Backcountry rifle weight?

[AustinL911]

What's a reasonable weight for a backcountry rifle? Obviously this is subjective and definitely personal, but I'm curious to hear what everyones opinion is. I just got the new Bellm'd Bergara 300WM barrel in for my T/C Encore. Without optics, it's 6Lb 3.5oz. I figure 27oz for the scope I'm looking at, and I'm at 7Lb 14.5oz. So, sub 8Lb for a backcountry rifle doesn't sound toooooo unreasonable to me, especially for a magnum.

What's Rokslides' opinion and what do yours weigh?

 

[thinhorn_AK]

You’ll get lots of different opinions but for me, I like sub 7lbs for a real mountain rifle. My current gun weight almost exactly 6.5lbs which is fine but I’ve had it as low as sub 5.75lb and that was ok too.

All that being said inhubted with a 9lb rifle for years and when I got an 8lb rifle I thought I’d died and fin to heaven.

 

[LaGriz]

AustinL911,
27oz for the scope sounds much to heavy and out of place on a 6lb rifle. You should be able to get that down to 12-13 oz with a quality optic. I like the Swaro Z3 3X10X42 with a 1" tube. Another good choice would be a Leupold VX-3 in 2.5X8X36 or 3.5X10X40. Even with a 30 MM tube you should be able to get the weight under 16-17 oz. This would put the total weight of the scoped rifle near 7 1/4 LB. That is what my Kimber 8400 WSM tips the scale at. This is a very pleasant to carry package I think you would enjoy.

LaGriz

 

[Fitzwho]

Right at 7 pounds with my Creedmoor and right at 9 pounds with my 300WM. That’s with scopes and a full magazine. There is definitely a big difference in carry weight with between the two, but the 300 is actually a little less jumpy than the 20” barreled Creedmoor. Though there are different situations I would use one or the other. The 6.5 will get 2 pronghorn hunts this year and the 300 will get the call on a 3rd rifle mule deer hunt in CO and a Utah Cow elk hunt in December.

I would agree that a 27 ounce scope is definitely heavy. I run a 3-15 Vortex Razor LH (16-17oz) and a Leupold VX6 3-18 (which I believe comes in around 21oz). So definitely some weight to save there.

 

[amassi]

Agree with the above.
Sounds like conflicting end use.
No sense in dropping a 27 ounce optic on a "mtn" rifle
Assuming your scope choice is something 30mm with a ton of magnification, if your in a situation where such an optic is warranted a heavier rifle with a full length barrel is much more the ticket.
I have a weatherby ultralight weight in 6.5-06 ai 5# 14oz
With a 1" swaro 3.5-18(16 oz)
Plain Jane leupold dual dovetail rings

It's a sweet carrying package, I can ring steel with it at 1k. But, it's so light that it isn't very forgiving especially in hunting conditions like wind and heartbeating out of your chest. So it doesn't make many trips anymore.

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[jorgensen.travis]

This is a ten year old Tika and a 20 year old VX-2. All stock. It doesn’t seem like it would take much effort to get the weight down a bit if desired.


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[FURMAN]

How far do you expect to shoot?

 

[AK Troutbum]

Stock Kimber Mountain Ascent, .270 Win., Talley lightweights and Leupold 3-9x33 VX-2 UL.

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[Decker9]

For a backcountry rifle, I look at compactness more so then weight, although the two go hand in hand. I packed a 26” tubed rifle for years in the mountains, switching out to a 20” tubed rifle made a world of difference to the packability when strapped to my pack. My current is a 5 1/2 lb tikka t3 in 6.5 Swede. A guys gotta be carful with light weight magnums if your not use to them, especially when shooting prone at steep angles.

 

[elkduds]

Stevens 200 in 270win. 22" barrel. Leu vx3 2.5x8. 6.5#. Timney trigger, no weight-shaving alterations, no brake. Recoil feels similar to my 9# 7RM w no brake, enough but not too much for hunting.

 

[rileybassman]

Last year to this year I went from roughly 9ish lbs all up and loaded to this... and it's a pretty substantial difference... and this is cerecoated and with a largish scope (VX6 2-12)

 

[TexasOutfitter]

My Cooper Backcountry M92 in 6.5x284 with Vortex Razor 3-15x42 HD LH and Talley lightweight rings weighs in just under 7 lbs.

 

[Jardo]

I decided to go ultralight this year. I've hunted with a rem 700 lss mountain rifle in 270 for 20 years and it's been a great gun, but wasn't light. The laminate stock made it heavy.

I considered both a Kimber MA and a cooper Backcountry. I went to scheels and was able to handle both and the cooper was simply better built imho. I liked the kimber, but I loved the cooper.

Mine has a Swarovski z5 on it and some temporary Nikon rings. I had to return my Talley rings. Seems cooper changed the receiver tap size and the rings I ordered came with screws too small.

I've spent the last few weeks developing a load she likes. Having good success with rl26 and 160 accubonds! I love working up a load for a new rifle.



