So I bought a MRC X3 and it is a real disappointment. The chamber is so rough the spent cases look like someone took a file to them upon ejection , and speaking of ejection , the bolt likes to "lock up" or "stick" anywhere it contacts the receiver mid stroke upon attempted cycling. A Remington TI even cycles smoother than this thing. , The rifle is aesthetically pleasing and its features are desirable but as far as function goes I would have been better off with a 299 dollar Mossberg , so disappointed. This is just a caveat to perspective buyers , I would steer clear of these rifles. 1300 dollars should buy oneself a quality piece of equipment , this was not my experience unfortunately. I hope they can get it together

I hate to hear that because I was considering one in 6.5 PRC. What caliber did you purchase and was it accurate?

I'd give them a call and see what they can do about fixing the rifle. I agree that for $1300 you shouldn't have those problems.

Similar problems arose on here regarding the previous version as well (X2). Feeding was an issue in that instance. But, the worst part was, the customer service received was worse than the faulty product.

itz funny. how this place in general will absoluteky excoriate one compamy for sending out a 1300 dollar lemon, yet look at all the known problems with kimber montaans and yet those issues shpuld almost be acceoted as par and the gun still be considered a bargain

Yup.

That's disappointing. I've watching for feedback on the X3. It seems like they really got it right with the weight reduction. I expect problems are uncommon but the stories about customer service don't inspire confidence

Haven't seen many Kimber problems lately. And CS has been reported to have improved as well.

I have a MRC X3 in 6.5 PRC.No problems at all. Fine rifle in every respect. Also have an older X2 in 260 Remington. I'm happy with both of my rifles from MRC.

My x2 MRC is a wonderful rifle.

They have new management and improved CS is said to be on the front burner. There's some chatter about it on the AH forum. I'd contact MRC and see what they say. You're not even out the cost of a long distance phone call anymore.

Just my $02.

RM

$1300 fat girl or $1300 skinny girl. People put up with more having the latter.....

That's good to hear and I hope new management does shake things up. I've had two MRC 1999's, one X2 which jams everything except plastic tipped bullets - it does feed those just fine - and which may be what KenMi is speaking of, and one ASR which was a fine rifle in all respects.

Regarding trying to get the feeding problems fixed on the X2, if you talked to the right person (singular) at MRC, things got done as far as that one person could do them. But unfortunately, that person couldn't handle everything and had to delegate and that's where the problems started. My experience trying to get the X2 fixed involved sending it back to the factory twice and a string of mostly dropped balls. "Oh, I asked him to email you last week, didn't he do that?" type of thing. If anyone's interested I might could dig up those old threads where I reported on that.

Hmm, I'll wait awhile and see if good stories and kudos for CS appear about MRC and might try sending that rifle back a third time...

and thats silly
for that kind of money i expect whatever i buy to be unphugged from the get go

Kimber a bargain!? Who said that?

You really need to call them and have a chat. I suspect they'll happily do what it takes to make you a happy customer. I will probably own one in the future. Your account wouldn't turn me away. Multiple accounts might. If they fail you on customer service, that could sway me. You owe it to yourself to give them a chance. You bought a premium priced gun. You should get a premium quality product.

I received a response from the CEO saying the "new" MRC will stand by the rifle no.matter what, hopefully it will be a good customer service experience, the rifle has lots of potential. That's why I bought it.

How much does your rifle weigh?

I've had pretty crappy luck with a X2 6.5 CM. It's back to them for the 2nd time. I've now asked them to rebarrel it to a .260 Rem, because in the long delay to get theirs working right, I bought a 6.5 from a different MFR that smacks clover leaf groups. Truth be told, some of the delay is due to me, I travel extensively and my ability to get home and take it to the main UPS hub to ship it (only open 4-6:30) is a PIT, but dang a $1200- $1300 dollar gun should feed and extract out-of-the-box.

Here's my take if you want a MRC. I really do like the features of their actions. But save yourself some hassle. Buy one of their bare actions, buy a shilen barrel, buy a Mc Edge stock and find a good local gunsmith. You'll probably be into it for $2K, but you'll have the best of the best.

Glad to hear it.

Please keep us posted on this. I would really be interested in buying one IF they get the problems corrected and IF they treat you right. Thanks.

