Ok, guys, here is the deal...I want a light-weight 30-06...weight goal: 7.5 lbs. all up and ready to go, only "must haves" are Pre-64 M70 action and Leupold 4X...help me fill in the remainder, PLEASE. Or can it be done at all? Arthur Olds

[url="http://www.hunt101.com/?p=330470&c=500&z=1"] [/url]

[url="http://www.hunt101.com/?p=329417&c=500&z=1"] [/url]

here's your gun. 7-5 unloaded with a Winchester featherweight contuor barrel and a M8-4x, you'd get to your target of 7-8 loaded if you ditch the sights and steel rings I'm using.

Go to a mcmillan edge and you'll lose another 6 oz

Arthur,
this is a formula i figured a few months ago;

M70LA:..........................2.90lb
No:1 profile tube...............2.50lb
LexWebernick Stock:.............1.0lb (with pad)
Gentry LW steel rings/bases.....0.2lb
Leupold 4x......................0.6lb

TOTAL: 7.2lb

Reduce barrel to FW makes it......... 6.7lb
Go for blind magazine option also...........6.55lb

now add your sling/ ammo and see what you come up with.

Arthur, free miner and I think alike! Mine weigh's 8lbs 3/4 oz with sling and five rounds. My rings are steel and heavy (4.5 oz's) and iron sights are heavy (3.5 oz's)... mine has a 21" bbl too.

"All up" weight to me means w/ sling and rounds... 7.5 lbs all up is not easy to do with an M70, but here's how:

First, you must have a fwt barrel contour. That's non negotiable. A fibeglass stock is non negotiable. Mine is a Bansner and goes 25 oz's on the nose with 3/4" Decelerator. The McMillan "Edge" with its little 1/2 pad will go a bit lighter. Use Talley aluminum lightweight rings (2 oz's), an Uncle Mikes "Mountain Sling" (the best and lightest sling around 3.5 oz's)... do all the above and your rifle will come right at 7.5 lbs "all up"... you can ditch the floorplate and go to a blind magazine (2.5 oz's) and lose two rounds capacity(1.7 oz's) as another alternative.

As others have said--the stock and featherweight contour are where you save weight. I'm building a 300 Win on an FN. Action with Vari-X III 1.5-5 on Weaver mounts with Zee rings goes 5.7 pounds. I'm planning on going with the Bansner also so all up it will be about 7.5 pounds.

Hey Brad--what finish did you use on yours--or did you go with a pre-finished stock? Looks like you added moderate textured finish. I have no experience working with synthetics.

An orginal pre 64 M70 Featherweight goes 6.75 lbs so 7.5 is easy.

Just use Weaver mounts and a light scope.


Here is a real lightweight 308 at 6 lbs.

Snowcat, I bought the blank from Bansners and did all the prep work, beedding, filling voids, installing pad, etc. Then I sent it back to them for paint. They use Sherman Williams Polane-T which is far and away the best paint on the market for fiberglass stocks. It's several hundred dollars per gallon and is a pain to use so it's worth the price to have them do it for you. The texture is very minor on this rifle as it's plack specs of Polane T splattered over the Brown (Coffee) color.

That's what I needed, Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by snowcat:
As others have said--the stock and featherweight contour are where you save weight. I'm building a 300 Win on an FN. Action with Vari-X III 1.5-5 on Weaver mounts with Zee rings goes 5.7 pounds. I'm planning on going with the Bansner also so all up it will be about 7.5 pounds.

Hey Brad--what finish did you use on yours--or did you go with a pre-finished stock? Looks like you added moderate textured finish. I have no experience working with synthetics.

You are building a .300 winnie with a featherweight countour barrel?

My pre-64 M-70 FWT has a Pacific Research/Rimrock stock, a Leuopld M-8 4x in Weaver rings & bases and a Brownell's Latigo sling. The bolt stop has been built up and checkered but everything else is original. It weighs 7.75 lbs unloaded. It'a a 308, but a 30-06 would be slightly lighter because it would have less weight in the chamber and would not need the parts that make the magazine suitable for shorter cartridges.


Okie John

Why go to all the trouble of trying to make a light weight steel rifle when all one has to do is buy a Tianium one. Remingtons 30-06 is 5.5 lbs out of the box it is easy to get it under the 7.5 lbs loaded scoped ect.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
Why go to all the trouble of trying to make a light weight steel rifle when all one has to do is buy a Tianium one. Remingtons 30-06 is 5.5 lbs out of the box it is easy to get it under the 7.5 lbs loaded scoped ect.

He wants a controlled round action!!!

Arthur this can certainly be done. Here is my .280 on a M70:

Leup. 3x-9x comp. ready to hunt 7#4oz.
[IMG]

Whenever "light" enters the rifle description, I always take a trip to Mel Forbes' New Ultra Light Arms web site, and check what he is building now.

That will give you something to shoot for, as it were.

jim

All you need is a Smith&Wesson model B. a Husqvarna (spelling?) CRF with a 20" soda straw barrel, mine bought new in 1970 for $150 at Neuman's Gun Shop in Detroit, still only weighs 6lb, 6oz w/o scope.. groups right at 1" at 100, and its purty too.....Les

Fred, your 280 is awesome! Who did the stock?

Arthur Olds,

It's not a W70 but what I've had done to mine might give you ideas.

Had this 30-06 built back in 1982 by a 'smith in Janesville, CA. Rem 700 ADL w/ factory barrel turned down to a "soda straw" of .550" at the muzzle. The barrel dimensions are very close to Pac-Nor's lightest barrel. Scope is the M8 4x set in Conetrol 2pc bases and rings. As you can see the bolt is "swiss cheese" drilled to lighten. If I were to ever have a bolt drilled again, I'd make sure the bit was a rounded bottom instead of square. The square bottom of each hole makes it hard to clean out when crud gets in there. Factory trigger set to 3-lbs. The action was trued and also, as you can see, "mid-turned" to removed metal. Their are also two milled slots on each side of the rear portion of the receiver to remove metal. The stock has a Pach Decelerator.


