I live about ten miles from MRC and used to hang out there when it was just Brian Sipe a gunsmith. It was called the Montana Rifleman back then. Brian is actually the guy who advised that I buy my Burgess back in the early 90s. He was always a very stand up guy, did good work and was fair in his price for the occasional gun work I had him do.
I don't know exact details and who's involved, but going from memory, I remember he moved his shop and combined with Les Bauska, a legendary barrel maker in Kalispell. Les was probably close to, or into his 80s at the time, and I remember Brian and Les working together on barrels. I also remember hand milled actions that were beautiful, basically what you see as an MRC action now, only milled instead of cast. I lost track of Brian around the time his Montana actions came out as I was getting into archery hunting and less interested in my rifles, but I thought the idea of an affordable action that could either be cleaned up and used as a platform for a nice custom rifle, or just blued and shot as is for a pretty good, if a little rough finished rifle was a great idea. I wish I bought one back then, I think they were less than $500.00.
John
