Home Forums Hunting & Shooting The Lefty Forum Montana Arms lefty rifles at Whittakers

Well, since you asked...

50 rounds through it so far, mostly in 4 shot groups working up loads with some 200 yard plinking thrown in. No pics yet but I'll try to remember to bring my camera the next time I have it out to the range. In your post above you mention the stocks are "functional" in quotes and I know just what you mean. More on that later.

Summary: It really shoots, stock is functional and feels great if not pretty, wood is blah. Like all MRC rifles it's heavy, 7 lb 13 ounces for the bare rifle. It had a feeding issue that was easily fixed but should have been caught the first time someone ran a magazineful of rounds through it. I give it a 7 out of the box, but after playing with it some it's starting to really grow on me.


The OCD details:
I'm among the 10 worst bench rest shooters in the world but 41.0 RE15 and Hornady 100 A-Max gave a 4 shot group of .631 but 3 of those clustered together in .140". I've taken those to 43 grains RE-15 at just over 3000 fps and the group opened up some but as I said, I suck at consistent bench technique so I'll give it another chance. The Hornady 129 SP gave a best 4 shot group of .514" at 2830 fps with 46.0 H4350. I've only fired 10 groups so far with those two bullets and just consulted John Barsness' "Loads That Work" for the powders and charge weights to start with, starting a few grains lower of course. I have some 123 gr. A-Max bullets to try and maybe try some other powders as well. Recoil even with the max loads was very mild.

At current seating depths the rifle seems to shoot three and one or two and two which tells me to seat a tad deeper. Which is kind of funny since the 100 grain A-Max is already in a different area code from the lands and the 129 spire points are also pretty far off. Seriously, with that super long old world European throat the 100 grainers touching the lands are completely outside of the case and even long 129 grain flat base bullets are only a tenth or so into the case. So I'm just seating everything with the base of the bullet even with the base of the neck for now. As I work with it I'll move them forward or backward a tad to see if that helps, but even with that nice 3.1" magazine box, hitting the lands just ain't gonna happen except maybe with some 160 grain round nose bullets.

There was a little quirk with feeding at first, and with my experience with my X2 .243 from the group buy not feeding reliably at first I said some things that would show up as a very long series of bleeps here. But I quickly discovered the problem and a little file work fixed it. The circumferential cut where the extractor collar goes around the bolt was a tad too deep and left a sharp 90 degree shoulder. When feeding a case from the right, the one below it on the left would be tipped downward slightly but enough so the base of the case sliding under the bolt would catch that sharp lip and the tip of the bullet would be jammed solidly into the front of the magazine box. I mean it completely and abruptly halted forward motion of the bolt. However, I beveled that lip with a file and polished with 600 grit paper and now everything works fine. It's still kind of annoying as this thing jammed the very first time I tried to run a magazine full of rounds through it. Makes you wonder if they even try that at the factory. It does direct the noses of the rounds directly into the chamber.

The wood on mine is nothing to write home about, it's kind of a light almost bleached out looking piece of walnut with, and forgive me for saying this, a finish that makes it look like Walmart office furniture. Seriously, I'm not impressed at all, current Ruger #1's have better wood and that's not a compliment.

But it is functional. The pistol grip is well shaped, not too open, nicely rounded and it provides a good grip and presents the finger to the trigger well. The forend is flat around and in front of the magazine but rounds out smoothly toward the tip. The whatchmacallits (longitudinal indentations) along the top of the forend look a bit "different" but again are functional and give a good grip. There are two checkering panels on the forend and with the little bit of room left to them they look too small. But the stock really feels good in the hands and shoulders well, they just need to do something about the wood finish.

The metal work and inletting are very nice. Wood to metal fit is good, the barrel is perfectly centered and free floated in the channel and has a nice matte finish. The barreled action was glass bedded with black epoxy at the recoil lug and tang and they did a really good job of it. Various gunsmiths around here would charge $85-$100 for work like that and some wouldn't do as nice a job.


