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What is the story on Montana Rifle company? How do their products compare to pre-64 Winchesters? Are they still in business? Any personal experience with their rifles? Thanks.

I have two of them.I consider them better then Winchesters.They are out of Biz.

There's one on the shelf at the LGS. Brand new, stainless and synthetic, 270W. I'm in the market for a 270W, stainless and synthetic...but not one that weighs what that thing does. If one wanted an 8# rifle, this might be the one. I'm looking for 6.5# rifle.

From Wikipedia:

Montana Rifle Company
Montana Rifle Company logo.png
Type Private
Industry Firearms
Founded 1999
Headquarters Kalispell, Montana
Key people Keith Sipe, Jeff Sipe[1]
Products Firearms, rifle actions
Website www.montanarifleco.com

Montana Rifle Company is an American company that designs, manufactures, and distributes rifles, rifle actions, barrels and provides gunsmith services. The company is currently defunct while the parent operating group attempts to restructure the business and seeks new investors for needed operating capital.

Decent product, Miserable business. Never anything on time and sometimes never. I built a .257 Roberts off one of their actions and it was over 6 months late. These days I would have just bought an old M70 action.

Their actions are kind of heavy in my opinion. I handled a .308 ASR in a local gun store and passed even though the price was really good because it felt clunky compared to my laminate stocked Ruger 77 MKII 30-06.

Were they a part of the Remington fiasco?

Their own fiasco....

I see one, looks like close to new to me, in 257 Roberts for sale. I once had heard they were close to a pre-64 Winchester with the faults some had with the pre-64 taken care of...

You can shave a bit by replacing the bottom metal with PTG aluminum bottom metal and use Talley lightweight rings. You could also change the mag follower with an aluminum one. I have one in .260Rem and think the weight is pretty decent. You could find a lighter barrel profile, but the one I have is pretty darn accurate and I feel the weight is comparable for a typical hunting rifle.

If you could find a bare action, then you could really build a nice rifle using a Shilen barrel, McMillon Edge stock, PTG bottom metal and Talley lightweights.

In the heavier kicking calibers, the extra weight is nice, so a Montana Rifle was a viable option.

The "short" action MRC was just the right size for the .376 Steyr. I was going to have one built years ago, got all the parts together, MRC 1999, MRC .375 blank, CZ stock, Hornady brass, Warne rings, Zeiss 1x4. Could never find someone who would take the work. Still all in a box on the bench, these days I don't need anything that big...

I bought two of the original chartered actions. Built one into 338 Win Mag and the other, 338 Jamison. Sold the Win Mag and still have the Jamison. VERY accurate, with a gain twist Apex barrel. Weighs just over 8# 'up'. Not much different than a Winchester 70.

Well I guess there's some comfort in that.

If they ever got out of their own way, they do have a viable product.

Inconsistent quality control, poor customer service. Never seen a company that never returned a phone call or Email.

I have heard that MRC is a rolling train wreck from sources close to the principals.

Aside from the custom choices, I saw nothing that inspired me more than a Ruger Hawkeye, available for a lot less money, or a new M70 come to think of it.

I wish MRC had stuck to (or gone back to) just supplying gunsmith ready actions. Unfortunately they kept getting dinged by folks that were expecting the actions to be finished.

Yep.

Their original intent was to supply controlled-feed actions to custom gunsmiths, who'd modify them slightly for whatever cartridge the customer chose. The design was a combination of the best Model 70 and Mauser 98 features--especially 98 gas-handling. It was NOT just a Model 70 clone, and offered quite a bit for the money.

But non-gunsmith customers kept buying them and finding they often didn't feed the cartridge they barreled them to very well. This was not the fault of the design--though MRC could have been better at communicating with customers, especially BEFORE buying an action. But quite a few good gunsmiths are relatively poor at customer service.

I bought one of the very first of their barreled actions in .257R and had it sent to an outfit in Kalispell( the good folks that bought Mel Smart's stuff) who stocked it. The rifle looked great but shot awful. Had it rebarred, shoots great now. It's one of my favorite rifles.