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

Sako on the left, AII .308. 18 1/2” bbl.

Ruger No.1 RSI-(full length stock)
Mine is a.243 Winchester but pick your caliber.
Happy New Year
Soup

Ruger RSI, tang safety, red pad; .243; 18.5" barrel. Beautiful and fun rifle.

660, 308, Brown Precision stock.

Been using it since 1990.
It's been pushed aside for a 760, T3, M-7, several Sakos, a M-700...
it always come back to the front of the line.


It's not my favorite Short Light Rifle.

It's my Favorite Rifle!

It's not really a short barrel, but I use a M7 with 21" barrel chambered in .358 Win. It's a great little rifle.

A Howa mini in 350 Legend would be the easy button with the 200 yard or less requirement for deer.

Love that rifle, good looking rooter also!
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My two are on 700 short actions with 21" barrels, but fairly stout. One, the oldest, is a 7mm=08 the other a .300 Savage. Built them when I was doing lots of whitetail hunting in Pa. and W. Va. Haven't hunted either since the camp was sold in 2015. All they have done in the west is collect dust.

My favorite is probably a bone stock kimber montana in 243. It shoots well and me and my kiddo have killed a pile of stuff with it stoked with 95 NBTs.

I got my dad a stainless synthetic model 7 for Christmas in probably '99 or 2000. He refuses to use any other rifle, even after gave him a nice lightweight custom on a 700 action. I must admit it is a short handy little thing.

I got the cousin of yours a couple years ago in OK with my M7 350RM:



I shed about 1.5Lbs from the laminated mannlicher to the Manners.

Although one of my favorites.. it's accounted for three bucks this year.
Howa Alpine 6.5 CM / 129 interlocks.

Lever action carbines are the only short barreled hunting rifle I can abide. I'm tall yet they seem so lively! I have used 20" bolt rifles i.e. Ruger UL 308; M1 Carbine (almost useless),and a CZ 527 221FB . I want to add that the few 18" Mod 742 30-06s I helped rheir owners zero were super loud and flame throwers near dark. These shortys all seemed too whippy for me, though were handy, I'll give you that! I like the little Model 7s in a synthetic stock, but reworked some and have a 24" barrel put on. Light, slim, trim, they are pretty fast! Stock Mod 7? No way.

It’s my sons but I love carrying it when he isn’t with me.
Model 700 youth 7-08, McMillan edge ADL, trigger tech, milled follower, Zeiss 3-9 in talleys.
Old pic of it

Out of all I’ve had, I’ve yet to keep an M7 around. I regret parting with a savage LWH, but there’s a used one close by tempting me. I generally grab my Adirondack with a Montana stick in 6.5….yeah, I’m more of a 308/7-08 or even 358 type, but it kills stuff and comes in at a hair over 6#, with scope, mounts, sling, loaded magazine, and a LW suppressor. Personal preference only, but I’d take a 700 or many other actions over a M7. If I had a spare M7 action, it’d probably become a smaller cased chambering, 6.8, Hammer, Arc, 300 Savage, 35 REM, etc. The 700 would be for the normal stuff.

Ruger M77RL Ultra Light in .257 Roberts. 20" barrel
Ruger M77RLS Carbine in .308 Win. 18.5" barrel

Thompson Center Contender Carbine, SSK 1:7 223 barrel.

I don't like any rifle bbl shorter than 20". BTDT ... 20" is best for me.

This 760 30-06 is now 20" and is perfect, esp with the smaller scope.



This M-78 308 in a Brown Precision is 22" but may go down to 20 in the future.

My .243 truck gun is a little killer. Changed the trigger and bedded the action 30 years ago and don't believe I've adjusted the scope since.

My Remington Model 660 in 350 Rem Mag hard to beat. Topped it with a Leopold 2x7 variX II weighs less than 7 lbs. 200 grain Core-Lokt does the job!

All of these guns look easy to carry and deadly. RZ.

Ruger Hawkeye Compact .308 w/ 16.5” barrel has been my go to. Almost like carrying a pistol it’s so tiny yet I easily get about 2700 FPS with a 150gr handload.