Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Montana Rifle Co.

After a long period of inactivity I thought that I'd better get on here and try to give everyone out there an idea of what is going on with the Montana Rifle Company.

First we would like to say thank you to all of our customers past and present for their support and honesty. Without your support our company would have gone to the wayside like many others before us.

We understand that there are a lot of questions out there regarding the company and our actions. I also know that there are a lot of customers who are at this time not very happy with us. Believe me when I say this but both I and Jon F are working our butts off to try to satisfy everyone�s needs.

We have caught a lot of flack (and that is putting it mildly) and deservedly so about our anticipated delivery dates. We realize that there are a lot of individuals out there that have put a lot of time and energy, not to mention money out there in creating their ideal hunting rifle. There are also those who have ordered actions or barreled actions for that once in a lifetime hunt just to be disappointed because their product won't arrive on time. We definitely feel your pain. It has affected us more than anyone will ever know.

So here goes and please don't take absolutely everything I say as "set in stone" as far as delivery dates, etc.

Many are aware of this but there may be some that are not. We dropped our previous machining company due to a couple of different reasons. First and foremost the quality was not where we wanted it to be and was costing us thousands of dollars each and every time we received a shipment from them. Second, when we approached them about fixing these problems, tightening up the tolerances their price for the machining nearly tripled. We couldn't swallow this price increase and did not expect that our customers would like to either, so we made the change. Currently the machining company that does our bolts and receivers is doing a phenomenal job. The tolerances are darn near perfect and the scrap rate is at an all time low. Delivery is not as quick but I will sacrifice speed for quality any time.

Short Chrome Moly Right Handed Actions are currently being assembled and shipped.

Short Chrome Moly Left Handed Actions are currently backordered and with any luck should be available before the end of the year.

Short Stainless Steel Right Hand Actions are currently in the machine shop and should be in our shop by mid-September.

Short Stainless Steel Left Hand Actions are also backordered as with all of our left handed actions. Hopefully we will have them by the end of this year.

Long Chrome Moly Right Hand Actions are in house now and are being assembled as we speak. We should start shipping them in earnest within the next 2 weeks.

Long Chrome Moly Left Hand Actions are backordered along with all of our left hands. Again we hope to have them in stock before the end of the year.

Long Stainless Steel Right Hand Actions are in house right now and are being assembled. We are missing some parts but are currently working on machining them in house. We should, if everything goes right, start shipping those in earnest within the next 3-4 weeks.

Long Stainless Left Hand Actions. Same as the rest of the left hands.

Now anyone working in manufacturing knows that all it takes is one broken tool to throw you completely off of schedule so the dates I placed above are only "ESTIMATES".

There have also been some issues with quality. First and foremost this is a gunsmith action and to be finished into a work of art will require some work by your gunsmith. Each and every action is squared and the raceways and lugs are lapped before it goes out of here. There have also been some other issues not related to safety that we have addressed and are correcting now.

The company is not going out of business as many have asked us. There are just things that have happened like the machining company change, delays by vendors in delivery, and other things that have affected our delivery of actions. These things are being corrected but will take some time to work out all of the bugs.

We appreciate your continued patience and if you have any questions please email me at mtrifle@montanarifleman.com and I'll try to answer them as honestly as possible. At this time I do not plan on doing any follow-up on this post but will drop in occasionally to read what everyone is saying. Again if you have questions please email me directly.

As a side note, Brian, the owner of both the Montana Rifleman and the Montana Rifle Company is looking at retiring within the next 2-3 years and he is looking at selling one or both companies. He is looking at high 6 figures for the Montana Rifle Company and the low 7 figures for the Montana Rifleman. If you have a serious interest in either company give Brian a call or email him at [email]brian1montanarifleman.com.[/email] Please, qualified/serious buyers only.

Best Regards,

Dan
Montana Rifle Co.

Dan:

I need a LH long action stainless with a .532 boltface for a .257 Weatherby.

I need a RH short action chrome-moly for a 7x57.

Put them in the mix. I'll wait until you have them right. No rush.

Rick

I had wanted to try a Montana action, but you guys torqued me so much the first go around I am gunshy.

It wasn't the longer wait, I understand things don't always go as planned. It was being one of the first 100 in the mix and then seeing people that sent money 8 months after me get their actions.

Was told the first 100 would receive theirs, then it went S/S standard/magnum first and CM standard was going to be last. You said it wasn't your fault, you didn't control the casting order. But it was you that took my money and you that made the promise.

It still chaps me to this day, not to mention the fact that I didn't get the full refund back. You kept about $12 for the credit card charge, which REALLY PISSED me off since you had my money for 10 months.

Steelhead,
Sorry they rubbed you in the wrong way. Please email me at mtrifle@montanarifleman.com and I'll look into the $12 fiasco for you as if you canx your order you should have gotten a full refund.

