My Howa 1500 Mini in 7.62x39 w/ the LW barrel option in a laminated stock is 6.9 lbs. WITH the 2-7x Leupold in Talley rings and the Blue Force sling on pocket type QD's. Nothing exotic and wasn't terribly expensive to build. I would imagine that the .223 version of this rifle would weigh a fraction less, but the optic that you'd want on such a critter will weigh a bit more. I think that it could be built to come in the 7.0-7.2 lbs scoped range while not spending cubic dollars on it. Brownell's for the barreled action, Boyds for the stock.