A walking varminter IS a lightweight varminter. If you ever see a "real" varmint rifle, you will understand. Most have medium-heavy barrels in fairly heavy stocks that help steady the rifle for accurate shooting of targets that are 2" across and 12" tall at distances up to 500-ish yds. For example, my first 22-250 had a 28" #5 profile barrel on it and weighed in at 11.4 lbs with scope. Not exactly "walking varminter" material, but it shot well when set up shooting prone at ground squirrels from 100-500 yds.Savage model 25 .17 Hornet lightweight varminter or walking varminter?