I know this has been discussed in a thread some time ago, and probably several times before that, but since so many new companies come and go through the years, I like to take census of this periodically because there could be new products out there and I own several savage rifles.
I've decided that for the 2019 hunting season that the money I was planning to spend on a Kimber or Barrett Fieldcraft rifle would be better spent elsewhere in my hunting budget, as I have plenty of perfectly good hunting rifles. However, I still don't have one that I would call "light" and easy to pack into the mountains after elk, mule deer, etc. What I'm thinking now is to take my short barreled bear gun, develop a flatter shooting load for it, put a better optic on it, and lighten it up a bit. Just about all of that weight reduction has to come from the stock, because nothing else can really be done to the gun, but the stock has a lot of weight to lose. Right now it sports a Boyd's Classic laminate stock, which they say is about 2.8 lbs... i.e. too damn heavy. I've taken survey of all the stock makers I can think of, and here is what I came up with
Bell and Carlson/Hogue/Choate - too heavy
McMillian - prohibitively expensive. May as well buy the new rifle!
Manners - no Savage inlet. Expensive
Grayboe - no Savage inlet
Wildcat Composite - no savage inlet
L.A.W. - no Savage inlet
HS Precision - too heavy
Brown Precision - too expensive
Looks like the only options out there for light weight and under 400 bucks is MPI and Stockade. Stockade seems to be the way to go in affordability if I get their DIY option, which I'm perfectly comfortable with. Are there any other options out there that I don't know about?
I've decided that for the 2019 hunting season that the money I was planning to spend on a Kimber or Barrett Fieldcraft rifle would be better spent elsewhere in my hunting budget, as I have plenty of perfectly good hunting rifles. However, I still don't have one that I would call "light" and easy to pack into the mountains after elk, mule deer, etc. What I'm thinking now is to take my short barreled bear gun, develop a flatter shooting load for it, put a better optic on it, and lighten it up a bit. Just about all of that weight reduction has to come from the stock, because nothing else can really be done to the gun, but the stock has a lot of weight to lose. Right now it sports a Boyd's Classic laminate stock, which they say is about 2.8 lbs... i.e. too damn heavy. I've taken survey of all the stock makers I can think of, and here is what I came up with
Bell and Carlson/Hogue/Choate - too heavy
McMillian - prohibitively expensive. May as well buy the new rifle!
Manners - no Savage inlet. Expensive
Grayboe - no Savage inlet
Wildcat Composite - no savage inlet
L.A.W. - no Savage inlet
HS Precision - too heavy
Brown Precision - too expensive
Looks like the only options out there for light weight and under 400 bucks is MPI and Stockade. Stockade seems to be the way to go in affordability if I get their DIY option, which I'm perfectly comfortable with. Are there any other options out there that I don't know about?