Discussion Forums

Nathan Foster

Hi Westerner, quite true, you have summarized this well.


Luis's rifle is the middle ground. After bedding and stabilizing or with a heavier optic, some would come in at 10lb to 10.5lb. The figure of 10 to 10.5lb is still within this middle ground between the ultra lights and varmints. Examples include the ADL, BDL, SPS, Bergara etc, bedded and scoped. If you go any lighter than Luis's rig, you may find that the rifle is good to carry but difficult to get a shot away accurately if you have to snap off a shot after climbing (high heart rate).

Thomas, the Long range is a bit over 12lb all up (without the fluting). The weight is in both the stock and non-flued barrel. The Sendero is normally 11.5lb all up. You can drop .8lb with one of Clive Judds carbon fiber stocks and drop a shade more weight again by dropping a barrel contour.

Not many folk can actually shoot the T3 Lite magnums with great precision in the field, not to the ranges they expect or at least not in a consistent manner. Its one thing to shoot sub half minute at the bench, but throwing down and getting a kill shot away out long is another matter. Any good bloke can be caught out with this. He gets the rifle, sets it up properly, practices a good deal but then gets busy with work for so many weeks. Once the work project is finished, he finally gets away for a weekend only to miss a shot due to a lack of ongoing range time vs the difficulties shooting this rifle. I have seen strong men caught out with this.

Brakes and suppressors are unfortunately only temporary fixes due to eventual swelling at the cut threads of the muzzle. Bullet jump is another annoyance. The jump is normally around 80 to 120 thou, longer after throat wear.

Ultimately, a new stock and AI type mags are the best fix for this rifle / cartridge combo. Set up this way, you can still keep within that light 9lb range. Your current rifle might also be more interesting to explore (tops loads) with a more comfortable stock. One should never under estimate the .30-06.

As an aside, I was asked this same question by email a couple of weeks ago. The guy seemed genuinely in need of help so I put a lot of time into the reply. I also called in the help of a couple of friends just to perhaps give him further insights. And for all of that, he did not even bother to send a thank you email. My bad, I forget that most folk have already made up their minds before contacting me and are simply looking for someone to agree with them. Only a small percentage actually want to learn.

(FYI for readers: Clive is still producing stocks, slowly getting ahead but mostly keeping off the net until around February in order to avoid any back log / stress from the hype of re-launch. I will also say, this final carbon fiber design is simply awesome, not to big or small, not too heavy or light. Its such a perfect balance, the result of an extreme work ethic from Clive, putting the R&D way ahead of profits).