i shoot on my gunsmith's range some times and thismorning was 1 of those times.. he had just recived a stort action mag face mrc action from mcmillian with stock fitted..the action is at a minimum very, very rough, it is going to need a lot of polishing .. the stock ( which does not have checkering)was fitted by mcmillian crooked, the tail point of the action looks about 1" out of line with the comb of the stock.. it is coing to be fitted with a shilen match bbl so i will watch & let you know how it progresses
Posts: 1125 | Location: near atlanta,ga,usa | Registered: 26 September 2001
Is your action Chrome-Moly or Stainless? And, did you order your action polished or not? Just curious and I apologize if the last part of my question was redundant.
I presently own three actions; one chrome moly and two stainless (shorts). FWIW, the exterior finish on my two stainless short actions are as good as any USRA (Winchester) I have ever owned (and that includes a rifle that I owned from the USRA custom shop). My comments are pretty similar regarding the chrome moly action I have. The raceway's are a bit course but nothing that a little polishing or good hard use would not cure.
I have one at the smith right now being assembled with Lothar Walther barrel and McMillan stock. I will post pictures as soon as I can.
Posts: 1323 | Location: San Antonio, Texas | Registered: 04 March 2003
not my action i just saw it at my gunsmith it is chrom moly.. my m70 actions are all smother than this action. i think this action cost about $325.00 and you can end up with a winchester classic action for about the same..
Posts: 1125 | Location: near atlanta,ga,usa | Registered: 26 September 2001
Mine is a short SS barreled action, and it is pretty rough internally. External polish is fine, as I wanted a matte finish. It is to be a short rifle and is .358 Win. For what I will end up in it, I might have been better off to rebarrel a Model 7.
Quote: the stock ( which does not have checkering)was fitted by mcmillian crooked, the tail point of the action looks about 1" out of line with the comb of the stock..
First, you are not going to find many McMillans with checkering. The design is not conducive to it. They either finish it smooth or offer "texturing" on the pistol grip and forend that work very well instead.
"One inch out of line" sounds extreme. Do you mean that the action is sitting crooked/out of "parallel" with the stock axis, or is the whole action offset to the side, or what? And you refer to the stock's comb. Is the top of the comb directly above the stock's centerline, or is it offset (Monte Carlo style)?
Jack Belk did a review of the MRC action and posted it several places including here. The charter actions were to be a 'functional' action requiring some finish and polishing work. Belk polished his action inside and out and it was quite smooth and nice. It was a given that polishing was required.
I got my SS short action and it was exactly as described both by MRC and Belk. My rifle builder barreled it without polishing the interior as I wanted to do that part of it. The action was very tight but operated OK. A couple of hours worth of polishing and stoning and it functions and feeds as well as anything I've seen. It's not quite as smooth as a chromoly action which is inherent to stainless, but it is better than any M70 Classics I've seen including several of mine. Mine is in 338WSM and that supposedly difficult cartridge feeds smoothly and effortlessly. I'm extremely pleased with mine. It came to me EXACTLY as represented.
Posts: 1261 | Location: Placerville, CA, US of A | Registered: 07 January 2001
My McMillan was finished without checkering, but browsing through their website shows an overwhelming number of the (sporting-) stocks with checkering. - mike
Posts: 6653 | Location: Switzerland | Registered: 11 March 2002
Maybe their sporting stocks come that way, I've only dealt with their competition type stuff. Their texturing actually works just as well if you don't like smooth....
the tang area of the action was not in line with the center line of the stock..the tang did not fit the stock well there was about a 1/8" gap between the action and the start of the tang, easily fixed by glass bedding..this was probably the worse fitted mcmillian stock i have ever seen.. i have some early mcmillian stocks that do not have checkering but the later 1 i have seen have checkering, this stock has a texturised finish..just remember we are not talking about a high cost action, my point was simply that the m70 classic actions work better at about the same net cost..i will watch & keep everyone covered on how this project goes foward, glad someone else's money is bing spent
Posts: 1125 | Location: near atlanta,ga,usa | Registered: 26 September 2001
Tom, I'm just down the road from you in Greensboro and have an MRC action on order. Who is the gunsmith in question, I'd like to take a look at this project. I'm left-handed so my options are somewhat limited and the MRC with a McMillan was the way I was going.
Posts: 273 | Location: Georgia | Registered: 24 May 2002
