Montana Rifle Company Junction 308Win Field Evaluation

[atmat]

See update to post #5.

That’s awesome that they owned it and were disappointed. But it’s still a $2500 rifle they let go out acting like a Christensen Arms.

Even shooting well, I’m not sure I see the value in it other than it’s a CRF, which some people favor. But at 3.5x the cost of a Tikka stainless, I think it’s a hard sell to me personally.

How well do you expect trigger assembly to handle the elements?

 

[SDHNTR]

Most likely.





The response was correct- embarrassment and conviction to make sure to correct the issues inline. Time will tell as anyone can say anything, but all signs point to them correcting it.

It's as simple as cutting and tapping that hole all the way through. And maybe exercising a little more care with the bedding.

They are to be commended IMO. That took balls. Any they obviously just grabbed one off the rack rather than cherry picking their finest example.

 

[Formidilosus]

Even shooting well, I’m not sure I see the value in it other than it’s a CRF, which some people favor. But at 3.5x the cost of a Tikka stainless, I think it’s a hard sell to me personally.

The big attraction is if they follow through with QC/QA, it’ll be an American rifle that is actually good. CRF done correctly is a good thing- not for the reasons fudds propose (dangerous game and cycling upside down), but for the complete elimination of short striking causing a malfunction, and good reliability in adverse weather. It will always be more expensive to do CRF correctly than to do PF correctly, therefore the actions and rifles will be a little more expensive.

When viewed solely against a Tikka- quite frankly there isn’t a single rifle that equals them at double the price. I don’t view the MRC as a competition for Tikka. Their competition should be against the entire industry of cookie cutter R700 “customs”- offering better feeding and better reliability.

How well do you expect trigger assembly to handle the elements?

Excellently- it’s a straight Pre 64 win trigger.


Rain and mud has started.

 

[Formidilosus]

Make sure you take care of pretty wood and keep it out of the elements…

 

[Helislacker]

Make sure you take care of pretty wood and keep it out of the elements…

View attachment 690212

How’s that Tikka bluing holding up corrosion wise?

 

[SDHNTR]

Make sure you take care of pretty wood and keep it out of the elements…

View attachment 690212

That receiver looks long. Is it a LA with a bolt stop? Or are they making true LA/SA?

 

[Formidilosus]

How’s that Tikka bluing holding up corrosion wise?

No issues so far.

That receiver looks long. Is it a LA with a bolt stop? Or are they making true LA/SA?

True LA and SA.

 

[SDHNTR]

Are we working with some modern barrel twist rates ?

 

[DangerRanger]

don’t say this lightly, but so far (300’ish rounds) the foundation of the MRC is legit-

Are they doing anything to address the bolt binding and having to finger bang it a million times to make it smooth out enough to use? I know that’s technically not feeding, but it’s an important part of feeding in a rushed imperfect situation

 

[gbflyer]

I’m 100% pulling for them. There are now a couple of gear companies that have woken up to the fact that folks want something that works, and they are willing to test them outside the sanctuary of the factory and lying-assed gun writers. What a concept!

 

[General RE LEE]

Got to love the 308. Consider me a big 308 fan.

 

[atmat]

I’m 100% pulling for them. There are now a couple of gear companies that have woken up to the fact that folks want something that works, and they are willing to test them outside the sanctuary of the factory and lying-assed gun writers. What a concept!

I do totally agree with this.

But my criticism is that @Formidilosus is not working out minor kinks for them through his testing. He’s finding/solutioning basic foundational problems for them. He is, in essence, doing free R&D work for them.

That, to me, is lazy/poor ownership. You should be sending out a good product for external testing to refine. Not sending out a bad product for your testers to fix for you.

 

[Marbles]

I do totally agree with this.

But my criticism is that @Formidilosus is not working out minor kinks for them through his testing. He’s finding/solutioning basic foundational problems for them. He is, in essence, doing free R&D work for them.

