Gunsmithing Options for Reducing Weight

[HuntnID]

I have a 338 Edge with a 30" Krieger MTU barrel in a McMillan A5 stock. The rifle is incredibly accurate an I enjoy shooting it; however, I recently weighed the rifle and realized it weighs 17.5 pounds. I would like to get the rifle under 15 pounds.

I don't really want to cut the barrel too much because I don't want to lose too much speed.

My first two thoughts were having the barrel re-contoured to a small diameter. Is this possible or would it destroy the accuracy? Additionally, I thought about having the barrel fluted. I asked a gunsmith about fluting the barrel and he said he did not want to due to possibly ruining the barrel. Is he being overly cautious or will this destroy the barrel.

I also thought about swapping the stock for an HS Precision stock to reduce weight. I actually prefer the feel of the HS Precision stock but I believe the barrel diameter may be too big for an HS Precision stock.

I appreciate any input and thank you in advance. Thanks.

 

[Hookturnr]

Depending on the fill in your mcmillan, you could drop a couple pounds going to a manners elite hunter carbon fiber shell with lightweight fill. If it shoots lights out you might not want to dick around with the barrel. You could lose 2" on the barrel and have minimal velocity loss to drop a little there...I don't know what glass/mounting system you're running but some changes there could lose a little more weight for ya.....lots of ways to skin this cat but going from 17.5 lbs to 15 might not be worth the expense

 

[HuntnID]

Those are my sentiments exactly. The rifle is a phenomenal shooter but the legal hunting weight for a rifle in Idaho can't be over 16 lbs. So I really do need to get it under 16 lbs. I definitely don't want to hurt the accuracy of the barrel, I'd rather sell it and let someone else enjoy it and build myself a new one.

My optic is a NF 5.5-22 mounted in Ultralight rings.

I was just curious if there was a way to lose easily lose the weight.....I guess weight loss is never easy(that works two fold). haha

 

[wtopace]

I would recommend cutting the barrel back... I don't see how you could hunt with a 30" barrel, I can barely carry a 26" around with me and it still snags every tree limb it can find. That A5 stock is very heavy as well, you might consider McMillan's lightweight hunter series to save quite a bit of weight there too.

 

[selfbowhunter]

you can lose 2" of barrel with no ill effect whatsoever. I would also send it to twistedbarrel and have it fluted how you like. with that profile, I wouldn't be concerned with the fluting hurting accuracy. be aware that harmonics will change so you load may change. lastly, your not going to get there without a stock change. if you like HS their stocks will accept your barrel contour with proper inletting. you could also get a manners or McMillan with carbon fiber technology. if your stock is adjustable, just going to a fixed stock will save a LOT of weight.

chuck

 

[HuntnID]

Hmm. So cutting off 2" of barrel won't drop my speed any? The 30" barrel doesn't bug me at all, the rifle isn't really a pound the brush kind of rifle. It's more of a "find a hillside and wait for the animal to come out" kind of setup. I think I am leaning towards the selling the stock and going to an HS Precision.

 

[selfbowhunter]

hmmmmm. i have no problem getting 2850+ out of the 300mk in a 28" tube and have done it with a 26". hmmmm, why carry more barrel than you need?

chuck

 

[HuntnID]

I wasn't saying that I was opposed to the 28" tube, just that the length doesn't bother me because it's not a hike around gun. I was going to search the forums and see what other ppl had experienced when using the 28" barrels.

 

[lead ƒarmer]

Which scope do you have on the rifle?

 

[HuntnID]

Nf nxs 5.5-22

 

[Goatman007]

I have a 338 Edge with a 30" Krieger MTU barrel in a McMillan A5 stock. The rifle is incredibly accurate an I enjoy shooting it; however, I recently weighed the rifle and realized it weighs 17.5 pounds. I would like to get the rifle under 15 pounds.

I don't really want to cut the barrel too much because I don't want to lose too much speed.

My first two thoughts were having the barrel re-contoured to a small diameter. Is this possible or would it destroy the accuracy? Additionally, I thought about having the barrel fluted. I asked a gunsmith about fluting the barrel and he said he did not want to due to possibly ruining the barrel. Is he being overly cautious or will this destroy the barrel.

I also thought about swapping the stock for an HS Precision stock to reduce weight. I actually prefer the feel of the HS Precision stock but I believe the barrel diameter may be too big for an HS Precision stock.

I appreciate any input and thank you in advance. Thanks.

Recently I was in Scheels, and they had one of these "Tacticool" rifles on the shelf with a $4K price tag. Had to weigh 35 LBS. You are not going to carry a 35 lb rifle in a tactical/competition, unless you are the hulk. Action of choice, no more than a #5 contour barrel, laminated/composit stock. 12lbs max.

 

[HuntnID]

Agreed

 

[Red_SC]

Easiest, most effective way would be to have the barrel recontoured. I don't know about Kreiger, but I contacted Bartlein about having one of their barrels turned down the other day. No big deal, and the charge was minimal.

 

[secondofangle]

I built a 300 RUM with a 32" Pacnor heavy barrel and it turned out too heavy too.

Cross Canyon Arms West Haven Utah fluted it with deep flutes and cut the weight by about 2#. The Master gunsmith there Brad Stair says accuracy almost always increases after fluting. I thunk Varmint Al has a page on an analysis of fluting too, highly technical. I didn't see a difference one way or the other but the weight was noticeably lighter, night and day.

You will lose about 30 fps if u cut two inches off.

Problem with my 32" bbl is finding a case to fit it and when my TBAC suppressor comes next year I might take 2" off BC with suppressor its gonna be ungodly long