What is a typical mountain rifle build?

[SavageHunter11]

Hello, been a longtime lurker on Long Range Hunting and you guys have helped me a lot but I decided to post here as I couldn't find a thread to answer my question.

I have been looking to start building a sort of all purpose hunting/mountain rifle and I wanted to make sure it was light enough for the sheep or elk hunts I have planned in the mountains. Long story short, what I thought would be the bees knees of all around hunting/mountain rifles came in at an estimated 187.5 oz (11.53 lbs) with scope. While this would be fine for regular whitetail hunting it seems that I'm about 2.5lbs heavy for an ideal rifle. How do you all typically spec out a rifle you are planning to carry in the mountains? I thought I was building a 7-8 lbs rifle but I was mistaken. Below is the build I had thought was going to be great with weight of parts. Also, a '*' indicates an weight I estimated. I have no problems throwing the entire build out if I am just completely off track from where I should be in building a mountain rifle with the exception of caliber, I'm pretty sure I want a 280A.I. Where am I going wrong on getting the rifle lighter? Thank you in advance for looking and giving your advise.


My original planned build:

• Remington 700 long action receiver trued by NSS (39oz*)
• Timney 3.5lbs trigger w/ safety (0oz added when replacing original)
• Sin Arms fluted bolt service (-1oz*)
• M5 Stealth LA flush bottom metal (7.5oz* added when replacing original)
• Magpul PMAG 5 AC-L magazine (2.8oz)
• Criterion Remage heavy sporter barrel in 280A.I. (54oz)
• Barrel fluting from NSS (-6oz*)
• Barrel muzzle threading (-1oz*)
• NSS Remage precision recoil lug (1oz*)
• NSS squared and trued barrel nut (3oz*)
• APA Micro Bastard Muzzle break (1.8oz)
• Manners MCS-TA full carbon fiber stock (44.8oz)
• Manners flush cups (x2), sling studs (x3), 9/16" pillars (3oz*)
• Nightforce SHV F1 4-14x44mm scope (30oz)
• Iota Outdoors Triad 30mm medium scope rings (3oz)
• Butler Creek flip-up scope covers (2oz*)

 

[adam32]

The barrel and stock are twice as heavy as other choices would be...

 

[SavageHunter11]

The barrel and stock are twice as heavy as other choices would be...

The heavy sporter barrel is only slightly bigger and heavier than a regular sporter, how should I go about getting it lighter? Carbon fiber barrel? It didn't seem like many were using CF barrels but I've been wrong before. Also, any suggestions for a stock then? I didn't think a 2.8lbs stock was heavy but I can admit I have no idea...I usually build 15+lbs target rifles.

 

[adam32]

A fluted #2 or a Pac-Nor featherweight. Carbon fiber barrels are usually about 2.5-3lbs.

There's a lot of stock options around the 20-25oz mark, but if you need an adjustable stock then yeah your choice is about as light as it gets.

There's even some stocks at the 16oz mark.

 

[The Oregonian]

McMillan Hunters Edge is 22-26 ounces. I think you can get Edge vs fiberglass on a variety of other McMillan stocks...I know I have it on two of mine.

 

[SavageHunter11]

A fluted #2 or a Pac-Nor featherweight. Carbon fiber barrels are usually about 2.5-3lbs.

There's a lot of stock options around the 20-25oz mark, but if you need an adjustable stock then yeah your choice is about as light as it gets.

There's even some stocks at the 16oz mark.

The non adjustable Manners in full carbon fiber is 28-30oz according to their website...thats close. Are any of those 20-25oz stocks you talk about aluminum bedded? Was hoping to have aluminum bedding for a bit of extra rigidity and accuracy. Do you guys typically have aluminum bedding or is there another route usually gone? Please tell me if I'm over building this rifle too...I probably am.

 

[dirtytough]

Like mentioned you can lose weight with a different barrel and stock. Also I would use an aluminum bdl setup. Should save weight there also. Also the action is fairly heavy. A ti action is 21 oz for a long action. You could also have a smith lighten up the remington action.

