In reply to:

---

I had a friend who had a 600NE Thys that weighed 10.5 or 11 pounds. Now that was brisk. He had a set of 375 FM barrels made and it weighed in at 13 pounds. All of the extra steel in the barrels to fit the action. It was a tack driver for sure but a bit heavy that way.

---

Yeah,
That's exactly what I was talking about regarding Nitro's greener shottie to double rifle project.
You must match the bore size to the barrel spacing of the action frame or you end up with too much/too little metal, or metal in the wrong places for the best weight/ballance/feel etc.
The good gun makers knew/know exactly how to do this and how to distribute the weight correctly.