Savage Arms Lightweight Hunter Rifles

“Lightweight rifles have long been luxury rifles,” explained Bill Dermody, marketing manager for Savage Arms. “Our goal was to bring the luxury rifle to the regular guy.”

Lessening The Burden
Reducing a rifle’s weight is a straightforward process: Remove excesses and make use of components made from durable, yet lightweight materials. If those include titanium, Kevlar, graphite and carbon-fiber, rather than less costly alloys or polymer, the result is a significant price hike. Lengthened machining times necessary to eliminate surplus material increase cost, too, as the per-unit price escalates when total output slows. Using investment castings, rather than extensive machining, can save money as well.

Because cost isn’t as important to the clientele of low-volume custom and semi-custom gunmakers, said companies make use of a disproportionate percentage of high-tech materials in an effort to minimize weight. Potentially out-pricing the consumer base dissuades the mass producer from doing the same, so the solution is simple: additional machining time, castings and plastic. But, removing material and the use of polymer can “add” to a rifle’s aesthetics, and that’s exactly what Savage did. The company did not go the “castings” route.

“Weight reduction for any product is an art and a science; one must reduce weight but also maintain an aesthetic appeal and product integrity,” explained Dan Borecki, design engineer for Savage Arms. “A product must have the ability to grab your eye, force you to investigate and review, and make you decide whether or not you’d own it. The theme created by the receiver, bolt and stock [of the Model 11/111 Lightweight Hunter-series rifles] grabs your eye and makes you say ‘wow!’ That being said, safety is always a concern, and testing was done to validate the design intent and maintain the criteria established for our products.”

“It wasn’t enough to be light; it needed to look light, too,” said Dermody. Nowhere is “lightness” more apparent than in the receiver and the bolt. Concerning the former, a cylindrical, carbon steel billet is CNC-machined with flat sides—for an outside-to-outside dimension of 1¼ inches—and upper quadrants, while the very top and bottom are left round. “The bedding portion is consistent with our standard receiver with a full-round bottom for bedding, and that also holds true at the top for scope mount mounting,” explained Borecki. Weaver-style scope bases come pre-attached. Adorning the left, outside receiver wall are four, milled lightening slots that diminish in length nearing the receiver’s front. The rearmost slot size is duplicated on the receiver’s right rear side wall and upper quadrant. The slots displace excess material and do so in an appealing manner that invites investigation—a design goal. To prevent debris from entering the receiver, they are not bored-through. The savings in weight in the Model 11 is 1.6 ounces.

Consistent with the “paring-down” theme, even the bolt didn’t escape Borecki’s attention, though the approach and result was unusual for Savage. “The bolt body needed some fat removed,” commented Bordecki, “so the decision was made to enhance the look from a plain vanilla body to one that is a departure from our products by adding the spiral fluting.”

Each flute measures 0.200 inches in width and is finished with black oxide, contrasting with the remaining material, which is left in the white, and resulting in significant visual appeal. The flutes remove 0.8 ounces of steel from the Model 11 Lightweight Hunter—a seemingly insignificant amount, but important nontheless. With the exception of the fluting, the bolt follows suit with those of other Model 10/110-based rifles, having dual-opposed locking lugs for a 90-degree bolt lift, a sliding-plate extractor and a plunger ejector. The rear bolt baffle and handle, the latter of which has checkering on the knob to enhance purchase, has the same finish as the receiver and the barrel.

Measuring 1.75-inches tall, 1.25-inches wide and 0.195-inches thick, the recoil lug, which is secured between the newer, smooth barrel locking nut and receiver, has a small tab that corresponds to a like-sized notch at the receiver’s front. As for the 20-inch button-rifled, carbon steel barrel, it’s of the “ultra-light” contour—a first for Savage. “The contour was based on a sporter barrel,” explained Bordecki, “but for ease carry without snagging, a more slender version was chosen. It also predicated the 20-inch length.” At the locking nut the barrel measures 1.035 inches in diameter, but slims to 0.540 inches at the muzzle, where it ends in a radiused crown.