I have a ruger in 270 win., what stock will lighten this thing up? Is it possible to get the weight down to 6.5 lbs or 6.25 with just a stock change? Or should I sell it and just get a mountain rifle? What do you fellas think?

Doesn't seem too heavy to me if you like the rifle. Seems to me that it makes more sense to lose weight yourself rather than wory about a few ounce on you rifle.

You might want to take a look at Mark Bansner's High Tech Specialties stocks or a McMillan Edge stock. I think both are in the 20-22 ounce range. You didn't say how much your rifle currently weighs, but if it's in the 7-7.5lbs range one of those stocks might get you in the nieghborhood of where you want to be.

Brown Precision and MPI make a 13-16oz. I took a Ruger 338 to just under 7 with scope loaded. Kicked like he!!.

LOL alright mike. I'll probably go with a high tech stock with a pachmyer pad. I had my gunsmith do the last one for a howa (the recoil pad). He put a block of wood in to glue the pad to and I think it must have been pretty thick. How thick should the block be or how thin can it be? The ruger is a stainless with the plastic stock so about 7 1/4 lbs I reckon without scope and rings. Rings are another place I would like to lose some weight. Suggestions there would help too. This is also why I was wondering if I would be better off to trade her in for a stainless mountain rifle. But the rifle is a decent shooter. Decisions!

A lot of guys here use the 338 Win in the Ruger 77.
A fairly common mod is to get the BBL lopped to 22", fluted and fit a decent recoil pad.
Seems to work.
IMHO you would save more weight by fitting a lightweight scope... But the gear freaks seem to like the 'cool factor' of flutes.

The deer don't seem to care, one way or the other.

quote:

He put a block of wood in to glue the pad to and I think it must have been pretty thick. How thick should the block be or how thin can it be?

Well I did my high techs without a block of any kind. I took a piece of threaded rod or screw about 1.5" long and screwed it in to each hole from the back. Then took a dremel tool and roughed up the plastic base. Cut a couple holes bigger than the piece of rod into the foam. Then put a good coverage of epoxy on both the stock and pad and in the holes and stuck them togther using surgical tubing to pull it down tight. If I ever want to remove them I will have to cut them off.

Makes a nice clean install no screw holes.

quote:

Originally posted by raybass:
... But the rifle is a decent shooter. Decisions!

Hey Ray, Most of the Stock manufacturers give a relatively close weight approximation of their different stocks on their web sites. At least you can compare one style of their product fairly accurately with one of their other ones.

If you weigh your stock, you can get a relatively close idea of what the difference is.
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I see your delima is tied to the accuracy level of your current rifle. That has created problems for me in the past too. It would be really bad to put a bunch of money in on a trade and then find out the new rifle isn't as accurate as the old one.

I prefer to hang on to the current rifle and get whatever it is I want to try. Then I can select which one I want to keep and sell or trade off the other one.

It is always nice to have some Trading Bait though and the closer to Factory Stock a rifle is, the quicker and easier it trades for me.

Best of luck to you.

Ray.
I find the new hawkey rugers quite abit lighter than the older mk 2s.
I have a rifle at MPI right now being stocked. I think as far as weight goes they are really good.
I would look to tally for your rings. Don't know if they build one for a MK 2 but they have alluminum rings for many rifles.
I think warn does too.
I am putting a VX3 2.5X8 on the JC higgins MPI is doing for me. Smaller and lighter than most
3X9s. About 400.00 but the 2X7s VX2s are only 300 and the same size more or less, and still very good.
Not sure I understand what the block of wood is about but mpi,s have decelerators and build to your desierd length of pull.
I am going with a 1/2 inch pad to save weight.
I hate fluted barrels. But certainly realize they lighten things up.
...tj3006

I was told the Mcmillam edge is good but i cant afford those. Havent checked on Brown precision yet. All the others i checked on for me were like 8oz heavier than the factory synthetic Ruger MKII. I dont know what the wood stock weighs but i believe the synthetic is around 2lb 4oz.

MY 270 Win doesn't seem heavy to me.

It isn't what you would call heavy, I just want it lighter. I am wondering if it will be any lighter with a new stock or will I not see any difference.

I went through this a year ago, my MKII 300win weighed 11 lbs with scope etc. After a lot of calls and crunching the numbers I decided just to buy a lighter rifle, A Tikka T3 lite, 300win, with 3 x9 Leupold 6 lbs 15oz..and it is a shooter. I like my MKII, but there is no doubt I will never pack it up another mountain

I think it was Kenny Jerret that said "loose 5 lbs off your ass" ??? Good advice

That's cause he builds heavy guns.

This factory tang 35 Whelen weighs 6# 9 oz as shown below. It has one of Basner's stocks and a very light factory barrel that goes .560" at the muzzle. Without sights and barrel band it would probably go a bit < 6 1/4#. With your heavier 270 barrel I suspect that 6 1/2 # would be tough to achieve.

