Lee Loader

I bought a Howa Mini in 6.5 Grendel and wanted to see how light I could make this rifle without spending any money. So I cut down the stock, replaced the recoil pad with Kydex, and cut down the mag.

For a finish I just sanded the stock where I removed material and then ran a heat gun over the surface to remelt the plastic. The material gets porous when you cut deep, so the finish is a little rough. It still seems strong and it's held up for the past year or so since I did the same thing to my .223 Mini.

After extensive fiddling and modifying of the parts, I managed to get the mag to hold four rounds. I haven't shot it yet, but I did fill the mag and feed rounds through the rifle and it worked perfectly. I did this about a dozen times.

Results - 5.253 lbs and it feels great with that flush mag. With lightweight 4x scope I'm one ounce under the 6 lb mark ready to hunt. A sling and ammo will put me over though, but it's amazing how light this thing feels.

I've already taken one deer (crop damage permit) with the 6.5 Grendel and I'm really impressed with it's performance. It hits hard, uses 30 grs of powder, has a mild report, and low recoil.

Now that is a lightweight hunter. Better than lugging the SMLE around in the heat!

I ran across the aluminum trigger guard for the Mini-Action. I ran across a group of 6.5 owners that petitioned DIP for a replacement. I think they were having a heck of a time with the plastic guard spitting the magazine out under recoil as well as broken action screws. It was brought to my attention because of fellow knew I had considered the 7.62x39 early this year.

That bottom metal looks nice. They had a group buy on the bottom metal, but I'm too cheap to spend nearly $100 on it. The real issue is that the plastic does not sit flat on the rear bedding insert. Without the bolts installed, pressing down on the rear tab makes the front pop up about 1/2" inch. So when you're cranking everything good and tight it bends the plastic.

I heated the rear mounting tab with a heat gun and tightened down both mounting screws. This molded the plastic to conform and now it sits flat with no strain.

klr wrote:I heated the rear mounting tab with a heat gun and tightened down both mounting screws. This molded the plastic to conform and now it sits flat with no strain.

Good idea. Yeah, I thought $100 on a $350 rifle...

I use heat to bend and reform the plastic arms on flush valves when I have to fix a toilet. Just saying.