Lightweight Stevens 200

[dkevinbarnes]

Got a Stevens 200 SA and am thinking about putting it on a diet to make a lightweight 7/08 and would like your input. I'm thinking about keeping the tupperware stock and going with a 21" thin barrel. Anyone got any idea what this combo would weigh? Do you think I could get anywhere near the 5.5# that the new model 11 lightweight hunter is supposed to weigh? Any suggestions on make and contour of barrel would be appreciated. Not looking for a target rifle but hope to keep accuracy respectable.

[tiny68]

I don't think you can make 5.5 lbs. A Stevens 200 308 w/ 22" barrel is 6.5 lbs according to Savage website. You aren't going to make a barrel much thinner than a sporter and cutting an inch off will not save a full pound. I think a 6.0 pounder with a realistic. However, Savage does claim to get the Model 11 Lightweight Hunters down to 5.5 lbs with a wood stock & a 20" barrel. Not sure how they save that much weight. Tim

[sinman]

I would say that 5.5# is probably stretched and probably closer to 6-6.25#. I would just buy one in 7mm-08 and have the barrel cut back to 18"s that will make it lighter than a 21" long #1 barrel and save you $300

[tammons]

You are probably going to have to go shorter pencil barrel to hit that weight.
That is the profile barrel I would have made if going super light. That said 7# is very comfortable to carry to me especially with a magnum strap so I cant see much reason to go below that.

My 308 is a chopped 19" sporter barrel and weighs about 7#-3oz total with scope as shown below.
If I changed the scope rings to UL rings, and to a Leupold UL 2-7x scope, lighter recoil lug, etc I would be under 7#.
Although 7#3oz is not bad.

Beyond that will cost mucho $, IE carbon fiber stock, cross drilling, pencil barrel, fluted bolt etc all which is a lot more $.

Here is what everything weighs. 7#-3oz total.

Short CF action with bolt Weaver base and machined lug, w mag and action bolts - 2# 2.5 oz
19" 308 sporter barrel and nut - 2# 4 oz
SA tupperware stock with plastic guard - 1# 12.5 oz
2-7x VX-1 leupold scope - 10.5oz
Burris extreme rings, 1/2" - 5.5 oz

A long action weighs about 3 oz or so more.

[hailstone]

Iron sights probably you could make the weight. Anything else will be heavier. Most scoped rifles will be 6.5 to 7.5 lbs and I wouldn't want more than couple shots with some magnum cartridges. Personally I leave some of the junk home or in the vehicle. Only time I've been bothered by rifle weight was recently carrying a AR-10 with scope, sling and magazine. I'm over sixty years old not overweight and lead an active professional life staying in reasonable physical shape. In my experience most that complain about weight don't met the criteria just mentioned.

[bluealtered]

I have a Sinman ss lightweight 22" barrel in .260 i bought from one of our members here, it weighs 2lbs, .02ozs. Thats 8ozs less than the savage model 11 sporter barrel it replaced. blue

[dkevinbarnes]

Thanks for the input and the weights listed for the various parts. Just to clarify, I never thought I would be able to get this project down to the 5.5 lbs that savage is listing for the upcoming Model 11 lightweight, and based on the weights for the various components, I'm not sure how Savage is going to do it either especially with a wood stock. It looks like I could put a 19" sinman pencil barrell on and be around 5lbs 12oz or so based on the numbers thrown out.

[tammons]

No problem. I am into ultralight backpacking and have a decent digital scale and I have my short action broken down.
I actually had everything already weighed.

I just looked at the photo on the savage site and the factory rifle appears to have a pencil barrel and a fluted bolt.
If you did both that would get you close with a light stock.

Here is another way to do it.

Have a pencil barrel made as above or chop a sporter barrel short
Either at 2#.

Short action and various parts with a factory recoil lug
Factory trigger, weaver one piece base, action screws, factory recoil lug, plastic trigger guard, factory mag.
2# - 2.5 oz

Mcmillan hunters edge ultralight stock Varies from 21-23 oz, but use 22 oz.
Holy crapola what an expensive stock.
1# - 6 oz

That puts you at 5# - 8.5 oz

A good load for the 7mm-08 is the 162 gr amax over RL17.

You could start off cheap and just do a 18" chopped $50 9 twist sporter, factory action, tupperware stock, and upgrade as you go.
That would weigh about 6# - 3 oz

You should be able to get 2550+ fps out of an 18" barreled 7mm-08, with the 162 gr amax over RL17.
As long as you can get 2500 minimum, you will stay supersonic out to 1200 yards and carry 850 FPE out to 800 yards
with that bullet.

There is a guy getting 2680 out of a 18" tube over at snipershide, but that is probably loaded long and moly'd.

