Dwayne,
Looks like you have been productively busy--and ended up with a VERY nice rifle!
Thought you might be interested to know that Eileen's latest favorite big game rifle is one of the small-ring Husqvarnas mentioned earlier in the thread. I bought it for a very reasonable price on the Campfire classifieds. The original barrel had been replaced with a very slim contour 22" barrel in .243 Winchester (dunno the make) just enough smaller than the original barrel channel to be free-floated. It has the aluminum/zinc bottom metal mentioned by Greydog.
The rifle turned out to be quite accurate, and with a 6x36 Leupold in Weaver mounts (the bases came with the rifle) it weighed exactly 7 pounds--with the original wood stock.
Eileen killed a big whitetail with it and I am in the process of remodeling the stock (including installing a recoil pad and checkering) and it will weigh about the same as your rifle when done.
I've done some light Mauser 98's over the years, but very few large-rings end up as light as yours. Congrats on a nice rifle!
