Best ways to save loose weight?

Righto so looking at making a few changes to one of my rifles... want to make her into a lightweight 5-500m go to rig.

What are the best ways to drop some weight from her, its currently a Remington 700 Mountain rifle in .270 with laminated stock. The action barrel and weigh 5.63 pounds and by the time i put a carbon stock on is looking to be close to 7 pounds.

Barrel is already thin countour so fluting is not an option, but will fluting the bolt and changing the firing pin to a lightweight one save much weight and if so approximately how much? Would ideally like to get it down between 6-6.5 pounds.

What is the best light weight set of rings/bases available in 30mm? Wanting to put a VX-6 2-12 CDS on top.

Or are there any existing threads showing a break down of ways to save weight, i couldn't find any?

Cheers
Nick

lift a weight

That would be to easy and no fun :D.

Bore it out to a bigger calibre?

Buy a Kimber,
If you want to shoot to 500 then a little weight isnt a bad thing.

Dont really like the stocks on Kimbers mate, just realised i made a muck up in the initial post. 5.63 pounds is including the bushnell 4200 3-9x40 and rings as well, so would be just under 7 pounds all up.

So wondering about the savings from bolt fluting etc to try bring it down closer to 6.5 pounds? I know its not heavy either way but i like the idea of a real light weight rifle, most of my hunting is bush stalking and in all reality probably 99% of my shots are stand up at 10-50m, i just want the options for summer tops missions etc aswell.

Shit my rifle weighs 10lbs all up loaded with suppressor, sling, scope, etc. I'm okay with it. Once you start worrying about saving every gram you'll never be happy. Just carry it and forget about it.

I haven't weighed it but my main rifle is probably 10 pound with scope and rings no suppressor and no ammo.

It is the easiest thing to carry of all the shit I carry.

If you really want light cut the barrel off at the fore end.:D

The carbon stock will definitely lighten it up a bit. Really though if you continue down this road how much bang for your buck are you getting? If it is to make your rifle cool / a project for you, well go for it. If you want to go further and faster may be going for a couple of runs would work better? What is a couple of 100 grams of rifle when you are aiming to carry out 20+ kg of meat. My 2 cents.

A lightweight firing pin in my Model 7 saves 1.9 oz. Fluting the bolt probably won't save that much again, but should see total weight savings of apprx 3 oz.
Talley rings are the lightest. Gunworks sells for approx $105, they do need lapping though.

You can loose a lot of weight from a pack by deciding what is absolutely necessary vs luxury. Look carefully at food, cookers etc. Do you need a pretty stainless mug when a light cheap plastic mug works, that sort of idea.

Talleys lightweight alloy rings

Ditching the scope and rings and using iron sights will save you ~400gms

Cheers

I had no idea how much could be saved by making these minor changes so wanted to know the weights so i could weigh up my options and decide whether they are worth doing, or whether to just make the major changes and be done with it. By the sounds of it they are not worth doing, as you say a weight saving of 100 grams is bugger all, if by doing this it was going to bring it down say 500 grams then i probably would have gone for it.

Call gunworks - they will be able to tell you what they can shave off it. Light rifles rule but the $ involved might be more than any savings are worth.. :)

The bit above about the light pack is the MAIN thing you can save weight on. I can usually lift my weekend pack on one finger without compromising warmth and safety at all. For the $ spent shaving 200g off a rifle you could probably drop 5kg +++ off your pack. Army studies actually show that the best place to remove weight is from your boots!

To save weight i wouldn't be looking at a 30 mm loopie scope.

There would be a good place to start in the weight loss programme.
Im not offering an alternitive just a place to start looking

Deep pockets are required if you want to continue down this path, ie carbon stock, flute everything and light weight replacements...

Im in the process of upgrading quite alot of gear to lighter stuff, got a new tent on the way and just bought a light weight cooker as well. My pack doesn't way alot for a fly camping trip anyway maybe maybe 13kg max for an over nighter (including fresh food and a bottle of water) and maybe 17kg max for a week (i could easily lighten this up more to). Take basically the same stuff for a week as i do overnight just take a few extra kgs of food.

