Manners Ultralight Classic: 17.5 oz.

Sako Carbonlight (short action): 20.5 oz.

Buddy just bought a Stocky's carbon fiber and it weighs 21 OZ

Keep the numbers coming boys. Good to know this stuff.

Proof Research short action, 19.35 ozs

Any Brown precision PoundR stock weights?

It’s a Pound, DUH

All kidding aside. I thought Bob said under 20 ounces after a recoil pad and some bedding but I could be off or remembering wrong.

I have a Brown Pounder bedded for a Kimber84M with a carbon fiber reinforced fore-end and it weighs 22 oz. without recoil pad. I've probably added several ounces of fabric (S glass and carbon fiber) and epoxy to it.

I think that is what he said. Mine is closer to 22 oz's, if I remember right, but that is with paint, 1" pachmayr, and devcon 10110 steel glass bedding. I was just wondering what others got for full weight on them. I love the stock and it does work well on my 338wm.

I’d like to try one myself. He raved about them. One day the right 270 will get one.

Good info. This Mcmillan compact edge weighed in at 26 oz's:

KS stock that has been bedded & re-painted.

My PoundR from my tweaked SS M70 375 H&H. This bedded and with a 1" Decelerator pad.



With a 1.5x5X Leupold in old school Weaver mounts and bases.

Very nice Ed. Mine is just about exactly the same weight. Rifle with Talley lightweights weigh in at 7 pounds on the nose.


Crappy picture, but it is what it is..

Anybody have a MPI mountain rifle compact weight?

Grayboe Trekker, 700 short action, M5 bm inlet. At 22.1 oz it's a lightweight for any short 700 regardless of barrel size. A little Buck Rogers, but about as light as you can get for a high comb and vertical grip.

you power lifter too?? serious weights there on the left...

I spent several years competing in powerlifting. Now I lift mainly for overall fitness, joint integrity, and athletic performance. I mix a lot of the Olympic lifts and Power lifts into my training....the Olympic lifts are what I love.

Stockys carbon fiber howa mini stock (includes limbsaver 1/2 inch pad) 17.4 ounces

20 oz. with a Decelerator pad with metal plate removed

That sounds like the lightest, how do you like it? Have any pics?

Funny story. I originally ordered a McMillan, 3 months into the wait they informed me they no longer offered that stock.
So I ordered a Manners, 3 months into that order they informed me that model was no longer available... terrible customer service from both of them.
So I called MPI and talked to the gal that answered the phone, she knew her stuff and understood what I wanted, 6 weeks latter I had my MPI mountain rifle stock in hand, I ordered the Kevlar option, they have two lighter options.
I like the stock very much, it was minimal work to bed and paint and can't understand why they aren't more popular.

That’s sounds nice, I think I’m going to check them out.

Brown Precision finished a Winchester Classic build for me this fall. The bedded stock (14 LOP, Slim pad) weighs 20.5 oz.

That's pretty damn good. The one I just bought weighs in at 25 oz's.. according to the seller. The Pachmayr decelerator is a heavy pad, but will be perfect for my 300wby its going on..

It may not be a “pounder” - but it’s a hell of a nice stock either way. I’ve weighed more than a handful of Browns that aren’t pounders that are in the 26 ounce range.

We'll see when it gets here. Either way I will be happy with it. At 25 oz's it sure beats what is on there now and is very comparable to the Mcmillan hunters edge stocks I've had. Its going on a 300wby, so it also doesn't have to be an extreme lightweight. I'll compare it to my PoundR, when it gets here and let you know. Dang it took a long time for just the right stock to show up for that rifle!!!!

Brown has a 338 for me right now. If he can hit 24-26oz with a .8 pad I’ll be pretty happy. The Brown ergos are awesome.

Well said. I love mine. They mitigate recoil better, for me, than any other stock I've tried. One of the reasons my rifle shoots so well. I think paired with the magnums like your 338 and the 300wby, they are a great match. A big heavy barreled 375 or something like that, I'm not sure?? Also, my 338wm weighs in at 7 pounds without the scope, so its fairly light, but still is pretty easy to shoot.. Brown charges a lot of money, but I'm sure your rifle will be pretty damn nice when you get it. The only thing I would have done differently is get a full 1" pachmayr decelerator on it, instead of the .8" pad. Since it's going on a 338wm. What is the finished weight going to be?

