Thread: Hunting rifles on Barnard P actions

Could forum members who have gone down this path for a LR portable rifle please let me know what the all-up carry weight ended up at ? What if any methods were used to lighten the action and/or barrel, and what compromises were felt (or found) to have been made in doing so ? Or is the opinion that the P is just too heavy a starting point for this type of project ?

How portable do you need to be ?

6 pounds ?

9 pounds ?

12 pounds ?

12 pounds or under scoped.

Using the "double port" P action will help reduce weight. Both AB precision & SSR Rifles have done a few lightened barnard actions - a few have featured on here.

Why not go for Barnard S or SM ?

Did a 338 on a Barnard p with 30" barrel and was 12.5 pounds with a nightforce. Had carbon A5 style stock and a heavy steel 20moa base.

Originally Posted by ebf

Why not go for Barnard S or SM ?

Can only get std size (223,308) bolt face.... have to be the P if you want a magnum face for bigger case.

Originally Posted by Puffin

12 pounds or under scoped.

Easy to achieve with a lightened P.

Have made a Benchrest rifle on one, managed to get Light Varmint easy enough, that's 10.5 lbs

Mine is about 9 1/2 lb scoped. 30 inch fluted #3.5 barrel, Ti brake, McMillan Game Scout, March 3-24 x 52 scope.

Has been dual ported, rear of action shortened, bolt fluted, flats milled top and bottom of action. Aim was to do all weight reduction in a symmetrical fashion so not to induce and stress in the action.

Symmetrically butchered

Thanks. An interesting spread of builds, weights, and ideas... food for thought.

My starting point was:

1.4kg Action,
1.3kg Stock,
1.0kg Scope, rings & base/s,

and the rest gets put into the barrel.

Then as weight is shaved off any of the above either the overall figure can come down or the barrel profile beefed up. By my calculations if left as-is then a #3 takes the total to 12 lb.

Your stock weight is a bit heavy, a carbon A5 style will be closer to 900gr.

The modified Model P in have here weighs 1050 grams complete with action screws, trigger & bolt.

Originally Posted by Kiwi Greg

The modified Model P in have here weighs 1050 grams complete with action screws, trigger & bolt.

Mine is also right around this weight, although its a short PL action. Barnard did a run of the larger PL actions, but kept the length the same as the P (which is 15mm shorter than the PL in "normal" configuration).

So I reckon you could work on an action weight of say 1,100g, plus a stock at 1,000g (incl bedding) to then work out your barrel profile. A Game Scout stock is lighter again (750g) than an A5, and an A3 sits between the 2 if taking more weight out is a priority. I think its Pacnor that have a handy barrel weight calculator on their website that would be useful for giving you an idea of barrel weight.

Also, have you looked at other action options? You can get a short action Hardy with a Mag bolt face (or Lapua Mag) with a solid bottom, so set up as a single shot. My brother has one sitting in a box for a build like this.

There is also Dan Lilja's barrel weight calculator Computer Software - Lilja