Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Your favorite lightweight short barreled deer rifle???

My short and handy deer rifle is a BAR MK3 dbm in 308 w/ 10 rnd mags…deer drives actually. For that reason I shoot the Lapua 150gr mega sp and it’s an awesome deer bullet.

Also have a featherweight (push feed) model 70 and a Mauser M12 Impact that shoots the same bullet very well.

I like the 308, great killing effects on deer sized game with that 150 Mega.

Wanna sell it?

16" AR shooting 55 or 60g hornadys works just fine.

10.5" AR15 straight pull 300 Blk. Weighs ~3 lb, plenty for 200 yds.

My Tikka T3 Compact 20” .243 fitted with a newer T3x full-size stock with vertical grip seems to go with me more than any other. The Burris FFII atop seems to create a perfect combo. Here, the 5-round mag is in it, but most of the time the 3-round mag is in it, and the 5-round in the pack at the ready.

Swapping out the Talleys for some Sportsmatch rings might be the only thing that would make it better.

My model 660 Rem in 350 magnum, 150 gr bullets, or my Rem model 7 in 7-08.

18” 6.8 SPC on a 700. This was built before my suppressor phase but am considering getting the bbl threaded. Other than that, it’s perfect for all deer hunting under 300 yards.

Rem 700's Mountain in 7mm-08 at 6.4 lbs with scope or 308 Win at 6.75 lbs scoped.

ruger American ranch in 6.5 grendel, Hornady black 123 gr eld-m factory ammo, easy sub-moa off the shelf everything, have taken deer to 420 with mine (drt pass through, 1800 fps impact), rifle has good weight to watch things in scope and be quick to reload and fill another tag, it's also 52,000 psi cartridge and for some reason the game isn't spooked by it so getting follow ups is easy but also filling more tags at the exact same time is a real thing, have even had second shot at a coyote at 140 after first one missed at 80, if you're allowed suppressors this may be moot...I wish, but we have hunted the grendel for 6 seasons and you notice the benefits of burning less powder at lower pressures when it comes to hunting, may be the perfect deer cartridge in the world and it has enough bullet to step up to bigger game also, would love a suppressor on the grendel also, would be an awesome coyote calling set up suppressed, it's already an awesome coyote set up as is, its a great little rifle in a great little cartridge, solid 500 yard deer rig

The OP asked for opinions, so here are mine. My favorite short barreled deer rifle is my Marlin Guide Gun, .45-70 w/ Leupold 1-4 shotgun scope (coarse crosswires and parallax adjusted for 75 yards.)

That said, I’m not as enamored of short, light rifles as I used to be. Short barrels cost velocity, increase muzzle blast, and don’t hold as well for offhand shooting. As far as being “handier” goes, I think that’s more perception than reality. A couple of inches of barrel might make it easier handling for a small kid. For a full grown man? Not really. A couple of my single shots have 26” barrels, most of my bolt guns have 22 -24 inch, a couple down to 20”.

I also tend to favor somewhat meatier stocks these days. My hands are pretty good sized and, through decades of rough treatment at work, play and some stuff that can qualify as either, are not quite as articulate as they used to be. I like something to get hold of. The Remington Alpha 1 .308 I recently acquired checks a lot of boxes for me. I did the unusual (for me) thing of weighing it, largely due to some discussions here. With the FFII 3-9 I put on it to get started, it weighs 8 pounds 3 ounces. The day that’s too much rifle for this old man to carry around all day is the day I’ll quit this stuff and take up TV watching.

I think the M7 would be great for that application, 20 “ barrel. 358 is great and will have a little recoil in a lite gun but that not bother you. If recoil is a problem go with the 7mm-08 or 308. I think the 358 is fantastic.

I love my two Ruger M77 MarkII Ultralights. They just seem to fit like they were custom built for me. Walnut/blue 223 Rem and Skeleton stock 270 Win.

I bought my sons a Weatherby Vanguard “Youth” in .243 when they were little. It killed a lot of deer. Weatherby now calls it the “Compact,” perhaps marketing it also to smaller adults, including women.

20” bbl; 6.5 lbs. It came with 12.5” LOP; but has a spacer bringing it up to 13-5/8”. I lost the spacer, but a thick add-on recoil pad does the same.

It is SUPER accurate and not very expensive.

It comes in: .243, 6.5 CM, 7mm-08, 350 L, and .308.

There are other wonderful options, but that would be one I would consider, given how accurate and reliable it has been with certain loads.

I only have one short barrel rifle, a Marlin CS 336 in 30/30 topped off with a very old Weaver 3 x steel tube.
That's my brush rifle for everything loaded with 150gn TSX's at 2456fps.

I'd use the 700 action in 358 Win.

The standard SA Fieldcraft with 18” barrel.

I just picked up a Steyr .308 full stock with 20" barrel. The only short barrel bolt gun I have. Do have some Marlin levers with 20" barrels.
Have a great day.
Jim

Mine is a Kimber Montana in .358 Winchester I had Lilja rebarrel with shortactionsmokers factory dupe.

Carries easy in the Adirondacks.

Remington 660 action, 20” tapered barrel, AA fancy walnut stock, Jewel trigger semi custom in 308 topped with a Leupold 2.5-8x36 gloss scope! Shoots pretty good!

358 carbine 16" shooting 180 Barnes ttsx. Brutally efficient killer. One and done.