I'm thinking about ordering a Boyds Classic laminate stock for a sporter weight Remington 700. I understand that these stocks are a bit on the heavy side. How light can these be made with reasonable effort?

The outer dimensions are a little thick, but most, if not all of their sporter designs have lightening cuts in the for end and under the butt to lighten them. Even at that, their thumhole sporters still weight over 40 ounces.

I have milled all the US made brands of Birch Laminates into many different stock designs over the last few years. I can tell you this, you simply will NOT get a normal sized sporting stock out of any Birch laminate that weighs much less than 2 lbs(32ounce) unless it is shaped like a toothpick..

Thanks for sharing your experience. As much as I like the look of the nutmeg laminate stock I will likely look for another option. I could live with 2 lbs but if it is over that I'm not really interested.

Hollowing the butt on a nutmeg laminate will get you under 2#. I have several myrtle and walnut stocks that go 23-26 ounces with three large and deep holes bored in the butts.

FWIW, I think that the Remington 700 LSS-MR stock is a much better stock than the Boyds JRS Classic. The inletting is better and the ergs are better. My scale shows a McM MR inletted for a 700 SA MR at 2 lbs. 3 oz. and the factory specs 700 LSS-MR SA at 2 lbs. 7 oz.

JEff

Also routing a groove under the barrel channel removes quite alot of weight. So will slimming the forearm. Be carefull not to remove weight only in the butt as it can move your balance point quite a bit, unless that's also your goal.
Don

No such thing as a laminate not improved, balance-wise, by losing a LOT of weight in the butt.

Sitka -

Approximately what diameter, and to what depth, woudl you drill the holes into the butt of one of those laminates?

I have a Boyd's JR sporter in the nutmeg laminate, and very want to reduce its butt heavy attitude. I mean really, who wants a big heavy butt.....

TIA,

Bob

Bob
Stocks vary in thickness quite a bit. I start with a dead center hole about 1/2" less than the thickness of the stock. That obviously leaves 1/4" on each side. I bore in until I get nervous, checking often with a purpose-built caliper checking wall thickness on BOTH sides.

When things wander and the thin side goes to <3/16" I step down to the next smaller auger and keep going until I get scared again. With each change in auger size you can aim the drill toward the thicker side each time and get things centered.

Generally the top hole takes out the screw hole for the recoil pad and so a disc of wood needs to be glued into the hole for the screw to anchor in... And the other holes need to be plugged to prevent water damage.

The top and bottom holes angle toward the middle so they get deeper in the stock.
art

I'm currently working on a couple of Boyds classics.
They're pretty meaty around the grip so I sculpt them with a dremel to a smaller thinner wrist and I also drill two 1 inch holes into the butt around 3 inches deep. I could run them a bit deeper but the 'fear factor' normally gets the better of me.

The current classics have finger grooves running up the forend and a lot of material has been routed out of the forend as well so there's not a lot you can do to take any weight out of there.

I've just put one of my modified stocks on a set of scales and it's coming in at 30ozs neat.

You can also drill out the bottom of the grip. Use a forstner bit as large as possible. They make very smooth sidewalls as they cut.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=19461

After wood is removed a round plug is glued into the hole around 1/4" to 3/8" deep. After it dries cut off excess and sand flush. I have done this with many stocks including walnut. A different hardwood plug can look very nice too.

The fore end can be shortened some depending on the length of the barrel. Don't forget about shortening the LOP too, IF the fit isn't too objectionable. I use a shorter LOP with my elk rifle so heavy clothing makes up the difference.

I agree with another poster that 2 lbs is about as low as possible with a laminate.

On fore ends I fill the slot with sections of graphite fishing rods (some use arrow shafts) and bed them in epoxy fluffed with microballoons. It stiffens everything greatly with little weight.

I prefer the fishing rods over the arrow shafts because I can get a wide range of sizes in there meaning more space being filled with hollow rod sections, which is quite a bit lighter.

I would be careful with the pistol grip. It is an area that breaks far more often than the rest of the stock. I would not go deep with it at all.

Agreed shouldn't go too deep depends on shape of stock. That lower portion of the grip is not part of the intregity of the stock.

Their JRS was a pig of a stock on the exterior dimensions, first thing I did was lop off about 2" of ferend and then go to work with a planer to thin everything out. I dont recall how much weight I got off of them but they were much slimmer and felt much better in the hand.

I think their new praire something is much slimmer to start with.