I have what I think is an MPI on a pre64 270 I just picked up. I’d buy another with no questions. It’s 26oz but have no idea of it’s composition being 2nd hand.

Can you post a pic?

Not sure. I’ll have to look at the barreled action weight. I’m restocking a Jim Kobe build on a pre-64 458 action with custom bottom metal. Had the barrel cut and crowned at 23 and it’s gonna get coated when Brown is done.

Tarquin;
Good afternoon sir, I hope the day's giving you weather you need and you're well.

Thanks for the thread, it's interesting to see what different stocks actually weigh.

Here's a Wildcat Composites out of Edmonton. This is bare stock - no pad, but it does have cast composite pillars and a carbon fiber I beam running from the grip to the fore end.



Loaded, walking around weight - 98 action, 21" 6.5x55



The most recent paint job.



Thanks again and all the best.

Dwayne

Dwayne,
Great looking stock and nice finished product. I was going to post a picture of an m70 wc but you beat me to it. M70 long action pattern from Stewart is 18.7 ounces bare - pre-pad and finish. True shame that we can’t get them in the states anymore.

MPI - I think…


I think it’s an MPI because next to a Brown on my Sako AV Fiberclass - it’s much different but nearly exact in texture. Sako (L) MPI (R)

AKwolverine;
Good afternoon sir, thanks for the reply.

I'd not heard that they weren't available stateside anymore?

Has that been for awhile?

Was just on the site and there is still US pricing.

I've done two from Stuart - the Mauser and a long action Model 70 Featherweight. It weighed about the same as yours if I'm not remembering wrong.

Thanks again and all the best.

Dwayne

Wayne York’s stock for the Howa Mini is 18oz. Don’t know about the other models. Nice stuff though.

Dwayne,

Always a pleasure to read your polite and informative posts. I have to admit I lose it once in a while (like a minute ago) in the face of dumbassitude, but you keep your Jesus under fire.

Well done!

Pappy348;
Good evening to you sir, thanks so much for the kind words, I do appreciate them.

I'll do my best to deserve them in future posts as well.

Thanks again and God Bless.

Dwayne

Nice and light sir! Thanks for sharing.

Sounds pretty nice. Maybe you can start a thread on it in the Winchester collector's forum here when you get it back. Thanks..

Nice rifle. I'm sure that is a workhorse right there..

Have shown this one before, but the walnut stock on my little Heym 98 in .308 weighs just 22.6oz, now plus the added weight of the two brass screws I cross-bolted the grip with to control the split.

bsa1917hunter;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope the day in your part of Oregon is looking to be as bright as we're looking now in the Okanagan and that you're well.

You were spot on in that the Mauser shown is the one that gets dragged out in the ugly weather and the long walks.

Somewhere in my late 40's as I was happily approaching the pickup after a little 5 or 6 hour hike with my much loved Ruger No 1 in my hands, I decided that there'd be a day, perhaps fast approaching, that an older Dwayne would most likely appreciate something a mite lighter to drag out on excursions.

I'd traded with a now long passed on buddy for a really rough 98 action which had been neglected and was rust pitted externally on the bottom and around the recoil lug, but was not terrible inside. The number $35 sticks in my head as to the cash I gave him, but what else was in the deal is lost in time. We did a lot of deals that way he and I, so the first .30-06 FN military contour barrel also came in a trade from him, as did the second .270 Parker Hale Featherweight barrel.

I am certain I am not alone in that once I decided the action was what I wanted to work with, I began to add parts and tweak it here and there to see what could be made of it. Again I'm sure it's a windmill we've all saddled up and tilted at more than once.

The first version with the Wildcat Composites stock was done in 2010 if I'm not wrong and looked more or less like this.



It got turned into a 6.5x55 in 2015 and since it was apart the stock got fresh paint.



Anyways as the tally of my years on the mountains gets more hash marks I absolutely have come to appreciate having less in my hands - or on my shoulder mostly since I'm using a walking stick in the steep stuff now. Funny though last fall I stopped out on a spot above a really steep section of canyon to take in the view and I thought to myself how blessed I was to still be able to do that at my age.

My late father could not and both of my shooting, reloading mentors couldn't have either, actually one of them passing at 55, so once again I'll state I've been blessed far beyond anything I could have ever done to deserve.

Thanks again for the reply and for letting me ramble and reminisce out loud so to speak.

All the best.

