Montana Rifle Company TSAVO in .375 H&H - Shooting!!!

Mark A Ouellette said:

@Altitude sickness and I hosted Ian, Brian, and Kristen of the Montana Rifle Company for a “user test” of a pre-production example of the new MRC Tsavo Rifle in .375 H&H. It is a really nice rifle featuring;

• 4 round magazine in .375 H&H
• 23” barrel
• Removable muzzle brake
• Cerakote finish
• Uses M70 Classic scope bases
• Very nice wood with a “vacuum” impregnated finish
• A bunch of other features that I didn’t take notes on… J
• Retail price when available, $3295

We shot at 50 yards off the standing rest and at 15 to 20 yards for rapid fire. We took a lot of videos but for now, I will post some stills.

View attachment 674636

View attachment 674637

View attachment 674638

View attachment 674639

View attachment 674641

View attachment 674642

View attachment 674643

View attachment 674644

View attachment 674645

View attachment 674646

View attachment 674648

View attachment 674658

Click to expand...

WOW!!! If I did not have a beautiful MRC in 404J I would be all over this!!!!!

Green Chile, the rifle carry’s very well. cupped in my hand at my side the shape, thickness, balance of the stock were nice for my hand.


I commented immediately that I thought the trigger pull was consistent, and broke clean. It’s a MRC trigger but from what I understand a model 70 trigger will work also. And man do they have ejection sorted out! If you run the bolt normally (not aggressively) it cleared the large Zeiss turrets with ease. And when you run the bolt quickly, cycling through the 4 rounds fast it ejected the shell a measured 12’

I’m confident that for comparison purposes, from a bench, with the factory Hornady ammo we used 1 MOA would be easy for most people. Sub MOA easily obtained. These are not mass produced rifles.

Also, Mark and I are not paid or compensated. We just happen to live close to their headquarters.

As a matter of fact. This same rifle is being sent to Wayne VanZwoll for his review. Ian stated that it is MRC policy that they give no incentives to writers. No free rifle ETC. As is often the industry standard for hunting equipment.

I will be buying a MRC rifle myself

It looks like MRC is picking up where they left off. Good for them. It will be good to see another semi-custom CRF rifle that's DG ready out of the box for less than $4K...especially in this economy. My only criticism is the shape of the stock, particularly the comb. To each his own.

These remind me of the rifles Dakota was making before they turned into Parkwest.

BeeMaa said:

It looks like MRC is picking up where they left off. Good for them. It will be good to see another semi-custom CRF rifle that's DG ready out of the box for less than $4K...especially in this economy. My only criticism is the shape of the stock, particularly the comb. To each his own.

These remind me of the rifles Dakota was making before they turned into Parkwest.

Click to expand...

My friend, yes Montana Rifle Company is carefully creating functional rifles with enough adornment that one's dog wound not be embarrassed to be seen near them.

I believe their $3295 TSAVO .375 H&H will fill market space previously enjoyed by the Kimber of Oregon Caprivi. They are definitely a BIG step up in quality control over modern Winchester Model 70 Classic (CRF). And that is from a I darn near love my Model 70's, Pre-64 or new!

Ian and the MRC engineers are fine tuning the manufacturing of the TSAVO by testing, test, and retesting the pre-production items. @Altitude sickness and I have different rifle operating and shooting styles from each other and from the MRC test team. Kristen of MRC video-ed us and if there were any bugs that came out, trust me Ian will use his aerospace engineering brain to swat the crap out of any problems.

Here is something that most probably do not comprehend. Being in Michigan a half hour north of Detroit, there is no shortage of highly skilled mechanical and other disciplines of engineers, highly skilled machinists, and guys who do "frame off" restorations of cars for their hobby. It is also the home of Fred Bear, Ted Nugget, and other outdoorsmen. Highly qualified labor and management that actually hunt, is in no shortage here!

Grace Engineering https://www.graceeng.com/ bought the default Montana Rifle Company and moved it to Michigan. Grace is a small, 50-year old family owned, ISO 9001 Certified manufacturing firm https://www.g5outdoors.com/g5-outdoors-about-us/
It produces high spec machine parts, G5 Archery products https://www.g5outdoors.com/

Montana Rifle Company https://montanarifleco.com/ is producing high quality rifles, one version at a time. As I previously wrote in another post, what happened to Kimber of Oregon? Where is Dakota? How about the thousands of other small businesses that go bankrupt every year? Being excellent a building quality products does not keep the door open. Trying to produce too many products too quickly will drive a company into the red, deep red in a New York minute!

The above paragraph is for those who want rifles chambered in popular but seldom purchased cartridges such as .404 Jeffery, .500 Jeffery, .505 Gibbs. Businesses need to achieve Economies of Scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_scale for peak efficiency. Peak efficiency provides for profits (hopefully) that can be invested into design, CAD development, and set up for new products! The old Montana Rifle Company produced a wide variety of rifle chambering’s in at least two action diameter sizes. They are here no longer. You can't please everyone so stick to the knitting (what you do best).

