New Build - Looking for Weight Saving Ideas

My carbon six barrel was heavier than expected, if you haven’t already ordered get a lighter contour, less steel at the muzzle end if possible and you should shave a lot off the weight.

I think my sendero profile carbon six in 6.5CM was at least a pound heavier than the factory 788 .308 barrel, after chambering and threading muzzle etc. they are about equal length.

The 788 barrel was not a thin pencil barrel, it was a fairly beefy profile for a hunting rifle, so the weight comparison is contrast to that.

Notes say the factory barrel was 39 ounces (2 pounds 7 ounces) and I should double check but 4.1 pounds for weight if factory barrel and action vs. 5.28 pounds with carbon six barrel, but I should double check and disassemble to check weight with bolt in and out for that weight.

Anyways, don’t be surprised if you gain a pound on a heavy profile. If you want a lightweight rifle get a lighter profile, have the smith remove more steel at either end of the barrel so you don’t have a really long piece of steel at chamber end or muzzle, just leave enough for threads and say 1/4” of steel before threaded muzzle end.

Whatever you do, weigh your barreled action before and after. If I was doing this again I’d either go with a slimmer profile or just get a factory barrel fluted by IBI...

But the heavier contour does look good and weight still just is under 10 pounds with similar scope/mount setup and bipod on it
 
Carbon barrels are a poor dollars to weight savings investment. You can spend a lot less on a standard steel barrel, and between contour and fluting, you can have a lighter barrel at a much cheaper price then carbon.
 
Leupold 4.5-14x50 is 14-15 oz, put it in talley one piece bases should save another 4 oz. These two changes would save a full pound.
 
When doing your project planning, remember that there is a compromise between the weight and stability. You might be able to make a steel barrel super light and thin, but how will it work in the field for your intended use?

What is your intended use?... and the more specific you are, the better your build will fit.

A number of the builds I have helped with using CF wrapped barrels had dual purposes... so a heavier contour was the right choice. Was it the lightest? No, but it was also a set up that could handle shooting 5 to 10 rds without overheating. Likely not something that an all steel barrel of equal weight could handle.

There is no free lunch. I avoid looking at projects through a very narrow lense because that is not what my customers have asked for.

But if you want the ultimate lightest build w/o care for sustained fire, there are options for that too.... with their compromises.

Jerry
 
Good points on compromise Jerry. You're right - I could build a much much lighter rifle if that was the only goal, and for many hunters that is the goal. In this case though, I want to be able to use the thing for a wide variety of tasks. That is going to include some long strings and some days where it's on my back for many miles and no rounds are fired at all. Many people have a high number of rifles that are very specialized to their one task and that's great, but in my view it comes with it's own set of compromises. Constantly transitioning between different rifles means never getting really familiar with them (especially that hunting rifle that sees 3 rounds a year), investing a whole lot more than I have to spend, plus needing a ton of drop charts and switching between those too. Of course, the other side of the coin is a general purpose rifle that is not the best tool for any one job, but capable of many jobs. That's what I've chosen to chase here. It's not my only rifle, but I'd like it to be my go to for most things.

Already I hunt with this rifle, spend a lot of time punching paper at the range, carry it around the woods to do some field target shooting, sometimes I sit it in the middle of camp in bear country just in case, and I even shot a 3 gun match with it in August. It's heavy for a hunting rifle, not the best cartridge and a little light for punching paper, not the most streamlined for squeezing through bush, and certainly not the fastest 3gun rifle for a few reasons. But... it worked for all of that and I've gotten to know the rifle very well. I thought about replacing it entirely with a higher dollar custom action but it has gotten to feel pretty slick as the round count piles up and the loose tolerances around the bolt body, etc, mean it still runs fine with a bunch of dirt in it. 308 Win isn't really the best cartridge for anything either but in the same spirit as the rifle it can take game, shoot paper at mid range, handle longer strings without heating up as much as overbore options, and it's available just about everywhere. The chassis also seems pretty versatile although I haven't gotten to play with different setups all that much. I'm hoping that some of the mlok weights and an ARCA rail will even make it PRS friendly.. although a short barrel in 308 is certainly not going to be a serious contender, I doubt I am either.

On another note, the carbon fiber bolt handle is on it's way out. I noticed this weekend that it developed a little play at the range. I suspect the aluminum bolt that the carbon fiber is wrapped around is the culprit, fatiguing over time. A big plus of it though is the steel collar the handle threads in to should be threaded the same as a Kimber 8400, so I ordered a Kimber 8400 titanium bolt handle that is only half an oz heavier.
 
I finally ordered a barrel! IBI will make custom length carbon fiber barrels now, if you're willing to wait a while. I went with an 18" barrel... Some of the shorter ones I've seen on this forum look really cool, but 18" should be a good balance of being handy and maintaining some more velocity. Very excited to call this build "finished" soon.

It should end up right around 156oz including an empty mag. (9.75lbs)
 
Just a thought, dont get a picatinny rail and rings. When shaving weight, just get rings that screw into the action.
 
I think I might be the first person with a skeletonized titanium bolt handle on a Savage. It is 0.2oz heavier than the carbon fiber one, but it does not have the weak aluminum connection from the handle to the collar. I have reused the minimalistic steel collar that the carbon fiber handle came with, which is another 0.7oz on top of the pictured weights. Ended up with super light weight titanium where possible, but maintained hardened steel on steel for the primary extraction. I shouldn't have to worry about breaking this one no matter how "western" I get with it. The handle is from a hobbyist in the US and is intended for the Kimber 8400, but it just happens to be threaded the same as the "collar" on the Lumley carbon fiber handle (M7x1)

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My barrel arrived recently, an 18" IBI carbon fiber that weighs 1lb 15.8oz! I haven't mounted it yet, but I'm definitely going to make my weight goal. I should be about 9.5lbs once I swap the barrel on, which is right around where I wanted to be.

I also realized an error I made earlier in this thread. The new Vortex LHT 3-15x42 is a SFP scope, not FFP. That's not what I'm after for this rifle... but it doesn't really matter anyway because I made weight without switching glass.
 
The only crappy picture I took when I went to shoot this thing for the first time:
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9lb 8.8oz with optic, bipod and sling adapters, and an empty mag. I also have a new optic on order (Athlon Helos BTR Gen 2) that should drop another 2oz. That wasn't so much about the weight savings but it has locking turrets which are nice for this application, it's a 2-12x so I get ever so slightly lower magnification on the low end, and it's more compact. I imagine the glass will be worse than the Ares BTR Gen 1 I'm using now, but for short to mid-range I'm hoping the glass will be good enough.

The rifle without rings or optic weighs 7lb 8.9oz - that's with an empty polymer mag. I'm pretty excited to have the features of the chassis rifle with weight of a typical hunting rifle. It's certainly no ultralight mountain rifle, but it's in the same weight class as a savage 110 accustock hunting rifle or Tikka CTR.
 
Insite Arms do a brake that is 1 oz if you looking to put a light weight one on. It will be lighter then the thread cap protector typically
 
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