Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Who uses a heavy barreled rifle for deer hunting?

I like a standard weight sporter for stand hunting whitetail where I may need to shoot + 300 yards, and a Tikka T3 Lite or Rem 700 SPS for walking.

Yep. A 26" lilja number 4 fluted in an English walnut stock for me , clambered in 280ai. I'll find out in 2 days how well I like it on my elk hunt. So far I love it.

My .280AI weighs 8lbs 11 oz field ready and my .340 weighs 9.25 lbs all up and I use a Heavy Barrel Tikka .30/06 that weighs in at an even 10lbs.

I like heavier guns.

9 lbs, 2.6 oz.'s for my 280ai, empty.
Just right for me.
For years I toted a remington varminter in .243 everywhere. It was a favorite.

My very first centerfire rifle was an old Rem. M700 Varmint Special in .243. Waaaay more accurate than I could ever hope to be, but a lot of weight to be carrying through the hills of PA.
I bought it from a N.J. State Trooper friend of my Dad's, who took a large black bear with it.
One of the many that I should've kept.

Jeff

I've built all my rigs pretty light. Seems like most of them I've built like I was going on a sheep hunt. Nothing wrong with them at all but my favorite rifle is a #3 on a vanguard. I've been playin with some stuff that 6 months ago I'd have called heavy. "I" can shoot a rifle a bit better with a lil more weight. So Monday I ordered up a #4 krieger. I still have a few rifles to take on hunts where I'll walk a bunch(like Montana next week) but kinda like you other fellas I slend most of the time in a stand hunting deer.

I used to carry "heavy" rifles but not so much anymore. After building a few "faux-ti's" and shooting them at distance I found that I have no issues running them out on steel much further than I'd ever shoot them at deer. I'm very comfortable/confident with them even at long range. At any distance that I'd feel comfortable shooting a deer I'd reach for one of my "light" rifles and not feel the slightest bit handicapped. My light rifles shoot very well.

If my rifles or should I say me....could shoot the way you shoot your light rifles I'd be doin the same thing you are. I've got a long way to go but tryin....grin.

Just exchanged some pm's with Eddie and plan on rebarreling my 243 when I can with a 3 or 4?......was gonna be fairly soon but wife just informed me our central unit is out....bummer. I'm thinkin a 22" #3 or 4 in a classic would work real well for me as my main deer rifle in these parts. If I'm gonna walk a bunch I've still got light guns in 25-06AI,708,& 280AI. Guess I'm still in the tryin stuff learning stage of things.

I hear you. Another thing I like on a light rifle is a light trigger. I've been running some 10-12oz rifle basic triggers in my light rifles and I find they help me a bunch when it comes to "shootability"

75% of my hunting is from an elevated stand, so the added weight doesn't hurt.

My SPS Tactical has a 20" barrel so the weight isn't unbarrable to carry around. It measures .850 at the muzzle. Its in .223 and is super accurate, I have a pard who has one in .308 Win and it shoots 1/2" groups as well.

For a long time the only rifle I had was a Browning Safari Grade Heavy Barrel .243 with a Unertl Varmint scope. I killed a bunch of deer, groundhogs and crows with that ten pound rig. I still have the rifle and scope but they are no longer together. I lost one of the target base blocks for the scope and haven't found a replacement. Makes me want to put it back together and hunt with it!

glad to see that i'm not the only one who will slap a 2-7x scope on a "tactical" rifle ...

after my experience comparing the savage PC and the remington 700p, i think that if i could do it again, i would have gone with the remington sps tactical instead of the PC. the 1-12" twist of the remington seems to like the 150 and 165 g hunting bullets much better than the 1-10" twist of the savage does.

I remember when it used to popular to buy a Remington M700V and
cut the barrel down for big game hunting. Dont see it much
anymore.

I have three Rem 40-x's that I use on occasion when I'm hunting where I don't have to WALK very far but may have to SHOOT far (i.e. at one of our bigger food plots) - a .308, a 30/06 and a 7 MM Rem mag. Very steady when Mr. Big shows up and the blood pressure and pulse rate take off.

Brad....is RB the trigger of your choice right now? I've a timney on the vanguard that's pretty sweet and the jewel on my wifes 250AI is awesome!....I've heard good things about RB and shilen. I agree the lighter you go the more important a good trigger is. I'm not givin up on light guns as my model 7 708 is great!.....will be better when I get a Edge for it. It's got a MR tube on it and thinks it's a big gun. Kinda a faux faux ti........grin.

How heavy is heavy? This little brute has got it done on many occasions. Browning M1000 Eclipse Abolt in 300 WinMag. I think it goes 11.25 all in. With 168 Barnes TSX, it kills like a black widow.

Shootist, NICE whitetail buck! I will bet folding money that you shouted "PRAISE THE LORD!" when you walked up on THAT one! And a couple of my rifles are in that same weight class. I see that you, too are a larger man. Kinda goes with my theory that what might be heavy to a normal sized person is not so bad as far as a percentage of body weight to you and I.

AMEN AND AMEN! X1000 my fav rifles trigger breaks squeaky clean at 30 ounces. And it is on a pretty large caliber, 340 Tyrannosaur. I even spent the money for a NECG trigger on my 416 Rigby. Good shot placement is improtant on all manner of game, maybe even more so on big and bitey stuff.

I don't own anything that has a tube bigger than a #3 contour and that's only cuzz it's needed for the size of the hole.