Dwayne

Somewhat difficult to tell from your picture but this could also be a Winchester Classic inlet for a pre-64. The only thing that gives me pause is the grip looks like it may be a little more closed, but it could also be the angle. Do you have any pictures showing the inletting?

On one of the Winchester MPIs which I have the forearm is noticeably less round and more square than the McMillan WC. I don’t have enough MPIs to know if this is typical.

My Kimber 84L Montana stock after a paint job and swap to an Italian O/U recoil pad.

Here's my Brown Pounder with kevlar. Mark Brown finished the FN Mauser not long before his shop in Los Molinos burnt down. Very glad this one didn't go up in smoke.

The bedded stock with a 1" Decellerator goes 24 ounces.

Those Brown's are some very nice looking stocks. Need to dip my toe into one of them...

Yes … and yes!

I have wanted to try one for years, but always defaulted McM.. I am sure I can figure out something I have to have one on eventually...

Here’s another brown “pounder” bought a few years ago.
22.0 oz with 1/2” decelerator.

You can see the Kevlar in the inlet.

Looks more like a Mcmillan to me.. Nice stock and rifle though..

I felt guilty not telling you about the one on ebay, but have been looking for one for my pre 64 300wby since I got the rifle in 2019. Sorry buddy... I weighed my wood stock lastnight for schidts and giggles. It is 2.2 pounds, or 35 oz's roughly.. So the rifle will be losing roughly a 1/2 pound+..

When I weighed this one 8 years ago, in this state it was a hair over a pound with bedding:


Before recoil pad and paint. I laid the paint on pretty thick, plus now it has multiple coats on it because I was not happy with it until I found the right combination. I painted, I let it cure, used it and then changed it many times!!!!. Because of that experience I have a "love hate" relationship with this stock:

Examples:
Rifle before midnight blue cerakote and red pachmayr. The rifle was pretty homely when I got it:


Too much texture:

Had to sand some of that down and re do it^^^

Tried black speckles:

Didn't like that either^^^

My goal was to try to match the color Mcmillan puts on their stocks:


I should have just sent it to Mcmillan to have them paint it because I spent a lot of time and money in paint trying to make this one right. End product that I am happy with now:


Sans the scope and Talleys. I am now running the Leupold PRW mounts and rings and a very nice Zeiss conquest 3.5-10x44. That's the set up I took my big bull with a few years ago.. The paint has held up very well after about 5 years of elk hunting. That is saying a lot too because that can be pretty rough on a rifle... I keep thinking Burris Zee rings would be much nicer looking on this rifle and cut down on a couple oz's of weight as well, but the rifle shoots so well as it is now in those rock solid mounts and rings, I don't want to touch it:

That sounds pretty good to me on the weight loss.

No need to be sorry. When I get off my ass I’ll get one.

It seems they are pretty hard to find buddy. Like someone else said, they had a fire back in 2018 I believe. Are they back in business???

They had a website it looked like you could order from last I looked.

Bob mentioned he had a couple PoundRs he had Sitman bed but left plain Jane with no do Mark’s and scratches without paint. Just hunted them till he had time.

One of our mutual buddies has his last PoundR stocked 270. Great rifle.

Brown is definitely back in business. Mark set up shop in Cameron, Tx.

One of his favorites he used to shoot a lot (I think it was a 270), he sent me a pic of it when we were both at the range shooting:


Bob got down to business when it came to hunting and shooting. I don't think he really cared how it looked, as long as it shot great and was easy to pack. I miss that old guy.. as I'm sure many of you do..

That is great news.

Nice.

bsa1917hunter;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope the day's looking to be a good one down in your part of Oregon and all who matter to you are well.

Thanks for sharing the photos of the Brown Pounder stock on your .338.

While I've worked on at least one Brown stock way back in the day, I don't recall the grip being like the one on yours. I'll make a semi-educated guess that the grip on your .338 feels "just right" as it reminds me of a custom stock a buddy had on a Sako .338. While I've tried to copy the shape from memory a couple times, I never quite got it to feel like my old long gone buddy's felt like.

Upon seeing the second last photo you put up, I thought it looked just like Willy's Sako through the grip.

While he liked to shoot 250gr Sierra in his, I shot at least two mulie bucks and two Okanagan black bears with the 225gr Hornady and was very pleased with the performance.

Thanks for sharing the build and especially thanks for twigging the memories for me.

All the best.

Dwayne

Very.

