Modern Varmint What IF?

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No different than a righty using a Swiss Arms or AR180, not hard at all especially if you pay a little extra and get ambi bolt and mag release.

The difference is that the SA and the AR180 have large, exposed charging handles, no spring loaded folding handles. having used an FNC1, as well as a few commercial side charging AR's, I know that its not impossible, but its not as ergonomic as I would like, especially if I'm forking out over 2k for a rifle. Just a thought.
 
The difference is that the SA and the AR180 have large, exposed charging handles, no spring loaded folding handles. having used an FNC1, as well as a few commercial side charging AR's, I know that its not impossible, but its not as ergonomic as I would like, especially if I'm forking out over 2k for a rifle. Just a thought.

Unless there is a malfunction I only use the charge handle once a day anyway. Locks back on empty, insert new magazine and press bolt release or just give the butt stock a smack with my hand to release the bolt.
Or use your firing hand to reach forward and operate the charging handle. Or your support hand on the right side bolt release.
$2k is peanuts for a rifle like this, don't worry though I doubt they will get below $2500 for bare bones model.
 
Unfortunately the likes of a Tavor or XCR are still above and beyond what I'm able to pay, outside of saving for 3-4 years :(

It's a great idea however, kinda like trim level packages in vehicles. "You might not be able to afford a King Ranch, but can afford the XLT."
 
The idea we're tossing around is to reduce the options, so offering 18.6 and 20 is simply not going to happen as there are no mass-produced 18.6" AR style barrels, that I'm aware of. Keep in mind the Modern Varmint does NOT run a standard AR barrel, just 1 more step away from being classified as an AR variant.

We are looking at chrome lined barrels, or just less expensive, NON match grade barrels as there seems to be a large number of people looking for this. Questions from there, and we're only selecting one, would be pencil barrel, or HBar ?

The cost of furniture for a basic unit is not what we are addressing in this inquiry, the guns have to be test fired prior to releasing them. Whether you have spare parts kicking around is not our concern. What we ARE proposing, is having one offering that is NOT custom, which would in essence be our first "factory rifle" without customisation. It would have a stock, it would have an A2 plastic grip. And it would have a free float hand guard.

As far as having this "factory offering" water down the value of a custom modern varmint, is absolutely one of our biggest concerns and will, in the end, likely be what makes or breaks this off-shoot project.


At this point, we are not looking at this option for the Modern Hunter as the availability of AR10 components is significantly less than AR15 and the cost savings just doesn't exist on the same level.

Hitting the $2k mark is just not an option I'm afraid. We're talking closer to mid 2s.
 
This, however I am skeptical that price is atainable. That is over 1k off. I am thinking 2-400 savings on the barrel, 1-150 on the buffer, perhaps a $100 on furniture, maybe another 200-300 in labor/efficiency/economy of scale savings?

It takes the same amount of time to assemble a rifle regardless of the quality of the barrel and furniture. It does not take 200 to 300 dollars in labor to assemble them in the 1st place, the rest of you numbers are pretty close.
 
well I already got a mv, but if ai didn't I would go with a 20 inch pencil barrel for weight.

What about adding a "sport" or something to the name not to lessen the brand of the MV?
 
Rick, I might have brought this up before, but would it not be possible to have a housing and pins produced for standard 2 pin triggers that drop into the said housing and then into the unchanged lower reciever the same way the Timney does? This would negate the need of expensive almost proprietary triggers, and also give shooters choice.

Read the FRT report we provided with each rifle. It CLEARLY states a Timney trigger is an integral part of the rifle. To make changes as you keep asking us to do will result in having to request another inspection. This costs us time and money to make the prototypes, time to get the new rifle through the SFSS and more importantly puts ALL owners of MH and MV rifles at risk for a re-classification. You have 1 each of our semi auto non restricted rifles. In the immortal words of Harry Callahan, Do ya feel lucky ?

So the short answer is NOT gonna happen.
 
well I already got a mv, but if ai didn't I would go with a 20 inch pencil barrel for weight.

What about adding a "sport" or something to the name not to lessen the brand of the MV?

We're concerned that any adjustment to the engravings or lower at all, could be construed as a separate FRT. Think... Spartan.

Our initial internal discussions went much further, including changes to uppers and lowers in an effort to try and hit the low 2s, but the risks involved with a whole new submission don't seem worth it.

Lightweight pencil barrel is where we've been looking mostly, keeping it a nimble little rifle that's convenient to pack around.
 
How would the "el cheapo" version be distinguished from the eye popping expensive version? I've selected extreme word choices here to illustrate the point. If there is truly value in the Gucci version, that gets watered down on the resale market when the lines between the two become blurred. Weatherby has the MKV and they have the Vanguard, easily distinguished 'cause one's a MKV and the other is a Howa.

So, how does this get marketed and at what price differential? How will an existing owner feel after popping $5k and then seeing them sell for, say $2.5k unless there is a very distinct difference and market distinguisher between the two. Will the lower cost ones be sloppy compared to the tight tolerance top end ones?

Springfield and others do it: M1A loaded @ $2k, and National Match @ $3k....

Having said all that, I'd jump at the lower priced model if it presented good value and it was accurate.

A VERY valid concern, hence our floating the question here. The upper and lower would be identical, we are not making a "new" model, simply offering the ability to own one of our rifles with a cheaper barrel and not having any options to choose from. In vehicle terms, GM makes a base model truck. It has rubber floor matts, plastic upholstery, AM/FM radio only, power nothing yet still wears the same badge. The price difference between GMC Sierra 1500 and a Denali 1500 is over $30K, but I know exactly what you are meaning. The price differential will not be huge, probably 5 or 6 hundred dollars.
 
Just a thought. Cheaper uppers make some sense. Say I were to invest in a fully featured lower and 6.5 Grendel upper (hunting/medium range). A budget upper/bolt in .223 Wylde 1:8 twist would bring down the total cost of what could be two rifles.

This would gut XCR-L sales since the barrel retention system is not good for accuracy.
 
Sounds like a great idea to get the price down to the XCR-L / X-95 ballpark. I'd delete the ambi bolt release as well to save the extra machining / assembly time. Change to a .750 gas block. And see if you could put the barrel extension pin in the conventional location. I'm already dreaming of a Faxon Flame fluted barrel.

That would mean the RCMP would get another kick at the cat to reclassify it as an AR variant.
I fought VERY hard for several years to get the NR status on these rifles and so many guys seem to want to quickly discard the effort and risk making these rifles into a restricted AR variants?
 
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