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I hope this gives everyone an idea of where we are at. Of course I expect someone to ask "So when are they going to be shipped?" That is an answer that I can only give an "estimate" to. I believe that the actions will "START" shipping within the next 3-4 weeks.

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I don't have an exact figure, but we have two different machine shops working on the actions, one is going to do the right handers and the other will do the left handers. Also I just talked to the big guy and he said that he expects to see the first Left Handed Shorts & Left Handed Long actions in about 5 weeks.

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HUNTR338,

rootbeer is probably right. There isn't much time left on our Charter Issue campaign, so give one of my sales reps a call at 406-755-4867 and they'll get you all set up. You might be looking at a month, maybe two, but probably will be quicker than the wait you have already gone through.

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As to the LEFT HANDED Short and Long actions we are waiting for the machined samples (second go-around) to come in and expect them within the next week or so. Once we have verified that the machining is correct, we will turn Pinetree loose on them and get them going. Won't be long now.

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Clint,

Scot was correct to a point. They will ship about mid-November (give or take a week or so) but they will ship according to make up. That is, as with the short actions we will do them in batches such as all Stainless Magnums or Stainless Standards or Chrome Moly Magnums or Chrome Moly Standards. If both of your serial numbers are for the same make up they will ship together. We are pushing really hard to get these out, we just have to wait for the machine shop to get them to us.

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Hello Everyone,

Just thought I'd pop in here and let everyone know where we are for the Left Handed actions. We are "way" behind, aren't we? Sorry but I can explain.

When we began the shorts and left hand long actions we decided to have two machine shops work on the actions. One for the left hands and one for the right hands. Seems logical doesn't it? That's what we thought.

Unfortunately while the shop doing the right handed actions is going full bore, the shop doing the left hands threw a wrench into the works.

The shop doing the left hands informed us not so long ago that they couldn't do the left hands without putting their company name on the actions. We asked them why they would need to put their names on the actions since they are not the manufacturer? I guess they felt that they were. They said that unless they receive a variance from the BATF they would have to. We waited for them to receive their variance, but time is critical and we did not want any of our customers to wait any longer than necessary. So what we did is pull all of the left handed actions out of the one machine shop and have them sent to the other machine shop. They are sitting on the machine shop floor right now just waiting for their turn in line. If the other shop receives their variance before they are ready to go in the other shop then we'll send them back to the other shop.

So what does this mean? We are now looking at them in somewhere between 4-5 weeks. In other words, right before Christmas. We are pushing extremely hard and will get them out for you as quickly as possible.

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Rusty and everyone else,

What Scot said was true, but not quite accurate. I have spoken to Brian and he stated that they should be finishing up a small lot of the L/H Long Actions today. The reason it was a small lot, was that these were the actions that were sent to the other machine shop previously that they couldn't do. The reason they couldn't do them is because we wouldn't let them. Currently Brian says that the small lot consists of about 40 Long Left Hand Actions.



He stated also that they would begin the machining on the Left Hand Short Actions next week. The Stainless versions will come first as that is where the majority of the orders are, but it won't take long for them to finish up the whole batch of orders. The Left Hand Longs should be headed for heat treating either today or Monday. Normally heat treating takes no more than 2 days. Then they will be headed for our polishing house immediately after that. We should see them start filtering in here probably the week after next. After that the Short Left Hands will start coming in. We have told all the subcontractors that we want to ship at least 50 at a time, so when they have 50 done they are to immediately ship them.

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Thanks for the update Dan. Is the barrel shop running on time at the moment?


Joe

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Dan, how in the world do you expect anyone to believe a word of what you are saying? I cancelled my order in November after hearing this same story, or versions of it, since the turn of the century. No joke. The last straw was when one of your salesmen brushed my LH action questions aside, in October, all the while trying to talk me into buying a RH one "for now" so I would have something to show my "buddies" while I wait. "Drumming up Sales", as he put it.



I would suggest refraining from making statements about these actions until "Dan" knows for sure.



Although it might not be your intention, it sure sounds like your tossing the lefties a bone to keep them at bay for a while. I don't wish ill will but it is getting pretty tough to swallow, even when I don't have an order anymore.

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Chuck & Everyone,

I am not here to spew half truths or false hopes, I only pass on the information that I am given by those who are dealing with the suppliers on a daily basis. My post was to many "bad" news. Unfortunately I have no control over the machine shop. I realize that everyone, including right handed customers have been waiting for a long long time. Believe me when I say that I want these actions out more than anyone who has one on order or has "had" one on order. The sooner we start shipping them and fill those Charter Issue orders the happier I'll be. Because I won't have to come in here and pass on another delay. I can honestly say that everything has "not" gone as planned, but that isn't because the whole staff and ownership of the Montana Rifle Company isn't trying. We talk to the machine shop, heat treating facility and polishing house on almost a daily basis. They know we need these actions and they are doing the very best they can. If anyone is offended by my giving bad news, I apologize, but I think most people who are still waiting would rather have some news than none at all.



Dan

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There is nothing easy or quick about bringing any new product to market. Have been there and done that myself, and it is not as easy as just "contracting" with different folks to do different parts of the work and then setting a desired delivery date. Dealing with suppliers is a MAJOR hassle for any company...regardless how honest or well intentioned the efforts of those suppliers. I'm frankly amazed MRC even got Pinetree to agree to make the darned things. Or Smith & Wesson to heat treat them...