Ed,
Any more pictures of this one? I’ve not seen a brown with a pistol grip that transitions quite like that.

Those Brown stocks are very impressive as are the Bansners (of which I have a couple). I installed a couple of MPIs on a trio of Ruger M77s back in the day. But I think my next lightweight stock will be a Proof. I think they run 20 oz’s or just under.

I'd like to try one but I've spent a fair amount of time trying to find one.....and no luck yet.

Thanks Dwayne. Yes, that stock is very comfortable. I love the long thin grip. I now have 2 Brown PoundR stocks. Having recently scored a nice one on ebay. It was not advertised as a PoundR, just a "brown precision", but after working on it yesterday I can assure you it is. They are hard to mistake, with their kevlar fibers and are a pain to work on. The reason Brown probably charges so much. Weighed this one yesterday after I received it:

22.4 oz's with .8" Pachmayr decelerator and bedding:


Now, fitted on my Pre 64 300WBY and with my 338 for reference:


New glass bedding should be cured enough to pull the barreled action out and do some clean up and put back together here in a bit. I'll be heading out to the shop and doing that soon.. Have a good day buddy...

Looking good^^ Nice rifle

bsa1917hunter;
Thanks for the reply and further photos.

Wow that's a nice functional looking pair of arms in very useful chamberings too I'm thinking. While I've not shot anything with a .300 Weatherby, I've fooled with a couple back in the day, used a .300 Win Mag for more than a decade and have been using a .308 Norma for about 3 decades - thus I cannot fathom how the .300 Weatherby wouldn't just be more of a good thing so to speak.

Indeed the stock look to be twins don't they?

As you mention the thin grip coming back fairly straight works for more sizes of hands than many other shapes. I don't have big hands but really liked how buddy's felt and as an added bonus it kept my fingers back from getting smacked by the bolt knob and trigger guard too, which I appreciate.

Thanks again and all the best.

Dwayne

I have an old Brown Precision here for a 700 LA. Has a 1" Decelerator and a 1" stock extension to bring it back to 13.5" LOP. It weighs 1lb, 10oz.

It's no super lightweight, but it fits me like a glove and handles well. I've had it on 4 different rifles so far. It will never be sold.

Thanks Dwayne. The 300WBY has been one of my favorite cartridges for a long time now (well since the 90's). Its always seemed to get the job done. There have been some faster cartridges produced, but like Wayne VanZwoll said in one of his articles about the 30 cal magnums, those are generally overkill. Using up too much powder to get a 2-5% increase in velocity. I wish I could find the article, but Wayne really talked the cartridge up a bit. He said something to the effect that it hit like a run away garbage truck with a laser like trajectory. You also mention the 308 Norma magnum. That always seemed like it would be about the perfect 30 cal magnum, so I decided a long time ago that I'd get one eventually. Ended up having one of my old sporter m1917's rechambered for that cartridge. I couldn't be more happy with it. When I was younger I also used the 300wm extensively. I sold everything I had and decided to keep 1 300wm. That ended up being a mistake and I always regretted getting rid of my 300wby and 338wm. So it is likely I will keep this pair for a while. I've taken a nice bull with the 338wm in the brown with red pad PoundR. One thing about that set up is it is light and it mitigates recoil extremely well. It also handles extremely well and the balance is surprisingly good. I'm excited to try out my 300wby with its new stock. I plan on stretching it out to at least 400 yards and see how it does. The wind was blowing pretty good yesterday, so I didn't go shooting. Maybe today will be a better? When I developed the current load for the 300wby, it was showing promise:


I packed that rifle around for almost a week of our first season bull hunt with no luck,

then on the last day, when I had my Tikka 7mm08 in hand, I took a small bull. I'm looking forward to trying the rifle now, as I know my 338wm is very nice to pack around. The 300wby has lost a hair more than a pound with just this stock change. I'm not going to say you need a magnum anything either for elk hunting, as the little 7mm08 with its 140gr TTSX took that bull down quite handily. I guess its nice having the extra horsepower of the 300wby magnum in some cases. It may be a hair better for downrange performance once you get past a certain distance or when the critters are huge and may fight back. The 2 rifles I posted pics of earlier hold 4 in the magazine and 1 in the pipe, so you get some pretty good firepower with them. If I were bear hunting in Alaska, I'd probably have a hard time deciding between the 2. For chidts and giggles, I should load up some 250gr Barnes originals in the 300wby magnum and see how straight they shoot....

