Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Lightest factory hunting rifles…

It used to be the Ruger 77 RL, 700 Ti/Mountain & Featherweight. Then came the Kimbers & Tikka Superlites.

Certain that there are many more, thought I’d ask you gents.

What other light rifles are made these days?

Seekins Havak element
Christensen Mesa fft, fft ti
Christensen Ridgeline fft, fft ti
Weatherby has a bunch. Backcountry and back country Ti are the lightest.
NULA

Contenders and Encores

Greatly overlooked, savage lightweight hunter

Just rebarreled one to 284 Winchester

The Howa mini is pretty light.

I really like my Sako 85 Hunter in 30-06. If I was going to buy another rifle right now where light weight was a primary decision factor, I would probably go to EuroOptic.com & purchase a LH Sako 85 Carbonlight in 6.5 Creedmoor since it's in stock & on sale. Weighing in at 5.29#, I think that's probably at the light end of the scale for rifles I would want. Especially since left-handed selections are limited anyway. I'm sure there's probably a fairly lightweight Tikka in a more economical form as well. If I was a "normal" person, I might have more options to chose from:

https://www.eurooptic.com/Sako-85-S...S-BUSA-204-1-8-6-1-Rifle-JRSCF20248.aspx

I had a Kimber that I could keep a hair under 6 lbs scoped. With the right scope. I came to the conclusion that was too much of a good thing. There are lots of good options out there that are 6-6.5 lbs naked and will come in between 7 to 7.25 lbs scoped. That's as light as I want. My vote goes to Tikka in that weight class.

Weatherby MK V 6.5 RPM TI 2.0

My Kimber Mountain Ascent (.308) is 5 lb 10 ounces with Talleys and a Leupold 2.5-8X .. B&C, not "twisty knobs." It is pretty sweet for packing around the mountains.

Tom

My Barret Fieldcraft in 6.5 X 55 is pretty darn light. It's significantly lighter than my 700 Ti in 7SAUM

A bit of topic drift here, pardon, but if you are shopping for a very light rifle...you may want to consider borrowing one from a friend, and actually shooting it from field positions. It takes a damn good rifleman to master and get full accuracy potential in light rifle, especially if it is muzzle light. Not saying it can't be done, but I have seen some pretty dismal scores in 14 yrs or so of NRA Sporting Rifle competition. The few who can pull it off, are real veterans, shooting hundreds of rounds a year in practice. Just an opinion.

700 Ti 7mm-08. That’s with a 42mm scope.

flintlocke;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope you're all surviving the snow storm if you were hit by it and that you're well.

As I was reading this, I was pondering how to say the same thing as you did, so thanks for doing so.

Personally if there's much recoil at all, my comfort level is right about 7lbs to hit consistently enough that I'm satisfied with my performance.

Way back in the day, two different folks owned a Mohawk action .284 with a super thin barrel and a Chet Brown Pounder stock. It was - if memory serves and I never weighed it - right around 6lbs.

A hunting and shooting neighbor's ex brother in law built it and couldn't get used to it so he sold it to another chap. I'll note here that the builder was a skookum fellow and the next owner was even larger. He was at the range when I was one day and he asked if I'd mind seeing what I could do with it.

We both were able to get 3 shot groups into about 1½" but interestingly my point of impact was at least 2" above his. The recoil was very sharp and abrupt on it.

The aforementioned neighbor brought it up one day when we were sharing a frosty beverage in one of our shops and he recalled being pummeled by it as well, not liking it enough to buy it when it came for sale and thought his groups were about the same. So okay, but not great exactly.

Another good friend up in Whitehorse had a Remington Ti in 7-08 set up for about the 6lb weight and he finally sold it too as he found he just didn't shoot it consistently enough to get confident with it.

Again this seems not to be a stature thing, as I'm no giant at 5'6" 150lb, my neighbor friend is a bit larger and then the other folks are fairly large folks.

Anyways if one can do good work with them then for sure they'll receive a tip of the battered Bailey from me, but I cannot, despite some attempts.

Hopefully that was useful to someone out there.

Best to you all.

Dwayne

Good post and thought. I also agree with JMR40 on this one, but some guys like their rifles really light. Not a bad thing when you have to pack them all day long, but when it comes time to shoot them ,they are on a whole new level of got to make everything right, or else!!! I have one buddy that can't even shoot my Tikka Superlite well because it's too light for him. Even off the bench on a good rest, he struggles to shoot 3" groups.

Howa Super Lite claims to be 4 pounds, 7 ounces from the factory.(.308 caliber) Haven’t handled one yet, but I have to think it’s got to be one of the lightest production rifles made.

Good post Dwayne. I always enjoy reading what you have to say. It is interesting that you bring up size and body weight, as I've heard the bigger guys may be punished more from recoil. Then again, if you are too light, you may not be able to control it as well. I know there are many trick moves that are brought up by some here, to shoot lightweight rifles well. However, I just shoot them like anything else. No towel over the barrel, or under the stock, no grasping it any different than any other rifle. Just focus on the fundamentals and shoot it. And definitely no lead sleds. Why guys shoot with those is beyond me. A guy should definitely practice shooting from field positions with a lightweight rifle and see what his skill level is and if it's right for him. Like flintlocke said, maybe borrow a rifle from a buddy, or go shooting with a buddy that has a really lightweight rifle and see how you do.

The Amazingly Long List Of Simplistic Schit,you Fhuqktards can't do,never ceases to amaze. Hint.











Fhuqking LAUGHING!................

Actually if you are like me, a mediocre rifleman, you can probably get a glimpse of your potential just by holding and dry firing, the crosshairs on a distant object. Call your shots. Take that mental snapshot of the sight picture when the striker falls. Also, compare your 'wobble circle' on the target with the 6# rifle and the 8# rifle.
Disclaimer, this only applies to offhand and sitting (where 90% of my meat comes from). This only applies to mediocre and below riflemen. Masters and High Masters have the eye and trigger control to snatch 10's and X's as the crosshairs swing toward the center of the bull, repeatedly.
May be an age thing, may be lack of physical conditioning, but at 77, I find that precious first 2 seconds, when the rifle is up and steady and the crosshairs are as stable as they will ever be, that is prime time for the electrical brain impulse to the trigger finger. Writers insist the shot should be a surprise, I'm sure that is true for stable supported positions, offhand, running deer, I do much better with a deliberate pull when my brain 'likes' the sight picture and a total concentration!!! follow through. I have a 'running deer' zip line target on my home range...very educational for me and my guests.

I've yet to see someone shoot a light rifle so poorly that they'd miss the basketball sized vitals of a whitetail at common hunting distances.

Common hunting distances being the key phrase...to my knowledge I've never seen a whitetail so am clueless. But I'd bet money I could miss a basketball in motion, grin.