I shot a 250# boar hog with the 7mm-08/162 amax at 300 yards at about 2600 fps and it blew through him like a freight train.
Its a target bullet, but it has a SD of over .3

There is also a 160 gr accubond bullet if you need a more solid bullet.

[Bigfoot]

Theres a local smith that turns Rem 700s into 4.5-5 lb rifles. Besides the pencil barrels and carbon fiber stocks he mills noncritical metal from the actions. M700 and Savage actions have the same inner and outer dimensions IIRC. Find a smith that lightens Remingtons and see if he will do the same with your Savage.

http://www.oregunsmithingllc.com/

[flyinsquirel]

The new model 11 lightwieght appears to have some milling done to the action judging by the photos. Click the link to the larger photo.

[tammons]

Interesting and it does now that I look at it.

[shortround]

Hey all. Sorry for the late bump, but I'm in the middle of this exact process myself and thought I'd weigh in, and also see how Kevin is doing with his build.

I bought a Stevens in .243 a year ago after I got sick of hauling my half-LRPV around after coyotes. Then I realized I don't really shoot coyotes too much, and that when I do I'd rather do it with my big game guns for practice, so the .243 has been sitting. When I threw it on my scale and realized that even with a 15 oz scope and 1 piece Leupold base it weighed the same as my current sheep gun, a Tikka in 7mm RM, I figured I'd turn it into my new mountain gun.

Anyways, my plan is for a Mcgowen Douglas Featherweight profiled barrel in 6.5x284 (save 8 oz), have the bolt body fluted (probably 2 oz), and I'm skeletonizing the bolt handle/knob (1.5 oz). Gun weighed 6 lbs 6oz at the start, so these bring me down to 5 lbs 11 oz ish. That leaves the stock. It weighed 30 oz at the start - and there aren't a lot of replacement stocks out there much lighter than that, at least without spending huge money.

So here's what I'm doing. I chopped the fore end a couple inches in front of the action screw, cut out two triangular pieces on either side of the butt stock, and rasped, scraped and sanded down the rest of the stock. By the time I finished, it weighed 13 oz. Now I'm building a new fore end out of carbon fiber arrows, styrofoam and eventually, fibreglass cloth and boat building epoxy. Same for the butt stock. Hopefully, when I'm done the stock will be 22 oz or so, saving another half pound and bringing total weight down to 5 lbs, 3 oz or so - basically the weight of a Kimber Montana. We'll see if I can pull it off.

[rsbhunter]

I'm glad that someone has addressed the weight issue!!!!!! I planned on doing the same thing, as light as possible in a 6xc build....with all the talented gunsmiths we have on this forum, i honestly believe that someone is going to make some money lightning the Savage and Stevens actions. When i was in IHMSA back in the early 70's, guys were taking the xp actions and skeletonizing them, as well as the bolts!!!! you had to keep them clean, cause on some, you could honestly see the firing pin spring.Now this was done so that the barrel could be given the weight......but now, with the majority being baby boomers and coming into our own, we want lighter rifles......so, any takers on lightning a stevens action? I have two builds going on rifgh now that i would love to have this done.....SINMAN, FRED, KEVIN.....????? Just a wish....rsbhunter

[tammons]

It might be cheaper just to start off with the lightweight factory action.

[rsbhunter]

True....I just thought that there might be a market in lightning the actions and bolts(already some doing bolts)..and might be reasonable to have it done....if not, i will put my name on the list for either the light action, or the complete SA rifle.....rsbhunter

[bluealtered]

Guys i'm a diehard savage fan, ... period. However i'm also a guy who has to weigh every rifle and pistol i buy, ... nope don't know why.
The point is simple, in the past my savages haven't always weighed in at what they were supposed to. Might be best to wait and see what the lwh really weighs. blue

[tammons]

As mentioned above, its pretty easy to hit around 6-7# total weight

Here is the list again in OZs....

Short action centerfeed with bolt Weaver base and machined lug,w mag and SSS trigger - 35 oz
Typical SA tupperware stock - 28 oz
Chopped 19" 308 sporter barrel and nut - 36 oz
Chopped 16" 308 sporter bbl and nut - 32 oz (estimated)

Short 308 Pencil barrel - 30 oz (calculated)

(For comparison Factory recoil lug - .8oz, Machined recoil lug - 1.2 oz)

2-7x VX-1 leupold scope - 11 oz
1-4x VX-2 - 9 oz

Ultralight rings - 2oz

(For comparison Burris extreme rings, 1/2" - 6 oz)

With a pencil barrel and a 1-4x scope that basically puts you at 6# 8 oz without a lot of work. Just buy a pencil barrel or have one profiled.

