‘Simplify and add lightness’ is an engineer’s motto. Wild West Guns adds a whole lot of lightness to this stainless Remington 700 SPS in .300 WSM: almost two pounds’ worth. Two pounds of ‘lightness’ doesn’t come cheap, but neither do fully custom hunting rifles…
They shave the bolt body, drill out the trigger guard, and even skeletonize the bolt handle until most of what’s left is empty air. Then they flute and port the barrel, before cryo-treating it to relieve the stresses caused by the fluting and porting cuts.
What they keep weighs just 5.5 pounds and sells for around $3,000.
“add lightness”
*facepalm*
Don’t you dare roll your eyes at Colin Chapman’s mantra!
I’ll bet that thing has a nasty kick.
I would have thought the Corian stock would be pretty heavy.
I don’t like the idea of an ultralight in a heavy kicking caliber. Owch.
I’ve shot several WSM calibers, and they seem to have a little less perceived recoil than their ballistic performance would suggest. This style of muzzle brake is also pretty effective, but it’s hard to mitigate the recoil on such a featherweight rifle. I’d love to shoot it, but not benchrest it.
“.300 WSM” and “5.5#” should not be used to describe the same gun. My Savage Edge/Axis is a 6# bolt action .308 and it’s the most unpleasant gun I’ve ever shot. Can you say “Whiplash”?
Well I guess I wouldn’t call this a range gun. Definitely not a plonked so your shoulder shouldn’t hate you too much when you shoot it.
nice but WAY overpriced for such a heavy gun. If lightweight is what your after, Remington made a special production run of 700’s for Gander Mtn. called a “Guide Special” that weighs 5.7 lbs. without any skeletonizing or lightening. They generally sell for about $600-$900. They also did a special run for Cabelas of the same spec rifle but in a black finish rather than stainless like the Gander guns. Add a little spent on lightening such as skeletonizing the mag box, bolt handle, hollow bolt knob, aluminum bolt shroud, etc and your down to almost 5 lbs even. I’ve done two like this and have under $750 in each. They both shoot under .5″ at 100 yds. What more do you get for the additional $2250 ? If you want a more, you can get a true custom lightweight rifle rather than just a tweeked mass production rifle from New Ultralight Arms that weighs quite a bit less for about the same price. Don’t get me wrong, this is a nice rifle for sure, price is just way out of line for what your getting !
ignant gunowners, i love reading these comments saying how the liberal media is giving Remington the shaft, complete with pre-school spelling and secind grade logic. Example, “I have had a 700 for 20 years and it never misfired, so there is no problem.”. OK, well I’m convinced.
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