Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Budget backpack rifle build

I've always loved to experiment a little and this is an idea I've been kicking around in my head for a while. I wanted to see how light of a rifle I could build on the cheap if I thought outside of the box a little. The goal was sub-5 lbs. and it had to come in well under a grand. I'm pretty happy with what I was able to come up with.

Started with a barrel, .35 Remington, 21" tapered, bought out of the classified for $150. Then I found the butt stock which was a GSI brand I believe it was, unfinished blank for $35. Added a $30 Pachmayr declerator at the proper length then went to town with a drill and a router. Foreend is a factory ryanite ($35), that I knocked the rough edges off of. Found a full rifle that I bought local and sold off all the parts to get into the action for right at $100. Met a local forum member for the 4x Leupold Compact for ~170 and added the XS ghost ring set up for just under another $100. Base and rings are Weaver bought local for about $15. Add on some money or so for paint, sandpaper, etc. for a total of about $650. I cut off the part of the base that hung out in space and added it inside the butt stock to hold the XS ghost ring when not in use. Also inleted a couple of bolts in the side of the stock to hold my homemade shell holder. Wood is finished with Krylon and Rustoleum textured. Barrel and action finished with 500 degree cermaic engine block paint.

Rifle with 3 rounds of ammo and scope on board weighs 5 lbs. 6.5 oz. and with just ghost ring set up 4 lbs. 11.6 oz. Having done it all now I'm sure a lighter scope, mount, ring set up could save me about 3 oz. Forgoing the ghost ring set up could also save me 3 oz. Also going with a larger caliber like a .375 winchester could get me under 5 lbs. scope, but I'm happy with what i came up with.

With scope:




Ghost ring mode:




Detail of sight holder and shell holder:


Thoughts?

That is awesome! You did a great job with the painting. I have been thinking about doing something just like this but with a 500 S&W barrel, now I am going to have to do it.

I like it. One nice feature is that you can break it down, so you can stow in inside you pack. Some of the places I go I walk in the day before the season, or use a trail where there are nonhunters/families and something like this avoids the looks.

In your experience,does the scope hold zero when remounting?

Haven't gotten to test zero with the scope yet, but that's first up on my list. Folks using the weaver rings say they are pretty good about it. I figure this is a 200 yard rifle and should be close enough to get the job done. I should have a better answer for you this week.

Forgot to mention the take down aspect. Also one of the plans of this project, nothing on this set up can't be worked on with my Swiss army knife that I always have with me, taken down to.

I think if I was looking for a purely scoped set up I would go with a dead nuts mount and 2.5 Leupold compact, that should be about as light as you can go.

I UBCd the bore as well, forgot to mention that.

Looks great, let us know how she shoots.

Looks great. What brand and color of paint did you use on the metal?

Nice work and very capable package. You could shoot cast 357bullets for small critters pretty economically and tackle big game with full power loads. A huge power spectrum.

Very cool sir!!! I have a couple lightweight rifle projects going on myself, but at double the budget. Very nifty little idea indeed, especially given the coin you threw down on it....Thanks for sharing!!!

That's what I'm thinking. Still have about. 500 .358 pistol bullets that should be fun with about 10 grains of unique.

I seem to recall the brand of paint being duplicolor, and color cast iron. Only brand I've ever seen around here and seems like every auto parts store carries the same. Tried to pick a color closest to stainless but it kind of looks more titanium. Was 7 bucks a can, I've run it before on a shotgun for work and it seems to hold up as well or better then anything else I've tried.

Thanks for the reply. I've got a few Rem 700 SPS's that I'm tired of babysitting to keep rust at bay. I've been debating Cerakote vs. Molyresin vs. Krylon. The paint you used seems like a very good compromise, and worth trying.

Wicked neat!! A former poster (JimF) here did a similar project, but I don't think he got quite that light.

I'm seriously thinking of getting a Contender for the boys to use in 3-5yrs and a project like that would be fun until then.

Thats slick, an all around, easy handling, killin' rig. Great job

That is, to use an overworked word, "AWESOME". Well thought out and very usable package. I'm kind of envious and wondering why I have not thought of that. Way cool. I may have to start gathering parts and pieces.
Take care, Les

Really nice work there B-Man. Thanks for the inspiration.

I like what you did with the stock, but I can't seem to google up anything about GSI stocks. Are they still around?

www.gunstocksinc.com. this started as a high comb model but I've filed if enough its probably close to a factory stock. Factory G2 stock seemed to fit me very well for scope use, i just got in to this one to cheap not to use it.

I confirmed the paint is Dupli-color, de1651, cast iron.

Appreciate it.

Nice little outfit Brad.

I used to have an early carbine kit that went with the G1 TC. Traded into a 16" 30-30 barrel and put Williams peeps on it. It was a handy rifle... I know it was sub 5Lbs. Nasty little [bleep] to shoot off of sandbags though.

I once had a 20" .375 Jdj, that thing was brutal. This one is funny I've shot it 10-15 times with the hotter leverloution. Quite pleasant during, but I seem to be more tender then usual the day after. Not a lot of meat on these shoulders!

Mine was the same story...

I was shooting 125 Ballistic Tips out of it, didn't have a chronograph, but they were cookin'

At the time, I had a scout rifle I'd built on a Model7.


However, I could see that rifle having some use, for say a bear rifle when you're bowhunting in the fall for Elk