Thread: Rifle weightloss : best bang for your buck ?

Where do you stand to gain the most ?

• Wood to carbon stock ?
• Standard "hunter/sporter" type barrel profile with stagger fluting ?

Just rough figures, but you could easily save

7oz/200g with a lighter supressor (DPT modular 3 baffle vs DPT standard can)
9oz/250g with a lighter scope (Vortex PST 4-16x50 vs Leupold VX3 4.5-14x40 CDS)

Keen to hear your thoughts...

I spose the biggest thing is where is the weight currently?
A bull barrel in a glass stock isn't going to gain much from a carbon stock obviously, but a Jenny craig session on the barrel is.

I have a calculator 'somewhere' that works out barrel weight based in size etc and you can enter numbers and depth of flutes to see what the final weight would be

std hunting type barrel so rem 700 sps, savage weather warrior, tikka T3 etc, not bull barrel.

std hunting type stock so either plastic fantastic or wood

My pick would be choose a round that works well from a short barrel and give it the chop.

Ditch the can, remove the scope [use open sights], remove the sling [baling twine may not look cool but is light] only have one round in rifle, drill holes through everything [butt, barrel, bolt, mag]...I have always thought the balance of the rifle to be more important than the weight.
Mine weighs in at 4.75 kg, but I wanted a mountain top to mountain top rifle so expect to have to carry some weight. I have seen so many, so called light rifles carried by hunters who have everything but the kitchen sink on their back or belt.

Go to the gym and work out a bit. The rifle should get lighter over time

Haha Toby, the innocence of youth... Get to 40+, knees buggered, etc, etc.

Valid points Spook, I already have a open sight, light bush basher.

This is more about reducing weight on a medium range, tops type rifle, so in my case it is always going to have a scope

Steel is generally heavier than wood right so I guess fluting is the obvious starting point. But if you can choose between 500g loss via fluting vs 500g for carbon stock, it comes down to cost. Having said that it would not make sense to have a massively front heavy barrel in a super light stock, so yup, balance comes into it as well.

Most of the time a carbon stock will save half a pound over a factory plastic stock, and a bit more over a wooden stock. Sometimes you can save a pound, but not often.

Fluting my Model 7 & SAUM barrel saved 5 oz,
fluting bolt saved 0.8oz,
lightweight firing pin saved 1.8oz.

Originally Posted by Spanners

I spose the biggest thing is where is the weight currently?
A bull barrel in a glass stock isn't going to gain much from a carbon stock obviously, but a Jenny craig session on the barrel is.

I have a calculator 'somewhere' that works out barrel weight based in size etc and you can enter numbers and depth of flutes to see what the final weight would be

Currently around my belly button but I'm not sure as it is a fair way in there at The mo

Sent from my HUAWEI Y210-0100 using Tapatalk 2

I dropped about 400gms going from plastic stock to carbon fibre, but then added weight in the butt to get the balance right.
There are some heavy scopes around so that would be the next best thing to look at.
Having tried the lighter is better, I've come to the conclusion that balance is best

Originally Posted by ebf

Haha Toby, the innocence of youth... Get to 40+, knees buggered, etc, etc.

Valid points Spook, I already have a open sight, light bush basher.

This is more about reducing weight on a medium range, tops type rifle, so in my case it is always going to have a scope

Steel is generally heavier than wood right so I guess fluting is the obvious starting point. But if you can choose between 500g loss via fluting vs 500g for carbon stock, it comes down to cost. Having said that it would not make sense to have a massively front heavy barrel in a super light stock, so yup, balance comes into it as well.

For a tops rifle I prefer the longer barrel and extra weight the rifle has to balance against the distance one is shooting at and any wind factor.
I don't use a suppressor as I don't have the heart to chop the end off the 26 inch's.

I dropped about 400gms going from plastic stock to carbon fibre, but then added weight in the butt to get the balance right.
There are some heavy scopes around so that would be the next best thing to look at.
Having tried the lighter is better, I've come to the conclusion that balance is best

if the likes of a standard tikka t3 lite has you worried about weight. how will you ever carry out your kill.

Originally Posted by bully

if the likes of a standard tikka t3 lite has you worried about weight. how will you ever carry out your kill.

Eggsactly:thumbup:

I use a Sako with a lupy on it.
Its bloody heavy by modern custom standards.

I can't think of a time i wished my rifle was lighter but many many times I wished my pack was lighter.

I (and probably most people) shoot better with a rifle with a bit of weight to it and well balanced, especially off hand or sitting or off a pack (you gotta carry it ill assume your hunting)

Take some shit you don't need out of your pack.(i need to do this too lol)

Its the sum of all parts unfortunately. That means little gains from doing lots of little (but expensive) mods.

Scope mounts, simple but very good way to save weight, i.e my optilok rings weigh about 200grams V's Talleys at well under half that weight.

I wouldn't bother with fluting the bolt again...sure it looks cool and saves a little bit of weight, but its the worst value for money of all the mods. However for the same money you can get the lightweight firing pin assemble and it will save double the weight of the bolt flutes.

Fluting the barrel is next most cost effective.

Selecting the correct scope is next. Some scopes are massive!!!!! And a rifle with one of these is just a waste of time for hunting (real hunting), as they don't carry well at all. For example a Nightforce weighs double what a Leupold does.

Finally a new stock. This is expensive...but it solves a couple of issues other than just weight - factory plastic stocks are shit for using off a bipod as your POI will change depending on how you're holding the rifle. The Carbon ones are solid as and lightweight too as a bonus.

kj