That is exactly what I'm hearing: new management is very responsive. The only heads-up is to not expect the turnaround time to be very fast.



That's actually not a bad idea. One thing about the MRC rifle is that their barrel contour is pretty beefy. I don't know how it compares to a pre-64 standard rifle, but there's a lot of steel in it. Some folks like that, some don't. Mine shoots and "hangs" on the target very well; and I'm not sheep hunting in BC so the two or three ounces of extra weight really isn't an issue. But a person could put together a pretty nice hunting rifle - including an action with the pre-64 trigger - doing exactly what you said.

What is most disconcerting about that is how could a rifle get sent out the door in that condition in the first place. If it was just one instance, it could have slipped through the cracks, but this has happened multiple times just on this one forum.

That's good to hear. Please keep us posted as other have asked. I really would like an MRC X3 in 6.5 PRC, but if their CS is crappy, that's a deal breaker. That rifle shouldn't have left the shop in that condition.

Hope the new management turns things around. How tough is it to function test a rifle before shipping it out? Sticky bolts and failures to feed dummy rounds can be detected very quickly.

Have alway liked the MRC designs but for $1300 I expect perfection in function, with excellent accuracy. Hell, I got that on almost every used rifle I've purchased and all have been under $500 with some under $300.

That....

I've built a few rifles on the MRC actions and only the first one (first couple years production) had 'issues' that I had to correct. The last action I got was outstanding.. Once the barrel was on I had to very slightly adjust feeding (took about 10 mns), but that's not at all uncommon for that style (M70 clone) action..

Poor QC. Pretty easy to see that.

Comparing it to a pre 64 is laughable, at best. Compare it to something like a Ruger 77 instead.

Why so? I was speaking about the barrel contour. Since the MRC is supposed to be styled along the lines of a pre-64, I was wondering how the barrel contour of the MRC compares to that of a standard grade pre-64 M70. I'm not sure why that's so laughable.

Me either... M77? Puhleeeeeze..

BCJR,

I hope the new management/owner will take care of your problem. I have a MRC X2 in 260 Rem, the one that was the Campfire Special that Whitakers but together a few years ago, and it has been a very good rifle. Not as smooth as my Winchester Model 70 Classics, but the Winchesters have been cycled many, many times plus "Redneck" work them over a little.

My next purchases will most likely be more Model 70 Classics if I can find one or two in stainless, but if MRC gets it together I could go that route again.

The rifle shipped to MRC in Kalispell via priority mail today 11/29/18 , it should be there Monday, I will repost here with the outcome and turn around time. Fingers crossed.

I really wanted to like MRC, like the features of the rifle and the options. I bought an x2 a couple years ago and had all sorts of failure to extract, feeding issues, and the worst trigger I had ever felt from a factory rifle. For the price I expected much more. The eventually fixed it but it took a LONG time. Hoping the new owners turn things around on the QC and customer service. They wouldn’t need much customer service if they just got the QC part better......

Rifle arrived at MRC today

I received a call from Cooper at MRC today confirming that they received the rifle , gave it a preliminary once over and said they estimated the turn around to be around 2 weeks. So far so good on the customer service end.

It sounds like MRC didn't understand the old adage, "If you don't have time to do it right the first time, when are you going to find time to fix it later".

What I don't understand is some of the original quality issues. A gun is a machined device. Wouldn't you have charts that give certain spec's for dimensional tolerances that would help lessen/eliminate some of the feed and extract issues that most folks seemed to have experienced?

A bolt action is a pretty simple concept. Is MRC not even function testing them? A bolt rifle that doesn't function properly would leave me sour even after fixed. No excuse for that.

At quick glance I read that as a call from Cooper arms, who now owns MRC. HAHA. At least then they would turn out a quality product.

I knew that was poorly worded, guy just had to be named cooper.....

Any update on your rifle?

Maybe neither here nor there, but Jeff Sipe was in charge at MRC and is now Rifle Division Manager at Nosler. Seems like a big change for Sipe, who took over the company from his dad.

So, did Mr. Sipe voluntarily leave MRC for greener pastures, or, was he forced out by a new owner looking to improve company culture?

I received a call today from MRC to notify me that my rifle should be shipping in the next week or so, I was told I would get a call upon the actual ship date with the explanation of the scope of work performed .

