Lightening a receiver

[robtattoo]

This pertains more to the Axis than the 110, but I suppose a receiver is a receiver...

I'm trying to build an ultralight mountain rifle & I'm down to trying to grasp that final ounce or two.

Can any of you think of a reason that I couldn't or shouldn't machine some relief cutouts into an Axis action, basically to match the style & pattern of the new Lightweight Hunter?
I'd be leaving the bridge over the bolt, but I'm seriously thinking of milling out the left side of the bolt way, through to the bolt (along the angled flat) plus some relief cuts at the very back of the receiver. Not through cuts, just troughs maybe up to 3/16 deep.

I can't see that these cuts will affect the strength by much, but I'm kinda loathe to start milling until I hear from someone who knows far more than I!

[sharpshooter]

There is not that much to gain. Even the LWH only dropped about 1.5 oz on the receiver cuts.

[robtattoo]

1.5oz would be a respectable saving for me!
Add the old saving goes "ounces add up to pounds"
Every ounce I can save without affecting the integrity of the rifle, to me, would be worth it.

[darkker]

Well to be honest, I never understood the whole lightweight rifle scene; My 20# rifle got hauled all over the sawtooth mountains.

That aside, Anytime you remove metal, you will affect the strength, and perhaps more importantly; the heat treatment.
Will it be enough rigidity to cause the decline of western civilization? Probably not, but I don't think I would be shooting nuclear loads either.
The hardening or Toughness loss, would cause me more concern than anything else.

[jpdown]

Based on my experience, the easy and cheapest way to build a LW mountain rifle on a Savage action is just go buy a Savage LWH from the start. Sharpshooter is correct, the cuts in the action on the LWH only save 1.5 oz when compared to a standard action. The biggest weight savings result from the compact LWH stock (approximately 26 oz) which is about 2 oz less than the factory tupperware stock. Before Savage introduced the LWH, I tried cutting and hollowing out hardwood, walnut and laminated stocks, but I could never duplicate the weight saving in the simple LWH stock and still have a decent recoil pad to help tame the recoil and muzzle jump that results with a light weight, short barrel rifle. Barrel length and contour is the next best place to cut weight. The 20" FW contour barrel on the LWH is around 32 oz verses 38 oz for the 22" factory sporter barrel. The rest of the weight saving with the Savage LWH is in the use of plastic bottom parts instead of steel. But the plastic DBM assembly, bottom cap and trigger guard save about 8 oz verses the same parts in metal.