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

Two Ruger 77RLs. One 308 Win and one 257 Bob
20" barrels and carry about like a 22 but thump with the big boys.

Agreed . Have in 300 Savage and 250/3000

My Kimber Hunter .257 was new to me this uear, but I see it getting used a lot in the future. But my all time favorite carrying rifle for stalking, droves, etc is my W94 BB in 375 with a Williams Peep. Slickest carrying, shooting, short range thumper I've ever handled

1972 Winchester m94 in 35/30-30 with Williams FP Aperture sight and 200gr RCBS FN GC on top of 2400/tuft of Dacron.

Ruger Hawkeye .257 Roberts, 20" ultra lite. Leupold 4X33

I love the looks of these but have never come across one in person. Do they actually stamp them "ultra lite"?

Nowadays it would have to be this one CZ 600 LUX in .223
Note: animal in pic is not a deer but I'll bet it would kill one....

The ones that I've seen are only labeled "Ruger M77 Hawkeye®" without any other designation. The Ultra Light rifles appeared in the 2009 catalog as a series with 20" barrels & no sights. The interesting thing to me is that the Compact model that was also listed had a 16.5" barrel and were all lighter than their Ultra Light counterpart. So Ultra Light didn't signify "lightest available".

On those Rugers , they didn’t mark them ultra light . They just had shorter ,lighter barrels and the black tip on the stock. They made them as early as the tang safety versions.

Big and small deer, I like the Kimber MT in 308.

As mentioned above. No, they are not stamped "Ultra Lite". The true M77RL(S), M77RL(S) MK II, HM77RL have a short barrel shank. The shank is not long enough for the caliber designation stamp as on the standard models. The caliber designation is stamped forward of the shank.



The CR's also have a short shank. I haven't seen one, but expect they would be stamped forward of the shank also.

If it's in your budget, you might want to try a NEW NULA by Wilson Combat with a 20 inch barrel. Great accuracy and light enough for an old man (78) to carry. Mine is in 308. You can get the rifle in 3 barrel lengths.

For me, it's my 21" Fieldcraft 6.5 CM...

Short light rifles are my favorite rifles. Several years ago I decided to build my ultimate what was referred to as "mountain rifle" back then.
I love Mausers so I tracked down a G33/40 action. Went with a Douglas barrel in featherweight contour, chambered in 30-06 cit to 21"
I decided on a blind magazine to save weight. Sorted through stacks of English walnut blanks for the right combo of lightweight and figure.
Weight came in at 7.25 lbs. with scope and sling.
Things didn't work as well as I had hoped. Accuracy was lets say finicky, my best load was a 200 gr Nosler partition and recoil was stout.
So I decided to re-barrel in 7x57, McGowen barrel this time , same fwt contour and now I have found the sweet spot!

I like it 👍👍

Few years back I picked up a Marlin 336Y in .30-30 from HillamHawk here on the fire. They "Y" stands for "youth", of course...16.25" 1:10 twist Microgroove barrel; short length of pull on the buttstock. I sent it to Regan Nonneman and had it rechambered to .307 Winchester. Sent the stock out to JohnBoy for deep forest green with black webbing paint. Picked up an XS picatinny rail with patridge front blade and rear peep. And finally a set of Leupold quick release rings for the Leupold VX2 1-4x20 that I bought from jsgwoodsman. All in all, it is a lightweight, hard-hitting little bugger that is a joy to carry. When I'm sneaking and peeking, I can hold it by the pistol grip pointed right at the ground along my right side while I work my way through heavy or snow-covered brush. It's so light and handy, you hardly know it's there. Nice tight groups with 170gr Nosler Partition RN over Varget, Accurate 2015 or Norma 200. Shot a buck with it two years ago. Looking forward to more.

Beautiful rifle Fubar.

It was discussed above about the Ruger M77 ultra lights and that they also made them in the early tang safety versions. I have one in a 250 Savage.

16.5 inch 308 model 7

No thanks. My 336Y is still a 30-30 and it kicks like my 30-06. No way I'd want it to be a .307

A Remington 700 ADL Carbine, 30/06 made in the first month they were manufactured. It shoots 125 Accubonds and 130 Triple Shocks really well.