Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Montana rifle action vs modified Rem 700

Based on the responses so far I think I will stick with the Remingtons with a custom barrel and blueprinting. Any other alternatives I should look at that woud give me a great rifle that is in the same price range?

I think you should consider the stiller. Somewhere around $600.00. Remington footprint and all the truing already done. Much closer tolerances and generally a high quality piece from what I understand. You can also look at the Borden. I think it's a bit more money than the stiller but also very high quality stuff. After that you start moving into the realm of the Nesika and BAT and so on. I can speak first hand on the Nesika and it is truly sweet. Frankly by the time you fully customize a remington to the same standards it's pretty close to a wash money wise against the nesika or bat and they'll probably come closer to gettin' your money back outa them vs. the trued Remmy. Generally, I think I'd start with the Stiller or th Borden if I were gettin' ready to do a custom right now. Apples to Apples the MRC in stainless trued and lapped is still in the $585.00 range which is right in line with the Stiller, so it's a pretty reasonable platform and their customer service is very good.

What is the purpose of the proposed rifle? What would it's barrel size be and cartridge etc.

For a target rifle the Remington 700's are ok and 40X's are better. For a hunting rifle I like the three position safeties of the M70's along with CRF. Other brands like Kimber and the M1999 have these features.

If I made up another target rifle or heavy varminter it would be on a Bat action.

Here is Tim in TN's rifle using a Bat action.

I think the M700 is fundamentally a better-built action in the first place, and if you go with a well-selected used doner rifle, that action can be had for an extremely favorable price. So it's better and cheaper from the get go, and blueprinting and fine-tuning is a straight-forward proposition. Stuff that starts out as better usually ends up that way as well. That's my experience, anyway.

I also think that the Model 70 action, in just about all its guises (except for the mid-60s), is a better action as well. The pre-64s were machined from barstock, and the post-64s were forged, then machined. That's for starters, and once again, doner rifles can still be had reasonably.

AD

The 1999 bolt handle really lacks adequate clearance on a scope set in low rings. MRC is aware of this design problem and is contemplating a re-design. Ruger had the same problem with the early MKII's but introduced a deeper scalloped cut in them several years back which improved the clearance greatly. To me the 1999 does nothing really well or really poorly which is why, given its weight, I'd sooner use an M70 action for a CRF project.

Brad, whats the weight of a win 70 action? MRC weight 44oz

I would love a "mauser" handle on the MRC action.. I like the design.

fwiw,
The 700 without question...

Regards, Matt.

If I lived where I would be hunting in temperatures below freezing I would pick the MRC over the Remington any day of the week. I have expereinced to many triggers freezing up on my Rem 700 to consider them a good rifle for cold wet hunting. I just sold off over a dozen Remingtons and have gone to Win 70's, MRC, and a Ruger and a Hein is on order. The MRC is surely not a custom action and that is reflected in its price. It is a great action at a great price. If you want to polish it up to make it look better go for it. But if seriously want to condone them, then by all means fork over 3 1/2 times as much for the Hein.
Ya pays your money and you get your choices.

Or lube appropriately and make your own "luck"..................

Snowwolfe, those Hein's are phenomenal looking actoins... you're up in the Swans, right?

Nortman, I believe they are within an ounce of each other one way or the other.

The Montana action was designed from the beginning to be an action to be finished up by custom gunsmiths. They could then do as much or as little as they liked with it, unlike having to buy, say, a Dakota action for $1200 and essentially paying Dakota $700 to do the last $250 of work.

The gunsmithing folks I've talked to who understood all this say the Montana action takes less time to true up than the average pre-'64 Model 70, which often suffered in "straightness" from the heat-treating used.

Let us also not forget that D'Arcy Echols puts an average of 80 hours into the post-1990 Winchester M70 Classic actions he uses on his custom rifles.

Serengeti works over their Montana actions and spends an average of about $250 getting them good to go. I have one in a 7x57 and it works fine.

If all you want is for the thing to go bang accurately, screw a really good barrel on an unblueprinted Remington 700. I have had this done a great many times and they have all shot as well as the many blueprinted 700's I've shot over the years, generally in the half-inch range or less.

MD

John, Canadian gunsmith Bill Leeper has posted the exact same thing re: the MT's ease to work with and general "trueness."

Very interesting to hear your comments...

What do you think of the MRC 1999 in comparison to the CZ?

Your's is a voice in the wilderness. It's been interesting watching the development of the Montana action from gleam in the eye to delivery of the product.

Montana stated from the very beginning that they wanted to offer raw material to the custom gunsmith trade and did not want to offer finished rifles because then they'd have to compete directly with the big manufacturers. Everybody wants something different, different level of finish, different stuff done to it, whatever. They couldn't please everybody so they produced something that, as you said, a custom gunsmith could then do as much or as little as the customer wanted.

Montana has been very up front about that from day one.

Throughout the development Montana stated explicitly and often: "We're going to offer unpolished raw material to the custom gunsmith trade. We are going to leave it as 'raw material' to keep costs down and because no matter what extra we put into it, someone is not going to want to pay for that extra and other people will want something different anyway. The custom gunsmith can finish it, polish it, do whatever they want to do with it."

Public: "Hey! This is unpolished and not fully finished! What gives!?"

Gotta love human nature.

Not sure what you mean by the Swans, but I live close to Anchorage Alaska.
Lubing a Remington trigger has nothing to do with them freezing up. It has to do with a tiny amount of water getting inside the trigger and freezing causing the clearances to be zip. Inside the enclosed box remington uses the water has a difficult time escaping. That is why I went to the bullet proof Win 70 style triggers. Never had a Ruger or Savage freeze up on me either. The close tolerances are what makes the Remington trigger very good, but they are also what makes it capable of freezing up. If they work for you, GREAT!
But I will never hunt with another one where temperatures can drop below freezing.

Thought you were in MT.

As to the rest, Huh? I never made any reference to liking the 700 or its trigger...

I wonder if anybody has tried to blow up a MRC action, to see how it acts.. maybe some photos, could quiet those who think cast actions are not sutable..

Volunteering?

I'll go off of how many Ruger's I've seen "blown-up".

Honestly, never understood all the [bleep] cast action get .... Ruger's do just fine. When I question someone why they like forged/machined vs. cast/machined I always get the same answer ... "I just do" .... no logic or reasoning.

My MRC action is smooting up pretty nice. I've been cyclying the piss outta while sitting and watching TV and other dead brain times. Its head and shoulders above where it was, perhaps still not as slick as an old M70 or M700 ... but then again, its not old yet. The new CZ actions I have felt new are just as bad if not worse than my MRC99. In fact my ADL felt just as "gritty" as my MRC did new .... several hundred cyclings has that one getting pretty decent now too. Got the MRC (SS) for $350 .... and for $350, its friggin' awesome!!!!

YMMV.

I like both for the low cost.

John, thanks for reminding everyone what the original intent
was from MRC. There are two or three malcontents that post
here who are negative about nearly every subject discussed.
Everyone knows you have to own an Echols if you want an
accurate firearm...