30 June 2004, 15:06
triggerguard1Quote:
Robertson summed it up best. McMillan is trying to pay for everything without taking any risk plus make a huge profit. This mindset is pretty common with Mcmillan. I've lost count of how many gunsmiths,I've heard say that McMillan stocks are great,the problem is the owners are a bunch of assholes.
Twenty grand is fuckin' insane and Echols out of pocket exspense of 30 grand is a real joke. When you consider that there probably isn't 20 dollars worth of materials used in a fiberglass stock,especially since everything is bought in bulk. Then you have Mcmillan wanting the public to pay for the mold 5 times over at least,then a order of at least 100 stocks. Say the stocks go for a conservative 300 dollars,thats fifty grand for not doing anything. Every business would like this type of profit and operational exspense.
As soon as Echols offered this stock design as a part,he left himself open to having this design copied. The dimentions are there in the open and available to anybody willing to fabricate this stock and there is no shortage of guys like Robertson who have the means and ability to do so.
On top of this,there simply isn't anything really special about the stock. You'll hear all kinds of fairy tales about how wonderful and mythical it is. I've had the oppurtunity to shoot a legend in 300 win mag and the stock didn't handle any better then the super grade design.I've shot plenty of stock configurations and there is little differance in shoot ability and managed recoil among the super grade,Millers Lt design,remingtons classic and Brownells M77.
Mostly what you have,is guys trying to justify why they spent 10 grand on a refurbished M70. Judging by some of the comments made by echols,sales aren't all that hot either.The Factory is now even using spring steel extractors,which leaves you with what? The super special echols magazine design,scope mounts,super special stock and widely available Kreiger barrel.
Try checking prices on having dies made for drop-hammer forgings. We've spent over $40,000.00 on two sets of dies in the last 12 years for just these trigger guard forgings pictured below.
I'm not an expert on injection mold dies, but I know they last much longer than forging dies, and in our contracts with our forging vendors, the price includes the maintenance and refurbishing of the dies. But, with all that said, that's a helluva lot of money to cough up.
It's enough that I've seriously considered doing the work myself, but the location we're in wouldn't allow it. It tends to be a little on the noisy side.
It may however be a reality in our new facility, but for now?????