Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
Since day one when i started building my Xtreme Heavy Sporter (XHS) rifles for customers nearly 15 years ago, there were requests for a lightweight version of that rifle that was more portable. Most of this interest was because of the Idaho 16 lb. weight limit on big game rifles and people wanted a rifle they could hunt in Idaho with is the chance ever came up.
i have built dozens of rifles to meet this weight limit but never really set down and designed a true UL design that i could standardize for an order option to customers. Well until now.
had a customer contact me several years back, wanting to do just this. The entire process has been a pure cluster but in the mess, we were able to tap into new tech that in the end, made the weight well worth it. Wanted to share some of that process and the finished product with you.
first off, a short discription of my XHS rifles for comparison. They are chambered in my 338 and 375 Allen Magnums which are based on heavily modified cheytac parent cases.
here is a pic of two of my 375 Allen Magnums flanking a "little" 338 lapua mag case.
My standard XHS rifles have a 15-16 lb. bare rifle weight for single shot versions and 18-19 lb. weights for repeaters. Standard barrel lengths are 32" and can go up to 36" if wanted. BAT model CT 1.55" dia receivers are used for single shot rifles and the Stiller 1.600" TAC408 can be used for Single shot or repeaters. The very top end Cadex receivers are also an option for repeaters. My large 5 port Painkiller muzzle brakes are standard options on these rifles.
these rifles are very long, very heavy and extremely powerful with extreme levels of precision. Warm and fuzzy to shoot!!
most of the lighterweight versions i have made in the past just used a lighter contour barrel and less stock options to get weight down JUST enough to make our goals.
this project i am reporting on however was designed from the ground up with a 12 lb or under bare rifle weight goal in mind, yet doing so without the use of exotic Titanium parts that bring their own issues with cost and strength in my testing.
so to start out i was going to use the BAT 1.47" multi flat but in researching the weight of this receiver, it really was only a few ounces lighter then the larger diameter 1.55" round model. I would rather have the larger cross section of the larger diameter receiver so we went that way. I would simply take some milling cuts on the bottom of the receiver and under the rail base to lighten the weigh while giving no sign of any modifications. Also, the rail bases i use on these are all pinned to the receiver and all steel construction. I would mill out as much as possible on the underside of the rail to also drop weight.
the barrel used would be a custom contour design with the 1.350" minimum diameter i require for these chamberings, however the shank length would be shortened to minimum length sufficient to Safely support these big chambers.
we would also get pretty radical with the barrel length. I had never built a 338 Allen Mag with a barrel shorter then 30", with this one we were going with 28.5". This did make me a little nervous!!
instead of the huge 5 port Painkiller muzzle brake, we would use my Medium 3 port Painkiller. This brake is dramatically smaller yet still build plenty stout to handle the stress of a shorter barreled 338 Allen Mag rifle.
perhaps the biggest thing was McMillan releasing their new Enhanced Edge rifle stock technology. Previously we had to use their fiber glass shelled stocks only as their EDGE carbon fiber shelled stocks could not support the recoil stress. However, this new design allowed carbon fiber shell to be used with a strong inletting fill material in the receiver area and then light fill in rest of stock. This really was a game changer.
trigger would be the jewell with bottom safety, not the lightest but i just prefer using them.
as far as scopes go, we went with four Nightforce Ultralight tacticals and a customer supplied leupold mark4 8.5-25 with ffp reticle.
All coated up in coyote tan.
finished rifle turned out amazing. Extremely short (for this class of rifle) and tipping the scales at 11.9 lbs. bare rifle weight. Total weight of the rifle in the pics including bipod came in at 14.0 lb. even.
however, did i just take the legs out from under my 338 Allen Magnum to much with the very short barrel. Was time to find out. One advantage of this long process was also that i was now using the great USA made Peterson brass, not the old bertram cases. As such performance was much improved.
to my amazement though, this rifle topped out at 3345 fps with the 300 gr berger otm. Now, this is faster then i was ever expecting, in fact this is about standard velocity with my 32" barreled rifles so i do not expect to see this with every one of these rifles but honestly, anything over 3250 fps with this shorter barrel length i would have been happy with. Pressures are quite comfortable with the peterson hulls, easily meeting my 8 firings per case standard for my customer recommended loads.
final test, how it performed at long range. I was a bit concerned about this also with the lighter barrel. And while it does heat up quickly, when tested at 1045 yards, it easily met my accuracy standards for shipping.
