Recommendations to lighten my Elk Rifle

[Macintosh]

40oz stock is super heavy. Almost any other stock will cut 10-12oz, some a pound. And you can re-sell your stock to recoup at least some of the cost. To me, that’s the easy button without changing your set up as far as WHAT equipment you bring.

4lb barreled action isn’t actually that heavy, figure a short action+trigger+bottom metal is 1.75lb by itself, that’s roughly a 2.25 pound barrel which is a light sporter weight, so your barreled action is not egregiously heavy at all, you just have the heavy version of everything that’s bolted to it. No way you are going to save much weight by going with a carbon barrel or flutes/shorter, couple ounces max. Yeah, you can make it lighter, but it’s a lot of money and effort to save maybe 4 ounces.

Plenty of bipods are lighter if you just cant shoot off a pack or poles. You’ve got more than a quarter pound weight savings going with any Spartan or even Harris. Maybe not 100% of what yours does, but gets you 98% of what you have with less weight penalty. If you can shoot off a pack or trekking poles that you’re already carrying, that saves you almost a pound without spending a dime.

 

[MuleyFever]

Ive never used a bipod and never wished I had one. I would swap the stock and save about a pound right there.

 

[mt terry d]

Curious if the guys saying ditch the suppressor and just use earplugs have seen the
difference in how animals react to shots with/without being suppressed?

 

[kcm2]

Cheapest way out of this is to get a Savage ultralight with a 2.5-8x Leupold. 27 ounces for a scope? Hell, no. My 270 has a Garrett glass stock and Lilja #1 contour barrel, topped with a 3x9 Kahles scope. Loaded, it's under 7 lbs. No suppressor. A backpack with aluminum stays will replace the bipod.

 

[Outdoorsman12b]

Just get a new rifle that weighs less. If your shooting a 308 effective range is not an issue for you so a lot of options that will save you $ instead of throwing good money after bad.

 

[Matt5266]

1. Drop the bipod, unnecessary, use your backpack if needed for the shot. -13.6oz, cost free

2. Stockys CF Ultralite stock -10-12oz, cost $500

3. Flute / cut barrel to 18” -16-18oz???, cost ???

Weight savings 39.6-43.6oz
Cost = $800-1000??

Your 11.2# rifle turns into a close to 8.5# rifle. I would keep the suppressor, for me they are worth it. Or sell your rifle and put the money towards a lighter option.

You beat me too it. I second this. Only thing I would add is a 1-2 Oz arca rail to the stock so you have the ability to shoot off of a tripod which also solves the bipod issue. I usually just shoot off the pack though

 

[longrangelead]

Curious if the guys saying ditch the suppressor and just use earplugs have seen the
difference in how animals react to shots with/without being suppressed?

or hunt with wife/kids. communication leading up to a good shot is very frustrating with ear pro in while trying not to spook the target animal.

my wife n I both had suppressors this year. both of us killed a deer together and setup/shot spotting required communication. no ear plugs, no fight...

Suppressors are THE LAST THING I'll ditch for weight.

 

[Coleredding00]

Im an odd duck, but my rifle is 10.9 pounds loaded with tricer RP bipod and suppressor (looking to cut weight on the suppressor this year, my silencerco harvester alone is 14 ounces) and i have little interest in going lighter. I wont sacrifice the shootability of my rifle for pack weight. Too many other places I can cut it to bring total pack weight down, and I wont give up my bipod.

 

[Balderdash]

Surprised that no one has suggested 6x or 3-9 SWFA at 19 ounces, which are the lightest reliable dialing scopes I've used. I did the majority of my hunting with various 6x scopes for years, and can't say I've missed any opportunities due to having 6x on the top end, especially for elk, which are a large target.

Add the scope weight to loosing the can and swapping in a lighter stock, and you have quite a bit of weight whittled off.

 

[Balderdash]

or hunt with wife/kids. communication leading up to a good shot is very frustrating with ear pro in while trying not to spook the target animal.

my wife n I both had suppressors this year. both of us killed a deer together and setup/shot spotting required communication. no ear plugs, no fight...

Suppressors are THE LAST THING I'll ditch for weight.

I'm not anti can by any means, but many of the smaller, more hunter centric models I've been around are still plenty loud enough that I greatly prefer to use ear plugs when feasible. With some models, I notice more of pitch change than I do a massive change in noise level.

Overall, I think cans are great and that we should be able to buy as many of them as we want off the shelf for more widespread use; however, I haven't found cans to be the pancea that many others seem to think they are. I even went back to brakes and carrying ear muffs and plugs for a couple of my heavy recoiling magnums shooting 220 grn +, high BC bullets over large powder charges.

Perhaps its because of having a job through which I take hearing protection on and off many tines throughout an average workday, but I don't feel like having plugs and or muffs handy and slipping them in/on quick constitutes a major obstical to be assiduously avoided.

 

[Kurts86]

The simplest thing to do is make a spreadsheet where you divide the cost by the weight savings and sort by the cheapest $$/oz less.

I would ditch the grayboe stock and switch the atlas bipod to an MDT mountain bipod. There is an easy 1.25-1.5 lbs of weight savings there.

A 4 lb barrel is pretty heavy on a hunting rifle and you could easily save 1.25 lbs going to a lighter steel barrel or a carbon wrapped barrel.

 

[Pulleye16]

No point in dropping the bipod if only to replace it with shooting sticks…weight is weight. You are just shifting it around. Unless of course, shooting sticks weigh significantly less.

Suppressor can go, IMO. I don’t see the need on a 308.

Stock is an option.

 

[longrangelead]

I'm not anti can by any means, but many of the smaller, more hunter centric models I've been around are still plenty loud enough that I greatly prefer to use ear plugs when feasible. With some models, I notice more of pitch change than I do a massive change in noise level.

Overall, I think cans are great and that we should be able to buy as many of them as we want off the shelf for more widespread use; however, I haven't found cans to be the pancea that many others seem to think they are. I even went back to brakes and carrying ear muffs and plugs for a couple of my heavy recoiling magnums shooting 220 grn +, high BC bullets over large powder charges.

for pure recoil reduction, brakes win. hunting solo or a big boomer, I can see your point.
I have a 338 Edge, even with a brake it's a handful. with a can, I'm not sure it will be any fun at all unless I add weight.

I may just shoot it with ear pro. Waiting on UM/US' big can to find out...

 

[thinhorn_AK]

You’ll spend as much lightening that thing up as you would just buying a lighter rifle.

 

[Kurts86]

You’ll spend as much lightening that thing up as you would just buying a lighter rifle.

Yeah starting with a 8.5 lb base rifle that will cost $800/lb lightening it starts making a lot of sense to just go buy a $1,000 6 lb Tikka. That’s $400/lbs lighter plus another rifle.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Yeah starting with a 8.5 lb base rifle that will cost $800/lb lightening it starts making a lot of sense to just go buy a $1,000 6 lb Tikka. That’s $400/lbs lighter plus another rifle.

At some point the cost just isn’t worth it when like you said, you can go get a tikka for a relatively affordable price and easily make it into an 8lb rifle.

Also keep your eyes on the classified forums, kimbers pop up in the 1000-1200 dollar range, you could probably find a Kimber Hunter for 700 dollars or less and make it into a 6lb rifle easily.