How much weight can you drop w/o losing capability?

[ST911]

If y'all think some gunners obsess over weight, check out the cycling forums. A few riders will pay $4 each for titanium water bottle cage bolts, when the steel ones cost pennies. And the $18 stainless steel bottle cage becomes $60 in titanium. And you need two of them.

Yes, my sport is obsessed with equipment as well [Rowing]. When the biggest factor is training/technique. Settle down on some good equipment and then train your a$$ off.

See also: backpacking.

[1168]

See also: backpacking.

And motorcycle racing. Mofos drill rings of holes in Ti freaking washers.

[turnburglar]

The two biggest places to loose weight are the barrel and rail. The myth's of pencil barrels shifting POI or dramatically increasing in group size as they get hot, have been unfounded in my case. There's also the myth of light rails burning your hands in a mag or two. You may need to do your own testing on your own components, but I know for a fact that cold or hot my pencil barrel will make sub 2" groups with 55gr ammo. Also at the end of a 60 round stage in less than 2 minutes, my rail doesn't feel any warmer then when I started. The last place you can save some weight is the optic. For LPVO's I only buy Aero mounts if I can, cause they have 3 recoil lugs and weigh less than any other mount by a lot. With my lighter LPVO, my entire match gun weighs 7.3 pounds un loaded. Thats 14.5 barrel, 13 hand guard and steiner P4Xi. If I switched to a micro red dot it would be a 6 pound gun.

[1986s4]

And motorcycle racing. Mofos drill rings of holes in Ti freaking washers.

OK, you got me on that one.. Wow !

[js8588]

Was putting together a home defense (bedside) carbine. Realized I'd have no problem grabbing it and rolling if need be but it was a definitely too heavy for my wife.

Ditched the Lothar Walther medium weight chrome lined barrel & ordered a sionics lightweight 16 inch barrel. (7oz difference)

Swapped the Odin Works gas block for a Battle Arms titanium one. (1.5oz)

Swapped the Wilson Combat Q-Comp for a Rainier Arms flashhider (1.2 oz)

Ditched the EFX-A1 stock for a Lancer CF A1 stock (8oz)

Switched the HK grip for a Hexmag one I had in the parts bin (2oz)

And swapped handguards saving another 4oz.

All in a pound and a half saved, and I now have spare parts giving me an excuse to build 2 more rifles.

[Duffy]

The light weight mafia isn't looking for utility, it's a trend (at least their brand of light weight) that can't go away fast enough. If you wonder if they balanced utility, dependability with light weight, you usually won't find a well balance there. Light weight for the sake of light weight, to the exclusion of other useful attributes is a fool's errand. Light weight for many is just something trendy folks wanted and manufacturers rushed in to fill a demand.

I refuse to use ti on anything, we're not building race cars and aircraft. For these vehicles there is no room for nonsense, everything is streamlined and efficient, but for most lightweight makers it's anything but.

We have several products with the H designation, for heavy. We're not trying to say light weight isn't good, only practicality and dependability is more important to us. Our sling mounts aren't ti or aluminum, they're 4140 steel so they last. We shave off weight where we can so they don't weight too much over their TDP counterparts, there's a practical side to weight saving, it should never get to the point of sacrificing reliability and practicality.

[mark5pt56]

Well, there you go!

The light weight mafia isn't looking for utility, it's a trend (at least their brand of light weight) that can't go away fast enough. If you wonder if they balanced utility, dependability with light weight, you usually won't find a well balance there. Light weight for the sake of light weight, to the exclusion of other useful attributes is a fool's errand. Light weight for many is just something trendy folks wanted and manufacturers rushed in to fill a demand.

I refuse to use ti on anything, we're not building race cars and aircraft. For these vehicles there is no room for nonsense, everything is streamlined and efficient, but for most lightweight makers it's anything but.

We have several products with the H designation, for heavy. We're not trying to say light weight isn't good, only practicality and dependability is more important to us. Our sling mounts aren't ti or aluminum, they're 4140 steel so they last. We shave off weight where we can so they don't weight too much over their TDP counterparts, there's a practical side to weight saving, it should never get to the point of sacrificing reliability and practicality.

[Duffy]

With that rant out of the way, weight is an issue for my wife, I don't discount or dismiss that light weight is a good feature, but still maintain that in achieving it, we'd do well do balance that with other aspects of the weapon that are more important than weight alone.

Going after an artificial weight is best left to experiments, learn what you can from it and apply it where you can. As for my wife for whom my AR is too heavy, she shoots something else more to her ability to lift and shoulder. To me, a light weight rifle itself isn't the issue, M16s back in the days were light and nimble, I'm all for that, I just don't want to give up capabilities and durability for it.

[justin_247]

Going after an artificial weight is best left to experiments

Thankfully, we have people in this industry who are willing to go a little outside the norm and experiment to see what works and what doesn't.

[MistWolf]

It makes no sense to reduce the mass of the barrel if you don't reduce mass everywhere else first. The barrel is the single component where added mass has utility. Barrel mass controls heat and aids cooling. A barrel with more mass runs at a lower temperature with the same amount of heat. One benefit is reduction of mirage in the sights. It makes no sense to lighten the barrel if an AR has a heavy handguard, stock or optic for example.