Well fellas made my decision last night. I took our postal scales(pelouze) home last night from work. Weighed all my rifles, the Remington CDL 35 Whelen 7.8 lbs. with scope and rings. The Ruger with scope and rings went 8.2 lbs. Weighed some stocks too, high tech stock 1.8 lbs. short action, howa wood 1.8 lbs. short action, Rem. XCR stock long action 1.8 lbs, b and c stock 2.6 lbs long action and a Rem. classic stock long action 2 lbs. The scales probably aren't all that accurate but they did help me decide to sell the ruger and buy a remington mountain rifle in 270 win. With some talley lightweights and a 2-7X33 leupold I should be able to keep it real light.Thanks again fellas for all the advice.

Well went to Gander Mountain yesterday to look at rifles. The rifle I wanted had went up to $899, but found their short action G.M. exclusive mountain rifles were on sale for $599. Ended up with one in .308 win. It has the pillar bedded stock similar or the same as a TI, blind mag, pencil thin barrel and its stainless. I'll load some up and see how it shoots.

Hey Ray, Best of luck to you with the new rifle.
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quote:

Originally posted by Chuck Nelson:
That's cause he builds heavy guns.

Actually..., Mr. Jarret builds highly accurate, rugged, and 100% reliable Rifles. If the customer wants a lighter one, it is as simple as remembering to discuss what "you want" it at the time the Order is being placed. Dealing with Jarrett Rifles is much different than dealing with some the grossly expensive Shops that say take it the way I make it, or keep looking. When they say that - keep looking!

Jarrett Rifles was a great place to deal with back when John Lewis was there, and it still is now that John has opened his own Custom Gun Shop, plus the Lady answering the Jarrett phone is an avid Hunter(and will grind it in ).

Today John Lewis owns Carolina Precision Rifles, and he can also Custom make a great rifle. Another Gun Smith who realizes it is important to give the Customer what "he wants".

And Dave Tooley will build a Bench Rest Accurate - Hunting rifle "to your specifications" as well. Great guy to deal with.

Thanks hotcore, I took it to the range today. It shot ok, kept some 165's between 1 1/2" and 2". I had some handloaded 150's in tsx's I tried they were around 1 1/4". Reloder 15 was the powder. It'll come around hopefully with the bullet I would like to shoot. These were just something to try today not much put into it really.

Hey Ray, Not bad for "randomly picked" Loads. That is a good start.

I've had the rare moment when a random Load shoots so well that I see no need to change a thing, but not often.

How is the Trigger?
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By the way, you mentioned wanting to put a 2-7x Scope on it. If you have something with 2-3 times that amount of power that you can use during Load Development, I'd encourage you to do that. Then when you get a great Load switch to the 2-7x.

This will make more sense the older you get because of fading eyes.

The trigger was good for once. I don't know the exact pull but it was light and crisp. I don't think I'll adjust it. I weighed the rifle today on the same scales the other rifles were weighed on. With the scope it weighed 6.4 lbs. I'm not sure how accurate the scales are but they do show the weight difference between rifles.

Hey Ray, Getting a light crisp trigger is amazing today, good for you. And with the 2-7x it weighs almost 2# less than the other rifle.

Also saw where you said it has a Blind Magazine, which is what I like the best. It only takes 8-10 seconds to half-cycle the cartridges out. It is about as quick as opening the Floorplate, balancing everything to catch the cartridges, get them moved to a pocket and then close the floorplate.

Hard to beat a 308Win. I've had them since the `50s. Easy to load, light recoil, normally very accurate and Kill much better than the weenie cartridges(which I also have).

Good Hunting and clean 1-shot Kills.

Sound like you picked an intereting rifle,
Certainly chamberd for a great round. I have no trouble working up loads with my 2X7s.
I have read lots posts sugjesting more powerfull scopes will shrink groups.
For me at least it does,t make much difference,
RL-15 is a top preformer in many .308s
If it doesn,t improve try Varget, IMR-4064, ( I belive that is what is in the Federal target loads ) And W-748.
My Pre 64 featherweight likes the W-748.
It seems to me that finding the right powder is the key to good shooting with a .308.
Do not for get to seat the barnes bullets deep !
...tj3006

Thanks guys, this gun just feels good. Bullet depth, I haven't had this problem before, the other rifles I load for are long actions and there is plenty of room to seat the bullets out. On this one I am limited by the magazine, but I am keeping them as long as possible. I definately have some load developement to do here. I think I'm going to try some 130 TTSX's and see how they shoot.

Raybass: Just for giggles, what rifle were you going to buy that went up to $899? I am looking at a .270, but just like you, I put a special edition .308 on hold at Cabelas (Same as the GM that you bought).

Remington's mountain rifle, Laminated stock stainless version.