Judson

I agree with most of what you said. However a 6 pound rifle still has a trigger pull greater then half the rifle weight which on a fast shot makes for a pulled shot. In addition to this you build confidence in your shooting abilities and your rifles on the bench. Here being beat to death defeats the goal. Your point about shooting in hunting positions after the rifle is sited in is excellent. I tell this to my customers all the time. Lots of them seem to forget that in the woods or where ever, we do not have shooting benches and sand bags. To forget this fact will result in lots of wounded, missed and lost game!!!!

noway

I would buy one of the new HS Precision light weight rifles in .300 short magnum.
Sweet!

bigcountry

Thats why Judson, people practices with there freehand shots. Practice, practice, practice. While on my trips up to Canada I learned something. Its not so important that your gun shoots dimes at 200 yards. But that you are in good physical shape and know your limitation. Those are the most important. So to learn the limitations with a 16lb bench gun or a 6lb gun, you need to practice shooting the way you will in the field. I don' t care if you got a 6lb gun, 9lbgun or whatever, if you don' t know your limitations, and don' t practice, then you will get wounded animals.

Judson

If you are in good enough condition for the hunt then you do not need a wimp weight gun to carry otherwise we would all carry rubber rifles or hand guns. Bottom line carry enough gun and learn to shoot from all positions. You light weight guys would love a 6 pound .375 H&H right? I built a 6 1/2 pound .458 for a guy, just what he wanted. After he shot it a few times he had a bad twitch when you handed him the rifle and he wanted a muzzel brake. He got it, but if you can' t handle an extra pound or two then you should probably spend some time at the jym. I am not any ARNOLD, but in Africa I carried my own rifle and it is a heavy weight I will admit, 12 3/4 pounds but I got in condition for the hunt and I have R.A. throught my hole body. Being alittle honest that is why I wanted a rifle that heavy. I did not want to be beat to death. It is chambered for a new cartridge I was developing, the .366 D.G.W. a neck down of the .416 Rigby. If I knew my new muzzel brake design would of worked so well the rifle would of been around 2 pounds lighter
I did not admit to that did I? But on the serious side you can not shoot a rifle that is too light as well as a heavier one. I went to an extreem for medical reasons but there is a point of being ubsurd, and alot of these feather weights are beyond that point. If you can walk and talk and hunt then 7 pluss pounds will not hurt you and will probably improve your shooting. My rifles shoot under 1/2" under all conditions. True, that is more then you need for hunting, but half of making the shot is having confidence in your rifle and it' s accuracy. You develop that by practice and if you get beat to death you do not practice!!!!!!!!

woodseye

I will say I' ve shot Judsons gun and for the cartridge size its a real *****cat to shoot with very little recoil at all.My dream gun would be......no fair laughing................a savage 16FSS in 260 or 7mm-08 with a stock made from a walnut burl blank I own, with a premium air guaged barrel,sharp shooter supply trigger and recoil lug,jeweled bolt,squared and trued action,lapped lugs and bolt,topped with a Zeiss Conquest scope nestled in Burris signature rings,and weighing in at about 8#.Guess I' d have Judson build it as I' ve seen his stock work and it goes beyond excellant,he probably just wouldn' t want me to tell anyone he worked on a .............savage

woods

bigcountry

I don' t Judson, your the first smith that I have ever heard ever needing a 12lb rifle for hunting. Now in africa, how much driving did you do??? I guess with that truck gun, it will make no difference how much it wieghs in Africa. I am a big guy. And I feel very strong. And I took a 12lb PSS to Newfoundland last year. The guides said, " why do you need such a heavy rifle?" Said I just wanted to see how it would do. A 300RUM on moose. The fact of it is, you don' t need a 12lb gun to get 1/2 groups. And you don' t need 3K to get 1/2 groups either. If you do, then like alot of very well know gun smiths say, " your compensating for something that is not right" . You sound more like a shootist, than a hardcore hunter. Probably shooting off the bags 99% of the time. right? Nothing wrong with that. I love to shoot too. But bowhunt alot more than gunhunt. And have alot of heavy guns. This last 700, I went too far. I got a #6 contour kreieger. Just too much for its benefit. And yes, in 300RUM, it doesn' t kick hardly at all with this barrel. But hey, its long range target gun, so big deal. Last weekend, with 200gr matchkings and 94gr of H1000, it got 1" groups several times at 200 yards. But I feel I could have done the same with a lighter barrel.

oldelkhunter

BigCountry, I agree with you completely on the NULA' s they are a work of art...point like a fine shotgun and are accurate as all get out and don' t weigh 10-12 lbs. Making a similiar comparism with bird hunting compare the responsiveness of a beautiful 20 gauge double with that of a 12 gauge pump gun. Not all your shots in hunting are spotting something and finding a good rest and executing the shot, you may have to make a quick snap shot at something you just kicked out of its bed and you may be at 9000 ft and winded after a nice morning hike , so a lightweight gun earns it pay there . I find that there are 2 types of gunsmiths when it comes to accurate rifles...some abhor lightweight rifles and think that unless you have a minimum # 4 contour barrel beddded into a McMillan stock that the gun is worthless, other gunsmiths build their guns and actions and work on making them shoot like a 10-12 lb gun. It would simply cost to much for a manufacturer to make his guns shoot like that and weigh like that. On the other hand most carefully made factory rifles with trigger and bedding tuning will shoot as well as most custom rifles and in some cases better. That said if you want a Wildcat and one built on a 375 case or larger your not going to find one that fits the bill coming from the factory that won' t need some reworking.

neweboarhunter

Judson,

Melvin will install a muzzle brake if the buyer wants one, he told me he does not like to do so but will. He says the stock design helps reduce recoil and the recoil pads he has look thick and soft. He will build rifles up to .458 win mag class they are around 7lbs though.[]

oldelkhunter

Trust me you don' t want to touch off a ULA chambered in anything larger than a 7 rem mag.....the 284 win I shot hammered like a 338 in fact the 338 was preferable...he(M Forbes) sells sandbag shells just for that reason. You don' t get a free lunch with the light weight...his stock design and recoil pad minimizes recoil to a degree but you still get wacked... hunting you would probably never notice it though.

seattlesetters

I don' t hunt brown bear, so I would opt for a 6.5mm X .284 built by Rick Freudenberg out of Seattle.