oldelkhunter

You have been listening to Bigcountry too much. He likes carrying around those field artillery pieces At the very best your limiting yourself to strictly short distance walking stand hunting for deer. I picked up a Sendero last year that was very accurate but after hunting with that for a week it went by the wayside and fastg.

oldelkhunter

Zac and yes it would be nice to find a local gunsmith that does good work but sometimes it is not doable. I am sure some of the gunsmiths that respond here can give you a good lead. As far as barrels go the only negatives I have heard or expereience have been with Shilen. Every other brand has worked out well. Not familiar with Krieger at all though.

zac76156

touché, oldelkhuter... I don't think the gun is what will do the limiting, rather the shooter!! Just for the heck of it I pulled my grandfathers old sporterized 1903A3 (read: my next project) and weighed it; 24" sporter barrel, rough monte carlo walnut stock, leather military sling, and burris 3x9x40 scope. Weight = 9.75lbs

Amazing, how did 3 generations of men (grandfather, father and 8 years ago myself) manage to lug that thing around a mountain at 9,000 ft. Simple, we were in shape and we didn't know any better. I classify 3 groups as having a legitimate need for a "light" rifle: youth, women, and shall we say the "over the hill". Aside from those groups, the rest of us should shape up!!

I also checked barrel weight with a calculator from Lilja's website. A #2 contour .308-caliber stainless barrel at 24" weighs 2.6 lbs. A #4 contoured barrel stainless in .308 weighs 3.1 lbs and #5 comes in at 3.5 lbs.So at the most your looking at an extra pound of gun weight. I bet I could sneek an extra pound of weight in your pack and you'd never notice it.... unless of course you knew it was there, then it would bug the heck out of ya!!

As far as shootability, I can't think of one advantage a light weight gun has over a 9-10 lb gun... If you know of one, please, I'm open to new ideas... Heavier gun = steadier shooting, IMO

oldelkhunter

Let's see first you wanted the stock to weigh as much as the barrelled action, a rough estimate of your barrelled action should be about 6 lbs ..so the stock filled with lead will weigh 6 lbs for a total of 12 lbs. Then you said it was a stand gun and now you go on a discourse about carrying a gun at 9000 feet and how 3 generations of your family did that and it never bothered them in the least.

What do you say about a guy that has a 284 winchester and a 358 Winthat shoots ragged one hole groups and they both weigh 5 lbs with a scope ? Everytime I walk into his gun store and ask him about his rifles he happens to pull out the business cards with these groups on it. Or a guy with a 6 1/2 lb 308 that shoots under 1/2 with handloads? that would be me BTW. There is such a thing as a happy medium ..You not I mentioned light rifle ..in my view 8-9 lb rifle scoped is the best weight for all around use. But nevertheless if you choose to carry around a 10 lb gun your doing it because you choose to do it not for any real potential gain Like I said before it is a specialized rifle at the very best..

zac76156

First of all, I never said I wanted the barreled action to weigh as much as the stock... I simply asked what people thought it would take to balance the gun.

You asked me what the PRIMARY use for the gun was going to be, and I toldyou. I used the example of the 1903A3 simply to help illustrate a point.

I never said you or anyone else couldn't shoot a light weight gun superbly, I only said that other things being equal, a heavier gun is steadier. So what if someone has a business card with a great group on it? Does this mean that shooter shoots a lightweight better than a medium/heavy weight? BTW, I completely agree that there is a happy medium..... and that being said, 8.5-9.5 lbs is about right. I don't think anyone would argue that the weight of the average rifle has gone way down in the last 20-30 years and I am merely suggesting that the trend is only a trend and eventually people will realize that giving up a little weight wasn't the quick fix they thought it was.

BTW... factory remington magnum barreled action with floormetal and bolt weighs 5lbs 4oz, so 6lbs with bulkier barrel is about right...

Roskoe

Zac - I really don't know of a gunsmith I could recommend in your area. You may have to spend some time researching reputations. Just remember - every gunsmith has built a few rifles that won't shoot. This should be a very small number, though.

I tend to lean toward the 10 lb. rifles as well. Not that a light rifle can't shoot good groups. But a heavier gun is a lot steadier under field conditions when your adrenelin is up. The Sendero is a pound or twotoo heavy for me - a #5 contour works out about right.