Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Montana Rifle Company XWR-SS - Range Report

These are not reviewed often here, so thought others might find a range report on a new Montana Rifle Company XWR-SS in 308 Win of interest. This one has a 24" barrel with 1:10" twist. Mag length is 3.125" and capacity is 5 + 1. Everything is stainless, other than the mag spring, which may or may not be, not sure about that. The rifle alone weighs 7 pounds, 2 ounces. The stock is a B&C Medalist, which is bedded at the factory.

It has controlled round feed, a three position safety on the bolt, and a copy of the Win M70 pre-64 trigger as I understand it.

The final price including shipping to my FFL and his transfer fees out the door was $1120.

On the first trip, I mounted a proven scope, a Nightforce 5.5-22x56 that I always use on new rifles to remove that variable. This was put atop a pic rail. I decided to try some new NF Ultralight rings to help shave some weight off, which saves 12 ounces compared to NF steel rings (16 oz. vs. 4 oz). These rings turned out to be an issue on the first outing.

The first outing, I went through one box, 20 shots, of Black Hills 175 Sierra Match Kings. The groupings were erratic; running 8 or 9 inches at 200 yards. This is the second Montana Rifle Company rifle I have purchased, the other being a 260, which consistently cuts clover leafs straight out of the box. So, I called it a day to reassess.

When I put in on the bench, I pulled the rings off to double check the pic rail and rings. The pic rail still was nice and tight, but on closer examination, the scope showed some scuffing from forward and rear movement. This was the first time I have ever tried the NF ultralights, which are aluminum. The inside finish is very smooth, so apparently it was allowing movement. So, I put some two sided scotch tape inside of the rings, which would provide a sticky surface, as well as acting as a very thin gasket to allow for better mating of the surfaces and more even compression. This turned out to fix everything.

This is the two-sided tape gasket:



This afternoon, I took it out, bore sighted, and these were the first two shots:




Made a quick correction and went to the next dot target, and these were the next three shots at 100 yards:





Bottom line - this rifle is built extremely solidly of all stainless parts with a synthetic stock, and no plastic parts. It comes bedded, and shoots fantastic right out of the box. The 260 shoots as well as this one. So, Montana Rifle Company delivered two excellent rifles in a row, requiring no work, and ready to go hunt. Feeding has been flawless. All testing was done loading the mag full and cycling all rounds from the mag.

The rifles are very comfortable, and very easy to shoot well. This 308 replaced a Kimber Montana, which shot great as well, but I find the MRC much easier to shoot well, and much tamer recoil wise, thus, making it much more pleasant to shoot too.

Based on these two, I like them a lot, and would recommend them.

Here is a field shot of the 260 XWR-SS (22" barrel with 3.125" mag box) with a smaller NF up top.