Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Have the changes at McMillan caused you not to buy a rifle?

Asking 'cause I was looking at buying a stainless Ruger Hawkeye in 243 to fill a gap in my Hawkeye/77MK2 series in 223, 6.5 CM, 308, and 338 FED. The 4 rifles that I have are all bedded in McM Hunter style stocks and since I want all of the rifles to be set up the same way, I would need to source another McM Hunter stock. The catch being that McM no longer inlets for the Rugers. While I could buy a flat top and have it inletted by a third party, that would add a layer of cost to an already expensive stock. I decided to pass on buying the Ruger 243 because of McM's decision to not support Ruger owners.

Without easy access to the stock, the rifle has lost its appeal to me.

Has anyone else run into this barrier?

If so, what did you decide to do?

I’ve started looking at Kimbers and Tikkas a lot harder, their factory stocks work great for me.

Nice not to be shopping for a stock right after buying a new rifle.

Whatever McMillan is up to these days certainly doesn't determine if I buy a rifle or not.

Plenty of alternatives to McMillan if restocking is in my future.

There are only 2 after-market stock styles that I particularly like, the Hunter and Mountain Rifle, both from McM. I have bought a few rifles this year, some new and some old, but none that are going to be bedding in a new McM stock. This was a case where in order for the new 243 to be useful to me, it needed to be set up like the other short action Ruger Hawkeyes and would need to be bedded in a McM Hunter. Since McM has chosen to stop inletting for Rugers, the extra cost of having a third party do the inletting bumped the pirce out of my comfort zone. IOW, the squeeze isn't worth the juice for me in this case.

To answer the OP question, yes.
I have about 10 McMillans but doubt I’ll ever buy another. Price and lead time are unacceptable.

.... ^^^^^ out priced their product

McMillan did away with the stocks I preferred, KS model to be specific. No longer a need nor a customer.

I won't be purchasing any more McMillans for the same reasons

drover

The new owners are arrogant and condescending, and freaking idiots.

Went through this about a year ago for an HVA barreled action. They could send the stock to a gunsmith partner to inlet... but even for someone with our "problem" the cost was just beyond exorbitant. (McM seemed to be charging about the same for the stock as if *they* were doing the inletting then the smith was going to charge full price for actually *doing* the inletting.)

Has not stopped me from buying a new rifle, but it certainly has stopped me from buying additional McMillan stocks.

Spoke to McMillan a couple of times and decided against buying.

YMMV

No.

Last 2 McMillans I bought, I bought used.

I don’t disagree with you but you’re talking about something that isn’t popular. I too like some things that isn’t popular. Here is a couple of thoughts and ideas.

Those rugers work fine as is but in all honesty suck compared to the same rifle in a 700 or clone. Obviously stock options are limited. So are trigger options. The scope mounting system while strong is not very forgiving for different options. All in all you have far greater things to choose from than wanting to customize a Ruger.

So that brings us to the next point. Sometimes their is a reason why some things are not supported or popular. You would be much better off with a 700’ish 6 creedmoor than a ruger 243 anyway. If this is all because you want to collect factory ruger 243’s in McMillan stocks for the heck of it just pay it. It’s not a good investment anyway it’s a toy for you. I’ve done the same but it’s just want not a need or even a great idea.

I recently got some less than stellar CS from McMillan. I chose to buy from another company because I was told it "wasn't worth out time" to answer a few questions.

I need another stock at the moment for another project and they are really the only game in town for what I need. I may give them a call and see if they can help me. If they cannot (or will not), I will have a custom made.

McMillan has priced themselves out of the market for the common man. I've owned one, and returned it for a refund. I won't buy another, nor would I recommend them. Too many other options out there. Ymmv

I don’t personally know Bob. I won’t be buying any more mcmillans directly from them. They’re great stocks, but damn gotta draw a line in the sand.

He's a real douchenozzle.

I had a McMillan on order back in October.
Was quoted 4 months. April made 7 months and was still told it might be finished by May. Told them just to cancel the order.

So much for removing some stocks from the lineup decreasing the wait times. No more for me.

That is unacceptable.