Montana Rifles is back. Has anyone seen/got one of the new (same design) forged actions or complete rifle?

I understand them to be machined from bar stock and not a forging. They look like they could be a solid effort in the CRFish space but I'm skeptical of the recoil lug arrangement and think that will need to see some hard use in the field to prove it's design merit.

I find their marketing around being The first Adaptive Control Round Feed Action to be trite but whatever.

Ah, milled from mastics is great too. I do not mind well done casting, but do not believe it should cost more.

The old actions cast by Ruger’s casting division had a Winchester like front recoil lug.

Does the “new action” have a different lug?

One could always and a lot of actions did bevel the claw to allow single, drop on the rail loading.

It has a separate L shaped piece of steel that attaches to the bottom action flat in front of the magazine mortise. It looks to be located at the rear with a tab that indexes into the action and held in place by the front action screw. There is a photo of the arrangement in this article.

Montana Rifle Co. article

I’m guessing they warranty the originals….. But ok let’s see what they got

Interesting, quite a departure from their old actions.

I have one of the original, left-handed, short action stainless actions that I built into one of my favorite long-range rifles.

I bought into their charter program when they offered it back in 1999. I have serial number 0005.

quote:

Originally posted by DavidReed:
It has a separate L shaped piece of steel that attaches to the bottom action flat in front of the magazine mortise. It looks to be located at the rear with a tab that indexes into the action and held in place by the front action screw. There is a photo of the arrangement in this article.

Montana Rifle Co. article

Why, why would you go that? I mean it is probably better than the 700 “washer.” But why?

Thank you for the article. For me that is a hard pass. Just mill the old a top and guess what, we would have a Dakota 76 Action.

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by DavidReed:
It has a separate L shaped piece of steel that attaches to the bottom action flat in front of the magazine mortise. It looks to be located at the rear with a tab that indexes into the action and held in place by the front action screw. There is a photo of the arrangement in this article.

Montana Rifle Co. article

[QUOTE]Why, why would you go that? I mean it is probably better than the 700 “washer.” But why?

I read somewhere the new Montana guys claim this new lug system works well. Based on what I don't know. The head engineer / designer guy said they glass bed the actions and what he had done on some of his actions was fix the lug into position in the glass bed. Then it stays in the stock when he lifts out the barreled action. Said then he could insert another barreled action in different calibre using the same lug due to the precision fit. Overall, the action is made this way relative to the size of billet they use to machine the action.
To me it seems a strange system. No idea if this is a better way or not but I hope it works as well as they claim. They do offer an accuracy guarantee / assurance for these rifles.

I bet the recoil lug arrangement allows them to use smaller diameter bar stock to machine the action from. The cost delta between 2.50” to 2.25” to 2.00” bar is probably significant and translates into a much lower unit cost.

quote:

Originally posted by DavidReed:
I bet the recoil lug arrangement allows them to use smaller diameter bar stock to machine the action from. The cost delta between 2.50” to 2.25” to 2.00” bar is probably significant and translates into a much lower unit cost.

My thought too...

quote:

The cost delta between 2.50” to 2.25” to 2.00” bar is probably significant and translates into a much lower unit cost.

Not according to my son who works in a production machine shop.

He tells me that they regularly machine down larger stock.

Because it is what is on hand instead of ordering smaller stock.

Hard pass here.

Call me old and grumpy, but when they try and go the "tactical" route on a sporting rifle, I have to give it a hard pass also. I am not sure of the cost, as I did not look it up, but the fit of the rear tang in the synthetic stock looks very "proud" and IMO, poorly done.