How do you take a 40 oz wood stock off say a Model 70 LA, replace it with a 24 oz stock and get it to not be extremely nose heavy without taking about 10 oz off the barrel?

Riflehunter;
Top of the morning to you, I hope that the week was a good one for you overall and this finds you well.

From my experience with doing that on a couple of rifles, I'll try to articulate an answer other than "it depends" - but sometimes it just sorta does.

The walking around rifle I put up with the Wildcat Composites stock started out in a reworked Model 70 stock which I bought off my long passed gunsmithing mentor for $10 because it'd been shortened. I added wood where needed and then modified it to fit a 98 action and it's become what I call my "mule stock" for all of the 98 builds I do. I want to say at least 4 different rifles started out in that stock now.

Anyways it's heavy though perhaps not quite 40oz but likely mid 30oz for sure.

On a Mauser, especially if one is putting on aluminum 2oz bottom metal it does make the rifle more nose heavy, but for me I actually prefer that as I can shoot it off of improvised rests or offhand noticeably faster. That said though, it's still light enough that I can carry it all day up the mountain behind the house and do good work with it in a timely fashion if I actually see something to shoot at. I don't do that with rifles which weigh 10lb and up anymore, though I believe I could when my age started with a 3 instead of a 6.

The walking around rifle started as an '06, then became a .270 with a Featherweight contour barrel and now is a 6.5x55 with a military stepped barrel which added 4oz to the rifle and all of it on the nose. When I shoot it though, I believe I can feel that extra 4oz and it helps my offhand shooting.

Then again if I'd admit to what it cost me to have a 96 barrel bushed, threaded and installed on a 98 action - which I shall not - then you'd perhaps assume I'm just making a poor attempt at justifying the cost of that part of the experiment.... and you could well be right.

Some actions would be less noticeable though I'd think, like the old BBR I had where the bolt weighed 14oz if memory serves.

While I've likely not answered your question completely, I'd say that yes it'll be more nose heavy but again you might shoot it at least as well as before and perhaps better?

Hope that made sense and was useful.

All the best.

Dwayne

Supercub;
Good morning to you my friend, I hope the week was good to you overall and despite what we're dealing with politically up here and that you and yours are well.

With the understanding I'm going off of memory here and not getting off my chair to grab a new Decelerator off the wall of the shop, when I was going down the rabbit hole with both feet I weighed everything on a kitchen scale and it was educational.

As an interesting and somewhat ironic twist, when I did an online search at what a Decelerator weighs, I found the 24Campfire and some fruitcake called BC30cal spouted this nonsense...

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...s/3560463/How_heavy_is_a_Pachmayr_Decele

While I'm not sure if they still have this stuff, years back I picked up a few 1" thick chunks of the stuff which Corlane uses for their mountain rifle builds. Those blanks are a whisker over 1oz and while they're not as soft as a Decelerator they're not too bad either.

Just a thought if you or anyone out there wants to lose 4oz on the recoil pad.

All the best and God Bless.

Dwayne

Great question. Sometimes you end up with a nose heavy POS. That is something to avoid. It's about finding the perfect balance I guess. That makes it so much nicer when packing around in the woods...



You do realize that some factory stocks are a bit too heavy. Like say a pound or more sometimes, right???

I had an 8 1/2 pound rifle, it balanced fine but was 1/2 pound heavier than I wanted. I put a graphite stock on it to get to 8 lbs (which I did) and now it actually feels heavier because it is front heavy. At the moment, I'm getting the barrel contour reduced by .060" to partially restore the balance.

Yeah, that sucks. A lot of the times a featherweight model is better to work with in that regard. In the picture above, the brown painted stock is a factory tupperware stock. I much prefer those to most wood stocks. I had a bad experience once with a 30-06 classic sporter when I put it in a Bansner. The rifle felt top heavy as hell and I hated it. Ended up selling the Bansner and putting the tupperware stock back on it. That rifle was actually one of my favorite rifles. Set up very similarly to my new $500 7mm rem mag in the tupperware stock shown above. I also tried putting my pre 64 375H&H in a lighter stock. What a mistake!! Then when putting it in a Mcmillan swirly, which is not light by any means at all, all was much better. Even though the rifle was heavier, it packed much better because you were not fighting it because it was properly balanced:


My best suggestion is, if a rifle feels great in the hands, don't F it up over 1/2 pound. It's generally not worth it. Now, in the case of my new Brown PoundR, I knew that was going to be a perfect match for my model 70 because I already have one on a 338wm. Those are damned near perfect for me. YMMV..