MRC has had the rifle 2 months as of today. My last contact was to tell me the rifle was waiting for ammo to test fire , and everyone was at the shot show so they wouldn't be able to finish it up until everyone got back. I guess partying in Vegas was more important, It has been 2 months to the day since they received it. I could have secured parts and had one built in this amount of time. As far as I m concerned this is a total fail at this point.

Not to mention the entire cottage industry designed around 700s to get them to work safely and properly....

The Kimber Montana is a very good and unique design (a lightweight CRF hunting rifle). The problem is, Kimber has poor QC, and releases problem guns into the market. Still, it is a good design, that can't be obtained in any other "factory" gun. Thus, people put up with the poor QC and fix the problems themselves to end up with a nice little rifle.

Montana Rifles puts out a Winchester clone, which MRC advertises as a "premium" rifle. In other words, the only thing the MRC rifle has going for it is its supposed high quality. Consequently, the brand's value is reduced to zero when it turns out the rifles are actually POSs.

JMHO

What a shi_ty company.

Folks, just buy a Model 70 and be done with it.

700s work just fine out of the box and have been since 1962. They let QC stuff slide too from time to time...but the difference is you can't but a Montana for less than $400 at Walmart. There is also the fact that Remingtons customer service is excellent and pretty consistent.

I think the cottage industry built up around 700s comes from the fact that they are such wonderful platforms for super accurate guns and everybody and their brother has a pile of them. Let's face it...people like tinker.

Im not making excuses for Remington but its not fair to compare them to a Montana or a Kimber frankly unless your talking custom shop guns, in which case id take the pepsi challenge any day of the week.

700s:
myriad lawsuits about their fail on fire safeties, including quite a few members here
safety does not lock the bolt
bolt handle has a sporadic history of coming off in your hand
flimsy, sheet metal extractor has a higher than average failure rate if dust & dirt gets behind it as catalogued by the Rhodesian (Zimbabwe) Professional Hunters Association

THAT is what the cottage industry is about...mostly

I'm not saying the 700 is flawless. But I don't understand why the military has used the factory 700 extractor in combat for almost 50 years but it cannot handle the African continent. The safari boys have got a pretty narrow range of what's acceptable sometimes. Maybe it's the English influence. You know the guys who hunt in a suit and tie? And drink tea with a pinky up? Good thing we never were at war in Africa cause all the US sniper rifles would have been useless with bolt handles falling off and failing extractors. Geez

that's because they didn't. They replaced the extractor and a whole bunch of other items.

I can’t speak to the other services guns but our M40’s were standard Remington extractors along with the 40X triggers. In 21 years I never saw a bolt handle come off of one or an extractor break. I’m sure plenty of the guns went down but none of the ones I were around failed in anyway but to deliver accurate fire.

Debating on the suitability of them is cool for the net but the guns themselves worked well through nasty conditions. Much worse dirt in Afg and Iraq than I ever experienced in Africa. I’d imagine it’s the same story, just because you’re a professional guide doesn’t automatically make you an all knowing rifleman.

Mean no offense in my statement just stating what I have seen from use of the guns.

Military 700’s use standard extractors as beretzs stated above.

This has gotten laughable. Number one selling sporting rifle of all time is junk. One of the longest serving American military rifles of all time is junk. Thanks jorgI for enlightening the un-washed

I’ll start clearing my jams and administering cpr to those I’ve killed with my negligent discharges when my trigger broke and pointed the gun at someone automatically.

Has anyone seen my bolt handles?

link

"Remington 700. The 700 may be a very fine hunting rifle. I don't know because I've never used one, but I do know that it is a piss poor dangerous game rifle especially in .416 Rem caliber. Apart from the odd inexplicable misfire, a broken extractor cost us an elephant wounded and lost at Rifa. This is not the first year that I've seen a broken extractor on a Remington 700 in .416 either. In addition they are just about the hardest rifle to refill the magazine in a hurry. My memories this year of students and candidates using them is that of youngsters frantically trying to thrust cartridges into the mag, only to have a double feed, the rounds pop straight back out or many other problems. A two round reload took on average, twice as long with the Model 700's as it did with just about any other make of rifle. The difference between the Remington and the Weatherby is that the latter can be downloaded a little so as to operate flawlessly and the safety fixed, whilst I do not know that anything can be done with the Remingtons except to re-barrel them to a plains game cartridge and leave them at home when out after the dangerous stuff. To be fair though, all of the extraction problems seem to be confined to rifles in .416 and .375. and they seem reasonably reliable in .458 provided you are prepared to tolerate the awkwardness of the reload. I am not. A good single shot or even a Weatherby is a better choice."

