I just sent my Brockmans .458Lott back to Jim. The rifle went titts up on me during my recent hunt in Zimbabwe. It started giving light hits fortunately at the range and not during a bad encounter.

I cleaned the bolt housing and retried it with the same inconsistent results. So I put the rifle away and hunted with old reliable, my M-70 .375H&H.

In any case when I got home Is sent the rifle back to Jim Brockman. The problems appears to be a collapsed firing pin spring. Jim told me he has had a rash of trouble with the springs MRC is using in their actions. they have gone to a cut rate el cheapo spring to save a few bucks.

SO before you take your new shiny MRC actioned rifle on a hunt make sure and change the firing pin spring to something that won't screw you at the wrong moment.

I do so love it when I bring a high dollar custom rifle out on a big time hunt and it goes click instead of bang. It makes me so very happy!

An inquiry to MRC is in order to see what springs will be used on the ph actions and if the springs have been changed in all the others as well. I am sure if they knew they would have changed the springs. That kind of reputation and liability is not worth any kind of savings. Anyone know someone high up there?

I am not sure what you were hunting other than buf but it sure makes a lot of sense to use a .375 for your PG rifle in case your DG rifle goes down.

BTW I sent an email to Bob Vish at MRC about the firing pin spring.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike70560:
I am not sure what you were hunting other than buf but it sure makes a lot of sense to use a .375 for your PG rifle in case your DG rifle goes down.

BTW I sent an email to Bob Vish at MRC about the firing pin spring.

Yes sir that is why my PG rifle is a scoped .375H&H. I like the way you think.

Surestrike, I turned that M-70 300 RUM that I bought from you a couple of years ago into a 458 Lott. Nice and easy conversion..

When I worked in American industry springs were cheap and I never has a problem with any of them.....for anyone to save money on cheap springs just does not compute.....

I fully accept your word....it's just a poor place to cut corners because one can't cut much on a spring at all.....sad!

I've actually got a converted M-70 .375H&H in .458 Lott. I had lent it to a buddy and wound up taking the MRC gun instead.



Sometimes stuff just happens.....
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"When I worked in American industry springs were cheap and I never has a problem with any of them.....for anyone to save money on cheap springs just does not compute....."

Vapodog,

This what Jim Brockman told me. I'll take his word for it as he's always been a straight shooter.

He told me that he is changing all of the springs on the MRC actions to something...Ahh he told me, I can't remeber what the name was but it is a $30.00 spring vs the cheapos MRC is using.

Dumb question time: What company is MRC?

quote:

Originally posted by Demonical:
Dumb question time: What company is MRC?

Montana Rifle Company

quote:

Vapodog,

This what Jim Brockman told me. I'll take his word for it as he's always been a straight shooter.

For $30 it almost has to be 24 Katat gold.....

FWIW this don't compute at all.....

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

quote:

Vapodog,

This what Jim Brockman told me. I'll take his word for it as he's always been a straight shooter.

For $30 it almost has to be 24 Katat gold.....

FWIW this don't compute at all.....

Exactly...even a premium US made spring of that size in SS is cheap. If I were going to a remote location where I couldn't get instant service on my rifle, I would be taking a couple extra springs, firing pins, trigger group, etc. That stuff is small and dirt cheap.

yup....the very best spring of about six inches long by 1/2" diameter by 16 GA wire shouldn't run more than a buck and in orders of 1,000

$30 is an order for 20 springs at a run.

When I first got my MRC Long Action I had an event where the firing pin was not hitting the primers. I found the cause was my error. I had taken the bolt apart to clean it. I fail to put the bolt back together properly. The rifle functioned it just would fire anything. One I corrected my error it has worked perfectly since then.

Had the same light strikes on my .375 that I built on an MRC action when I went to Namibia last year. I had previously fired about 750 rounds trouble free an had no indications of anything going bad. It picked a hell of a time to go bad on me. My kudu was passing through the only spot where he would be broadside at about 225 yards. The loudest sound I have ever heard was that click. I recocked the rifle, and got lucky he turned straight up the hill and hit another open patch walking straight away at about 250, and I was able to spine him.

When I got home I replaced the spring with on of the Wolf Blitz springs, and have had no problems. My groups actually tightened up after changing out the spring. Evidently I was getting pretty erratic ignition due to the bad spring.

Bob with MRC called me this morning. He assured me the problem with the firing pin springs was corrected about a year ago. They have been using Wolff springs since.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike70560:
Bob with MRC called me this morning. He assured me the problem with the firing pin springs was corrected about a year ago. They have been using Wolff springs since.

Well there you go. My rifle is about two years old so I got one with the problem springs.

If MRC is admitting to having fixed the problem they had with the springs I guess it makes perfect sense to somebody. they had a period when they were having spring problems.

So the warning remains watch out for those MRC rifles with bad springs. Did Bob say in which period those actions with spring problems were produced?

He called me at work and I was kind of tied up so I did not ask if it was any particular models or how long the problem persisted. He did assure me the new ones (like mine) are good.

MRC has been responsive to my needs so far.

That is good news.

MRC probably didn't save a penny on the defective spring. But the fault was probably due to their ignorance and not to the spring company. Spring companies making custom springs to YOUR specs assume YOU know what you want and make the spring EXACTLY to your engineering drawing instructions.

The spring for this application should have been wound long and then taken through a presetting operation to reach specified free length rather than wound to finished free length.

Some years ago I went to work for an oilfield equipment company. On a visit to one of their field service centers I noticed large numbers of a small spring on all the mechanic's work benches. I ask about it and was told that the spring was heavily loaded and only lasted 2 months in service before it set to the point that it no longer maintained enough load on the latch it operated. Back at the office I checked the spec drawing. They were made by a top spring company but the drawing specified wound to finished length. I had the drawing changed and once new stock arrived and were put in service, the mechanics never had to replace that spring again. Spring cost went up a few cents.

That is interesting Brazos. I would have never thought of that. Of course I am not in the business of designing stuff I just want it to go bang when I pull trigger.