I recently found myself in the market for a .375 H&H after selling my previous commercial Mauser build back to the relative who sold it to me. I'm thrilled to have him back on his feet, but it meant I needed a new medium bore. After considering quite a few options (Winchester, MRC, Kimber, CZ/Brno, Browning/FN, various Zastava distributors) I settled on a MRC AVR in .375 H&H. The driving forces behind the decision were the stock configuration (sling studs on stock, no barrel band), presence of backup irons, and walnut/blued cosmetics. made in the USA didn't hurt either.
Frankly MRC's reputation isn't the best, but as far as I can tell the primary issue seems to be their inability to deliver custom orders in a timely manner. Since I was ordering out of dealer stock, I was less concerned.
I got the rifle yesterday, and luckily everything was in order. The metalwork and woodwork looked good. The stock was free floated and rigid. The action cycled well, although there was one spot that was a bit rough. The trigger was reasonable. The safety worked like it should. The only issue I encountered is that the irons were too low for the stock - it was difficult and unnatural to get low enough to sight with them due to the height of the stock comb. It was close, but not quite OK. The irons are Marbles adjustable rear and brass bead dovetail front.
I mounted Warne bases (recommended by MRC), leupold QD rings, and a Leupold VX-2 1-4.
Looking good...
Next up was zeroing. Ammo is Federal 300gr partitions. Probably not what I'd be shooting for NA game, but I had it around. I shot it once at 25y (lower left taped over hole) and adjusted the scope. The VX-2s adjustments didn't seem to be super-exact or else the stock and bedding settled some, but I did end up close to the bullseye (2nd taped hole). Moved out to 50y. Shot a 3-shot group. Nice and sub-MOA, and proportionally in the same place as the 25y hole. By this point, I'm remebering that shooting big magnums off the bench sucks. Adjusted the scope one more time to zero at 50y which is probably pretty close to a MPBR zero since this ammo is slow and the rings are low. Call it good for now. I'd be comfortable shooting out to 300y based on this zero. I'll get 400y dope at some point when I've got the range available.
Feeding was very good, and I think I've got quite a bit of margin to try wider meplats for solids. Extraction and ejection are what you would expect from a M70-alike
I didn't try to sight the irons because of the issue I described above.. My plan is to buy the marbles big ghost ring rear blade, which should be both more accurate and faster than what it's got now. Then I'll see if I can get it zeroed without smashing my cheek bone into the stock. If not, I'll figure out how much adjustment I've got on the rear sight and buy a higher front sight to get a bit more margin. I'll probably go to an orange painted blade front rather than a bead - I know from experience I do better with them.
Overall 7.5/10. If I get the backup irons squared away, 9/10.