Question concerning packable rifles: What would be a good size/weight for a packable rifle?
A 10/22 with a short carbon barrel that can be easily removed/reinstalled and a synthetic minimalist stock that can also be easily removed/reinstalled seems like it would make a good packable rifle.
Or
Something like a TC with a light-weight stock.
I think the 10/22 is a lot of rifle for the job, and a lot of customizing work to duplicate what a papoose does. There's also the golden 39 lever gun, which is a fantastic and overlooked option.
I think that a TC carbine in a lot of available calibers is a fine answer, and a case where I'd probably vote for a .32SWL or possibly a selection of handloaded .32 H&R magnum rounds.
All of those answers are a certain amount of space and mass you have to deal with, and that's a personal choice. As is rate of fire and ammunition capacity.
I partly agree with Andrew about pistols. While I find the bearcat to be fun, I don't think of it as having any real advantage over one of the good 8-9 shot full size .22 revolvers except a little bit of mass. And if you want to save mass that baldy I'd just say go with the mini-master. Bearcats are *nice* but expensive and really more of a youth sized gun.
I also partly disagree- the performance difference between short and long barrels is pronounced and I'd rather put rounds through 16 or 18 inches of barrel than 4 or 6- and I would not, for practical wilderness/packing use, carry something with a shorter barrel than that.
If you do some research on ballistic results of various barrels, especially with .22, .32, and .38/.357 rounds, you will find that there are some really huge performance increases with longer barrels.
Now, an ideal case in my mind would be a 12 inch barrel peep sight carbine in .22LR with a folding stock. I'd prefer it to be a repeater of some sort, but bolt action would be fine, and a 10 round capacity would make me not worry too much about reloads. Give it a 1:9 twist so that it handles the really heavy 60 grain subsonics well.
Since that's not doable, I like the idea of a simple and lightweight takedown. Which can be fairly expensive, and I have good revolvers. So I carry the revolvers for now.
A lot of this depends on what you want out of a packable gun. I tend to think of hunting as a primary task, but many people wnat something that is strictly self defense - which i think negates the 'packable' topic and just goes into tactical concealed carry choise in another forum area.
Great pistol