Ultralight hunting rifle, help needed

[mttinman59]

Following

 

[Jnm300ultra]

Try Rifles INC in Texas he builds on rem 700. I shot one in 300 ultra mag. It had a break but there still was recoil. The rifle shot great. I think the rifle weighed 5 3/4 pounds. Back when my uncle bought the rifle 20 years ago it was only 1800 complete rifle. You might want a custom action but I know he makes ultra light rifles and they shoot.

 

[30 Hammer]

The cheapest way to achieve a rifle under 6 lbs is pick up an used Kimber Montana 84L and put a Benchmark #1 contour SS 5R barrel of your length/caliber choice on it, you have everything you need in the rifle already,Excellent Adjustable Trigger, Kevlar Carbon Fibre stock which is easy to alter to your liking and an all stainless controlled round feed action,

Have the action trued and squared and barrel chambered in 280Ackley and your laughing to the range with a tack driver, shoot the rifle after its built to see if recoil is an issue, you can always add a brake but best to shoot it first to see how you make out with the rifle.

I second this advice.

I recently won a Kimber MA in 6.5CM - out of the box wasn't worth having - but with just a few simple things it has me in in love.

Re crown muzzle. $45.00

Front scope mount base screw - cut the bottom two threads off. (Hits barrel.) $0.00

Front action screw - cut bottom two threads off - is too long. $0.00

Mag box - check for clearance / I took a bit of material out inside the stock. 2 min of time and $0.00.

Bed stock / float barrel $65.00

Adjust trigger - I took mine down to 1.2lbs before any slam fires and had to get after it just right at that point. Now I have it at 2.25lbs and it is sweet. $0.00.

Install supplied muzzle brake. $0.00

With that I have a gun that is extremely lightweight and is a rack driver. Even at full retail it would only be about $1,900.00 with the stuff the gunsmith did (bedding and muzzle crown). A guy could have the action trued and a custom barrel if you want to.

I am seriously looking at a 280AI or a 300wsm in the Mountain Ascent now.

 

[Savagehunter1968]

I love my savage lightweight hunter 5.6 lbs. You could buy one and put a benchmark barrel on it and be around 1100 bucks but my stock barrel shoots just fine and I paid 500 bucks for it

 

[WyoHunter1]

Cooper backcountry. Very light. jewell trigger and muzzle brake with calibers to choose from. You might even have enough money left over to buy a scope.

 

[Deleted member 25294]

I appreciate all the info guys. When looking I am kind of amazed on how many custom rifle builders there are. They offer some great rifles. Not much in the light weight pack rifle though. And the prices on some rifles is way beyond my pocket book. Much over 4k is really hard for me to justify. I am sure they are great rifles but I have many 200$ savages some rebarrelled some not that are 1/2moa rifles. 4k plus for a little smoother action and trigger is hard to justify for virtually the same outcome. To each their own I know. Trying to find some reasonable options. Talking with a couple guys from here I might have found a rifle pretty close to what I'm looking for. A used 7saum for just over 2k. Definitely keep the info and ideas coming. If this isnt the rifle for me I will still end up building one.

I think your cheapest way to get there is buy a tikka chambered in a LA magnum round and either go with a factory contour fluted barrel or better yet a carbon six tikka prefit barrel. You'd be into the action for under $600, and the prefit carbon six barrels are on sale for $699, very minor gunsmithing to install. Multiple carbon fiber stock options for $500. Should be doable for under 2k, and will easily be sub 6 lbs with a 24" barrel.
I built a 6.5 saum on a tikka action with fluted 25" barrel and it weighs 5.8lbs, super happy with it.

 

[scott63]

Try Rifles INC in Texas he builds on rem 700. I shot one in 300 ultra mag. It had a break but there still was recoil. The rifle shot great. I think the rifle weighed 5 3/4 pounds. Back when my uncle bought the rifle 20 years ago it was only 1800 complete rifle. You might want a custom action but I know he makes ultra light rifles and they shoot.

I havent shot one, but I've held some of their rifles, amazingly light and some of their rifles in the ball park of the 4k price.....
http://www.riflesinc.com/index.html

 

[midnightmalloy]

Is all your other gear ultralight? If not it's cheaper to make your backpacking setup lighter with less money than it takes to make your gun lighter. It also sucks to shoot lightweight guns.

 

[Kimber7man]

If you want sub 6 lbs without scope that's easy. Sub 6 lb with scope is tough - what scope are you planning on using?

