Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Light weight project underway

Got the metal back from Benchmark Barrels last week. Really impressed with their work and 2 month turn around time. The metal (sans Talley's) is 4 lb 2 oz.
$$ was sent for the NULA stock and that should be arriving in Jan. Looks like this is gonna come in around 6.25 lbs with the glass. I'll keep ya updated.

Stock arrived from Forbes early!! A little heavier than advertised but the advertised weight was probably stripped. With the pad and trigger guard it comes in at 1 lb 9 oz or 25 oz, I was expecting 17-18 oz.
The stock doesn't quite match the barrel, so I'll have to sand on the stock to get it to drop down.
In true " black cloud" fashion I broke the front screw while mounting the Talley's. There had to be an imperfection in the screw as I was using my fingers on the tip only. I didn't even have the tip in a handle to apply "torque". Now I have to deal with getting the broken screw shank out. It is, of course, broken flush!!

Total weight w/o glass is 5 lb 15 oz. Glass will add 10-11 oz.
A little over my goal weight of 6 lb 8 oz, but very close. I could always take 1" to 1.25" off the barrel, but I think I'm gonna leave it alone.

Not bad for a 2 contour at 24". What does Melvin charge for a stock?? Why didn't you have him bed it for you?

I've had an interest in Benchmark barrels recently. Can't wait to see how this one shoots. Also had recent interest in 6.5-06, but decided to go 264 Win Mag. With a 6.5-06 in a lightweight platform....I'd go 23". I'll have to go 24" on the 264 WM.

And that sucks on the screw. My suggestion would be to seek professional help with that and not try to drill it out yourself. Been there.....done that.

I think the stock was $473 shipped.
Benchmark and Forbes talked about the contour and shank length, so me, being a cheap bastard, thought I would save the $$ involved in shipping the action across the country. I guess the talk between Forbes and Benchmark left some margin for error. I also don't like shipping stuff around at this time of year. Lots of packages and things get lost, driven over with forklifts, stolen, mis-routed...

I'm gonna think long and hard before I do anything with that screw.

My 264WM wears a 29.5" Lilja heavy fluted barrel. Nice to shoot - not to carry. This one will be the opposite.

Benchmark makes some kick ass barrels for a bunch of dairy farmers. No shcitt their shop is out back of their dairy.

Very accurate barrels and gunsmith work done at good prices by some small town good old boys.

If the shank of the screw is sitting loosely in the receiver, just put a dab of Super glue between the shaft and screw head (assuming you saved it), and after it dries slowly and gently back the screw out.

That's a good plan. I don't think I saved it but I can dig thru the trash to make sure. If I can't find it I'll super glue a hole filler screw to it and try it.
When I do this on my truck or equipment I weld a nut to the broken shank. I was a bit concerned about welding on the front receiver ring for this project!