Thought maybe some of you would be interested in a project I just finished up. I have had a stainless Remington 700 Mountain Rifle in .270 Win chambering for about 14 years now. It was originally a LSS Mountain Rifle with the laminated stock, but right after buying it, I put on a plastic Remington stock which shaved a few ounces. I also mounted a Leupold compact 3-9 in steel Leupold mounts. I hunted with it for those past 14 years in that configuration. It was a reasonably light rifle, about 7.5 pounds scoped. It has accounted for a lot of game, many deer, sheep, coyote, groundhog, and moose.

I had been tempted lately by some of the lighter weight rifles on the market, the Kimber Montana’s, the Titanium 700s, etc that weigh in between five and six pounds. On backpack hunts into the Brooks range, I am always looking at ways to lighten the load, cutting off my toothbrush handle, using titanium cookware, etc. It seems that no matter how good of shape I think I am in, or how much I prepare, pack weight still seems to increase when you are 10 miles from camp in rugged terrain at last light. Especially with a pack loaded with meat.

I decided instead to try to lighten up my .270 Mountain rifle, and turn it into a true “mountain rifle.” My goal was to shave a pound off of its weight, I figured that would be a reasonable goal and one that would be noticeable in the field.

I started by replacing the steel scope mounts with Talley Lightweight aluminum mounts. This provided a weight savings of 2.66 ounces. Might not sound like a lot, but 4 ounces is a quarter pound, so I figured that was a good start. I then sent my bolt to Kampfeld custom, where it was fluted and the bolt knob hollowed out. This provided a weight loss of 1.02 ounce. Not a lot, but ounces make pounds, and the fluting adds a nice custom touch. I then replaced the factory striker and firing pin assembly with a Callahan Aluminum assembly. With the fluting, and the aluminum striker installed, the total bolt weight loss was 3.12 ounces.

So far, I had a total weight savings of 5.78 ounces, if I was to realize my goal of shedding a pound, I would need to lose an additional 10+ ounces. The factory plastic stocks are really not much if any lighter than wood, so I was figuring from the beginning to replace the stock. The plastic Remington stock weighed 33.3 ounces, or 2 pounds, 1.3 ounce. After much research, I decided to order a Kevlar Pound’r
Stock blank from Brown Precision. According to Brown, these blanks run about 15-17 ounces and finish at a bit more, depending on LOP, recoil pad used, paint, etc. I finished the Kevlar blank and used a flip flop sole from Wal-Mart to make a recoil pad, as I figured it would be durable and weigh less than commercially produced recoil pads. It turned out great, the flip flop sole pad looks like a commercial pad but weighs next to nothing. I figure it should last quite a while on the butt of a rifle, since it was designed to walk on.

After finishing, glass bedding, completed and ready to install, the Brown Kevlar stock weighed an even sixteen ounces, exactly a pound ! A seventeen ounce savings from the Remington stock.


I wish I had weighed the blank when I first received it, but I did not. It is very light and stiff, I can’t get the foreend to flex at all. I am very impressed with the combination of stiffness and light weight.

The rifle now weighs at six pounds exactly complete with mounted scope. I figure the bare rifle weight is about five pounds four ounces, as the scope is listed as weighing 8.8 ounces and the Talley mounts weigh 2.17 ounces.

Five and one quarter pounds, not bad at all for a long action steel receiver Model 700. Total weight loss was 22.78 ounces, or 1.42 pounds.

Well done mate. You have certainly built yourself a nice lightweight mountain rifle.

How do you think you will handle the recoil? Do you think that the weight saving is going to result in more felt recoil?

Cheers, Vince

AND where's the photos?? Hey Roklok!! Haven't seen you for a while! The 270 isn't too much of a shoulder killer, if you're only shooting it once or twice to get the game, what the heck. You didn't shorten the barrel? I didn't know there was such a thing as a kevlar blank. How the heck do you carve such stuff anyway? To me that's the real story here. I wanna know! Is it a pre-finished blank?

Suz

I tried to post a photo here, but was not able to. My photos are too big for this site and I dont know how to resize them. Here is a link to a another site where I posted a photo:

thefiringline.com/foru...p?t=450390

I have not shot the rifle yet since the weight loss surgery, but I dont expect it to be too awful for a few shots. Maybe be equivalant to my 8.5 pound 300 Weatherby. The Kevlar blanks are molded to the basic shape, with the inletting mostly done, molded in. I did have to deepen the recoil lug recess and the trigger guard inletting, cut it to correct LOP. Then the action was glass bedded to the blank. Most of the work to the blank was filling in pits and voids and sanding off loose kevlar fibers. Kevlar is a difficult material to work with, after all, it is used for cut resistant gloves and "bullet proof" vests. I used a Dremel tool for most of the inletting and carving work.

Did not want to shorten the barrel, I think a .270 barrel should be at least 22", which is what this one is.

Oh that's a sweet looking gun, a little bright for a hunting gun but you wouldn't want to paint that SS barrel. Yeah 22 inches is right, don't go shorter. It looks long in the photo, I figured you had a 24-26 inch barrel on there, but at 22" for a hunting rifle it's as short as you want to go. You could make some camo pajamas for it, to wear on bright days.

When you said it was a blank, I thought you had to carve the darned thing and I thought you had your work cut out (so to speak). That stuff is a bear alright. I helped a few friends of mine building a sail boat with kevlar and carbon fibers in it. The carbon fiber was just laid in and glassed over but the kevlar had to be sanded and shaped somewhat. It's a sandpaper nightmare. Way expensive too. Well that ought to be fun to carry, being that much lighter lets you get there that much faster.

Suz

roklok wrote:

I have not shot the rifle yet

Nice job! Your rifle is lighter than my Tikka T3 Lite. I shoot 110gr TTSX bullets at 3450 fps. I went out and got a LimbSaver. Let us know how you like the recoil!

Nice looking gun, excellent idea using flip flops. Like Slim says, keep us posted on your project.

Yeah, the Tikka T3 Lites go a bit over 6 pounds bare rifle weight, this one is right at 6 pounds with scope. My wife has a T3 Lite in 30-06, great rifle.

It will be about 6 weeks until I get a chance to shoot this rifle, will post then what the recoil is like.

I think I would shoot the first one standing, not from the bench.

Thanks for sharing............nice job !!!


You'll never notice that added recoil afield.
Just be sure to get some trigger time before the hunt. Those cross-hairs tend to move around a bit more when shooting a lightweight.

You have one sweet project completed there Rok. Very well done.
Bravo Zulu to you mate.

roklok get ahold of some New Zealand hunter magazines re pimp your rifle articles they have been doing similar things to different rifles and you may gain some insperation.good luck with project look forward to some results from the range.

Elvis wrote:

get ahold of some New Zealand hunter magazines re pimp your rifle articles

Elvis, he is in Alaska. What would be the trick to getting a NZ magazine? I've never seen one state side. Are they on-line?

try www.nzhunter.co.nz

thanks, Elvis!