My father, my son and I took a trip in the rain today to the new location of Waffenfabrik Hein. Less then a two hour drive from home. Spent an hour or so talking with Greg, Karl unfortunately was unable to be there. They have a very nice facility with some top notch products on display and under construction.

I placed my order for two of their new M series actions which are a true Model 98 style action. I ordered one for my son and one for me. We will make them up as identical rifles. The fact that Hein is offering this action in left hand was a major initial factor in our decision to consider their product. We are not totally sure on the caliber yet but strongly leaning towards the 270. If we had to make a decision today that is what it would be. The 280 is a slim possibility as well but it seems to be fading out and I like the ability to have choices in factory ammo.

I was nervous about putting money down on a product that is still in the design phase especially in a field that has a long history of good intentions but failed deliveries. My motto has always been no pay until the work is done. However my visit to the shop and face to face meeting with Greg has removed any lingering concerns that I had. That plus I will get two of the first ones off the line. Greg promised Tyler his would be the first left hand one made. Now if I can just get the stocks built we will be hunting with them during the 2008 hunting season.

Hein has a great product and I am sure they will do very well with it. We consider ourselves fortunate to be in on the ground floor with this great new version of a classic action.

TUPPERWARE
We talked about this Howard and I have to agree, 270 all the way Give up some more details, double square bridge or what?
I really like that dove tailed peep that sets behind the ring mount.
Will these have 24" barrels?
Big congrats to both of you.

quote:

Originally posted by Howard:
They have a very nice facility with some top notch products on display and under construction.

What's the status on their prototypes for the "M Series"?

They have the initial prototype roughed out. At least that is the term I would use. The action is close to its final shape and I would say almost ready for polishing. The bolt still has to be built. Greg told me he has the next three weeks blocked out to finish this action, a Kurtz length by the way, and have it ready for the Dallas Safari Show.

My understanding is that after that they will be machining up enough at each stage, of production, to gain some economy of scale.

They seem to still be up in the air on several details; such as length of the final action, bolt shape, safety supplier, trigger, etc but Greg did assure me ours would be ideally sized for the 270 and we got our choice of bolt style, we went with the traditional pear shape and we requested Blackburn triggers.

Jimmy they will have the Hein double square bridge with Talley rings and most likely 23 inch barrels. Maybe 22 if we can get away with that short for the 270. I am strongly leaning towards ½ round ½ octagon barrels. I don’t plan on having iron sight backups on them. I really want cut rifled barrels and while they won’t be pencil thin lightweight barrels we do intend these to be sporters on the lighter side. I have a Chic Worthing 7 mag that I consider ideal in weight, balance, and point ability; I shoot it very well so it will be the template we will use.

A question I would like input on is the trigger. I like the safety of the military style where you have full engagement until you take in the slack and then the final let off to fire. It seems to me that a top notch gunsmith could fine tune such a trigger that you could have the safety of the full engagement yet a crisp clean light let off after the initial slack is taken up. I have shot quite a bit in the past with a military trigger and have found the initial take up of slack very easy to get used to. I have often wondered why the military style trigger isn’t used more particularly in cold climates. Advice on this idea is much appreciated.

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Originally posted by jimmyd223:
TUPPERWARE

Do you think I should get some tupperware for backup while growing old waiting on the wood?

Voere has some interesting M98 triggers you may like: HERE.

On a side note,Their manufacturing services sound rather impressive also:Here.