MRC's current plan is to bring to market a .458 Lott approximately Christmas time or before this year. They are thinking of adding a .416 Remington next. All of those cartridges fit in the same length magazine and action diameter. Once those cartridges are part of the MRC line up, one can only hope they will add small runs of those tried and true hunting cartridges like the .404, .500, .505, and the always popular .416 Rigby. These cartridges will require a larger diameter action so that will be a big step in design and production set up costs. How many units (rifles) will MRC need to sell to recoup that investment? One thing is for sure, those specialty rifles will probably cost more than the larger runs of .375 H&H !

The good news for many is that MRC plans to sell their actions for gunsmiths to build rifles on. Now, if you or your gunsmith can fit the larger diameter cartridges into the TSAVO action, more power to you! MRC must consider product liability and hogging out too much steel from an action could lead to problems no company needs in our litigious society.

I wish the Memphis Michigan based Montana Rifle Company the best! They are taking their time to only release high quality rifles that are at least Marine and Sailor (@Altitude sickness ) proof!

Mauser3000 said:

Beautiful rifle! Any indication if Montana will produce left hand rifles?

Click to expand...

Refer to my post above. Left handed rifles? Is that 10% of the market? Nothing against left handed shooters but business wise, MRC will need to sell a lot of left handed rifles for them to be profitable.

The above stated, frankly I never thought to ask Ian. Sorry...
You could ask Ian, @Imac45acp

I like my "old" MRC 99 Alaskan in 404J. I'd prefer a nice piece of furniture on it, but we lefties have to take what we can get when it comes available.

I think the trigger and action on it are the bees knees.

Mark A Ouellette said:

Refer to my post above. Left handed rifles? Is that 10% of the market? Nothing against left handed shooters but business wise, MRC will need to sell a lot of left handed rifles for them to be profitable.

The above stated, frankly I never thought to ask Ian. Sorry...
You could ask Ian, @Imac45acp

Click to expand...

No idea what the market size is for lefties. Officially, 10% of the population is lefty, but I know there are more than that who have mixed dominance like I have.

Perhaps it's just my YT feed, but I've noticed quite a lot of LH PHs and hunters the last several months. I'm not looking for LH PHs/hunters, I just noticed there are quite a lot of them, more than I would expect; well more than 10% anyway.

Mark A Ouellette said:

@Altitude sickness and I hosted Ian, Brian, and Kristen of the Montana Rifle Company for a “user test” of a pre-production example of the new MRC Tsavo Rifle in .375 H&H. It is a really nice rifle featuring;

• 4 round magazine in .375 H&H
• 23” barrel
• Removable muzzle brake
• Cerakote finish
• Uses M70 Classic scope bases
• Very nice wood with a “vacuum” impregnated finish
• A bunch of other features that I didn’t take notes on… J
• Retail price when available, $3295

We shot at 50 yards off the standing rest and at 15 to 20 yards for rapid fire. We took a lot of videos but for now, I will post some stills.

View attachment 674636

View attachment 674637

View attachment 674638

View attachment 674639

View attachment 674641

View attachment 674642

View attachment 674643

View attachment 674644

View attachment 674645

View attachment 674646

View attachment 674648

View attachment 674658

Click to expand...

Beautiful wood!!!!!

sgt_zim said:

No idea what the market size is for lefties. Officially, 10% of the population is lefty, but I know there are more than that who have mixed dominance like I have.

Perhaps it's just my YT feed, but I've noticed quite a lot of LH PHs and hunters the last several months. I'm not looking for LH PHs/hunters, I just noticed there are quite a lot of them, more than I would expect; well more than 10% anyway.

Click to expand...

@sgt_zim Great to hear from you!

I have no idea the market share buyers of left handed dangerous game rifles compared to the approximate 10% of the population. As for PH's, most of them carry what they can afford and is available.

If a distributor would order 1,000 units (rifles) of the left hand same configuration, perhaps MRC would fill that order. For the above, I don't know what MRC's break-even point for a left handed rifle would be.

For left handed rifles, MRC would need left handed actions and stocks.
Perhaps with CAD, the designs could be flipped in the computer and presto, lefty-CAD. Then the machines would need to be set up. MRC would need to run all the lefty actions in one batch and then set up for right hand actions.

Anything is possible. Contact MRC if you are interested.

I went to their web site and the trigger looks like a pre64 win style. Simple adjustable and solid style of trigger.

On the Tsavo is the wood on this rifle going to be the same grade for the 375 when released? Or is it upgraded wood?