Dan

See there I go, I said I wouldn't respond to the posts but I'm doing it anyway. Old habits are hard to break.

MRC- do you ever see youselves getting ahead enough so that if a guy calls and asks for an action you can simply say "Should ship to your FFL in 24 hours"?

Dan,

Sent you a p.m.

Dan, I have a SS, left handed, short action, serial No. 000X that I chambered in 6.5x284.
I couldn't be happier with it. Here's how it shoots at 100 yards and 400 yards:

I sympathize. My hunting partner and I started a company. We manufacture and sell Warthog 1134 Bore Cleaner. (A banner ought to show up here on the Campfire shortly.) Trying to get everything and everybody outside the company to work together is a nightmare. A ten dollar plastic valve not shipped by a supplier because somebody misplaced the order can shut a million dollar project down cold. Believe me when I say I do sympathize.

Teal we are hoping (fingers and eyes crossed here) that by the end of September we'll be in that position on at least the right handed actions. I look more for that timeline to be around the end of October or November.

Dan

Not to mention when you are waiting for parts and you see the ole UPS truck drive up and carry in a big box that contains the parts and when you open them and start going through them you discover that not one of them are usable. I had a vendor, probably more than one, that sent me 175 floorplates, when we went through them I was able to salvage about 10 out of the whole lot. Kind of ruins your day, production and schedule. That is one reason we are trying to start machining all of our parts in house.

Dan

Williams makes a good floorplate! (grin)

Thanks Dan, but I consider $12 a fair price to keep me from ever dealing with your company again.

I for one wish you the best and I'm also hoping to be one who will use one of your actions in the future. Good luck, and I admire your goals.

Joel Babcock

Dan, Thanks but no thanks!

I ordered on of your actions and when it finally arrived (about 6mos later than promised), it had the following problems:

Bent guard screw - rough threads

A hole in the receiver above the bolt release

A poorly designed mag box which did not fit or feed ammo

A rough cocking piece, it was actually galling the SS.

And after many ignored phone calls and Emails, MRC finally credited me but only after I went public with it on the AR forum.

I wound up building my project with a Win 70 donor, which turned out great! But MRC wasted a year of my time.

MtnHtr

I've got two barrelled actions on order right now. I've got that "waiting on the UPS truck feeling". I'm hoping that the truck has the good parts and not the bad. That same feeling that Dan had on the bad parts.....well, I don't want to feel that way on a rifle.

If they turn out great..... I'll let everyone here know. If they turn out poor.....I'll let everyone here know. I'm really hoping they turn out great.

Make some good ones Dan.

JCM

I bought one of the first "charter" actions and waited a bit longer than I wanted to but I thought my wait was worth it. Even in "gunsmith" finish I thought it was a bargain and I had very little to do to it. I shot out one barrel in 338WSM out of it, rebarreled and was made an offer I couldn't refuse and sold it, much to my regret. I'm contemplating another right now and may spring when I know they can deliver. I don't like waiting. If anyone doesn't like their SS short action I'd certainly be a buyer right now but would also consider a M70. I preferred my Montana.

How much work is required to get these actions up to snuff? I was under the impression that I need only get a barrel fitted, slap a stock and scope on the sucker and go hunting? What's up?

That's all I did with my two. One is a 358winny the other is a 350 Rem Mag. Both are in AI stocks and shoot great.

Depends. I thought mine was quite good as delivered at least in external appearance. When we barreled it the whole thing was bead blasted and looked great. The bridge in the action was quite tight and bound the bolt a bit. Without truly taking any metal off I jeweled the bolt and polished the races and it ended up being the tightest and smoothest SS action I had. If you want a polished look then you or your gunsmith will have a bit of work. I thought it was a bargain at the price. They aren't offered as "finished" actions, ready to barrel. They're offered as the basis for a custom gun presuming a gunsmith will work it over to your specs. In my case I had to invest nothing but time and a bit of work. The action was true and square and required nothing but barrel work and fitting so maybe I was lucky or less demanding than some.

When I got my LH actions, I discovered that one of the floorplates would not even open after pressing on the release knob. I am surprised that MRC allowed these outta the door when they should clearly not allow these out the door. I paid shipping of $15 for each action, and they have the guts to sen this out the door with this problem. Now, I gotta pay someone to get it fixed or send it back to MRC and pay the extra shipping. You would think after the time I waited for these actions, they should appreciate those who waited and got it right the first time!

Not only that, I requested to change my CM actions to SS and never got a reply back. So my opinion on this company is "up in the air" although I cannot say they will not shoot (mine does not even have the barrel on it now) because I know good products with poor customer service reps can still turn out good products.

But the poor customer service in these days can make or break a company's success IMO.