Despite my nit picking here, overall I'm pretty happy with it. First impressions weren't that great but the more I shoot it the more I like it. It only took me a few minutes to adjust the trigger so it breaks cleanly at 2 3/4 pounds with minimal overtravel. The stock feels very good in my hands, I'm built for a monte carlo stock and this one mounts with my eye looking right through the scope. The rifle is a tad heavy but shooting at a 200 yard 8" gong from the kneeling position that works in my favor as it's very "shootable" and settles down on target well. The bolt works smoothly, the safety is well timed, feeding and ejection are positive and even with that long tunnel of a throat the rifle looks like it really wants to shoot.

IMHO MRC still needs to get better at final inspections before their rifles leave the factory (or maybe I just got two Monday rifles, who knows?), but overall I'd say they make a good, accurate rifle (my .243 is very accurate as well) and as a left hander I appreciate that they chamber it in some fairly esoteric calibers. Now that Ruger quit making LH Hawkeyes MRC is the only place we're going to find new LH CRF rifles in cm and stainless, and only Tikka and maybe Savage make as many different chamberings for Lefties.

Thanks for the detailed observations. Been considering an MRC X2 in .30-06 and this helps a lot.
Bob

Appreciate the detail... Recall that I worked with SAS to have MRC build a custom 6.5x55 that mimicked the first MRC group buy with the exception of chambering "which at the time" predicated a Long Action from MRC. A couple interesting observations:

1) Where your rifle is getting better accuracy backing away from the lands, my rifle got best accuracy almost in the lands (0.005" to 0.010" jump) with the 123 gr Scenars.

2) Even tho long action, my rifle is chambered/throated such that six different bullets from 100gr NPT's on up to 160gr Woodleighs will touch the rifling with a COAL of less than the 3.125" short action mag box length. Of the bullets I have tried, only the Hornady 160gr round nose and the 140gr Berger VLD's need an extra 0.015" to 0.020" to touch the lands. Curious that you have several bullets that are "out of the case" without touching the lands.

Glad that you are warming up to the rifle. Look forward to hearing more about load development as you get time...

How about some pictures of those MRC X2s?
Bob

I posted some pics up in the Hunting Rifles forum.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/11413335#Post11413335

O.K. Start off with the 6.5x55. This rifle was a "clone" of the original group buy .260 Rem, except chambered 6.5x55 which MRC would only do on a long action at that time. Stainless, fluted, 1:8 twist, green stock...





Shoots like this. Load work up from bottom of target to top..



Next is MRC group buy #2 .243. Came in the standard grey MRC X2 stock. I picked up a an Accurate Innovations wood stock with the metal insert for LH SA Win M70 a few months ago. The MRC LH SA was a drop in fit for the AI Win M70 inlet. Looks like this:





The butt stock has a little figure that showed up really well in the early light this morning...



[img]http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af91/schutzen2004/AI_Figure_LH_zpsncewmp1h.jpg[/img]

Still need to work up a load for the .243. But, based on Jim's experience with his .243, and my experience with the 6.5x55, not expecting any issues.

I'm in love with that stock! Something about stainless/walnut that trips my trigger.

Yes! The green stock on the X2 is also awesome. Thanks for the photos...thinking about a .25-06 X2 lefty with a green stock, if they'll do it.
Bob

Loosing my mind... Thought I responded...

tmitch,
The figure in the stock is not always that dramatic. But the lighting was just right this morning. That rifle is a porker at about 8lb, 7oz as shown with the AI stock. But, it should be comfortable to shoot even when I am an old geezer.

RGK,
Call Whittaker's and talk with SAS (Darrik). MRC charges for each "upgrade" on their custom ordered rifles. However, at the end of the day, it is still less cost than trying to cobble it together on your own. It is also easier to just order it the way you want it. As I get older, I am all about "easy"...

My apologies if this is a double post..

Thanks! Mucho helpful. I'll give them a call.
Bob

agreed 100%

Just bought a lefty X2 in .25-06 from Darrik...should be here Friday.
Bob