Is there a patient issue that keeps them from producing the recoil lug integral to the action? Not to be a nay-sayer but it looks like a lot of extra nooks-and-crannies where glass-bedding material will end up where you don't want it and/or create mechanical lock where it ought not be??
If there's a good reason to produce the action/lug in that manner I'm all ears.
I love that they're using the open trigger design.
Curious on that also. Is the lower lug affixed to the stock ala tikka? Also curious what max coal in the two action lengths will be.
The lug is the only thing about the action I’m not sure of but I figured worst case scenario I’ll just epoxy it to the action and treat it as a normal action at that point
Hey all, back from a glorious week of camping and hiking in SC with the family :-)
There's too many questions to answer to the the quote post thing, so here it goes: 1. We will be offering both bare and barreled actions as our manufacturing dept. picks up speed. 2. There are no plans currently to do custom rifles or wildcats, you'll have to work with your gunsmith and one of our bare actions. The long and short, is we don't have the manpower. 3. The initial offering for the McMillan stock is very similar to their Gamehunter model. A traditional sporter will be coming later as we add to the product line. 4. Lefty actions should be out in a year or so. 5. Picatinny slot spacing is the same as if it was a solid rail, anything else would be silly! 6. We're not taking direct orders. Sales are being handled through the same rep groups we use for our G5 Outdoors and Prime Archery brands. They're doing the leg work to find "full service" shops in their areas that are a good fit for this brand. There should be a dealer locator on the main MRC website at some point in time. 7. Being a Michigan company, we'll be doing straight wall "neutered" rounds at some point. It will likely be the .350 Legend, and .450 Bushmaster because of sales volumes despite my affinity for better rounds like the 45 raptor and various whisper type wildcats. I've got some fun goofy stuff for my own personal collection brewing, but I'm sure it'll never make production. 8. The bean counters are working on the pricing, but it's going to be somewhere between $2-3k depending on options.
and finally, the answer to the recoil lug...
The reason for the removeable construction stems from it being a fully machined receiver, and starting bar stock size. We start with a 2" diameter 10 lbs chunk of pre heat treated stainless. We gun drill the main bolt diameter on center using the same drill we use to make barrels. If I were make the recoil lug integral to the receiver, I'd have to start with 2.5" diameter stock (13.5 lbs vs 10 lbs), and subsequently machine off the additional 3-1/2 lbs of steel. With the increased cost of material and added machine time, it would add somewhere in the $500 ballpark cost to the receiver. Yes, it's somewhat of a compromise, but it works, and works well.
We bed the actions with Devcon epoxy front and rear. The lug and all receiver surfaces are drafted forward and laterally to allow release from the bedding compound. The flat recoil bearing surfaces are left flat for proper load transfer. The lug to receiver fit is quite tight, and we spray mold release on the receiver, and lug so they come out of the bedding together. I've also purposely only mold released the receiver to bed the lug in. When I want to run multiple actions in the same stock, this method works great (providing you stone off a hair of material from the lug to allow them to separate easily).
Sorry, I forgot to add that the magazine box inner lengths are 3.15" for the short action, 3.4" and 3.65" for the long action (the -06 length box has an integrated spacer in the back, but the body and receiver interface are the same). I usually recommend giving yourself .040-.060 space between max COAL and box length to keep things moving in the cartridge stack.
When we acquired the company, it included the parts inventory, so I'm working around existing magazine boxes at the moment. I'm going to have a new LA magnum box made that will accommodate the 300 PRC's 3.70 max COAL when the time comes.
We bed the actions with Devcon epoxy front and rear. The lug and all receiver surfaces are drafted forward and laterally to allow release from the bedding compound. The flat recoil bearing surfaces are left flat for proper load transfer. The lug to receiver fit is quite tight, and we spray mold release on the receiver, and lug so they come out of the bedding together. I've also purposely only mold released the receiver to bed the lug in. When I want to run multiple actions in the same stock, this method works great (providing you stone off a hair of material from the lug to allow them to separate easily).
I think that is an interesting and surprising configuration for an initial offering. It is shockingly close to a build I’ve been putting together in my head for a 5 digit classic stainless 7 mag I have sitting in the safe. I’m not sure how well it will speak to the general CRF market, but I’m interested in a 7 prc.
As for price, based on what you describe I see the value from 2-3k. However, I think as you move towards 3k in price you will rapidly lose people’s interest as it moves into the “well for a bit more I can build it EXACTLY my way” territory. Close to $2k it’s a no brainer if you want a long range style CRF rifle.
What? No 35 Whelen, no 35 Remington or even a 358 Winchester? Tell the new owners to leave plenty of meat in them skinny bores for a decent JES rebore job. A plain jane 280 Remington would have been cool, but they forgot that one too.
I've no idea about the rep groups but I sure wish there was at least a run of left hand limited options where folks could at least pre-order even if has to be thru a distributor. This would be ideal for your left hand runs to have the majority all pre sold and that way you wouldn't have to worry about low or slow sales. Anyway, that's how I'd handle the left hand issue. It alright to trickle some occadi9nally on the market but pre paid runs would be the way to go.
A plain jane 280 Remington would have been cool, but they forgot that one too.
Why would they do a “plain Jane” .280 when they already have a “plain Jane” .280 AI? You can shoot “plain Jane” .280 out of the AI chamber and you’d never know that it was AI until you looked at your fire formed brass. 😀. You’d have the best of both worlds….a .280 and the option to hot rod it by going AI. 👍🏼
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Thanks for the information on your design. By 98 barrel ring and feed cone, I assume that you mean that the action will have the Mauser c-ring or c-collar and not a coned breech?