Fellow Campfire Members;
Should anyone be interested in this sort of project I thought I'd give a quick update.
On the 'Fire here in the gunsmithing section another member made me aware that a lightweight aluminum bottom metal unit for a 98 was available from Brownells.
Hopefully this link works OK:
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=9718/psize=48/Product/MAUSER-98-TRIGGERGUARD-FLOORPLATEThe only proverbial sticky wicket for my Canadian brethren here is that it can't be imported directly into Canada from Brownells.
After a wee bit of thinking outside the box, I was able to get a used one sent up here and that appears to be OK with all parties. Well it's here now anyway.
Brownells says it's 3.7oz, but our scale read 3.6oz.
The installation of the aluminum bottom metal brought the total weight down to 7lbs even, which includes 5 rounds of 130gr GMX's and the sling.
Anyway, should any of my fellow 'Fire members want to go down the path of putting a 98 on a diet, this seems to be a fairly easy result to obtain.
Thanks for looking and all the best to you all in 2012.
Regards,
Dwayne