To me a "mountain rifle" is used in terrain where you walk with your feet AND hands. At that point ounces make pounds and pounds hurt. I want a 7lb or less loaded rifle. It gets very expensive the lighter you go. 7-08, 300wsm, 6.5x284 type cartridges are going to be my choice for a lightweight build.
A good sling will help distribute walking weight.
A good directional brake "not radial, I despise radial brakes" can mitigate recoil in any rifle. Much more so than a suppressor. I'm not knocking the use of a suppressor but they seem to get in the way more than they help mitigate recoil....but thats not what their main function is. A directional brake is going to "pull" the recoil impulse toward the muzzle and do more to mitigate felt recoil than 2-3 more pounds of weight added to a rifle.
I personally leave the suppressor work to sub sonic 300blk and similar. Spending $800-$1400 on a suppressor plus the $250 "right to bear arms<tyranny tax stamp" just to have a rifle you can still hear 300yds away is weird to me. Now if muzzle flash mitigation is what your after then I get it. Or if you are thermal hunting hogs with 3 or 4 buddies and yall are about to "make hate" on a sounder of hogs and rattle off 60-80 rounds....put a can on it.
I'd rather have an 8lb 300wm with a good break and a 26" barrel than a +10# 300wm neutered with a 22" barrel to facilitate the use of suppressor. Mitigate as much recoil as possible, wear muffs during range work, the walker's type electronic ear plugs in the field. It's a bolt action not a belt fed. So the number of rounds fired isn't going to be that high.
A good sling will help distribute walking weight.
A good directional brake "not radial, I despise radial brakes" can mitigate recoil in any rifle. Much more so than a suppressor. I'm not knocking the use of a suppressor but they seem to get in the way more than they help mitigate recoil....but thats not what their main function is. A directional brake is going to "pull" the recoil impulse toward the muzzle and do more to mitigate felt recoil than 2-3 more pounds of weight added to a rifle.
I personally leave the suppressor work to sub sonic 300blk and similar. Spending $800-$1400 on a suppressor plus the $250 "right to bear arms<tyranny tax stamp" just to have a rifle you can still hear 300yds away is weird to me. Now if muzzle flash mitigation is what your after then I get it. Or if you are thermal hunting hogs with 3 or 4 buddies and yall are about to "make hate" on a sounder of hogs and rattle off 60-80 rounds....put a can on it.
I'd rather have an 8lb 300wm with a good break and a 26" barrel than a +10# 300wm neutered with a 22" barrel to facilitate the use of suppressor. Mitigate as much recoil as possible, wear muffs during range work, the walker's type electronic ear plugs in the field. It's a bolt action not a belt fed. So the number of rounds fired isn't going to be that high.
