A lot of the recommendations you'll get here understandably are from people that live/love 18-25lb rifles purpose built for competition rimfires and it sounds like that's definitely not your use case. You're going to hear guys say you need a 1.25" 25" barrel to "balance" but that's for comp games. It is nice to have adjustability that comes with a chassis but for hunting/general use they have downsides, lots of adjustments to come loose, things to snag on, if they are metal they are cold, all things I don't want in a general use hunting gun.
So if I were you I'd look at something with a nice non-metal stock that has an adjustable cheek rest and reasonably light weight, something that's going to stay under 10lbs with an optic. 16" is fine.
Tikka UPR. - 6lbs
B14R- carbon. - 8lbs
CZ varmint at one - 7.75lbs
You could also buy a base model T1x or CZ 457 and put it in something like a Bravo etc.