Yeah, throwing a heavy azzed barreled rifle in a super light stock is sometimes a mistake. You end up having to do something to correct that mistake. Either by cutting the barrel, turning some of the meat off, or just replacing the barrel. One rifle I had that had a crap stock on it from the get go was my BACO Extreme Weather 30-06. I had a Mcmillan hunters compact edge stock at my door before that rifle showed up. Damned near perfect match, but keep in mind the barrel profile is already light and it is fluted to save some weight as well..:

Any lightweights for a Savage 10?? McM Edge is not a lightweight after they get done reinforcing it for the Savage. I can't seem to find anything current from Brown.

Is it a Trophy hunter?

I was looking for a stock for my Featherweight, several outfits had stocks for M70's but not for the thinner contour of the Featherweight. McMillan had one and was told it weighed ~ 24 oz. I decided to weigh the factory stock and much to my surprise it weighs just under 26 oz (with pad)- not too shabby



I believe this is at least part of the reason

Yep, someone probably hogged that out on their own. Winchester used to do that with their pre 64 fwt stocks. Drilled 2 7/8" diameter holes in the butt of the stocks to lighten them up. I've seen some pre 64 fwt stocks that have been pretty lightweight. Keeping in mind that they did advertise them to weigh in around 6.5 pounds.. I'd just run with the wood stock on your fwt, unless you don't want to mess it up. Then there are many options out there, but nothing is going to be substantially lighter than what you already have. Well, 4 to 6 oz's, but that is just 1/4 pound. I'd buy a synthetic stock to preserve the wood stock more so that buying something looking to significantly reduce the weight of that rifle. The factory winlite stock would look and work great on your rifle. As would the hunter's edge/compact edge.

My short action Featherweight stock weighs 32.5 oz, its good to know that I can get about 6 oz off that weight.

I inherited it from late father-in-law, he must have got inspired to shave a little weight out of it

Stocky's Carbon Fiber blem for the Howa Mini Action:



Howa Mini Action .223 with above stock and Oregunsmithing bottom metal:

NO

Hi Dwayne ...... Thanks for that link. Good info there. We are all well here and have much to be thankful for. The big picture has nothing to do with the current gov't and it's policies. Keeping our focus is something I need to be reminded of all the time.

That stock of mine is nowhere as light as some in this thread but I've come to the conclusion that I really do not like uber light (or short) rifles. I find the 7 to 7.5 lbs is as light as I like and shoot well.

IIRC ..... Corlanes used to sell Decelerators that did not have the metal insert in them. I bought a couple a few yrs ago and think I still have one down there. With that stock extension and the pad, it's no lightweight, but not extra heavy either. That stock may become part of a 300H&H in the future if I can locate a 700 Long/Magnum action.

Paul

How does the Howa mini carbon in .223 balance?

The balance is toward the muzzle but it feels great to me.

Like button.

The lightweight MPI mountain rifle stock I referred to at the beginning of this thread is on a Savage 10 with 4.4" screw spacing.

Just asking. The trophy hunter stock is pretty dang light as is. Just wondering why some guys think losing 5 ozs is really worth the exorbitant expense? Your rifle is not going to shoot any better, you're not getting much better aesthetics or ergos, you are going to take it in the azz on resale. Its also a Savage.

That's better than I thought it might be

Add a scope to that rifle and it should balance further rearward.

HA! I hear that. I kinda went through it with my 2nd Mashburn. I didn't mind my weights as I was assembling pieces for the build and it ended up heavier than I wanted. It shot amazing and was about 8 1/4 pounds with a 6x36 Leupold on it, but I was a at 9lbs or a touch more with the glass I really wanted to use... Well, I sent it back in, had the barrel trimmed a bit, had alloy BM put on it and swapped the stock to a Compact Hunters EDGE.. I think I might have lost 10-12 ounces, but whhhheeeewwwww boy, I paid dearly, but I got my rifle back to 8lbs and a couple ounces with the scope I really wanted to use..

It's all perspective, since I have forgotten at this point what it cost me, but now it feels much more like the 7mm Mashburn I originally set out for.

The factory stock is very flexible in the forend