Putting my Rem700 on a diet

hawk-i said:
Why not sell the remington (or keep for back up) and pick up a Kimber Hunter? ...a 22" barrel, great trigger, CRF, Stainless action and barrel and around 5.5 lbs. Around 1400 or less :)
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Yup .... A T3 would be another good choice and comes in lefties.
 
hawk-i said:
Why not sell the remington (or keep for back up) and pick up a Kimber Hunter? ...a 22" barrel, great trigger, CRF, Stainless action and barrel and around 5.5 lbs. Around 1400 or less :)

As for the Remington a stock would most likely save the most weight.
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Lefty. Thats why... The options for ultra-light rifles in lefty are almost non-existent sadly.

SuperCub said:
Yup .... A T3 would be another good choice and comes in lefties.
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Yeah, that was the original plan, but I got a good price on a Rem700 last year so here we are. If I was to try and build a 6lb rifle I would have to start with a Tikka I think, but I think I can knock 20oz off my Remington - a wildcat ultra-light would get me well over half way there.
 
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The other ounces will be hard fought. 7lbs loaded with a scope is a light gun; optimistic if not built on a lightweight action.

Without a budget it’s hard to say.

~1000 for a mcmillan, 500 for a barrel plus install, god knows for an aluminum floorplate imported to Canada (~200 usd from Hawkins, I’ve seen these on lightweight builds), stockies has them on sale at the moment.

Or sell your rem and buy a tikka and a wildcat. Might be cheaper

Whelenlad style bottom metal is free if you have access to a drill press.

Being a lefty certainly complicates things. I’d say look at what chuck nelson has done but I don’t think he would be caught dead in a Remington

If someone has a SAKO Aiii in a magnum chambering they could weigh I could tell you how much I dropped by going to a mcmillan and cutting 4 inches off the barrel, would be a general idea more than anything

Edit: lost 1 lb 5 ounces
 
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I think you should look at an inch off the barrel and re-contouring (for pricing). I bet you could save 4-7 ounces there fairly easily, and the shorter lighter barrel will handle a bit differently.

The wildcat stock will drop some good weight, Id call and ask for a lefty, you may need to send your rifle, good to have that barrel reshaped first.

I'm sure you could get that action milled a bit too, but less savings for the $ there.

If you got the barrel off its easy enough to get a lighter recoil lug, maybe the bolt drilled or lightened. Titanium fasteners arent that expensive through aliexpress and will save an ounce or half an ounce. I think I replaced my scope rings fasteners with titanium and weighed in a thread.
 
cody c said:
I think you should look at an inch off the barrel and re-contouring (for pricing). I bet you could save 4-7 ounces there fairly easily, and the shorter lighter barrel will handle a bit differently.

The wildcat stock will drop some good weight, Id call and ask for a lefty, you may need to send your rifle, good to have that barrel reshaped first.

I'm sure you could get that action milled a bit too, but less savings for the $ there.

If you got the barrel off its easy enough to get a lighter recoil lug, maybe the bolt drilled or lightened. Titanium fasteners arent that expensive through aliexpress and will save an ounce or half an ounce. I think I replaced my scope rings fasteners with titanium and weighed in a thread.
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Any idea how much milling the receiver could take off? I fully expect it to be cost prohibitive, but it would be interesting to know none the less.

What about bolt mods? Fluted bolt body, skeletonized handle, I'm not really sure what else there might be? I can't help but think there's not a ton of weight to take off there?

What about fluting the factory barrel? Mostly cosmetic thing or actual weight savings?
 
Fluting the barrel won’t save you more than a light contour will, looks cool though. I’ve been told by enlightened minds that it can save as much as going down a contour but I don’t know if that’s true.

https://pac-nor.com/barrel-weight-calculator/

Everything but the stock and barrel is going to hit diminishing returns. You’re gonna lose a couple ounces max with all that stuff. If you want “bang for your buck” that’s it.