Nothing better than advice from someone who’s never used one

Quak OUT

Two months?! So they leave to spend a week or so at SHOT hoping to lure a few of the tens of thousands attending who are busy looking at who-knows-how-many thousands of other products. Meanwhile, this thread has had 4,000+ views by serious gun people, among them, potential future clients, but MRC can't be bothered to take a few hours out of their busy schedule to make right a current customer's gun that they sold with a defect! Wow, pure marketing genius on their part!

And to think, at one time I was seriously considering them for a future purchase, but I've read a few too many of these types of threads about them. Not now.

Funny , I was really hoping to have only positive reports/updates on this issue. I WANT AMERICAN COMPANIES TO SUCCEED! In addition I would really like to have my 1300.00 rifle back in working order. They had every chance to do it right( as stated this was a golden opportunity for good PR)and yet here we are.Sad,.

Sorry, lost track of this tread and just saw your post.

I don't know the exact reason for his departure, but do know that there is family in Oregon, where Nosler is located.

I want them to deserve to succeed. Propping up failure with my money isn't part of my economic plan. Anyone can mess up, but correcting one's errors should come before cranking out more new ones. A late delivery will be forgotten as soon as it finally shows. A cluster f*ck like this will stick in the customer's craw forever.

Unfortunately, I've owned two. Should have quit after the first one....

jorge out...

I was referring to the PH whose article you posted. Sorry...didn’t mean to across as a jerk

This would be a good place to tell your story.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Montana+Rifle+Company&rlz=1CATTSD_enUS697US699&oq=Montana+Rifle+Company&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l3j35i39j0.7288j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lrd=0x53664fa23e36d665:0x9fef90ed895b9b66,1,,,

You are not sir. If anything, it's me. cheers,

I received a call stating my rifle is done and heading back to me. I was told it was a headspace issue that has been resolved according to them. I asked about the bolt body hanging up mid cycle and was told it has been taken care of. When I get it in my hands ill make what will hopefully be my last post on the thread.

I'll be looking forward to seeing how it turns out for you BCJR.

I received the rifle today. MRC did not repair all of the issues requiring attention . They did re headspace the rifle, however, bolt cycling is still not possible if there is any amount of upward pressure on the bolt as it contacts the receiver and locks up. I immediately called my gunsmith and he said will repair it , he also said that my MRC rifle is not the first one he has had to fix. There are a myriad of things wrong with them , his words.
To summarize this is a total fail on the manufacturing as well as the customer service end.I will not be a return customer, and based on MY experience I could not reccomend them in good conscious.

Have been hearing this for years. If it were me I'd never feel good about that rifle again and move to something else.

Thanks for the update. I at one time used to drool over the Montana rifles. Nice looking guns for the most part, but too many stories out there like yours.

So far, even with new management, they seem to be shooting themselves in the foot. I have an ASR that is very accurate and nicely finished. I had to send it back a year or so ago to have the magazine box changed since it was just wide enough to let two cartridges slip down beside one another, thus allowing the bolt to slide over the topmost one without picking it up. I sent it back to MRC and they changed the follower and magazine box. To their credit they paid shipping both ways, but it was a four month turnaround. When it came back it worked like a charm; however, my trigger had gone from a 2.5 pound crisp pull to over 3.5 with a mile of creep. I don't have a clue why the trigger would need to be fooled with to change a magazine box and follower, but there it is. I sent the rifle to Redneck and he took care of trigger, pronto.

I really like the looks and feel of these rifles, but the hit-and-miss QC is a big disappointment, especially for a rifle that has been touted as "factory semi-custom." I certainly hope they can get it together because I'd hate to see another of our home-grown rifle manufactures disappear. Whatever happened to "Proudly Made in the USA" when that actually meant something? As has been said many times before, time will tell, but it's hard to overcome a soured reputation in these days of the internet and social media.

