Since there has been quite a bit of discussion about MRC over several months, I figured it might be of interest to some of you to hear about the impressions from my recent visit to the MRC facility in Kalispell, MT.



It had been almost three years since I visited MRC last, and to say things had changed would be a definite understatement. The well lit MRC facility was literally buzzing with activity. There were racks upon racks full of M1999 actions undegoing final assembly, quality control, engraving and what-not. There were also a bunch of barreled actions for the new CZ short-magnum rifles awaiting shipment, so presumably these will be available at your local dealer shortly?



The MRC barrel manufacturing operation was also humming along. I was much impressed with the guy who handlapped barrels (all day long?), and suggested I'd slip a few of my rifles in for a good cleaning. I doubt he would have noticed the difference of a few more barrels and a few more strokes



I talked to MRC boss, Brian, as well as Dan and Jeff who have represented MRC on this board. They all agreed it had been a tough time to get where they are today. Taking on the development of all the new actions (RH short, plus LH all configurations) had been a herculean task, and probably not one they would repeat - at least not in parallel. The initial impression had been, that after sucessfully bringing the RH long action to the production stage, all the problems would have been resolved with the new actions. As we all know, that turned out not to be the case. Brian figured at least a year would now be the initial estimate he would give for the development of a new action. Given the experience of the past, that is probably not too far off, and certainly more realistic than the original estimate (measured in months).



The good news about all of this, is that although it took much longer for the participating customers, and associated stress on MRC's part, MRC is now making rapid progress towards shipping the remaining 150-200 of the introductory offer actions. As far as I understood, the main configuration outstanding were the LH longs, and the parts for these should be in the pipeline. So it looks like there might be light at the end of the tunnel for all who have been waiting - patiently, I'm sure At the same time, MRC is pursuing the development of the Professional Hunter and mini actions, although the minimal numbers for the introductory offer have not been reached yet. In terms of focussing on the completion of the LH project, that may actually have been beneficial, although I'm aware many of you are impatiently waiting for your new dinosaur slayer..



Brian mentioned MRC's intention of building up stock of the different action configurations over the months to come. You'd be surprised about how many combinations there are, with all the various combinations of RH, LH, steel type, action length, magazine box length and cartridge head size. MRC can deliver a bunch of different action configurations from stock right now, and over the coming months, they should have pretty much all action configurations in stock for immediate delivery.



All in all, it was pretty impressive to see how the start-up company I visited 3 years ago had developed. MRC has grown into an important supplier of rifle actions for the custom as well as the production rifle market. They are one of the few manufacturers who have addressed the needs of LH shooters. It was interesting to experience the world of an action manufacturer. As end users, we often tend to look at an action in terms of features and wonder if it would be better if a particular part had been manufactured differently, or another solution incorporated, say. In terms of manufacturing, the problems are pretty different, though. There it is often a question of adapting features and solutions to the manufacturing process, all within the price limits set by the market, fulfilling all safety requirements, and still come up with a good product. Not an easy task, and one we shooters should be pleased MRC has undertaken.



- mike

Jeffe, we discussed the PH, but no dates were given. So it is not for me to speculate. With a bit of luck, Dan or Jeff might see this and venture a guess.
- mike

Mike
THANKS !! great update..

I must have missed the bit about the PH.. any idea of when?
jeffe

Thanks for the excellent report mho. I wish MRC the best of good fortune.

From where we left off on the best action for a custom rifle it seems certain that MRC has a market.

I won't normally chirp in unless I really feel it's needed. But since you asked I would love to venture a guess. But before I do, I'd like to let everyone know that we can schedule tours for our customers if they wish to see the facility. Although I would ask that you wait until after November so that we can concentrate on getting all the Left Hands out and build our inventory. When we bring tours in it slows down our production. OK, so the PH..... well I would love to say soon but as Brian said normal production has been about 1 year. Although on a good note, I have seen our Engineer in here several times over the last month which signals to me that Brian is getting the design finished. Once that is done, production starts. That's the best guess I can give to anyone at this point.

Jeff,

Do we get "one tour per customer"

or

"one tour per action" ?

Hammer