I have a .35 Whelen built on a mauser action with an A&B barrel. I am slowly making it into my "do everything" rifle. I am having the barrel cut to 21". It currently has a "Corelite"?? stock on it. My one goal is to lighten it up a little. I figure I'm going to carry it more than I shoot it. So far I figure the barrel cut will lighten it up a bit (Currently 24"+), I'm switching the leupold one piece base and rings for Talley One-Piece I have. I have read a lot online about basically drilling several holes out of the magazine box to shave a little too. Any other ideas?

Maybe have the barrel turned down in addition to chopping it off. Get a lighter stock.

Sometimes you can make a deal that you have to catch up to.

How much does it weigh now and what do you want it to weigh?

There really isn't a whole lot you can do cheaply. Cut the barrel down and recontour (hopefully it won't warp), replace the trigger guard with an commercial aluminum one (Parker Hale) or get rid of it all together with a newer lighter stock. Then you can start milling away metal on the action look up a G33/40 action to get an idea on where metal can be removed, you can do something similar with a LR Mauser.

Like I said no real cheap options with a Mauser.

Try a lighter contour barrel, an M98 is what it is, if you need lighter get a different action, please don't drill holes on a perfectly good mauser for weight reduction. If you're on a tight budget a Savage Axis comes in at 6.5lbs...

Lightweight scope, lightweight stock.......call it good.

Not the biggest savings, but a Tubb aluminum firing pin lightens the bolt a bit, and improves lock-time by a bunch.

Chumleyhunts;
As others have already said, in my experience it is possible to lighten up a 98 somewhat, but it isn't an altogether simple windmill to tilt at.

I've built this one which is my main walking around rifle these days. I apologize to those who've seen this photo before, but it does cut to the chase of where you can end up I suppose.



The specs are as follows on this rifle:
- Parker Hale Featherweight contour .270 barrel - 22"

- Wildcat Composites stock - 18 oz without sling studs or recoil pad.

- Special ordered the recoil pad from Corlane's in Dawson Creek , BC and it's an honest 2.5oz installed as opposed to 5oz + for a Decelerator.

- Leupold 6X compact scope

- ugly Bushnell vertical split rings that weigh 1.6oz - I'd think that Leupold Rifleman would be close to that but that's a guess on my part.

- aluminum Weaver bases

- Bottom metal from Brownell's which is again ugly but weighs an honest 3.6 oz just like they say it does. Some Parker Hale bottom metal isn't aluminum really but some kind of heavier alloy that scales out at 8oz. I spent a few hours making Swiss cheese out of steel bottom metal and was only able to come out at 7oz. +

- Boonie Packer Sling, which complete with swivels is about 3oz or less - sorry I can't recall that detail this morning.

Anyway sir, hopefully that was some use to you or someone else out there who has or might have similar ambitions.

As I've mentioned before I started this as a "what if" project and now that it's done I really wish I'd started with a small ring Husky or Brno action instead. Ah well, live and learn I suppose.

The rifle is nice to carry though, is very easy to shoot well for me as it balances fine for my purposes and is reliable as an anvil - but doesn't weigh as much!

Good luck on your rifle build and on your upcoming hunts.

Regards,
Dwayne

Not looking to make it a "Lightweight" overall, just wanting to make it a little easier to carry. I live in PA, so no backpack hunting for me. Most of my hunting is in and around mine and family farms. Just want it comforatable on my shoulder all day. Used it last year as is and it seemed heavy at the end of the day (I'm getting old I guess).

I'm going to cut the barrel more for balance, ease of use but realize I'll lose some weight there. Don't really like the feel of the stock that's on it, so plan on switching it out anyhow. While I'd love to go with a Micky, it's just not in the finances right now. I'm actually thinking of a cheap Butler Creek as I like the feel of them. This thing ain't gonna win no beauty contests for sure.

I'm also getting it Cerakoted. Might pick some off the wall color just to stick with the "God is that thing ugly" theme. Brother in law likes to "borrow" all my "nice looking" guns. Had to go to house and pick up 4 of them this year. Maybe if I go ugly he'll but himself a damn new rifle.

Chumleyhunts;
Thanks for the reply and further details of your project.

I see I neglected to mention in my initial response that something in .35, .36 or .37 is hopefully slated for one of two actions that I've got sitting in the safe right now - so I do think your .35 Whelen is already a good start!