As you can see the final weight of 6 lb 8 oz has not had a negetive effect on accuracy and it's well used.

Big Al

That's a great success pic, Al. Nothing like those 5 minutes after downing a good bull--before the reality of the work to come sets in.

22WRF--Yup, its that Herters I was asking about earlier--Spanish C-ring, .550 at the muzzle, 24". I like the contour, and the rifle in general, the more I mess with it. However, I about posted a pic of my scope bite (I initially mounted up an old 3X Scopechief with about 1" of eye relief just to get the gun shooting....) but it would probably hurt to look at, too. It jumps but should be much better to carry than the 10.5# pig I've been hauling around the hills for the past several years....

Authur, maybe I am missing something here but I just drug out the pre-64 Westner in 264 mag with a V-6 Weaver with 3 rounds of ammo, sling and it weighed right at 8 lbs. This is with a 26" barrel
Seems to me that with a compact scope and LW stock, you could achive 6.5 lbs fairly easy.

Brad, I really like the look of your mod 70, very nice job.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmyd223:
Authur, maybe I am missing something here but I just drug out the pre-64 Westner in 264 mag with a V-6 Weaver with 3 rounds of ammo, sling and it weighed right at 8 lbs. This is with a 26" barrel
Seems to me that with a compact scope and LW stock, you could achive 6.5 lbs fairly easy.

Brad, I really like the look of your mod 70, very nice job.

I have a Westerner and it must weigh nine pounds with a scope. The pre 64 M70 in 300 HH that I have goes about nine pounds too. I give all weights without ammo or a sling. I don't like the confusion of listing rifle weights with ammo or slings as I take the sling off quite a bit for hunting and at times only have two rounds in the gun.

Most pre 64 M70 Featherweights and 99f's weigh at or just under eight pounds with a scope or else my scale is way off.

None of these M70's can compare to the Kimber Montana in 308 in terms of being light or close to light. Thru it's not a 30-06 but as I say the others are not on the same page with it.

99, I stand corrected. I dug it out again and weighed it twice and you are correct, it weighed 9 lbs but with the sling and ammo. Damn, sure need those new glasses

Is the kimber a plastic stock? My 84 weighs in at 9 lbs also w/4.5-14 leupold.

Jimmy,

You must have one of those water logged Oregon Kimbers!

The one I am talking about has a plastic stock with no floor plate either. It's a tiny gun with the baby Mauser action and thin barrel. I have gotten used to the SS/plastic look now.

Another option although not as fun as having one put together is a Ruger MK II in Ultra light configuration. My brother has one in '06 and my wife has one in .257 Roberts, both of these guns are .75", 3 shots @ 100 yards consistently. You may hear some bashing from the non Ruger fans but they have a lot going for them with the Mauser extractor and 3 position safety. My wifes is as I said a .257 Roberts long action wood stock and weighs just under 7 pounds with a compact Leupold 3-9 and rings.

Two buddies hunt with the Ruger Ultralight. Around here "we" look down our noses at Rugers but thats not the case with those that don't bother with forums.

The M77 UL is a beautiful gun and in fact the stock has more style than the Kimber Classics.

They are made in both long and short action too. Long ago the guy that has had the 308 Ruger UL for at least a decade showed it to me and suggested that I try one. I said that they would make my other guns obsolete. Finally I needed/wanted to get lighter guns and I spent 50% more to do it my way and get the Kimbers.

Baddwuf, thanks. The stock was done by a local guy here, old world type, who, unlike many gunsmiths today, still likes to do metal & wood.
I chose the .280 because it's a great cartridge taht is elk capable & recoils a bit less than the 06 in a 7# rifle.

Thought I'd bring this back up... all these gents taking time to offer advice and not one word from ArthurOlds...

Brad...believe me, I am still here and lurking...so far, some great advice and I am still hoping...on the other hand, my computer did crash last Saturday...and to top it all off, my server in the school district I work for will not allow "weapons" to be accessed...sorry for the delay in the response...Arthur Olds

Brad:Now that I have re-read the entire chain, I remember the comment I thought best addressed the topic--yours--and I do agree, an "all up" must include sling and 5 rounds...I really would like the McMillan ultra-light version (if it didn't cost that much), and I know that I do really need the irons, if it is to be used as a backpack rifle should (accidents happen to me all the time--maybe they are not accidents, just clumsy)...so far: featherweight barreled action, Leupold 4X, Control or S&K (recommended by several "top" people) and then hope for a light stock...and that means McMillan, Brown or Banser...should be right at 7 3/4....I hope! Special thanks to all who have contributed the photos, they do help a great deal in this case (except those here and there from fl???and his beautiful Brevex that makes my heart go pitter-patter)...Thanks to you all, Arthur

Arthur, Chuck Nelson from Alberta has a McMillan "Edge" stock on order for an M70 Featherweight... he ordered his with a 1" Decelerator pad and is going to have it sent to me first so I can weigh it and check it out quality-wise before it crosses the border (which makes things tough to return)... I'm looking forward to getting my mits on it as I believe I'd like one myself!

I'll report back...

Brad

I for one look forward to that report!

Chuck

As they say, me too, me too...can't wait...I know the quality will be there...not to mention that with the McM you really have very little to do on the inside--maybe some skim coating, that's all--and I understand that with the kevlar, etc., that you really don't need to paint or do any filling on the outside, but let's see what Brad can find out for us...nothing like actually having something like this in your hands....Arthur