Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats NULA or other lightweight build?

So I'm very close to pulling the trigger on a lightweight, deer/hog hunting rifle.
I live in east Texas, and I've been looking at having Hill Country Rifles build me one of their "Sheep Rifles".
It would be a left hand Stiller Predator action, a McMillan Hunters EDGE or Remington Sporter in EDGE fill with a #2 contour barrel at 23"-24" in either .270 Win. or .280 Rem.

OR

A lefty NULA Model 24. Same barrel contour and length. Same cartridge choices.

The 2 options are very close in price, and surprisingly close in finished weight.

The HCR option would finish at about 6 1/4 lbs, and the NULA is listed at about 5 3/4 lbs.

I know Melvin's rifles have a reputation for being very accurate, but the HCR build would come with a 1/2" 3 shot guarantee with factory ammo.

Anyone have an opinion on which way to go and why?

I don't recall: what didn't work for you with the 30-06 from Melvin?

Sure did love that rifle, but it wouldn't feed rounds reliably. He insisted I was doing something wrong because his rifles didn't have that issue. Sent it back to him and found out it had a cracked follower spring. He sent the rifle back "fixed", and it still wouldn't feed correctly. Talked to him about it again, and he basically told me I wasn't competent enough to load and eject rounds. I let him know that while I was certainly no gunsmith, I've been loading and ejecting rounds in my other rifles since I was 7 years old and was quite competent at it. He told me to ship the rifle back to him and he'd send a refund check.

I've heard praises of his love for working with his customers, and was pretty shocked at the way he was handling the situation.
I was told later that he takes such great pride in his work that he has a hard time believing anything not working properly with his rifles must be the customers fault or lack of ability.

I'd love to have a model 24 that worked flawlessly like I've read about.

I don't know...maybe he was having a bad day (or couple of weeks). The man has a great reputation, but wow....that was not my experience with him.

Forgive me but didn't you once build an identical rifle?

From memory redneck built it. What brings you back to this build:

It would be a left hand Stiller Predator action, a McMillan Hunters EDGE or Remington Sporter in EDGE fill with a #2 contour barrel at 23"-24" in either .270 Win. or .280 Rem.

Yes Sir. I sure did...and foolishly sold it. I've sold rifles that I look back and wish I hadn't, but none so much as that one Redneck built for me.

I have 2 rifles built by HCR. Real nice rifles and extremely accurate even with factory ammo

I am sure that now you have a better idea of what you want in a rifle and will be happier moving forward. I would stay away from the Mcmillan sporter stock as I've read some horrid opinions of them on here. Also seems too big for a #2 contour. I would stick with a mountain rifle, hunter edge, Mcmillan Hunter, or Classic depending on what features you like in a stock.

Best

Thank you for the advice.
I've heard either fantastic or horrible things about that Remington Sporter stock.
I love the lines of it, but folks that have handled them say they're blocky.
McMillan lists the offend with of the Hunters Edge at 1.72".
The Sporter stock is listed at 1.9" wide at the same point. Doesn't SEEM like much difference.

Not sure if McMillan ever started making their Mountain Rifle stock in a left hand version. I love that trim little stock.

I also had problems with 2 of his rifles. A 22lr that had feeding problems, which seemed to work itself out for now, after trying/playing with 4 new mags. I have a 260 that couldnt fire after being cocked, sent to him he fixed it, said too much dried cleaning solution in the trigger mechanism, he cleaned it out. (purchased brand new - less than 2 boxes of ammo through it) When I questioned his 125.00 charge, he became unhinged, told me to forget about it. I mailed him a check regardless, he mailed it back unopened. Both rifles ordered new from him. I might be in the minority here though plenty of good ones out there, I dont shoot half as much as others here, consider myself a newbie

I don't understand why you would consider going back to Melvin since you had a bad experience with him. Would he even build you another rifle? I'm not putting you down,nor him either but I would think the last thing anyone would want was to use a gunsmith that they had already had issues with.

I guess I'm just stubborn.

The man makes an awesome product. I wish I could get a model 24 that shot tiny little groups and had no malfunctions.

But, the chance of an issue with a NULA then having to deal with Melvin about will probably keep me from spending money with him.

And you're right...A business man who would call his customer incompetent and insist on me sending the rifle back for a refund probably wouldn't build me another rifle.

It seems my problem is solved.

Hill Country Rifles it is....

Interesting.

The no-brainer of the century is to buy an off-the-shelf Kimber MT 84L, have Lilja do the 84L version of their 84M "Modified" tube (.617" @22"), and have a quality smith install/chamber it.

You'll be dollars ahead and really have a better rifle with the best factory trigger there is, 3pos safety, CRF, phenomenal stock ergos, etc...

Or just buy a Tikka and put it in a manners stock !

Another option might be to wait until Barret Rifles are being shipped out, supposedly in December. Very close to an all stainless Forbes 24 but with a variety of calibers and twist rates. It will remain to be seen if the stock is up to the NULA standards as that is one of the components that isn't duplicated by others.

If you go with HCR and the Stiller I would ask if it will eject loaded rounds. I have heard with some very long bullets/loads that it doesn't. I would have the port opened up anyway just for looks. I would go 280 AT just because. If you can I would recommend handling the various stocks before deciding as even fractions of an inch can make all the difference in feel.

Sorry to hear about any negative experiences with NULA but it can happen in any business.

Brad
I'm a lefty. Kimber Is still right hand only, correct?

Missed that... yes, RH only.

Get a NULA

I am happy to share my experiences. Mcmillan makes all of their stocks available in left hand versions to my knowledge. Here is a thread that I made on a very similar build that I had done. Maybe it will help.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth..._Ackley_Improved_by_Jon_Bea#Post10239960

Nope, there's a few that McMillan only offers RH. Mountain rifle is one of them.

If the like the Mountain rifle, look at the KS stock. You can order it LH, but only with ADL bottom metal, which I prefer anyway.

Thanks for all the advice folks.
Much appreciated

Sorry, I'm a righty and haven't heard that before. Good luck!