People put on aluminum bolt shrouds as well. Fluting the bolt is another option.

Corlanes gunsmithing pricelist:

350 for barrel flutes (install is 350 + ~500 bucks)
125-175 for bolt flutes (straight vs spiral)
250 to Slab action

Cheaper than a new barrel but can’t speak to weight savings; really depends on if you want that light sporter contour over a paper thin one.

Say somewhere around 1000 bucks for a stock if you bed it yourself not accounting for customization. Best bang for your buck for sure

You can skeletonize your bolt handle for that savage axis look the kids love
 
Re contouring the barrel can probably save a half pound, maybe a little more. A wildcat stock will save you about 10 to 12 ounces. Use a flip flop pad. Slabbing the receiver and fluting the bolt is good for about 2 to 2 1/2 ounces max.
If you can get the bare rifle down to 5 1/2 pounds, you will be at about 6 3/4 with that scope and mounts, a nylon sling, and 4 rounds in the mag.
 
Speaking from experience you're better off selling the rifle as is and buying something that's meant for long hikes.
Don't try to make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t. It isn't worth it.
 
~2k to slab action, change barrel and stock

Or sell it for 800 bucks, get a tikka for 1000 and put a stock on it. You’re starting at 6.6 lbs in that case and saving 800 bucks…

Talley ringmounts and an e.e leupold ultralight and you are laughing.

Alternately go back to a savage axis and see what wildcat stock one of our talented smiths can bed it into :dancingbanana:
 
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Wildcat may have changed but neither of mine had the bolt cutout present so left or right no difference. The bottom had to be cut out for the floor plate and the action screw holes drilled out. The stock needs to be sanded ,filled ( I use lightweight bondu) and painted. I hate working on stocks but even for me the process was pretty simple to do. The Wildcat stocks are very light and stiff and if you do the work yourself are affordable.
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I chased this with a model seven once. PM me your email and I’ll share the sheet I used to keep track of it all.

Stock is the best bang for the buck by far. Wildcat is the answer, and there are ways to keep them as light as possible. As far as cost you can decide what is important to you… if you want it to look professional that likely means someone doing it which will put you close to the $1k mark. If you have questions call Stuart, he is awesome.

Other weight loss items

Trigger
Talleys
Scope (don’t go for the ultralight, it leaves too much on the table)
Flute bolt and skeletonize handle
I did the ol Whelenlad trick about 4 years back now. I drilled some holes on the internal frame and slotted the trigger guard (I did not drill out the floor plate portion) and the weight saving was certainly not worth my time. It looks cool, so I’m okay with it.
Firing pin and shroud can make a decent difference also.
 
Suther said:
That is another thing I was curious about. Wildcat doesn't have the greatest of websites, and I'm not really sure what is required for work if I was to buy the blank. I understand the filling and sanding, and painting, but is there anything else that needs to be done? Are you familiar with what needs to be done to convert it to LH?

I like the idea of doing the work myself, pride of ownership/workmanship and all that, but I don't want to bite off more than I can chew, or wreck a $400 blank...
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Yeah. It’s not bad, if you’re a somewhat hands on guy, do your research and take your time. Even if you make a mistake, epoxy can hide a lot of sins. ;)

I’m not familiar with Stuart’s 700 stocks, but his Tikka blanks surprised me with the level of finish.

SuperCub said:
Yup .... A T3 would be another good choice and comes in lefties.
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It’s true. They’re the easy button. Especially for lefties looking for fairly light weight. I’ve got one coming that came in under 5.5 pounds, without any major metal work.
 
There’s about 5-6 older threads on building out lightweight or ultralight rigs in this forum. A quick search will give you some good reference points on what other members have done. Use Ultralight Boomsticks, Sheep Rifles & Mountain Rifles in the searches, they should pop up quickly.

If your keeping the 700, a Mountain to #2 profile barrel, Wildcat Stock and Talley LWs would be good starting points.
 
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