That, to me, is lazy/poor ownership. You should be sending out a good product for external testing to refine. Not sending out a bad product for your testers to fix for you.

I think there is a continuum their. Many companies are fine sending out garbage to customers for years, and never trying to fix it. Then you have companies that will not put a product on the market until it is well vetted. MRC falls in the middle somewhere. If they listen and fix things, that is great, however, they will already sell this rifle to customers, which is not so great.

If people are willing to test gear for a company, I see no issue with that. Off the top of my head Exo packs and the Rokstok are two products that have used non-employee testers.

However, when a problem is one that I could monkey out in my garage, it does not instill confidence in the manufacture that a tester had to figure it out.

 

[Formidilosus]

Are they doing anything to address the bolt binding and having to finger bang it a million times to make it smooth out enough to use?

Yes.

 

[DangerRanger]

This forum is doing real things for the industry

 

[SDHNTR]

This forum is doing real things for the industry

I’d like to think that too, but I’m afraid there are far more industry players who simply dismiss this forum entirely. Yes, some smaller players like Montana Rifle and Maven and Stocky’s do listen and I believe that will pay off for them economically, but the big names couldn’t care less. After all, this is the website that intentionally drops their $hit on the ground.

 

[Imac45acp]

Long time lurker, first time poster-

Hi, Ian, the design engineer from MRC here. We strongly value the Rokslide community and others like it. We're all hunters and sportsmen here at MRC/G5, that's why we're in the game.

I can't express the extent of my embarrassment on the issues Form had with the initial setup of the rifle. I'm not going to throw out excuses, just assurances that we're in contact and are fixing the issues. If this was a regular customer rifle, I'd ask it to be sent back and replaced immediately. This is not the norm for our products, but after this shenanigans, we're going to have to prove it to you (don't take any manufacturer's word, make them show you).

Again, thanks to Formidilosus for the brutal honesty-

 

[Grumman]

Ian since Kimber won’t produce their Montana in 223 anymore give us a fast twist CRF 223 option.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[fwafwow]

Long time lurker, first time poster-

Hi, Ian, the design engineer from MRC here. We strongly value the Rokslide community and others like it. We're all hunters and sportsmen here at MRC/G5, that's why we're in the game.

I can't express the extent of my embarrassment on the issues Form had with the initial setup of the rifle. I'm not going to throw out excuses, just assurances that we're in contact and are fixing the issues. If this was a regular customer rifle, I'd ask it to be sent back and replaced immediately. This is not the norm for our products, but after this shenanigans, we're going to have to prove it to you (don't take any manufacturer's word, make them show you).

Again, thanks to Formidilosus for the brutal honesty-

Thanks Ian - for sending the rifle, and for posting. We hope to hear more from you. Everyone makes mistakes, but it's how you handle them that matters, and your post is a good example of how to do so. We are rooting for MRC.

 

[OrangeMan73]

The big attraction is if they follow through with QC/QA, it’ll be an American rifle that is actually good. CRF done correctly is a good thing- not for the reasons fudds propose (dangerous game and cycling upside down), but for the complete elimination of short striking causing a malfunction, and good reliability in adverse weather. It will always be more expensive to do CRF correctly than to do PF correctly, therefore the actions and rifles will be a little more expensive.

When viewed solely against a Tikka- quite frankly there isn’t a single rifle that equals them at double the price. I don’t view the MRC as a competition for Tikka. Their competition should be against the entire industry of cookie cutter R700 “customs”- offering better feeding and better reliability.





Excellently- it’s a straight Pre 64 win trigger.


Rain and mud has started.
View attachment 690211

Form, can you give a little more explanation behind CRF and it's merits? I've always heard the pros being linked to what you call the Fudd argument so I am super interested to hear your reasoning expounded upon.

Will help me because I've always wanted a Kimber as well but the Adirondack 308 didn't have the 10 twist or so I thought.