 

[30 Hammer]

Is all your other gear ultralight? If not it's cheaper to make your backpacking setup lighter with less money than it takes to make your gun lighter. It also sucks to shoot lightweight guns.

Great point

 

[mudygmc]

-scope I haven't quite decided yet. Something in the 16-20x power top range with a 40-44mm bell. 50 and bigger are way less comfy to carry. So much new stuff I am still searching and taking notes.
-pack items are getting lighter. Spent a healthy chunk of change over the last couple years upgrading items. Gun is not always in a pack on sling and in hand too. A 7.5lb rifle is way more comfortable than a 10lb rifle. A few hours here and there or a day or two. Not that big of a deal. Four, five or more days I definitely notice it.
- sub six pound package would be very impressive. Be lacking in performance I'd think. Glass or barrel or stock. Going to be giving up something for the lack of weight. Just trying to get as light as I can for the performance I want and the price I can afford.

- talked to cooper about their backcountry rifle. They don't produce it in short magnum calibers. Couldn't really give me any info on performance from their 280AI or 7mmRM. Decent rounds foresure. I just think I will get more out of a short mag in a 24in barrel. 100fps on paper isn't much but it's a piece of mind comfort confidence deal. I wouldn't be satisfied if i knew I could have spent a couple hundred more and dialed 1 or 2 moa less at a 600yd elk. I want the best I can afford. A dumb way to think I suppose but I want my gear the best it can be and leave the errors to me.

 

[Rich Coyle]

Is all your other gear ultralight? If not it's cheaper to make your backpacking setup lighter with less money than it takes to make your gun lighter. It also sucks to shoot lightweight guns.

Apparently they don't all suck. My Weatherby Mark V ultra light six lug .257 wildcat does 10 in 3/4" @ 100. It was 6lb 13oz with Swarovski z5 5-25X52 in Talleys.

 

[midnightmalloy]

Apparently they don't all suck. My Weatherby Mark V ultra light six lug .257 wildcat does 10 in 3/4" @ 100. It was 6lb 13oz with Swarovski z5 5-25X52 in Talleys.

I'm not saying you can't get a lightweight gun to shoot but in the calibers to hunt larger game such as elk, that 257 caliber gun is a little light. Also 100 yards is not that tough. Keeping it in an MOA target at 600+ is a different story. Also the increase in recoil is not linear on the lower weight rifles and for most people the increase in felt recoil sharply affects their ability to consistently deliver a higher level of accuracy. When I said it sucks to shoot them I mean it's much harder to get really good accuracy at distance and less fun due to the higher recoil.

 

[midnightmalloy]

-scope I haven't quite decided yet. Something in the 16-20x power top range with a 40-44mm bell. 50 and bigger are way less comfy to carry. So much new stuff I am still searching and taking notes.
-pack items are getting lighter. Spent a healthy chunk of change over the last couple years upgrading items. Gun is not always in a pack on sling and in hand too. A 7.5lb rifle is way more comfortable than a 10lb rifle. A few hours here and there or a day or two. Not that big of a deal. Four, five or more days I definitely notice it.
- sub six pound package would be very impressive. Be lacking in performance I'd think. Glass or barrel or stock. Going to be giving up something for the lack of weight. Just trying to get as light as I can for the performance I want and the price I can afford.

- talked to cooper about their backcountry rifle. They don't produce it in short magnum calibers. Couldn't really give me any info on performance from their 280AI or 7mmRM. Decent rounds foresure. I just think I will get more out of a short mag in a 24in barrel. 100fps on paper isn't much but it's a piece of mind comfort confidence deal. I wouldn't be satisfied if i knew I could have spent a couple hundred more and dialed 1 or 2 moa less at a 600yd elk. I want the best I can afford. A dumb way to think I suppose but I want my gear the best it can be and leave the errors to me.

I guess the real question is how much can you afford? Also I guess it also depends on where you will be hunting and how much experience you have hunting there. Simply having a good attachment for the rifle to your pack can make a heavy rifle seem much lighter. Again, unless your sleeping system, backpack, tent and cooking/survival/water filtration gear is under 14 lbs then I wouldn't consider spending the money on a lightweight rifle!

Just advice from someone who has actually been there and done that. Watch out for advice from people who are the keyboard experts. Lastly most people have all the extra weight they want to shave off their equipment sitting on their gut! If your backpacking gear is not ultralight and you are not trim I think you should look to shave weight in those areas first!