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[fightthenoise]

I decided to go ultralight this year. I've hunted with a rem 700 lss mountain rifle in 270 for 20 years and it's been a great gun, but wasn't light. The laminate stock made it heavy.

I considered both a Kimber MA and a cooper Backcountry. I went to scheels and was able to handle both and the cooper was simply better built imho. I liked the kimber, but I loved the cooper.

Mine has a Swarovski z5 on it and some temporary Nikon rings. I had to return my Talley rings. Seems cooper changed the receiver tap size and the rings I ordered came with screws too small.

I've spent the last few weeks developing a load she likes. Having good success with rl26 and 160 accubonds! I love working up a load for a new rifle.



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Did you stick with .270? If not, why? If so, those 160gr loads must be thumpers for sure!


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[RCA Dog]

Kimber Adirondack in .308. It’s a bit lighter now than when I took this picture. It has a swaro z3 3-9 x 36 on it now too.


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[thinhorn_AK]

Kimber Adirondack in .308. It’s a bit lighter now than when I took this picture. It has a swaro z3 3-9 x 36 on it now too.


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Totally off topic but have you ever considered reversing the direction of that rear Talley mount there?

I was looking at a few of my rifles and it seems like on several of them I could reverse one of the Talley rings. I was only thinking about this after reading that thread by formidulosis and he talks about getting the rings as far apart as you can.

 

[Jardo]

Did you stick with .270? If not, why? If so, those 160gr loads must be thumpers for sure!


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I went with 280 AI.


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[Brendan]

Here's my Adirondack, love it. Even threw it in the side pocket of my EMR2 in 2016 when I was archery Elk hunting because I had a rifle muley tag.

Scope is a Swaro Z3 3-10x42, Talley UL rings.

No Scope:

Empty:

Loaded Weight:

Loaded weight plus 6 spares:

 

[zrodwyo]

One time I carried a m2 .50 up a mountain in Afghanistan and that was too heavy for a mountain gun.

Seriously though once it’s slung over my pack frame I can’t tell the difference between a 9 pound rifle and a 6 pound rifle. With that said I like my guns to be under 10 pounds.




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[AustinL911]

AustinL911,
27oz for the scope sounds much to heavy and out of place on a 6lb rifle. You should be able to get that down to 12-13 oz with a quality optic. I like the Swaro Z3 3X10X42 with a 1" tube. Another good choice would be a Leupold VX-3 in 2.5X8X36 or 3.5X10X40. Even with a 30 MM tube you should be able to get the weight under 16-17 oz. This would put the total weight of the scoped rifle near 7 1/4 LB. That is what my Kimber 8400 WSM tips the scale at. This is a very pleasant to carry package I think you would enjoy.

LaGriz

Yea, I know it's heavy. I haven't looked too much into scope weights just yet. I was glancing at the new Sig Optics line and really like the features and build of their Tango6 3-18x44, but it's a freakin beast at 37oz. So, I figured I'd compromise and take a look at their Whiskey lineup, which a comparable scope is around 27oz; still quite heavy.

To be honest, I haven't really dove into scope weights (ever) because I've never had ounce counting on my mind. I also haven't done a whole lot of research just yet, but clearly I need to.

How far do you expect to shoot?

Short answer; Don't know. I've traditionally run bolt actions that had tight tolerances and were quite capable of pulling some decently tight groups. This rifle, however, is kind of up in the air as to the kind of accuracy it will bring. It's a Thompson Center Encore/ProHunter/WTF they are calling it now. Being a break-open, interchangeable barrel, it's not going to be a tight as a bolt gun. I've done all I can do to ensure it shoots straight; custom barrel, tweaked action, tighter hinge pins, worked trigger, etc. That said, it's still not a bolt gun and I'm not sure yet what it's capable of.

I'll be handloading for it, so I'm trying to maximize it's potential as much as possible.

Ideally, I want a scope with some dialable turrets, zero stops, hash reticle, and still relatively light. I prefer to dial for elevation and hold for wind. Pending the gun is capable, I'm comfortable shooting an animal up to 800yd.

Kimber Adirondack in .308. It’s a bit lighter now than when I took this picture. It has a swaro z3 3-9 x 36 on it now too.


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I'd LOVE one of these in 6.5c. I chose to throw a new barrel on my ProHunter muzzleloader because I already had the tuned up platform, and it was about 1/4 the price to do so. Someday, I will have one though. I envy you guys.


I'm really surprised by the number of people running Swaro scopes. I knew their spotting optics were good, and had heard that carries over to their rifle line, but I wasn't sure how stout they would be. Since they seem to have capped turrets and no sort of milling reticle, are you guys just zeroing for your maximum point blank range and that's your comfort zone? Or are you attempting to dial with the turrets they have? Sounds like I need to check out these Swaros. I could have a sub-7lb rifle with one of those Z3s. Tempting...