In the end, a total success in my mind and will be the new standard model for my XHS UL rifles. Could not be happier with the results. If anyone is interested in this class of rifle or any of my other rifles, get ahold of me and we can get started building your dream long range hammer!!
i have built dozens of rifles to meet this weight limit but never really set down and designed a true UL design that i could standardize for an order option to customers. Well until now.
had a customer contact me several years back, wanting to do just this. The entire process has been a pure cluster but in the mess, we were able to tap into new tech that in the end, made the weight well worth it. Wanted to share some of that process and the finished product with you.
first off, a short discription of my XHS rifles for comparison. They are chambered in my 338 and 375 Allen Magnums which are based on heavily modified cheytac parent cases.
here is a pic of two of my 375 Allen Magnums flanking a "little" 338 lapua mag case.
My standard XHS rifles have a 15-16 lb. bare rifle weight for single shot versions and 18-19 lb. weights for repeaters. Standard barrel lengths are 32" and can go up to 36" if wanted. BAT model CT 1.55" dia receivers are used for single shot rifles and the Stiller 1.600" TAC408 can be used for Single shot or repeaters. The very top end Cadex receivers are also an option for repeaters. My large 5 port Painkiller muzzle brakes are standard options on these rifles.
these rifles are very long, very heavy and extremely powerful with extreme levels of precision. Warm and fuzzy to shoot!!
most of the lighterweight versions i have made in the past just used a lighter contour barrel and less stock options to get weight down JUST enough to make our goals.
this project i am reporting on however was designed from the ground up with a 12 lb or under bare rifle weight goal in mind, yet doing so without the use of exotic Titanium parts that bring their own issues with cost and strength in my testing.
so to start out i was going to use the BAT 1.47" multi flat but in researching the weight of this receiver, it really was only a few ounces lighter then the larger diameter 1.55" round model. I would rather have the larger cross section of the larger diameter receiver so we went that way. I would simply take some milling cuts on the bottom of the receiver and under the rail base to lighten the weigh while giving no sign of any modifications. Also, the rail bases i use on these are all pinned to the receiver and all steel construction. I would mill out as much as possible on the underside of the rail to also drop weight.
the barrel used would be a custom contour design with the 1.350" minimum diameter i require for these chamberings, however the shank length would be shortened to minimum length sufficient to Safely support these big chambers.
we would also get pretty radical with the barrel length. I had never built a 338 Allen Mag with a barrel shorter then 30", with this one we were going with 28.5". This did make me a little nervous!!
instead of the huge 5 port Painkiller muzzle brake, we would use my Medium 3 port Painkiller. This brake is dramatically smaller yet still build plenty stout to handle the stress of a shorter barreled 338 Allen Mag rifle.
perhaps the biggest thing was McMillan releasing their new Enhanced Edge rifle stock technology. Previously we had to use their fiber glass shelled stocks only as their EDGE carbon fiber shelled stocks could not support the recoil stress. However, this new design allowed carbon fiber shell to be used with a strong inletting fill material in the receiver area and then light fill in rest of stock. This really was a game changer.
trigger would be the jewell with bottom safety, not the lightest but i just prefer using them.
as far as scopes go, we went with four Nightforce Ultralight tacticals and a customer supplied leupold mark4 8.5-25 with ffp reticle.
All coated up in coyote tan.
finished rifle turned out amazing. Extremely short (for this class of rifle) and tipping the scales at 11.9 lbs. bare rifle weight. Total weight of the rifle in the pics including bipod came in at 14.0 lb. even.
however, did i just take the legs out from under my 338 Allen Magnum to much with the very short barrel. Was time to find out. One advantage of this long process was also that i was now using the great USA made Peterson brass, not the old bertram cases. As such performance was much improved.
to my amazement though, this rifle topped out at 3345 fps with the 300 gr berger otm. Now, this is faster then i was ever expecting, in fact this is about standard velocity with my 32" barreled rifles so i do not expect to see this with every one of these rifles but honestly, anything over 3250 fps with this shorter barrel length i would have been happy with. Pressures are quite comfortable with the peterson hulls, easily meeting my 8 firings per case standard for my customer recommended loads.
final test, how it performed at long range. I was a bit concerned about this also with the lighter barrel. And while it does heat up quickly, when tested at 1045 yards, it easily met my accuracy standards for shipping.
In the end, a total success in my mind and will be the new standard model for my XHS UL rifles. Could not be happier with the results. If anyone is interested in this class of rifle or any of my other rifles, get ahold of me and we can get started building your dream long range hammer!!
