 1922 model and despite all my efforts and experiments wouldn't group bullets even as light as 75gr much better than 6" at 100yds. That one really hurt as my late father used a 99 in .250 even for Saskatchewan moose and I so wanted one of my own. Dad's shot good enough that he hit gophers with it, but any gopher it by the one I had would have merely been unlucky. So it went down the road via Clay at Prophet River.

Now the 95 was another story in that just for historical purposes I wanted to love it, but the more I handled it, the less I did.

To me, the magazine is exactly in the wrong place to carry it, you know? Again I'm no giant and bigger men with correspondingly larger hands might not find it that way, but it felt "wrong" when carrying it to me.

A buddy offered me more than I had into it and down the road it went as well.

Lastly, any Miroku arm I've handled has been very well built for sure. We've chatted in the past about the B78 in .25-06 my buddy hunted with for years and it was a peach in every way as far as build quality. The trigger was a wee bit fun for sure and I made a different fore end for his that floated it from the action and barrel - and saved the very nice original from taking beatings on the pack frame - but it was well made.

His late father had a 95 carbine with the Lyman receiver sight on it, which he'd hunted with up until he picked up a '58 Model 70 in .270 which along with a Husky .270 was "the thing" in this part of BC in the '60's so he said.

Anyways sir all that to say I'd be interested in your thoughts if you do get a 95. So I read, they're well built and many shoot very well too.

All the best to you folks this spring.

Dwayne

Thanks Dwayne ...good info on the model 95. The Ruger amd Browning falling blocks do carry well in the field.. I have owned both now, they seem to carry like a levergun.
Yeah, my one concern was the protruding magazine on the model 95.
Interestingly, I own a 1950ish model 70 and Husky.
Yes , you are a good source of info

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Thanks for keeping this thread on track!


Safe Shooting!
Steve Redgwell
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To your questions, Steve.....Yes. smile

I consider weight, but not too much. It's only one factor. I'm old, but not in any hurry- I can rest. And probably see more game than going bust-ass.

My two lightest serious hunting rifles are the 725 and 700 in .270 and 243, respectively. My two heaviest are the Ruger 77 in .338 at around 9 lbs scoped, slung, loaded, and a heavy barreled M98 in '06, coming in around 11 lbs, also scoped, slung, and loaded. The M98 is the most accurate- inch groups at 300. Probably do better if I was better. It's killed a bunch of caribou off ATV access. But so has the 725, and RU77 cut down - barrel and stock - (" the wife's") '06 "carbine". I beat Ruger to that by about 10 years.....and use it a lot.

What I am packing depends on several other factors- game, terrain, distance riding or walking, what I feel like doing, what I have sighted in ammo for....

My walk-about gun up here is a M94 in 30-30, aperture sighted. It's the lightest of the lot. Carries nice. Thinking about putting a Boonie-packer sling on it, like the others have..

I killed a deer with it in 1966. smile

Last edited by las; 05/03/21.

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I spent my younger days humping around an 81mm mortar tube or baseplate and then later in life packed all kinds of cadastral survey gear around the Alaska bush. A couple extra pounds on a rifle (usually my Ruger 77 338 WM) ain't gonna kill me!


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As mentioned, balance and stock design are probably as important as weight in the reasonable range.

Given those?

~ 7 lb. for a carbine or shotgun.
~ 8.5 lb. for a scoped high power hunting rifle.
~ 10 lb. for a battle rifle.

Heavy enough to mitigate recoil and shoot well.

Light enough to carry w/o too much fuss.




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Originally Posted by 1minute
When going to the woods to bag a 4 to 500 lb elk, I don't care what my rifle weighs.



^^ THIS ^^


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In the old days of the British African game hunter rifles were extremely light, as most were carried by the native gun bearer and then presented to the hunter upon request.

Can't get much lighter than that laugh

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