Thread: Wapiti Rig

Have been pretty happy past couple of years just hunting with my wee Howa Superlight 308, has a 14.5" barrel and still sends the factory 150gr sst superformance out the pointy end at 2730fps. That's still carrying about 1200ft/lbs at 400 yards which is impressive, I have tried and I literally can't load any combination of anything that will perform as good as that.
However, I'm now getting cold feet about carrying it during the wapiti ballot and wonder if I should be looking at something with a longer barrel and the ability to throw the 168s (if 308) a bit quicker or another caliber all together. I could in theory take my 270 (pre 64 winchester) but it's just too damn heavy and I want a rig under 3kg all up as I have enough other crap to lug around for 10 days. I'd be perfectly confident shooting a red stag class animal at 300yds with the Howa, however when the animal of a lifetime presents no other opportunity than a 450yd shot then I might start to doubt myself. I'm fully not actually expecting to take an animal and just want to enjoy the experience, see a few critters, and keep myself in one piece but it's always a possibility! What say you all?
Don't have a heap of money to spend and will probably sell my wee howa if I decide to go with something else. A carbon stock t3 in 308/270/7rm would probably do what I'm after.