I have just put my first suppressor in jail (Dead Air Nomad LT) and while I'm waiting for it I want to put together a light, handy host rifle for it. It would be sort of a mountain rifle for up to Elk, and I have sort of a strange nostalgic fondness for 30-06. I'd like to run an 18 inch 30-06 barrel with the can directly threaded for compactness and weight savings. Most accounts I've read of 18 inch 30-06s still manage 2600+ with 180 gainers.

So the simple answer would be to order up a 110 Storm and send the barrel to be cut and threaded... but then I discovered the 110 Lightweight Storm. Holy cow, 1.8 lbs lighter!

The differences that I can spot are: stock lacks accufit cheek piece, receiver is skeletonized, bolt is spiral fluted, and barrel is 2" shorter. I imagine the barrel is also a skinnier profile, but I'm not positive.

The bad: no 30-06. In fact the only long action clambering I see is 270win. This seems odd to me, as most people looking for a 270 probably want a 22 or 24 inch barrel to wring the velocity out of it...

My question is: is it worth it to buy the 110 LW Storm in 270, sell the take off barrel, buy a 30-06 barrel to have threaded at 18" for my super light suppressed rifle? Or should I just start with the standard 110 Storm already in the right caliber?

How much of the weight savings is in the barrel?
In other words, if both Storm and LW Storm had the same barrel installed, how much weight savings could I expect from just the skeletonized receiver and fluted bolt?

Thanks for putting up with my rambling questions!