has anyone had an MRC barrel on their rifle, and how would they evaluate it?

my purposes are for hunting, but would welcome any replies on other facets of performance.

thanks in advance.....

i see that you got no replies and this may not help you but i recently ordered a montana long action and one of their barrels. i also procured an old winchester stock. my purpose ia to build a shop rifle as a sales demo. i wanted to know what actually had to be done to the action and stock to work together as i think a rifle should. i also wanted to see the hunting accuracy potential of the barrel. i know there is no statistical confidence in a sample of one but i have eight more on order for other peoples rifles and wanted to get jigs made for any additional work that i think needs to be done. i believe that due to the hunting season being here i won't get this done till spring, if you can wait that long i will let you know. this goes to my theory all education costs money and this project is still cheaper that any college course i paid for.

I have four of their barrels in 7mm-08, 6.5-06, 8mm-06 Ackley Imp and 35 Whelen. They deep chambered the 8mm-06 imp and the 35 Whelen for me because my 'smith did not have a reamer. This way all he had to do was cut a little off the shank and headspace it. All the barrels will shoot in the 1/2"-- 3/4" range with occasional very small groups. They are very good barrels for the money and their turnaround time has been excellent.

I had them re-barrel a Rem M7 to a 338-08 using a 22", #4 contour, matte blued CM barrel.

First of all, it shoots as good as I can. Typically I am getting 3/4" to 1 1/2" 3-shot, 100-yard groups out of it using Hornady 200 gr sp bullets. I wanted an elk hunting rifle that I could use for shots under 300 yards. This one will shoot minute-of-elk out to that range. I am satisfied with the groups I am getting. Understand, If I'd have wanted a bench gun I'd have had one built (then tried to learn to shoot it accurately).

The matte finish they put on the reciever and the barrel is very good. The barrel sports a nice crown. The fired cases come out with very little expansion and they re-size easily.

When you look at their barrel contours, the barrel you chose will have the diameter stated for that contour regardless of the barrel length (within reason). For example, a #4 contour says it will have a .650" and the length is 26". I would have thought if I went with a 22" bbl rather than the 26" it would have a bigger muzzle diameter because of the barrel being shorter and typically the barrel diameter gets bigger the closer you get to the action. Not so with MRC. They contour the barrel so that the muzzle has the diameter stated regardless of the barrel's length. Mine has a .650 muzzle diameter at 22".

All in all, I wouldn't hesitate to have them barrel another rifle for me.

The turnaround for my rifle was right at 6 weeks. This action was barreled during the '03 summer.

Hope this helps.

A few years ago i had them rebarrel a Ruger MK2 M77 to 358 norma mag. The turnaround time was right at what they promised.The rifle shot fantastic,probably should have kept it!But I had to trade it off for something I just could not live without

Very good barrels. Have a 416 taylor that will put 5 400gr hornadys in a hair over 3/4" @ 2350 fps. I'd bet there is more accuracy there but the recoil kind of causes problems. Plus, I'm using a 5x scope.

Now I shouldn't really reply to this post because obviously I'm a little biased I work for both the Montana Rifle Company and the Montana Rifleman and have seen our quality improve consistently over the years. I honestly believe we make one of the best barrels in the country now and don't charge you the high prices that others might. We hand lap each and every barrel sent out of here. To give you an idea of the potential accuracy of our barrels, we have a customer in North Carolina that goes by the name of Baity Custom. Leonard builds 1000 yard bench guns using our barrels. He told me (and you can look him up and ask him yourself) that he built a rifle for a guy recently (recent is this year) that he went to a competition with. His words that he told me is "your barrel almost crushed the world record at 1000 yards" I asked him how and he said "well 9 shots were within 2 3/4" and unfortunately the 10th shot was a flyer bringing the group size to just over 4". He also said that 5 of the 9 shots were under 2 1/2"
So, if you ask me that really shows the "potential" accuracy of our barrels.
Dan

Now shut up dammit.

This secret gets out and the price is going to go way up and the delivery is gonna go to heck and we won't have that competitive advantage in our rifle lines.



7mm-08 - .37 MOA
.375 H&H - .70 MOA
.264 Norma - .51 MOA
.22-250 - .29 MOA

Rod - who has 41 barrels in stock and more on the way (called putting money where mouth is)

[ 10-23-2003, 08:41: Message edited by: Rod@Acrabond ]