That puts you within a few OZ of a factory LW rifle base weight, but with a shorter barrel which would be fine with me.
I would be using a rifle like that in the woods, so a slower 308 load with 220 gr bullets would be fine.

[spook1]

I am wanting to do the exact same thing, and was bumping this up to see if there is anyone who lightens the savage actions. Or do you know if you can just buy the lightweight action from savage?

[jpdown]

Savage is just getting ready to release the LW version. The only way your going to get a LW action from Savage is as a complete rifle. Looks like the street price is going to be in the $700.00 range. I was in the market for one until I saw the pictures with the holes in the stock forearm.

A Remington Model 7 CDL w/20" barrel weights in at around 7 lbs with Burris steel 2 piece base/Signature Zee Rings (4 oz) and Leupold VX-3 2.5-8x36mm Scope (11.5 oz). I've owned one in .308 and .260. Off the bench, the .308 would get your attention and was difficult to shoot consistently. I don't think I would enjoy shooting some of the larger calibers available in the Remington Model 7.

After my experiences with LW Remington rifles/barrels, I decided my next LW rifle is going to built using a Savage SA, a Boyd's stock (2 lbs, 6 oz) shortened and hollow out in the forend and buttstock to cut weight. I've already purchased a .260 Remington 24" SS, RW Shaw sporter barrel that weights in at 2 lbs, 6 oz. I'll cut it down to shave a few ounces. Another option is to order a custom 22", LW contour barrel from Sinman.. I had one that weighted in at a hair over 2 lbs. Talley rings should save a couple more ounces vs. the Burris set up. My target is to have a scoped rifle that weights in below 7.5 lbs with a 20" sporter barrel. Light, but not too light to control recoil, muzzle jump and barrel whip. Yet still easy to handle in tight quarters.

[Bigfoot]

Those holes in the stock do look odd. I'm hoping to see a plastic stocked version.

Todays recoil pads are great! I'm amazed at how little my 6.8 lb 300 WSM kicks with it's 1" Pachmayr Decelerator. Muzzle jump is pretty fierce though. I bought a Vais brake along with the gun but I might not install it now, could install it to keep the muzzle down but I'd like to avoid the extra length if I can. We'll see.

I also bought one of these recoil shield t-shirts. http://www.evoshield.com/Recoil-Redu...t-p/asa200.htm I like how the thin shield forms a pocket so the rifle mounts the same way everytime. Haven't worn it shooting yet, like the Vais brake it isn't needed as much as I'd thought but I'm sure that it'll get used for warm weather practice.

[Dust_Remover]

I talked to a guy the other day who was wanting to build a ultra light hunting rifle. A 7 SAUM and he was trying to keep the weight around 7lbs. I asked him if he was using a brake because that would be very painful to shoot! I can see the desire for a ultralight hunting rifle, I would like one, but i'd want one in .243 to keep the abuse down. I'm thinking Savage SA in .243, Shilen #1 @ 18", Manners SL stock. I think that would be a winning 5.5lbs combo, add a 1/2lb for a Leupold ultralight series scope. Good possibility that it would be under 6lbs with scope. I have handled a 700 in 7mag that was a titanium action, 26" pencil thin barrel that was fluted, with a prototype carbon fiber stock that had to be right at, or really close to 5lbs, it was ridiculously light.

To the OP, if you want a great stock that's superlight (27-28ounces) to go with your Stevens that's much better than the flimsy tupperware stock, gimme a call at Manners.

Branden

[tammons]

A 5# 7mm magnum sounds painful.

[Dust_Remover]

A 5# 7mm magnum sounds painful.

It did have a brake on it, never fired it so I can't comment on it's effectiveness, but i'm sure that it was still not terribly fun.

Branden

[tammons]

Probably tolerable with a brake.

[Slowpoke Slim]

OK, in my opinion, a 5 lb rifle sounds good on paper, but the real question is, will you be able to hit anything with it?

I have a few barrels for my Contender carbine. One of which is a very slender 6x47 (222 Rem mag) barrel that's only 18" long. The whole rifle including scope weighs just over 5 pounds. Sounds great, right? Until you try to hit something with it, either off hand, or from a "normal" field position (my position of preference is kneeling). I can tell you that it's hard, I mean really hard, to hold that little rifle steady enough to make the shot. I have a few other barrels, but that one is the smallest (lightest).

For me, I think the point of diminishing returns is around 6.5 lbs, depending on rifle balance point, and how far away I'm planning on shooting. Any less than that, and there just isn't enough weight to dampen movement and heartbeats. I seem to do better with rifles weighing around 7 pounds and up. Much easier to hold these steady on target, especially "big game" rifles.

Just something I hope you guys have thought about before you go spending a truckload of cash on a 5 to 6 lb (all in) rifle that you can't hit squat with.