# Heavy or light



## Invector (Jan 13, 2006)

Ok last in my long line of questions on my quest for a gun.

What would be better light weight gun or heavy? I would think that a lighter gun would be better since walking is involved but I see so much hype about those heavy barrel .223 and other varment guns. But I hear so much about how a vented stock butt section and fluted barrel helps with recoil. So does it make the difference or not?


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## ND decoy (Feb 1, 2003)

A hunting buddy of mine had to have his shoulder rebuilt last year after a motor cycle accident. His shoulder was so bad that he couldn't fire a rifle or shotgun. This really wasn't an option so bought a limb saver recoil pad. He put it on every gun he had and he could shoot them all with out any pain. I shot his 300 ultra mag and couldn't believe how much it cut down on the recoil. They are pretty cheap, I think about $40 and might be worth your time.


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## pennsyltucky (Oct 30, 2005)

go for the light gun. ull feel a little more recoil, but if ur getting the 25-06 or 243, it wont matter. it will be much nicer to drag around.

u dont even know there is recoil when ur actually hunting. the gun goes off and u werent even thinking about it.

i shoot 2 1/2 oz loads outta my 10 ga, and at paper, it really boots ya. but when u are firing in anger at a coyote or turkey, if it didnt go BOOM, u wouldnt know it went off.


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## Burly1 (Sep 20, 2003)

After hauling different guns up and down hills for a few years, I've come to the conclusion that a rifle and scope combo that will go close eight and a half pounds with a 24" sporter weight barrel is about right. The light, short guns carry great but don't have enough weight out front to stabilize quickly for an offhand shot. The heavy barrels shoot great and stabilize quickly but are a bear to carry very far. The quest for the perfect rifle is one that can last your entire life and that's half the fun of it. My advice would be to heft as many as possible and buy the one that feels the best to you. Join a gun club. Get to know your club members and try as many rifles as you can. Most shooters will develop a varied battery of rifles to serve their needs, whether it be varmints, big or small game or different types of targets. Trying to find the perfect all around rifle is a daunting task, one which I have never mastered. Good shooting, Burl


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## honkbuster3 (Jan 11, 2006)

The rifles weight depends on what you want as a hunter. If you will be hunting deer and hiking a lot then you will probably want a light rifle, now these have a lot more recoil than heavy ones but.. you can hike all day with them. If varmit hunting is what you want to do then I would get one of those fluted barreled .223 rifles that way a ton. You can set up and shoot very accuratly, with absolutel no recoil. I have a heavier .270 that i am very accurate with and I have a winchester feather weight rifle that I am pretty accurate with but it is much ligthter and I like the feather weight the mostGOOD LUCK :beer:


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## zogman (Mar 20, 2002)

Burl,
Wisdom is your forte. What you said is 100% on the mark.


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## Dave_w (May 25, 2005)

As is usually the case, I agree with Burl. If you're in great shape and don't have to climb a mountain, you're probably capable of hucking around any damn thing. If you're like me, light weight helps in that regard. Try a whole bunch out before you commit. It's always tough picking out your first gun. The next dozen or so are easy.

The general accepted maximum weight for a mountain rifle is eight pounds total. That includes a fully-loaded rifle, the weight of a spare loaded magazine or enough extra cartridges to reload an internal mag, and the scope.

Fluting the barrel doesn't affect recoil at all. Instead, it helps dissipate heat by increasing the surface area of a barrel. I really doubt it makes too much of a difference for the average shooter, unless they really like putting large amounts of lead downrange in short amounts of time.

A heavy barrel (bull barrel) does two things. First, it cuts down on muzzle climb significantly, provides a stiffer, more stable barrel, and shifts the rifle's weight forwards (all very good things). During the shot, it helps hold the gun steady in the milliseconds after you squeeze the trigger but before the bullet actually leaves the barrel. People who do chunk gun shooting understand this, and so their blackpowder rifles can weigh anywhere from 40 to 70 pounds (no kidding). This is so heavy the gun doesn't move at all, and rifles built for competition in this field can easily make 5-shot groups in the region of 1/5 or less MOA.

If you're varmint hunting (prairie dogs and the like), a bull barrel is definitely worth it. If you're target shooting, they're wonderful. But if you're doing deer or some other form of larger game, it's kinda unnecessary.

Oh, and it's generally accepted that a heavy gun is easier to hold steady on a target. NRA Hi-Power competition M21s are rather weighty. Personally, I like my rifles as light as I can get them, with the center of gravity right where my front hand is.


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## Invector (Jan 13, 2006)

Intrsting. I was looking at going with a winchester that had lighter wight to it, in the 6.5lbs area. But now I think I may look at the same cal in a browing runing 1-2 lbs hevier, or at another brand.


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## Dave_w (May 25, 2005)

Remember that I'm talking about extremely fine degrees of accuracy here. Things that target shooters worry about. If it's just a hunting gun...well, kill zone on a deer is pretty big. But it will come into play with long-range prairie dogging.


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