I have followed the Montana Actions since the initial design.

The original intent was to produce a cheap investment cast action, similar to the Ruger, with a combination of features from M70 Winchester, M98 Mauser and the Sako actions.

They were plagued with production problems at the start. I purchased two of the long action M99's in 4140, still have not used them. I also ordered two of the PH actions, but gave up many years ago. I was lucky and did not include payment with my order for the PH's, at the time payment was required at time of shipment. Good thing I never paid, if you read the posts on the AR site you will see that many paid for the actions but have never received them, after many years of waiting. And at no time have I received an update from MRC on the status of my order, or a request for payment! Some of the gents that paid for the actions are requesting a refund, but the requests are being ignored. This is a real odd way to run a business, especially in todays age of instant email communication.

Prices have gone much higher than the amount I paid a long time ago for the two M99's.

Is this action better than a Mauser or M70? Not in my thinking. Is there a market for this action? Yes, but at a lower price than now requested. IMHO they are just not worth the cost and wait, if they ever are in full production.

MRC has been plagued with underfunding from the start, and some of the original owners/investors bailed out. The current owner/manager is very strained financially after buying out others and trying to fund the contract machining. His story is the CNC shops he contracted with for some of the parts (firing pins in particular) have gone bankrupt or closed down, the tooling was lost or sold to others, and he cannot obtain firing pins. As I am a retired machinist, I find this story hard to believe. Firing pins do not require any complicated CNC tooling. In the 4 months since I heard of the firing pin issue, I could have made 500 in my home shop with my manual lathes and milling machine!! It is not rocket science or brain surgery. And I know of two CNC shops here in the Pacific NW that have firearms experience that are looking for work, either one could crank out 500 firing pins in a couple of weeks at most.

I do not enjoy slamming a company like MRC, their original idea was very good. But, in a sense MRC deserves criticism for the manner in which they have addressed production problems and more importantly in the manner in which they treat their customers.

Maybe I should not barrel my two M99's, just keep them for collectors items. At the rate the company is going, the actions will not be produced much longer.