Just my $.02.

Understood that the bolt doesn't cycle worth a chit.

I am still interested to hear how accurate it shoots.

Any updates on how your tussle with MRC is going? Did they rebarrel the gun for you?

Yes, I received it back and it now lives as a .260 Rem (I paid them to rebarrel it). With Talley lightweights and a Zeiss Conquest MC 3.5-10 x 44 it has great balance. I just swapped the bottom metal to PTG aluminum to shave another few ounces and I like it better still. I wouldn't want it any lighter as it balances and points very well. My first (only) range session was with Hornady Superformance ammo to get it zeroed. It cycled perfectly. Infact the range officer remarked at how smooth it cycled (I was saving the brass, so I was working the bolt slow to grab the spent rounds). I even worked it fast and it cycled perfectly.


I just received my .260 dies from Midway, so I'll start handloading for it this weekend. Going to try Barnes 120 gr and their long range bullet.


As I've said before, on my next rifle, I'll probably just buy a MRC action and have my own gunsmith build me exactly what I want.

What is the price of a I999 action these days?

I had an X2 that had feeding issues. MRC blamed it on the ammo, yet all ammo did it.

My X3 was shipped back today. Waiting to see how the repairs are.

That all ammo wouldn't feed is proof that it is the ammo's fault. Right? :-)

RevMike
I have an X2 in .280 Rem. that has that same issue...the bolt not picking the topmost round. I'm not wanting to send it back for reasons many have stated on here so I hope I can get MRC to just send me a new box and follower. We'll see how they respond to that.
Rookie

Here's what I did: Got in touch with Dean at MRC and explained the situation. I sent him a cellphone video of what was happening, he sent a mailing label, and off it went. Other than the time it came back as promised, and now functions flawlessly. In order to diagnose the problem, before I shot the video, I put a couple of strips of duct tape on either side of the magazine, thereby decreasing the width. That kept the cartridges from sliding down beside one another and confirmed that the box was a little two wide. With the tape modification, the top cartridge fed without a hitch.

So here are some options off the top of my head:

1. If you have other rifles to use and you really want to keep this one (but working, obviously), contact MRC about the issue about sending it back. As I said, they'll fix it but it might take some time. One note: mine went back before the management change, so I can't speak to the current turnaround time.

2. Buy a magazine box from MRC (you might not need a follower: I only know they changed mine because it didn't show the marks that the original one had on it) and install it yourself. Bear in mind that they probably won't send you one gratis since they won't be able to confirm what needs to be done. Nor could you be sure that they'll send the right one. Before they returned my rifle, Dean sent me a video showing all cartridges feeding without a hitch, so I knew the problem was fixed.

3. Do a modification to the current box. You can probably trim and shim the sides using very thin metal - a carefully trimmed beer/soft drink can perhaps? - and epoxy it to the magazine walls. I would, though, experiment with the duct tape to make sure that the fix will work. That would also give you some idea of the thickness needed. If it it works out, great. If not, you can always fall back on option one or two above. If you go this route, bear in mind that MRC might not want to fix a rifle under warranty after modifications have been made.

There is a lot to like about this rifle. It's just a shame that QC wasn't up to par before they were sent out the door. I read an article a long time ago, when the ASR was first offered, that said MRC was trying to provide a factory rifle that already had the things that a lot of folks do in the aftermarket: lapped barrels, "blueprinted" actions, etc. It's a great plan for a product, and if my rifle is any indication, I think they got it mostly right. Be that as it may, as I said, too bad the hit-and-miss overall QC didn't allow the company to quite live up to that plan.

Again, just my $.02

RM

I don’t know what it it about this price point but it really seems a struggle. Montana, Forbes, LAW etc all seemed to have qc issues. It’s a shame as they are or at least were in theory nice rifles

Quak, that is a good point. My guess is that there was sort of a "marketing arms race" among manufacturers to promise more and more custom features in a factory rifle. At a certain point, the cost to provide those features outstripped the money available for such work at that price point, and so something had to give. In other words, a company can't survive doing $1700 worth of work on a rifle selling for $1500. Thus, corners were cut, with one of the first one being QC.