There has been some discussion here lately about reducing the weight of a rifle. I thought I'd share what I'm doing. I have a rifle in 7.82 Warbird. I built this rifle myself. It has a 28" stainless barrel. It is 1.2" dia. at the breech for 3". It then taper's for 2"at 5 degree's, then tapers to .830 at the muzzle. The barrel alone weighed 5lbs. I left the breech the same, cut the barrel to a muzzle dia. of .700". It now weigh's 58.2oz. or 3.63lbs. That's not much weight but it sure feels a lot lighter. I'm going to flute it next then I'll weigh it again. I'm shortening the stock to put on a counter coil recoil reducer also.

Maybe it feels better because it balances beter than before.

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NRA Life member

Please keep us posted as you proceed. I am looking at the same situation and would be interested specifically in the fluting. As well have you considered any action or bolt modifications.

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Growler

It definetly balances better. I'll let you know how much weight the fluting takes off. I'm not fluting for that reason, I'm fluting because I built the rifle for my son and he (and I) just like the looks of a fluted barrel. I could get more weight off by turning the barrel to a smaller dia. I haven't considered any bolt or action mods. I don't see where I could save enough weight to worry about. I will weigh the piece of stock that I cut off and the recoil pad just for kicks though. I don't think I mentioned this before but the counter-coil weighs 11.8oz. in an un-fitted condition without a pad.