 

[SavageHunter11]

McMillan Hunters Edge is 22-26 ounces. I think you can get Edge vs fiberglass on a variety of other McMillan stocks...I know I have it on two of mine.

I will check it out. If it can be had in left handed option I will seriously consider it. Thank you.

 

[ruby76]

Factory built Kimber Montana in 280AI is super light, unless you really want to build something.

 

[Deleted member 103481]

If you want a super lightweight stock wildcat composites is about as light as I have heard of but your balance is probably gonna be wack. Adjustable cheek piece is adding a pound to your setup. Non adjustable Manners mcs-t or mcmillan htg should save you a pound


You could switch to a Leupold vx5/6 or a zeiss v4/v6 and gain half a pound back on your scope.

I'm pretty sure my Mesa bottom metal is 3.5oz

Lightweight rifles are neat to think about and packing is easy but they can suck to shoot also. Mine came in at 10lbs 4 ounces. I'd say 8.5-10.5 ish works well.

 

[jpfrog]

I am putting a 24" Sendero light Proof carbon barrel and a Manners EH3 on my light weight 280 Sherman build.

About 26 ounces on the stock and about 46 ounces on the barrel before chambering/threading. About 20 ounces on a VX-6HD 3-18x44 if you're okay with SFP

 

[Slick8]

• Remington 700 long action receiver trued by NSS (39oz*)
• Timney 3.5lbs trigger w/ safety (0oz added when replacing original)
• Sin Arms fluted bolt service (-1oz*)
• M5 Stealth LA flush bottom metal (7.5oz* added when replacing original)
• Magpul PMAG 5 AC-L magazine (2.8oz)

• Do away with the above and keep the original bottom metal in aluminum. Or go blind for greater weight savings.
  

• Criterion Remage heavy sporter barrel in 280A.I. (54oz)

• Go with a lighter and fluted barrel or a carbon barrel. Reminder, the lighter you go, the more finicky it is in load development.
  
  • Carbon sounds spendy but when you factor the average barrel cost $350 plus about $150-200 for fluting you're not that far off price wise from a carbon blank.
    

• Barrel fluting from NSS (-6oz*)
• Barrel muzzle threading (-1oz*)

• There's no reduction here as something will be threaded on that barrel (MB, suppressor or thread protector).
  

• NSS Remage precision recoil lug (1oz*)
• NSS squared and trued barrel nut (3oz*)

• Do you really need this?
  

• APA Micro Bastard Muzzle break (1.8oz)

• Do you really need this on a 280AI? I too am a fan of them but if you're trying to cut weight….
  
  • You could use the brake for load development then install a thread protector for the hunt. It would likely only require you to re-zero your scope.
    

• Manners MCS-TA full carbon fiber stock (44.8oz)

• Here's "smoking gun #2". Go with a MCM carbon edge fill or similar. You can easily get below 30 ounces.
  

• Manners flush cups (x2), sling studs (x3), 9/16" pillars (3oz*)
• Nightforce SHV F1 4-14x44mm scope (30oz)

• "Smoking gun #3". You should look hard at the VX6HD 3-18x44 or 50mm (weighs 19 and 20.4 respectively) You could go really light with the 2-12 at 16.8 ounces but I personally like the 18x.
  

• Iota Outdoors Triad 30mm medium scope rings (3oz)
• Butler Creek flip-up scope covers (2oz*)

I too am considering a lightweight build. I don't consider this a true Ultra-light sheep build just a good all around lightweight hunter.

I added my comments to your post in bold.

 

[adam32]

ADL will be lighter than a BDL set up also.

McMillan Edge, MPI, Wildcat, Pendleton, AG Composites, Bettin, (I'm sure I'm missing some)...all make stocks in the 16-28oz range. None have aluminum bedding blocks as far as I know.

 

[cjuve]

11.5 lbs is to heavy for me for sure, as others have said the stock,barrel and scope is where I would cut weight.