Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Ultra light Rifles

Hilarious! Hint..............

Kimber Montana, 7mm-08 with Leupold 3-9x33 Ultralight. Weights in at 5.755lbs empty (can’t load the scale pic). Had a 2.5-8x36, which was nice, but prefer the ultralight crosshairs. Great mountain rifle setup - light, balanced, accurate, and fun. 150 ELD-X has punished 9 buck so far. All I need for the Mtns I hunt

My 20" T3 .308 with edge stock has a 2.5-10x24 NF on it. It is as light as I want to go. Mechanically it is well below a .75 MOA rifle, and while shooting over the bags under ideal conditions, when I have been practicing a good bit (unlike lately) it has proven to be extremely consistent with the main load I shoot through it which is a 155 Scenar pushed by Varget.

That said, that is the "mechanical" accuracy. With me behind the gun and in very cold temps I usually hunt in, with the typical heavy clothes, and in the typical terrain I hunt, the little rifle is very hard to shoot tiny groups with. I am realistic about my ability under these conditions and try to build the most stable position I can if I have time before I take a shot. The addition of a bipod aid substantially, and I try to use my pack, or big mittens as rear support.




Most my shots tend to be in the mid to high 4s. Not by choice, it is just where I end up seeing animals and being in a position to shoot. Much of this is due to when and where I hunt though.

I will say that I have been messing with a T3 in 6.5 Manbun with a 24" barrel over the last few years. It is a regular T3x Lite version, but I stuck it in an older T3 varmint stock. This gave me a wide flat fore-end and a good cheekpiece. It is topped with an older 5.5-22 NF that I took off of one of my other rifles that I was not shooting much. The scope-rifle combo makes for a rig that is super easy to shoot well and is not overly heavy. Definitely heavier than my little 20" T3 .308, but there is little comparison when shooting the two side by side in field conditions.



If I was going to build a lightweight hunting rifle today, and was looking for an optic, I would choose a fixed 10X SWFA. Nope, it is not the lightest. That is OK though. Someone earlier in the thread mentioned making the rifle light, so you can put a proper optic on it, and I agree. In my experience, rifles that are too light are very difficult to shoot well at longer distances. This is keeping in context that I hunt terrain where I expect shots to be past 350 yards and out to 600 or so. A fixed 10X is great in that application and I use on one my .300wm.

I have a 10X SWFA on my main hunting rifle that I use for most everything in open country. I have been chastised for it on this board, but that's OK. No regrets with the 10X, in any way, though I seem to get plenty of shots in open country where a 4X would be fine too. For that occasional 500+ yard shot, carrying the extra weight of a solid scope has been worth it.

That rifle looks kind of unkept and rusty, what's up with that? No time for regular cleaning and maintenance?

Al,

That's a sensible little sporter. Do I recall that one being a 250AI?

My only hangup with the 10x is the way it dies quickly in low light. The testing I did, you lose a good deal of time compared to a 6x or a variable that you can dial down.

I have a few that I really need to hunt though.

Anything even resembling POW Island or SE Alaska would find me with a 6X.
10X would be a disaster waiting to happen there…