Rifle weight

[Wildstreak]

How heavy (or light) is the rifle you are packing into elk country? My rifle with scope and bipod is close to 13 pounds. Should I be concerned?

 

[Pulleye16]

It is what it is!

I hauled around a moose of a gun one year and made it out alive. If 5 lbs is gonna make or break you, I wouldn't be out there.

That said, yes, a lighter gun will be "easier" on your back but if that's the gun you have and you can shoot it well...I wouldn't change a thing.

FYI-I bought a new gun that weights almost 1/2...not going to make that mistake again.

 

[S.Clancy]

My gun is/was 10.5 lbs, however I got a second rifle that will be 6 lbs scoped for certain hunts. I think having 2 rifles makes sense for some folks.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

I didn't have a bipod and didn't weigh it with suppressor, sling and ammo, but the rest of my rifle this last year was 8 lbs 13 ounces. It seemed to carry fine, but did feel a little heavy at times. Suppressor, sling, and ammo should add roughly another 18 ounces. New rig this year went the wrong way in weight, it'll be a little worse, but suppressor went the correct way so hopefully it evens out.

 

[prm]

6-8 lbs is my preferred weight. I have a 10+ lb rifle I hunted with a couple times and that was enough.

 

[hunting1]

I have some 6-1/2 lb and some 10-lb ones and they both have there pluses and minuses. The light ones are better to carry but the heavier ones shoot more consistently, so depends on the hunt. I would not elk hunt with a 13 lb rifle but had a buddy who carried a Sharps once.

 

[StupidLightweight]

Rifle weight is an interesting subject and perhaps the best example of, "The truth lies somewhere in the middle."

Heavy PRS rifles that weigh 22+ pounds are easy to shoot well but you wouldn't want to carry them over anything taller than a molehill. As such, they're "game guns," meaning they're built to game the system. For this purpose, they work great.

Ultralight rifles, say sub-5-pounds all-in, are a joy to carry but trickier to shoot well, especially at distance. Unfortunately, many hunters feel that they can cover more ground and be more effective with an ultralight rifle. Barring highly-specialized situations, this isn't the case. If stability is the goal, weight is an ally not enemy.

Base on decades of experimentation using rifles in the 3.5- to 13-pound zone and speaking with others with far more experience, I believe the sweet spot for active hunting is roughly 7 to 9 pounds total weight. Go below that, and you lose shootability. Go much above that weight you start feeling it.

If you need to lose weight, take off the bipod and maybe go with a smaller scope. I promise that far more elk are shot inside 200 yards than beyond.

 

[The Harbor Master]

That's pretty heavy to me but it's whatever you can tolerate and make work. My elk rifle is around 8.75lbs.

 

[AKborn87]

It also depends on what you mean by packing into elk country...Are you day tripping from a single base camp, spot and stalk hunting from a vehicle, or backpacking deep into wilderness for extended trips?

If you're carrying the rifle much more than actually stalking, I'd focus on finding the lightest rifle/scope combination you can carry and hold steady enough to shoot accurately from a variety of shooting positions. For me that's 7-8 lbs, although your range probably varies somewhat on your body type. If you're 6'5" and 250 lbs, what you can carry and hold steady might be somewhat different than someone whose 5'8" 150 lbs...just a few things to consider!

 

[TaperPin]

If you’re winning medals at a marathon race, you can probably make it up the hill with anything up to 20 lbs.

When a person is in good shape, the main problem with weight is the rifle is it’s hard to hand carry, so gets slung on the shoulder, or worse, into a gizmo strapped to the pack. Maybe not this spring, or this fall, or a decade from now, but eventually you’ll miss the opportunity to pull the trigger on a wall hanger by a second or two, and at that moment everything possible from practicing quick movements, to equipment selection for quick shots will be worth it.

I still have the exact images in the scope as a bear and #2 and #3 biggest bucks I’ve ever seen in the wild simply walked out of the field of view. For that reason the rifle stays in hand more often than most and won’t weigh over 10 lbs unless meat hunting. Nobody I’ve ever known has uncomfortable flashbacks of does or cows that got away. Lol

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

I like to carry my gun in hand 95% of the time and cover a lot of ground. Anything much over 8lbs is doable but not pleasant.

 

[syoungs]

My 300wm is right about 15#, I wouldn't carry that gun far. I originally built it for hunting, and everything weighed more then I thought it would. I've sense come to the realization that I don't need a 300wm for hunting, so it'll be a range toy or get sold off.
My 6.5 creed ended up about 11#, I do carry that but would prefer something lighter.
I'm just fixing to put together a 6.5PRC with a weight goal of between 8-9# fully dressed. seems to be my sweet spot for carryability and shootablity.

If I only had my 300wm, I would figure it out and carry it, but I feel like I wouldn't hunt as effective and would probably choose to not check that next ridge, or call it off early. some guys are way tougher then me though.

 

[Sundodger]

I think StupidLightweight, said it pretty well, but couple of things to add:

-Are you packing out all your meat and camp in one load? Back when I used to do that my pack weight (including rifle) was far more important than now when I haul two loads.
-Recoil, the lighter recoiling the round you are using the lighter the rifle can be and still shoot well, within limits of course. Mass is still king of damping vibration/movement, including before the shot.

My backcountry rifles are 7.4 lbs to 8.4lbs.