I just a Remington 700 VLS in. 260. I planned to shoot high power with it. I haven't had time to shoot it yet but im hoping the factory bull barrel shoots well enough to get started. Problem is it weighs 9.3 pounds with no scope or rings. Any one have any sugestions on what scope and rings to use and how to lose enough weight to make it legal. Thank you.

The lightest scope that I know of that's good enough to do well in highpower silhouete is the Leupold FX-3 at 13.6 ounces. There are a few different ring setups out there that weight three ounces or just barely less. I have a pair of rings on my highpower silhouette rifle that I believe were made by Marvin Pearson that you can get through Steve Wooster (designer of the Wooster silhouette stocks) that are probably about that light. The laminate stocks that I have seen on 700 VLS rifles is pretty heavy, so you can probably lose several ounces hollowing out the buttstock (remove buttpade, remove wood between screws) and foreend (remove barreled action, route out a channel under the barrel). Alternatively, you can narrow up the foreend, as I believe I remember that rifle having a wide beavertail foreend to ride better on sandbags. It will be close, but you can probably make it in under the 10lb 2oz limit for highpower standard rifle. You could always buy a lighter stock, but that VLS stock shape is pretty nice for a factory stock.

Wait... VLS doesn't stand for Very Light Silhouette??

I wish it did. I have an fx 3 on my smallbore gun, I might have to swap them out if I can't find another one. Where would I be able to purchase the rings? Any suggestions on a replacement stock I would prefer not to hack up a good one but I will if I have to. Also is there any way lighten the bottom metal?

Absolutlee wrote:I wish it did. I have an fx 3 on my smallbore gun, I might have to swap them out if I can't find another one. Where would I be able to purchase the rings? Any suggestions on a replacement stock I would prefer not to hack up a good one but I will if I have to. Also is there any way lighten the bottom metal?

Material removal would be the only option.

Light scope and rings, after that you are looking at material removal. Either in the stock or by removing some barrel length. 1" of barrel removal will shed more weight than anything else.

Cutting off barrel length will decrease the velocity but will it hurt any where else? Thanks for the info. It is much appreciated.

In silhouette most of us run very reduced loads anyway, especially with the 6.5mm bullets. A lot of guys are running their reloads near the minimum recommended loads in order to reduce velocity anyway. I am guessing that removing an inch of barrel from a .260 is only going to lose you maybe 20fps off of your maximum velocity. You could run an 18" barrel in this game if you wanted and still have no problem getting your velocity in the standard FPS range that everyone is running.

Never have used these but came across these last night as I was browsing the net.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1246 ... RED_MOUNTS

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=4178 ... URED_RINGS

CZforlife wrote:Never have used these but came across these last night as I was browsing the net.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1246 ... RED_MOUNTS

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=4178 ... URED_RINGS

Those are nice, but $110 for bases/rings. They are slick though.

Another option are these Talley rings. These rings are lighter, and more than half the cost of the S&K rings, although maybe not as svelte as the S&Ks. Talley, been around since the sixties I think. One piece ring and base.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1720 ... COPE_MOUNT

You cant beat Talley rings either!

Absolutlee, Your two bigest offenders are the barrel and stock. I would not worry about weight unless you are going to a national or regional any time soon.
Slap on a good scope and have fun till you burn out that barrel or someone starts to call you out on the guns weight.(usually after you beat them. ) Then get a good barrel and stock that will make weight and beat them again.

I bought a set of the talley rings. Either the rings weren't drilled right or my action wasn't drilled right because the back ring is about a half a screw width longer than holes in the action. Im hoping the package was not marked properly and I can get a set that will fit it. Im going back to the gun shop tomorrow with gun in hand to hopefully match something up.

Did the gun come with scope mounts? if so, see if the bolt pattern is the same.

Are the long action and short action the same in the screw spacing (not front to rear, but at each mount). I should know this but I don't own any long actions to compare. Is it possible that the rings you got are for a long action?

It is a possibility. I don't understand why the front one fit and the back one didn't.