Ultralight Ultralight Rifles

Xcaliber has a 20% off sale going on for a short time, and they have the 223ai chambering if anyone is looking for one. It'll be a lot heavier than a shaw or bca, but lri can turn it down for $125.

Xcaliber 16" stainless 223ai just set me back about $333 shipped. Only bad thing is 11-18 weeks wait estimate

*portless is an option!

*I'll be sending LRI a bca barrel (16oz type) to copy the profile, saves $50. Let me know if you want me to mail it to them early for your project.
 
Xcaliber has a 20% off sale going on for a short time, and they have the 223ai chambering if anyone is looking for one. It'll be a lot heavier than a shaw or bca, but lri can turn it down for $125.

Xcaliber 16" stainless 223ai just set me back about $333 shipped. Only bad thing is 11-18 weeks wait estimate

*portless is an option!

*I'll be sending LRI a bca barrel (16oz type) to copy the profile, saves $50. Let me know if you want me to mail it to them early for your project.
Do they have a 6x45 option?
 
I have posted about it a lot, probably been since 2024. I haven’t grouped the 95’s, but got them up to 2600+fps with the pressure tests I did with the 20 I was given. That is my project for this summer since the 95’s came in stock and I bought 1500.
 
What’s the state of the art in 2026 for lightest / good 5.56 AR magazine ? Probably looking at 5 and 10 rounders.
Duramag stainless, I believe, are about the lightest reliable.

5 round mags are just 10 rounders with longer legs on the follower. The 10 rounders are a hair lighter.

You might shave a gram with aluminum, but the benefits of stainless vastly outweigh the literally not noticeable weight saving.
 
This BA is fairly light. Out of stock and I have no experience with it though.

I have this 12.5 fluted barrel from BA. I weighed it with a digital fishing scale at 21 oz.
The scale reads only whole numbers, not tenths. So that is likely rounded up or down a fraction of an oz.
Just started the build. I don’t know anything about accuracy.
 
What’s the state of the art in 2026 for lightest / good 5.56 AR magazine ? Probably looking at 5 and 10 rounders.
As @robtattoo said, there's no benefit with a 5 rounder.

The Duramags offer the most OAL if you handload. Their 350 Legend magazines seem to offer the most OAL, mine allow 2.325" and feed everything from 223 to 350 legend fine in a Solo.

If shooting only factory length I've found the various Magpul pmags to work just fine.

They can even be windowed for at least a few rounds to allow about 2.325". They're thicker material in the back so can't get to 2.365"-ish like a windowed stainless mag allows.

17678857019618491480281813844455.jpg
 
Back
Top