Average/preferred whitetail rifle weight for blind/stand hunting

[BooneHunter]

i think a 16" barrel with a heavier profile and a can is ideal. spent most of my life hunting from a stand with a 300 win mag and 24" barrel, but now use a short 350 legend with a can and results have been just as good.

 

[Boarmaster]

I am similar, but do not use a climber anymore. I am not as steady as I was in my 30s. Last time using a climber, I had to shimmy down the tree about 10 ft when the bottom slipped on me.

I’m 63, 6’1” 325 lbs so I ain’t no ballerina myself. I had that happen to me in the early 90s. My newer climbers have a safety strap that connects the two pieces to prevent that.
They are big and stable.

 

[Rich M]

Most of my rifles are around 7#, 20-22 inch barrels. Rifle = 7#, scope = 1.5#, so 8.5#.

Deer hunting from a stand - use what you got.

@USAF Ret - climbing stands come with a rope that connects to the bottom half of stand to top half. Keeps em from sliding too far. I've got a Summit Viper and there isn't a more comfortable seat in the woods than that thing while about 15 feet up.

Also - what are you shooting a 308 for if you have a rod in your neck? 243, 350 Legend, 223 all kill deer just fine and hit you with 8-10# less recoil than 308. If you are inside 100 yards I'd say to get a 5# 357 Mag, Ruger M77/357 rifle that has 5# of recoil - it's like shooting a noisy BB gun. I've got one and it is my close up and personal hunting rifle when my wife isn't shooting deer with it.

 

[FLS]

I spent a long morning in the Osceola National Forest getting eaten alive by skeeters, waiting on daylight to see how the hell I was going to get down after my Baker climbing stands platform ratcheted itself to bottom of a long leaf pine. After that, every climber I’ve owned has a tether from the seat to the foot platform.

 

[Rich M]

I spent a long morning in the Osceola National Forest getting eaten alive by skeeters, waiting on daylight to see how the hell I was going to get down after my Baker climbing stands platform ratcheted itself to bottom of a long leaf pine. After that, every climber I’ve owned has a tether from the seat to the foot platform.

I was in the Ocala NF when that happened with a cheap climber. Lowered gun and hugged that tree tight - glad I was young and strong at the time. Never without a tether from then on.

 

[JimIsland]

I hunt approximately 30 tree stands. While some of them are similar in walking and shot distance, some of them are vastly different. Even on my longer walks, I don't mind a heavier rifle as long as it's not crazy heavy. 7-10 pounds is fine. What's more important to me is the barrel length. 22" max and suppressed I much prefer an 18-20". If you've ever tried to swing a 24" barrel with a suppressor in a tree or box blind you know where I'm coming from. My 2 favorite rifles for still hunting out of stand are: Tikka T3X lite-6.5CR with a Polar for glass. The other is a Timberline .308 with a Meostar. Both work and both have harvested a lot of Deer.

 

[USAF Ret]

Most of my rifles are around 7#, 20-22 inch barrels. Rifle = 7#, scope = 1.5#, so 8.5#.

Deer hunting from a stand - use what you got.

@USAF Ret - climbing stands come with a rope that connects to the bottom half of stand to top half. Keeps em from sliding too far. I've got a Summit Viper and there isn't a more comfortable seat in the woods than that thing while about 15 feet up.

Also - what are you shooting a 308 for if you have a rod in your neck? 243, 350 Legend, 223 all kill deer just fine and hit you with 8-10# less recoil than 308. If you are inside 100 yards I'd say to get a 5# 357 Mag, Ruger M77/357 rifle that has 5# of recoil - it's like shooting a noisy BB gun. I've got one and it is my close up and personal hunting rifle when my wife isn't shooting deer with it.

I run lighter bullets. My choice is the 130 TTSX for the 308. It recoils about like my 7mm-08 with a 140 (I shoot the 7mm-08 mostly for deer). I just have a ton of brass and bullets for the 308 and if things get into a pinch, I can shoot the rest of my life. I also have several 223 bolt and gass guns that I will be hunting with this year with the 69 or 77 TMK.

 

[USAF Ret]

On the stand incident, I thought I had the strap attached between the top and bottom, but didn't. I used to hunt climbers all the time when I bow hunted about 15 years ago. I used to shimmy up and down trees in the dark like it was nothing. Now, it just hurts. It hurts to take it in on my back, hurts to set everything up, hurts to climb, and my balance is so weird, it just makes it an extremely uncomfortable experience. We have fixed stands and box blinds at the club I hunt at now. I also have access to a friend's farm and they have homemade box blinds. They are just more comfortable to hunt. Hunting used to be challenging, now everything is challenging.

 

[wind gypsy]

Doesnt particularly matter for most stand hunting but I'd take a more stable 9#+ gun over a lightweight one every time if I dont have to carry it miles up/down mountains.

 

[Tinkersmith]

Everything is a compromise, but where I hunt, shots over 100 yds are very rare. I like to go light and short if theres a lot of walking and no long shots, but I've found that its easy to accidentally point that 5.5 pound 12" sbr at ones chin when creeping through the really thick stuff, not ideal. Otherwise 8-ish pounds and a 16" barrel seems to be a sweet spot for recoil and all around manageability.