Mentioning the McMillan thing, I want to make a couple comments… which are just my opinion so, please, no one get their feelings hurt.
McMillan doesn’t do Savage or Browning inlets anymore. They’ll still mold the stock, but won’t do the inlet work. I assume they’ll soon stop offering stocks for those brands, and some others, all together.
I agree with this decision. The more products a company offers, the more difficult quality control must be. Just look at PTG as an example for that.
Now the part that may hurt some feelings…. Savages are designed like toys and some aftermarket parts for them are incompatible with other aftermarket parts made for them. I don’t like working on them, because I like to be proud of my work, and I can’t blame McMillan for no longer making stocks for them.
To hurt some more feelings with my opinions…
Factory actions all together, with the exception of Tikkas, aren’t really worth using anymore. The cost difference between two nearly identical rifles with the only difference being the action, let’s say one uses a Rem700 and the other a Defiance Tenacity, is a few hundred dollars. Remember the Rem700 gets trued, gets a new lug, needs a quality scope rail, maybe a bolt knob, a side bolt stop or 8-40 scope base holes if you really want to splurge… add all that up and when all is said n done, the 700 build didn’t save much money, if any, over the aftermarket action build.
The quality difference between a reworked 700 action and a Tenacity is huge. Not even comparable.
Back when aftermarket actions were fewer, rifle standards were lower, and ammo didn’t cost a fortune, hell ya it made sense to build off factory actions. But times have changed. Ammo costs a fortune. Gas costs more now and most of us have to drive an hour or more to go shoot. Is saving a couple hundred bucks on your rifle, when it vastly changes the end product, really worth it?
In conclusion, depending on your budget, either build a full blown custom rifle(with a good aftermarket action) or just go buy a Tikka and add to it over time. A Tikka in a Mcmillan stock is hard to beat.