Further, it is not like MRC is a a giant conglomerate which can COMMAND Ruger or S&W to drop everything and do MRC's work first just because there is a contracted date set arbitrarily in advance. It takes finesse to get the big boys to do anything for a small company, especially a small company selling a competing product in the same field and physically located nearly 2,000 miles away. I'm still amazed this has even been pulled off anywhere near as well as it has gone so far.

I waited well over a year for my MRC SARHSSMag actions, and can only say: "They were well worth the wait, especially at the almost give-away price".

I might add that, as things are now going, the wait for those actions was shorter than the wait for all the parts from suppliers to dump a 'Vette engine in my Porsche and I've got about 5-figures invested in that one already. I'm only dealing with 3 suppliers, and I don't have to engineer the whole assembly from scratch. I'll bet it is two or three years total before the Porsche is all done and all the unforseen bugs are cleared away.

If one wants quality, custom, stuff that not many others have, waiting is part of life. If they can't handle that, they should probably stick with stock Fords.

My opinion. YMMV.

AC

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I apologize, but I think most people who are still waiting would rather have some news than none at all.

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Yea, but that information has been misleading since the get go. What I'm saying is you should have been a little more forthcomming from the beginning. The company had been through this before with the RH CM longs and must have had a pretty good idea based on that information that things would drag a bit. I don't want to be a jerk, but this has been building for a while and the amount of sleep I'm getting lately sucks, so I'm a bit cranky .

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Dan, at one time you said they would do the left handed shorts in stainless first then the chrome moly, is that still the schedule?
I have a LH short chrome moly on order.
Take your time, I'd rather have it done right the first time than have to send it back because someone rushed the job.
Besides, I spent the money I had saved for this rifle on a retirement ring for the wife, I need this extra time to save up a few bucks again.
My wife thanks you for the delay

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The way it "was" going to go was they were going to do the Left Hand Longs first, but if you read the post above you'll see why they didn't.

I'm not 100% sure what they are doing first. From what I understand it all depends upon what they were working on last before they started the short left hands. If they finished up with stainless usually they prefer to go right back to doing stainless as the speeds and feeds and all that other technical stuff is different with each type of material.

I'm going to send an email to myself and the production manager (I'm at home right now) and have him call and check on the material and progress so I can get a better understanding of "exactly" where we are. Eventually it is my hope that I am the one doing the calling and keeping tabs on the production with the suppliers, but right now I'm so swamped with 50 other jobs that I don't have the extra time. That is supposed to change real soon, as the production manager wants me to become more involved with the inventory as that was my specialty in the Navy so many years ago.

Dan

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I apologize, but I think most people who are still waiting would rather have some news than none at all.

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Yea, but that information has been misleading since the get go. What I'm saying is you should have been a little more forthcomming from the beginning. The company had been through this before with the RH CM longs and must have had a pretty good idea based on that information that things would drag a bit. I don't want to be a jerk, but this has been building for a while and the amount of sleep I'm getting lately sucks, so I'm a bit cranky .

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Chuck,
I'm sorry if you felt that the information was misleading, unfortunately it was the information myself and my sales guys were getting. The information unfortunately was probably based more on scheduling than on reality, if you know what I mean. The right hand longs were definately a learning tool, but are hard to use as a comparison. I think the biggest problem was that we started the left hand longs, left hand shorts and right hand shorts all at the same time. This created a bottleneck in the system and the suppliers could never catch up. If we had started the r/h shorts first, then when they were almost complete started the left hand longs or shorts we might not have these delays now. But that is only a guess.

I'm sorry you are losing sleep, I hope it is not over these actions.

I'll tell you what. I'll keep a note posted on my computer that I'll look at each and every day and when these things are finally in house and going out the door, I'll get in touch with you. That is unless you prefer me not to. That way when I do get in touch with you, I can be 100% sure I can ship within a day or two. Okay? And that goes for anyone who has had one on order and has cancelled after all the delays.

And I don't think your being a jerk, never took it that way. I am the person who represents the company here on the forum and of course most if not all of the bravos, congrats, anger and dissappointment are going to be directed straight at me. It is my job and my pleasure to get on here (most of the time ) to answer each and every question to the best of my ability. I never answer any question without putting a little thought into each and every answer. And when I don't know the answer, I try to find it out.

Besides that this is, as many people have stated in the past, the very first action that was conceived, designed and improved by the use of the public. We rely on everyone in here and our customers who aren't in here to give us their opinions, good or bad, on our products. How can we make a great product that will appeal to everyone without any input? I welcome all of your opinions of the actions, our barrels, barreld actions, rebarreling services or whatever we do and I always will. And I don't just sit on these opinions either. When I see something that I feel will make our company better, I always print it out and pass it around the office for their input also. Some of the things people have suggested may never come to reality, but a lot of them have. Unfortunately we have to realize that there are differing opinions and we cannot make everyone happy, but we damn sure try.

Dan

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I'm sorry you are losing sleep, I hope it is not over these actions.

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Oh no, but it couldn't be for a better cause (my wife and I had the first addition to our family 3 wks ago). So I should be happy, and really I am. Very in fact. This forum gets to be my release, and one of the few things I can do while hanging onto that little bundle.

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Dan:

My question is this, have all the charter orders been filled for either the RH SS or CM longs with magnum boltface? I am considering a .338 WM project and want to know the current wait time if I were to order one...
MKane160 aka BigDogMK

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