When I typed the response yesterday, I had just come down off the mountain behind the house from a little 2 hour walk for either a whitetail buck or an immature bull moose in fresh snow half way up to my knees. It was just below freezing and was snowing/raining on me the entire time.

Since the snow hides what shin-tangle I'm attempting to traverse it's not when I'm going to take a header, but how many times and how hard that are in question.

Anyway, those kind of jaunts are just why I built the ugly gun in the photo. It had to be tough, fairly weather resistant, reasonably light and balance well. It won't win any beauty contests either - here it is with the last coat of Krylon I put on it before this season.


For what it's worth, I really think you are on the right track looking for balance and "feel" of the stock and finished rifle. For a fair bit of our hunting here in our chunk of BC, the ability to shoot quickly and efficiently has made the difference between killing and not.

Yesterday morning for instance, I spotted a whitetail head looking at me over some brush at roughly 200yds, perhaps a bit more. A quick check with binos showed it to be a little 2nd rack buck which is fine with me, so I was in the process of dropping my pack for a prone rest when he decided I had poor intentions towards him.

My point there though is that with this rifle I've got the confidence in it's ability to hit small targets at that distance because I built it to fit me.

During the process of modifying that rifle, I found that I could in fact feel small differences in balance when I dropped a few ounces off of the butt or even from the bottom metal. It all works towards a rifle that I can carry easily and shoot well in a bit of a hurry.

Hopefully that all made sense, but to me putting together a walking around gun had much different criteria then when I did up a horse rifle which by the way was a No. 1 in .300WM or a coyote rifle which is a .22-250AI that scales out closer to 11lbs.

Again good luck on your build and on your upcoming hunts.

Regards,
Dwayne

One way of lowering a Mauser's weight cheaply for hunting.

1.Choate Mauser Stock; 24OZ + you lose the weight of the bottom metal. Bed with Steel Bed. Costs 1 ound in the magazine.

2. Original Weaver rings and alloy bases save some weight. On
my .35 Whelen I did use steel bases and Leupold QR Rings as it has iron sights.

3. Homemade,Shoegooed Synthetic 1" sling with plastic swivels.

4. Leupold 2x7 scope.

5. Shorten, taper barrel as you wish.

DB,

Thanks for the info on the Choate stock. Looks like what I am looking for. Have to go see if I can find one to fondle to see how it feels. Looks like a great way to lose weight.

My .280 '98 comes in at 8 plus a few ounces lbs, including scope, Cabela's "Safari" sling, 5 rounds in the magazine, 5 on the stock. The bbl is 22 inches, the stock a Brown Precision with Bondo-molded handgrip, scope a 3 to 9X Tasco World Class, Weaver mounts and rings, a Parker-Hale mag/floorplate/trigger guard and Pachmayer Decelerator recoil pad.

There are lighter, but more expensive stocks and other components, but the dead chit out front just doesn't seem to care...

Replacing the steel bottom metal with aluminum probably takes a half pound off. It's been about 20 years, so I no longer remember, exactly...

In terms of lightening, the heaviest items are action, stock and barrel. Not much you can do to a Mauser action to lighten it - the G33/40 is about the lightest stock Mauser action (small ring, lightening cuts in the sides, etc.) and it is only a couple ounces lighter than a standard large ring Mauser. Drilling holes in the magazine will only lighten it by a fraction of an ounce and is probably not worth the effort unless you're looking for every little bit.

Switching to the 2 piece Talley lightweights should drop the weight by 3-4 ounces compared to a one piece Leupold base. If you have a heavy scope, a lighter scope will lose a few more ounces (e.g. a Leupold in place of a Zeiss). If you're only looking to lose a few ounces overall that may be enough. A lighter stock could lose more weight. You may want to try that and see how the balance is before going to tapering the barrel, as that is an irreversible choice.

Rumor has it that PT&G is going to have aluminum bottom metal for the 98 Mauser. Aluminum bottom metal in and of itself will lighten the gun quite a bit. FWIW, Brownell's also handles alloy bottom metal for the 98 Mauser, but IMHO it feels 'cheap' and the floorplates is hidiously engraved.

Please, let it be so

I have one on my VZ24 7mmRM I built.
Last year I shot an antelope with the rifle with the antelope on the floor plate.

At Brownells, the PAWS Aluminum bottom metal for Mausers weighs 3.5
ounces, as opposed to 8.625 ounces for typical steel bottom metal.

It costs $60 and so the weight savings is ~ $12/ ounce.