So they thread the skinny barrel on the mountain rifles but offer a new Open Range model with a heavy barrel and no threads?
The Open Country rifles have 5/8-24 threads and a nice thread protector.
. I was really hoping they would bring out hunters with slightly short barrels threaded in a size more appropriate for silencers....
That would require a new barrel profile and new stock mold which isn't cheap. You could always open up the barrel channel of a Hunter stock and have a custom barrel fitted with 5/8-24 threads.
Nah, there are plenty of 7lb - 8lb rifles out there with thicker, heavier barrel profiles that have larger threads, more suited to suppressor use, but they are chunkier than I'd like, even before I add 12 oz of suppressor. What I'm hoping someone will roll out eventually is a light rifle with a light profile that bells to a diameter large enough to support 5/8x24 threads at the muzzle, just like what Barrett did, except preferably for ~$500 cheaper and with a safety that locks the bolt. I believe that the 300 blk Adirondack was set up similarly, It doesn't have its own specific stock does it?
I've looked at having different rifles rebarreled with setups like this, but that adds a cool $600-$700 in costs that you won't get back selling it as a "custom" later. Cost wise I'd be better off just getting the Barrett, but I hike a lot and really don't like safeties that don't lock the bolt.
Hunters don't have enough barrel meat for me to have threaded to 9/16" or 5/8", even with a threaded shoulder collar. Tikkas do though, so if nothing new along those lines turns up at SHOT, I'll probably just have a T3x chopped, collared and threaded. There's a talented gunsmith I've messaged with in Colorado a few times that does that kind of thing.