Where to trim weight (rifle)

Attachment 244878Attachment 244878

A comment from Greg from terminator products has had me thinking.. it went something like no matter how accurate a rifle is, if it’s not lightweight, it will live in the safe. Bloody true!

In the quest to get animals out to 800yds I’ve put some time into this Hardys custom 6.5x284 but at 4.7kg it’s a heavy beast.. where can I trim weight? I’m a bit stuck for ideals

My thought is the stock which I absolutely love, I don’t really want to take it apart to see where the weight is.. is it the barrell or the stock?

I’m not willing to sacrifice optics I know I’ve got 1kg on top

It has a Rem 700 action, 26in barrell and brake.

Attachment 244879

If you have a carbon barrel and carbon stock there isn't much you can do to easily drop weight other than in the scope.

The rifle is just over 10lb which honestly isn't a bad stop to be. It's clearly not a rifle you'll e doing any bush stalking in and weight is actually a good thing as far as stability goes for taking longer range shots.

A shorter barrel is probably the best place to start but as it is carbon you won't be able to chop it.
A lighter stock would be the next place but for longer range shooting you want a decent stock.

Personally I'd get a decent 2 point sling and attach it via QD studs on the side of the rifle(AR15 style). You can then wear the rifle to take the additional weight and still have the ability to take a shot quickly.

The modern trend is to pile the weight on the bones and then blame the rifle for being overweight.

Sure is. Cheeper to eat healthy and do stuff. Heavier rifle does cut back recoil too.

Get fitter and stronger if your not willing to change optic or stock it’s going to be hard to shed weight

Start again

For what it is, 4.7kg is pretty good.

Do you ever use the sling?

I think you ruled out the obvious solution with the scope where you could easily drop 400gm.

It sounds like your happy with this rifle and even when shedding some weight in places it won't be a sub 4kg so may as well keep it as is.

My current setup is 4.2kg suppressed. Goes everywhere, does everything.

Sounds like a good reason to setup another rifle. A lightweight one this time!

Get some chinese scales man it helps a lot

You could save a couple hundred grams by dropping the NF for a March F or a Mk5 or similar.

As others have hinted at, get ‘match’ fit and get used to carrying the rifle as it is. My ‘every day shooter’, a 223, weighs 4kg. From time to time I think about lighter rifles but other times quite pleased with the weight when breathing hard or taking a 300+m shot. Having a day off today but tomorrow will do a regular bush loop checking traplines/goat shooting. From near sea level to 650m altitude variation. Gotten use to carrying that rifle weight, you should too.

It's a beautiful rifle but it sounds like when you built this you didn't have the above concerns re: weight in mind , I'd either put up with it knowing that you are benefiting when it comes to pulling off a long range shot, or start again and build a lightweight rifle from the ground

Leaving the ammo at home saves lots of weight. Can't shoot anything = guaranteed you don't have to carry meat back out. Lighter in, lighter out. Can't loose.

That rifle is never going to be particularly light weight you'll only be able to tinker around the edges. As other's have said it's pretty light for what it is.

Ream a .260 or creed tikka long action mag and bolt stop job done on the cheapish then theirs scope costs though suppressor etc gets spendy quick

Some carbon stocks aren't that lite, you might be able to save a few hundred grams in changing to an NZ made one?

Otherwise optics is the obvious one. nightforce isn't lightweight.

get out the bathroom scales...place on kitchen floor..then stand on them.....yip there is probably the most weight loss to be gained right there (sure as shit is in my case) everyone should own a heavy rifle....carting it around makes you appreciate the other lighter rifles..which is where I BELIEVE you should head to..build/buy a different rifle for the bush/long carry trips in a completely different cartridge or one eggzachary the same...dont go close to it or will forever be umming and ahhhing either completely different so the jobs are obvious or the same so can use same ammo in a pinch.
maybe a .308 shortish suppressed??? it will do out to 300 but will excell inside 200......vs your current will do inside 200 but excells outside that.
or go 223 so the young fella can use it too!!!! that will be much easier to have light and still shoot well...although I prefer mine with heavier stock as shoot better/easier with it.

Unless it's a light weight barrel choping it won't make much difference I have a howa 1500 heavy barrel chopped to 12.5 inches in a standard stock with a delta 1-6 hd stryker and with the suppressor on and ammo in I'm at 4.1kg could possibly drop 500gms and get a carbon stock but it's a bush/bike gun and is well balanced and recoil is manageable, I can also get a few down the spout when having a bomb up without the barrel over heating

Considering you want to shoot animals out to 800, and there's approximately a 70% corilation between precision and the muzzle energy/rifle weight ratio. It might be counter productive.

As others have said you are probably only going to be able to trim less than 10% of the total weight by switching out the scope, but of course you'll be sacrificing magnification, tube size or ruggedness (or all the above) to get there. Diminishing returns and all that..

For reference, I have a Tikka T3 lite in 270WSM with a full 24" barrel, fibreglass Bell & Carlson stock, compact 2.5-10x scope and that is 4.1 kg with a much lighter barrel profile. I'd consider that as light as I would want it to be if I'm to shoot it well. It used to be in a timber hunter stock and a few hundred grams lighter, but it was actually unpleasant to shoot Z(especially off a bipod) in that configuration.

Even with a suppressor added, making it 4.5kg it's still pretty fine to cart around in the hills, especially if I put it in the scabbard on my bag. Hardly notice it's there.

You'd be better off taking a few kilos off your own frame (unless you're already a rake) instead of spending thousands to trim a fraction of that.

I keep re reading this you want to loose weight but dont want to change anything? How does that even work?

Personally I struggle to shoot a really lightweight Rifle well .
I’d probably look at other optic options / mounts / sling etc and then just be happy that I have a great set up .

Make the kid carry it for you.

It will become strong like Conan.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by blip

I keep re reading this you want to loose weight but dont want to change anything? How does that even work?

---

Helium filled balloons that's how it works

Pretty sure you'll come up empty handed.
Carbon wrapped barrel and CF stock with a NF on top, so even with a lighter scope you won' feel any difference. These are the three major weight components on any rifle so you're stuck with what you've got
Surely you checked out the all up weight before you bought it??

Your scope weighs 1kg..... So the rifle weighs in at 3.7 ....my marlin 336 weighs 3.6..... get a lighter tent , pack, sleeping bag ...save the carry in weight there

Appreciate all the responses! Yep as I thought trim up the man with the rifle and man up and carry it! Now to drop a stag with it!

800y is a farking long way.

All of my rifles are sub 4kg with scope ready to hunt. Defiance ultralight, proof carbon, manners ultra classic, hawkijs hybrids, bdl bottom metals, trigger tech triggers and usually a hardy can with march/nightforce scope. I constantly shoot around 600m, sometimes out to 700m. Or 708 as per my last long kill. Usually I'll only do that on a cull animal, or a decent stag I want. Otherwise I'll just go for meat animals closer with an easy recovery.

Bigger hole in the barrel.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk