Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Bansners & Legendary arms works?

I have not had the resources to build something the past year or so . I own two Bansner built customs from his shop in Adamstown a 7-08 and a 300wm. I was looking around today and noticed Trop has acquired them. Whats the deal with Mark ? Did he totally sell, retire , still working? Anyone have more details than whats on the LAW website? Mark always used Jewells and Lilja , however I see LAW is using timney, a "match grade" barrel and that the pricing is substantially lower. Anyone know where they cut the corners? I would have liked to have had one more of Marks builds this year wasn't that year though.

It's good to see they too know how to screw up a 243 twist rate.

Wondered about this, as well, I have four rifles in original High Tech handles and like them very much.

I called them 2-3 weeks ago, as I have three superb old Brno actions left to build on and thot I might go with their stocks again. They, did not mention any changes to me and were happy to send me more stock blanks to BC, whenever.

I have, at present, 28 synthetic stocked big game rifles and have had most brands since my first used Brown Precision, built by a couple of locals and I, in summer 1985. All in all, I find High Tech stocks to be excellent for the $$$$ and hope that they continue to sell them just as they have been as changes are not needed, IMO.

I have mostly Mickys and think them "best", but, they are a bit dear for many and HTs certainly do the job.

Trop bought the rights to make the Brown 704 action and High Tech Stocks. They hired Mark to oversee the building of the new rifles. The new 704 has (at least) a 416 action body, but I don't know if the bolt itself is also SS. I sent them a message asking that question. Apparently Trop has a large amount of CNC machinery to make the actions so I'll assume that's where part of the cost savings starts. Don't know who's barrel they are using. I asked that as well.

Is Mark still running his own place and just consulting for these guys or did he give up the ship in Adamstown?

I believe he stopped building rifles himself and is know just going to be in partnership with Trop as Legendary Arms Works.

The price of the stock blanks has also risen to $290

Can you still get a High Teck stock separately ? . From the rifle desicription, the new stock has a "bedding block" so to speak for the recoil lug area and a " pillar" for the rear action/tang area. I don't believe that the original High Tech's had that. I believe Mark Bansners rifles had two conventional glassed pillars only.

I wonder if a guy could just buy one of these new 704 actions separately (w/ a trigger and that real nice looking aluminum floor plate/magazine box) and build something off that action. That Brown 704 was a sweet action and quite innovative as far as the extractor was concerned. If the new 704 has the same foot print as a 700 and the action screws were spaced the same, one could buy the action assembly, a McMillan stock and have a gunsmith install any number of top flight custom barrels to his exact specs (contour, length etc). I'd really like to know who's barrels they are using on the new rifle. Stock/bottom metal unit look very well made and have a nice tight fit as well. Made of aluminum too. I see, as for now anyway, that the "Big Five" model has a nice shadow line cheek piece and the others do not. I like a shadow line CP myself. I'm still waiting back to hear about the entire action being made from 416 R stainless and not just the body. The Brown had a CM body and bolt. In the end, it wouldn't be a deal breaker as the first thing I'd do is to have the Cerakote removed and have the action finished by Birdsong in Black-T anyway. I hope they offer a shadoe line cheek piece down the road on all models.

RD,

Yes, for the time being we can still buy High Tech stocks separately.

Casey

I got a Burns response back about the barrel maker...."proprietary" even though we know Burns uses Benchmark barrels.

Why in the world would you not let the customer know the quality of the most important component?

It could be just that they don't want to box themselves in on one maker given barrel availability these days. Heck, they could be making the barrel themselves. If it shoots, I don't really care that much and given the price of the rifle, I doubt they are using Krieger's, Broughton, Hart's or Lilja's. I really like this new rifle.

What........you want me to disappear ?

An answer to Grand's question.

I clicked away from the website the second I saw that 10" spec. Game over.

A 1-10 won't stabilize a 100gr bullet ?

A 1-10 will not stabilize some 90's.

I bought a mini Mauser stock they apparently had laying around in December. They said availability might be limited for a few months.

I stopped by Mark's shop this past November, wow all new faces there
Tom Webb is no longer there, must have been 7-8 new guys being trained
Mark informed me the stock making has moved down the road to Ephrata
The actions are made in Ephrata also. I did get to hold a prototype rifle and
action while there. Nice, I guess,I'm just a model 70 guy through and through
After I left I began to question Mark's decision, why after 25-30 years in the
business would you sell out all that you worked so hard to establish??
Having talked to a number of people in the area who are familiar with the
man who is running Trop, I won't be purchasing a LAW rifle he is interested
In money not delivering a quality product Remember you get what you pay for
My model 70 which is basically an �clat before they made that model cost me about
7500 and I knew exactly what brand of parts were going on gun
Just my .02