Thread: Wanting a lighter rifle

Re barreling from 30/06 to 308 is going to save shag all. 308s are sometimes lighter due to shorter actions. If you kep the same action stick with 30/06. Shorten the barrel to 18 inches if you like and that will take a wee bit of weight of the front. Trading to Tikka would be a step down in my view. Yes Tikka's are god rifles, but Sako is too. Stocks can be lightened up depending on how far you want to go. (Shorten the LOP slightly, take some of the fore end back, hollow it out a bit) but before you go down that road, weigh the stock by itself and compare that to other types of stocks. While there is some weight difference between stocks, it is often not as much as people think. Rather than turning down barrel profile, consider fluting too. If you look to fluting, make sure you consider shortening and threading first. And the weight difference between the new Gunworks Spartan and the DPT light is 350grams versus 192grams so the DPT is 150 grams less. (Thats less that two moro bars.....) Ditch the bipod would be the first suggestion to make it lighter. Second would be a fixed power scope or simply a lighter smaller scope. S&B is listed at about 720grams, Leupold VX3 2.5-8x36 is 323 grams, Leupold 3.5-10x40 is 357 grams, Vortex crossfire 3-9x40 is 425 grams and all three will be bigger weight reductions than the suppressor....(but probably not as much as shortening the barrel.)