I'll try to present only the objective differences, as I am a McMillan dealer. I have worked many Bansers, and still own one on a custom rifle.

A Bansner blank runs $250 retail. At a minimum, you'll need to install a pad, prep and paint. In my experience, a good bedding job is in order as well. If your gunsmith will do all that for free, then you will, indeed, save half. Bansners have no checkering, FWIW.

McMillan EDGE (to compare apples to apples weight-wise) run $499 here:

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=22

For that, you will receive a finished stock, with a premium recoil pad installed at your desired LOP, fully machine-inletted for your exact barreled-action specs, pillars installed, and painted, studs included. You'll be able to choose from quite a few more patterns and options.

I see some guys here noting that their inletting was off. It happens, but those are the exceptions. With McMillan, you can specify every last detail from tang to tip, and to include bottom metal, and have it CNC-inletted so that it drops right in. The large majority of the time, it's a tighten-bolts-and-go-shoot proposition. A Bansner has molded-in inletting, and so gunsmith mods are the order of the day unless you're running a factory rig.

Bansners are good stocks. I have one on a lightweight rifle and see no need to sell it. They are sold as blanks, and so comparing the price of a Bansner blank to a completely finished McMillan is not valid. Factor in the cost of finish work, and then compare pricing.

After that, compare absolute quality (you'll have to solicit the opinions of others on that), and see which you prefer.

rb

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated." Thomas Paine