Over weight

[glen ring]

I am in the process of putting together my first smallbore silhouette rifle. I have a Kimber HS with a leupold 4x12 but I'm going up in the near future to 6x20. If my gun goes over the 8.5 lb limit, what can I do (legally) to get the weight back down to shoot hunter class?

[Jerry G]

You can cut out a whole bunch of wood from the inside of your stock or, you could put your gun into a Neska or Pharr stock.

[ppkny]

Before you start hacking wood out here's a fact to consider. On average the wood in your stock will weigh about .5oz/cubic inch. Just picture how much wood you'll need to remove to reduce the weight by 1 ounce.

[stsbuyer]

Before you start hacking wood out here's a fact to consider. On average the wood in your stock will weigh about .5oz/cubic inch. Just picture how much wood you'll need to remove to reduce the weight by 1 ounce.

I had a Kimber HS the first year they came out, I believe they come from the factory with the butt stock hollowed out. I don't think you will have a problem with weight, just check everything before you put it together. If anything you may need to look at the weight of your rings & bases. If they are steel, find something in aluminum.

Good luck, Paul

[Gator]

Glen Ring
Weigh the gun FIRST. Screw the published weights. We have a Husband/Wife team of shooters here in GA that have Kimbers, not consecutive serial #

[papabear]

I concur with Gator on this one.
Put the gun together first, then worry about the weight after.
I have a Kimber HS with Premier reticle scopes and BKL (aluminum) rings and I still have about 2 oz to spare. The only thing I had to remove from the gun are the sling rings. I would have made it with them on the gun but the leeway (2 Oz) is comfortable enough, some weighing scales vary.

One shooter had to remove stickers from his gun to qualify in Winnie, he said the same gun qualified somewhere else the month before.

[possum]

Glen Ring,
Interesting topic, I've shot a Kimber HS in hunter class for the last 5 yrs.
If you feel that you are going to have a weight problem, here's my two
cents worth, based on my experience.
First start with the bases and rings. If you have the Kimber factory bases
remove them and find some lightweight alum. bases. Wayne Merier in
Brunswick, Ga. makes a high mount that is lightweight and gets you right
up to the max. hgt. Sorry I don't have Wayne's e-mail address.
BKL makes a lightweight alum. base that fits the Kimber. Weighs 1 3/8 oz.
Model 610
By far, the lightest ring and base combination that I've found is a one
piece made by Talley Mfg. Total weight of the rings and bases, both front
and rear combined is 2 1/4 ozs. for the med. hgt. The part # is 940749
Web site www.talleyrings.com
If the lightweight rings and bases don't do the trick, time to remove wood.
I removed 1 3/4 ozs. by removing thd buttplate and using a 1" forstner
bit in a hand held electric drill. Maybe if the bit had been longer I could
have removed more, but don't expect more than 2 ozs.

Sorry for the long post, hope this helps.

Possum

[glen ring]

I want to thank all of you for your advice on dropping weight on my Kimber. I followed all of your tips and I think that I now have a legal hunter class Kimber. This is the only forum that I know of where fellow shooters are so helpful. Have a great New Years .