I agree with the weight side of things on the scope but have done some research. There are not many options in scopes that cover both the high and low ends of the magnification while still being able to dial, the 6500 2.5-16 was another option but the weight is similar to the loopy. I figured that i wanted decent glass without going overboard and this scope is pretty much perfect for my style of hunting (apart from the weight). The loopy apparently weighs in at 496g vs my current bushnell at 408g.

You might be surprised what Gunworks can do to lighten your rifle...last time I was in I spotted a Remmy that had been put on a SERIOUS diet!
Action had been milled of metal from some areas and front portion only of the barrel under full length suppressor had been turned down to a very small profile...I don't know what it weighed but it was without a doubt, the lightest fully suppressed bolt action I have held!

Not having a suppressor or bipod helps alot with weight.

I try to put myself on a weight loss scheme before my rifle, iv got possibly 5-10 kg of condition i could drop well more than the total weight of my rifle.

Lightweight is the only way to go for a hunting rifle. Once you use on you'll never want to carry anything else.

Weight savings are made by a little here, a little there..its the sum of all parts that determines the total weight. I use PTG parts like trigger guards, firing pins, bolts etc.. then flute everything i can. Finally carbon fibre and lightweight scope choices .

Bang for buck a carbon stock and barrel fluting is money well spent, other items don't save much more but imo are still worth doing as they add up to about the weight of a bipod.

Kj

I tend to save it by turning it into fat, then it's always there for later.

Do you start out with a realistic goal?
Or venture blindly till you ended up with what?
Thin barrel is the best way I've found to save weight, real thin then flute and shorten.
Carbon stocks are awesome and light. Talley rings are the same,

Write a shopping list, cost it out see what you can afford, then make the best choice you can with your budget,

Do you order in the parts from this site kimjon Pacific Tool & Gauge, Inc. - New Products ??? Any problems getting them into the country?


I have a carbon stock on the way, its going to be a slow process but i cant wait to see the result. :thumbsup:

Ha I hunt with a 308 AR with a pretty heavy barrel, PEPR mount, bipod, suppressor, and 7rds in the mag, and it has to be the most awkward thing to carry ever, my arms are usually in a lot more pain than my legs after a good walk in the Tararuas haha... Perhaps I should explore weight saving measures too, but I have a suspicion that it'll never be a light rifle

Now there a discussion on when to shit to save weight, if you shit to soon you run the risk of not getting all the energy out of it, to late you carry that extra rate. Of course a good red hot arse afterwards will make you move faster

I had a Rem 700 mountain rifle in 7x64 a few years ago and still regret selling it. They are as light a you can get them. A carbon stock will save a bit, but I would leave it dor the rest. What will you gai? A few ounces and loose a lot of money. A T3 lite might be a bit lighter, but how much?

spinning some meat off a t3 barrel would gain you a bit, they are a much larger barrel than my 601 brno

gunworks done a t3 LIGHTER that they had fluited both the barrel and bolt that was a fair price,

Have you seen this thread?
http://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co.n...g-rifles-1590/

My Model 7 in there is a little over 6lb scoped and supressed, but a shorter action, barrel etc.

My M700 (also in the same thread) is 8.15lb scoped (25oz scope) with a 26" #3 fluted barrel, so your aim is certainly achievable, but at a bit of a cost...

Tikka T3 lite 6.5x55 rifle, fluted barrel & bolt | Trade Me

good info in there about the t3 liter package gunworks made a few months back.

110grams off the barrel, and 30 grams off the bolt.

finish weight of rifle and rings 6 pounds+ 10 grams

$299 to flute the barrel ($2.72 per gram lighter)
$138 to flute bolt ($4.60 per gram lighter)

$437 for 140 grams.

Put serious thaught to the scope that you choose. as it will soak that 140 grams up really qucikly if you choose poorly