The guy who designs stocks at B&C is a good friend & customer of mine; since DDC is just over an hour's drive from me, if I need a stock from them, I drive down to get it. I asked about doing the inlet for the Howa Mini a couple of years ago when I started re-barreling them, but he wasn't sure at that point that it was worth the time & trouble to do a mold & have aluminum bedding blocks made for them. I'll have to hit him up about this the next time we talk. Their #2093 stock for the 1500 Howa SA is a really good stock, I've used several of them for 6.5CM bbl'd actions - it takes no more than 5 min with a Dremel to do the inlet for PTG Stealth DBM on these stocks.
So I hit up both Manners & McMillan about doing the inlet. Tom Manners spoke with me and asked that I sell him one of my Mini bbl'd actions in 6.5 Grendel so he could make the decision, while McMillan initially wanted $500 to model the custom inlet for the Mini. I sold Tom the bbl'd action, and put the McMillan thing on my "like hell" backlist. Meanwhile, bought a Boyds ProVarmint w/adjustable cheekpiece (they used to call it the tacticool model) for another Mini 6.5 Grendel hvy bbl, which fit well & looked good. Sold it before I ever tried any of the Hornady Black ammo I'd bought for it. Meanwhile, I called McMillan again, and they backed off from the $500 inlet charge, saying they'd received a sizable number of requests for the Mini, then asked that I send them a bbl'd action to model the inlet off of. About 6mo later, I received a Sako Varmint pattern stock in molded-in desert ambush for the Mini. It was a good fit & shot well with a Mini that I'd re-barreled for 6RAT, so I called & ordered a Game Scout for another Mini build. This one evidently fell through the cracks, as it took several phone calls & over a year to get it & the bbl'd action back. However, I think it was worth the wait, as I like the shape & fit of the Game Scout stock better than the Sako Varmint for prone shooting.
The one big drawback of the Mini is the plastic detachable mag bottom 'metal' they come with. The rear action screw hole split on mine when I torqued it to 45 in/lbs. Since then, DIP has come out with replacement aluminum DBM that fits & works great; price is $100. I've got one of these units on the Mini in the Game Scout, and would never go back to the OEM plastic POS. Hopefully, Howa & LSI see the error of their ways & start using either DIP or their own design metal DBM. I'm just finishing up a 20 cal Bartlein 1-9tw bbl for another Mini in 20 Tactical - the finished bbl'd action will be CeraKoted in Sniper Grey & bedded in a Boyds ProVarmint in their blue/grey laminate, with laser stippling & adjustable cheekpiece.