Lightening Grooves

[David Hamilton]

Youse guys! The hot wax is the best so far. I was going to suggest that one fill the cuts with a fluid, measure the volume and convert to the weight of steel by volume. David

[Richard Flanders]

Easiest way to measure this would be to take a syringe with a thin liquid in it, level the receiver as best you can then fill a groove to as level as you can visually then look and see how many CC's it took... You'll get the volume very close that way

[C grade]

OK, I had Bred B. upgrade an O grade 1 frame underlever 12ga to a 7 lb A grade . We did continuous lightning cuts and it reduced the weight by .8 oz. There are a lot of variables ,width, depth. end taper etc.
David

That is the gun at the left

[Dean Romig]

David, kindly show us a picture of Brad's lightening cuts on your gun.

Secondly, please show us pictures of the engraving as well.

[C.O.B.]

Thats a lot of work to save only .8oz, I would have thought it would have been closer to 1 oz maybe a little more. either way a lot of work. If your going to reduce the weight of a gun I think the best place to do it is in the stock.

[C grade]

Dean
I will when I get it back. I will be shooting it in Sandford and Drakes. I have has a second set of locks fitted to her and they are at the engravers now. My next step is to have a custom walnut case built for her:two 30" barrels with fore ends,two locks .
David

[C grade]

Cob
You are correct ,but you are limited in doing that if you still want it to balance on the pin. I thought it would be more when we decided to do it . I ended up with 7ib 2 oz gun ,good barrel wall thickness and a hollowed out stock.

[B. Dudley]

Well,
I was hoping to give the results of some real world trials, but I cannot due to me not having the proper scale.
I milled out the lightening cuts in my 20g top lever I am building. My reloading scale will not register high enough of a weight to get a good reading. And my other scales will not pick it up. The frame is around 1 pound. The best I could do is severely rough it out on my dial kitchen scale. I can say that the cuts made no more difference than an ounce at the absolute highest possibility.

I was really hoping to have more accurate information.

[Bruce Day]

Or less than the weight of a single shotgun shell.

Maybe somebody could tell me what the hoopla is all about? I see it as interesting but not really amounting to much.

[C.O.B.]

Originally Posted by Bruce Day

Maybe somebody could tell me what the hoopla is all about? I see it as interesting but not really amounting to much.

Here the wind is blowing 40MPH and it's colder than a well digger's ass
So it gives us something to talk about and stay warm