Thread: How heavy should a hunting rifle be?

Originally Posted by Brad S

I have found a very cool old wood and blued rifle that I want to buy for my first centrefire. It's a 30-06 and weighs about 3.6kg bare.
Every one of my mates that I've sent it to has the opinion of "too big calibre and rifle too heavy"
Do I need new mates, or are they right? I have decent legs and thought I'd be alright with a heavier older rifle? This post is not about the calibre, it's about rifle weight.

Hmmm....never bothered to weight my favorite and most used rifle so thought I would. 5-6kg with ammo, bolt, sling etc... Can be more if I've got other stuff hanging off it.

I think a more relevant question is are you built like a Uru-khai or like a string bean? Strength and carrying capacity is relative and also not necessarily linked to the build or weight of the nut behind the butt.

Lighter rifles kick more depending on caliber, being heavier aids in recoil reduction. Horses for courses and frankly, carry what your comfortable doing so.

There's trade offs whichever way you look at it, just depends what your happy with, what your aim in a given trip is and what you want from the tool (aka rifle) your using for the job.