For those considering one of the McMillan mod 0 limited edition stocks, I wanted to share a quick comparison between an issued stock and the “new” production run.
There are a handful of subtle differences. The good news - All of these are cosmetic and absolutely do not impact the function of the stock!
The issued stock is an early grey. I unfortunately do not have an issued tan stock to compare this against:
1. Profile view: The overall length of the new production stock is slightly shorter. The texturing extends a bit further on the new stock, but otherwise everything else lines up.
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2. Top down view: This is where most of the differences are apparent.
The forearm rail screw spacing and depth varies between both stocks. The early grey has the unfinished rail, possibly driving the difference in spacing. You can also better see in this picture that the new production stock is slightly shorter.
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At the rear, the action and bolt relief cuts are a bit different. This is purely cosmetic and does not impact functionality.
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3. Bottoms up view. Other than the forearm rail screw spacing, the remaining difference is the escutcheon used for the third action screw. You’ll likely want to have a gunsmith add a recess similar to the issued stock for the bolt to sit flush. The Frankensteined “CMP painted” guns released recently also do not have this recess, so it may have been machined later at crane.
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Excellent comparison, thank you very much for posting the pics and information for everyone to see! It's great to see some of these minor changes to the stocks because it helps protect the collector value, history and provenance of the original Navy SEAL used Mk13 McMillan stocks! The new stocks are 99% correct, so they're perfect for a clone build and no one can tell the difference between these new stocks and the military used stocks (unless you have a tape measure and the knowledge about the differences between the stocks).
I'm glad to see these stock differences for another reason, which has to do with the certificates of authenticity. I still have about 50 to 100 Kelly McMillan signed and dated certificates that don't currently have serial numbers on them. When I issue a certificate for a specific stock, I grab a certificate from the pile and I write the last 4 digits of the serial number on the certificate. Over the past 7 years, I've given certificates to friends who have acquired real Navy SEAL used Mk13 McMillan stocks that weren't part of the group of 155 DRMO Mk13 stocks that I owned/sold. Over that 7 year period of time, I've only certified 3 or 4 real Mk13 stocks that weren't part of the group of 155 DRMO stocks. I take this very seriously, and I require the full provenance of a legit Mk13 stock, detailed photos of the stock, and other information that helps determine it's authenticity.
Even though I've only certificated 3 or 4 stocks that weren't in the DRMO group, I've had over a dozen stocks that were presented to me that didn't pass my authenticity test. The owners of those stocks wanted to increase the value of their regular civilian A2 stocks, and they thought that it would be easy to get an official certificate of authenticity from me. Those people tried to get me to certify stocks that aren't real Navy SEAL used Mk13 McMillan stocks, and I absolutely refused to give them a certificate for their civilian stock.
With this new batch of Mk13 A2 McMillan stocks being released, I was afraid of people buying them, faking the characteristics and wear to make the civilian stocks look like military used stocks, and then ask me for a certificate of authenticity. It's great to see that there's measurable physical differences between the original military used Mk13 stocks and these new civilian A2 stocks! With the information from
@Werk125's excellent comparison post, I have new information to use when people ask me to certify their "legit" Mk13 stock in the future (which will happen, I guarantee it). Now I can have those people send me detailed photos of specific areas of the stock in question, and also provide an overall length measurement (minus the buttpad and spacer system).
One of the main reasons that the original DRMO McMillan Mk13 stocks have become so popular with collectors and have skyrocketed in price is mainly due to having an actual, irrefutable certified provenance that can't be faked. There's numerous security features in the certificates of authenticity that I issued with the real military used Mk13 stocks. I did this to ensure that no ine could fake my certificates, and so far I haven't come across a single example of one of my Mk13 certificates being faked (unlike the generic McMillan M40A1 stock certificates that are often faked). I spent a lot of time/money/effort working on those certificates and finding ways to protect the provenance of the real Mk13 stocks, and prevent "fake" civilian A2 stocks from being passed off as original Navy SEAL used Mk13 stocks. This effort has led to an extremely high degree of trust and confidence in my certifying process and knowing that a stock with one of my certificates is the real deal.
Even though I'm still willing to issue certificates of authenticity for Mk13 stocks that can be proven to be 100% original US military used, I want everyone to be aware that I take this very seriously and I won't allow anyone to pass these new A2 stocks off as fake military Mk13 stocks. Like I said before, some people have tried to get their fake Mk13 stocks certified by me, and I wouldn't allow it. I have no doubt in my mind that with this new release of civilian A2 stocks, someone at some point will try to fake the characteristics and military provenance, and attempt to get a certificate of authenticity from me. I can assure everyone here that I will not let this happen.
And if anyone does have a legit US military used Mk13 stock that needs a certificate, please let me know and I'll do what I can to determine it's authenticity. If it can be proven 100% to be legit, then I'll send out a certificate with the stock's serial number on it. If anyone has one of my certificated Mk13 stocks and the original certificate gets damaged, please send it back to me and I'll send you a new certificate. Any certificate that I send out if 100% free, I'll even cover all shipping costs on the certificates. These certificates are a huge deal to collectors because it turns a $1,200 "maybe" into a $4,000+ "guarantee"! That's a substantial price difference between a certified US military used Mk13 stock and a civilian A2 stock, and this is why people sometimes try to fake the characteristics and provenance of a civilian A2 stock in order to get a certificate from me. And when I certify a real stock, it's not completely unilateral, I also reach out to a few other experts to verify anything that I believe to be authentic. If there's anything even remotely questionable about a stock, it doesn't get a certificate.
I don't make a single penny on certifying real Mk13 stocks, even though my certificate will add thousands of dollars in value to the stock in question. I do all of this for you guys, for this community. I hate seeing fake items and I hate seeing people get ripped off, so I do what I can to prevent thise from happening to Mk13 collectors/historians/enthusiasts. Sorry for the long post, but everyone who owns an original US military used Mk13 stock (or will try to acquire an original Mk13 stock in the future) needs to know this information. As collectors, you guys have spent a lot of money on these real US military take-off parts, like these original Mk13 stocks. I want you all to know that your certificates of authenticity actually mean something, and they are there to protect your investment.
If anyone has any questions about the Mk13 certificates that I have, or how I certify stocks, please ask me in this thread. Thanks to great people like
@Werk125 who are sharing information about the differences between legit military issued Mk13 stocks and the newly made civilian A2 stocks, we can all knowledgeable about this topic and we can prevent fake Mk13 stocks from being brought into the market. Obviously, with enough time/money/effort ANYTHING is able to be faked, but let's share our knowledge and make it extremely difficult for anyone to create and attempt to pass off a fake Mk13 stock. Whenever a company decides to remake/re-release an old, discontinued products like these A2 stocks, we as collector community need to protect the legacy, authenticity, and provenance of the original items. I hope that McMillan releases more of these new A2 stocks into the collector market, and I hope that more people have the opportunity to build an amazing Mk13 clone! It is possible for original items and newly produced items to exist in the same marketplace without having the legacy and value of the original items diminish, and this is how that happens.
@Werk125, thank you very much for the great post, please continue to inspect your two stocks and let us know if there's any other differences between them. Also, can you please provide measurements of the different lengths (minus the buttpad and spacer system), and a photo of the tape measure on each stock so that we can see exactly how you're measuring them (for repeatability)? If anyone else here has both an original US military Mk13 stock with one of my certificates and one of the newly released A2 stocks, can you please post some comparison photos and measurements as well? The more information we have available to us, the better! Thank you very much in advance for anyone who is able to help collect this information!