AZDAVE said:

I went to their web site and the trigger looks like a pre64 win style. Simple adjustable and solid style of trigger.

On the Tsavo is the wood on this rifle going to be the same grade for the 375 when released? Or is it upgraded wood?

Click to expand...

Dave, yes MRC uses the Pre-64 M70 trigger design. Probably better steel used in today's product.

The wood on the subject TSAVO is to my understanding what one can expect on their production rifles.

Mark A Ouellette said:

@sgt_zim Great to hear from you!

I have no idea the market share buyers of left handed dangerous game rifles compared to the approximate 10% of the population. As for PH's, most of them carry what they can afford and is available.

If a distributor would order 1,000 units (rifles) of the left hand same configuration, perhaps MRC would fill that order.

For the above, I don't know what MRC's break-even point for a left handed rifle would be.
For those, MRC would need left handed actions and stocks.
Perhaps with CAD, the designs could be flipped in the computer and presto, lefty-CAD. Then the machines would need to be set up. MRC would need to run all the lefty actions in one batch and then set up for right hand actions.

Anything is possible. Contact MRC if you are interested.

Click to expand...

I'd be interested in a piece of wood. As much as I'd like a 458 Lott, I'm pretty happy with my 404J. My budget is such that money spent is going to be on hunting, not more rifles. There's nothing on earth I can't hunt with my current battery.

sgt_zim said:

I'd be interested in a piece of wood. As much as I'd like a 458 Lott, I'm pretty happy with my 404J. My budget is such that money spent is going to be on hunting, not more rifles. There's nothing on earth I can't hunt with my current battery.

Click to expand...

Exactly! Good rifles are passed on to new caretakers. How many of us are hunting with Pre-64 M70's Mausers, and other action rifles that at least the actions are older than we are. Since these do not wear out, they don't need to be replaced. That limits the demand for new rifles.

Add to the above, big bores don't get shot as much as a .22 LR, or .556mm AR-15. So, dangerous game rifles get scratched but not "shot out". After a couple dangerous game rifles, most tend to not buy or buy something that catches their fancy (desire).

For all the comments about wanting Montana Rifle Company to produce speciality chamberings in their rifle, how many will be buying one? That's the key to a production company. They need to sell their inventory to make new inventory.

I think from what I've seen, handled, and shot, and discussions with MRC engineers, that 99% of buyers will be pleased with a Michigan-made MRC rifle.

Mark, when I talked to the guys from Montana Rifle Co. at the SCI Convention in Nashville a couple of months ago, they said they were going to offer all of their calibers in both right and left-handed models. The new MRC(s) are going to be made on a semi-custom basis and will need to be ordered in advance of manufacture. Theirs' is not going to be a high-volume operation.

Shootist43 said:

Mark, when I talked to the guys from Montana Rifle Co. at the SCI Convention in Nashville a couple of months ago, they said they were going to offer all of their calibers in both right and left-handed models. The new MRC(s) are going to be made on a semi-custom basis and will need to be ordered in advance of manufacture. Theirs' is not going to be a high-volume operation.

Click to expand...

I have not heard that but I didn't ask about Lefty's. I have discussed business, production, and profits with them several times. Even more, I asked about specialty chambering. 375, 458, 416 and then...

Yesterday they told me that in the future... MRC plans to offer specialty rifles. I would not expect that before you see them offering bare actions for sale. But, if I am wrong, do much the better for all of us!

Being tall and having a longer neck than most, I really like the stock design. In the standing position, I need more comb height, and the straight stocked "Fights Recoil" design actually kicks harder for me because I have to bend my neck forward to get proper sight alignment and cheek weld.

BeeMaa said:

It looks like MRC is picking up where they left off. Good for them. It will be good to see another semi-custom CRF rifle that's DG ready out of the box for less than $4K...especially in this economy. My only criticism is the shape of the stock, particularly the comb. To each his own.

These remind me of the rifles Dakota was making before they turned into Parkwest.

Click to expand...

As mentioned above, I completely agree with stock. I know they have some time and money invested in the design, but seems like now would be the time to consider making some changes before things really get ramped up.

I know their stocks varied in the past, but this is a picture of an MRC 1999. . .

I am hoping they offer a black rifle with a synthetic McMillan safari stock at some point.

Would be super if it came with integral mounts like their other rifles do.

skydiver386 said:

Being tall and having a longer neck than most, I really like the stock design. In the standing position, I need more comb height, and the straight stocked "Fights Recoil" design actually kicks harder for me because I have to bend my neck forward to get proper sight alignment and cheek weld.

Click to expand...

MRC informed us that the 458 Lott rifle will have a straight comb for better recoil management.

They also told us that the TSAVO and I assume their other rifles have action footprints very similar to a Model 70 Classic with an additional cut for the MRC action. It would be easy to fit their barreled action to an aftermarket stock.