Montana Rifle Company Highline Rifle: Big Sky Boomer

If you’re a fan of bolt-action big game rifles, the last 10 years have been a boom time. However, the lion’s share of new designs utilize push-feed actions. Sure, Winchester, Ruger and Kimber still offer controlled-round-feed bolt actions, but none of them has rolled out many new such rifles in the last few years.

If you like controlled-round-feed actions as much as I do, you’ll be happy to hear about a couple new models available from the new Montana Rifle Co.: the Highline and Junction. I say “new” because the original company has been sold and purchased a couple times and is now part of the Grace Engineering Corporation family. With that acquisition comes a change in manufacturing, and today’s Montana Rifle Co. rifles are made in Memphis, Michigan.

During the leadership of founder Brian Sipe, the original Montana Rifle Co. offered some very good controlled-round-feed bolt-action rifles based on its Model 1999 action, which was poised to become a significant player in the bolt-action rifle market. However, things changed when the Kalispell-based company was sold to an investment firm. The new company promised to continue to produce these Mauser-inspired bolt actions, but by 2020 it seemed that MRC had become a footnote in firearms history.

Some good news arrived last year when Grace Engineering promised once again to bring Montana Rifle guns to market, and Grace had the machining know-how to do so. This third-generation American company specializes in high-tech machining, and it set about rebuilding the Montana Rifle brand.

CRF Options

As I mentioned, Montana Rifle is offering two controlled-round-feed rifles. The Junction is a wood-stocked rifle. It features a striking walnut stock and ebony fore-end and looks very much like a high-end Mauser 98 or top-tier Winchester Model 70 Super Grade.

The Highline—a name that traces its origin to a railway that traverses northern Montana and also that region in general—is a different type of controlled-round-feed rifle. It’s built for the shooter or hunter who loves the reliability of a rifle with a full-length, non-rotating Mauser-style claw extractor and fixed blade ejector, but it also offers some modern touches found primarily on today’s popular push-feed guns.

Highline rifles are equipped with McMillan Game Hunter stocks featuring wide, vertical grips that are popular on long-range target rifles. The substantial palm swell fills the hand, and the vertical design is very comfortable for shooting from a bench or prone. There’s also plenty of space for a thumb-forward grip.

The green stock is accented with black and tan specks, and the comb is high enough to allow the eye to properly align with large optics. Length of pull is 13.5 inches. There’s an M-Lok rail on the underside of the flat fore-end, and the stock has front and rear sling studs.

Awesome Action

The most exciting aspect of this rifle is the action. MRC’s new owners could simply have churned out more 1999 actions, but instead they took a deep dive into the design and, while similar in many ways, the new 2022 action is a different animal altogether.

For starters, the 1999 action was cast whereas the 2022 action is fully machined from a previously heat-treated 416 stainless steel blank. This reduces inconsistencies and keeps tolerances very tight, allowing for interchangeability of parts. Producing one 2022 action requires about three hours on the company’s five-axis mill.

The concept of the original 1999 action was to combine the best features of the pre-’64 Model 70 and the Mauser 98. While the 1999—and subsequently the 2022—actions look very much like a Model 70’s, they borrow key features from the Mauser, including the barrel ring and feed cone. But one feature the Model 2022 action offers that neither the Model 70 nor the Mauser 98 does is a relief cut on the extractor, allowing you to drop a round in the action and close the bolt without fear of damaging the extractor. This allows hunters to fully load their rifles.

Like the Model 70, the MRC 2022 has a flat-base action. Historically, it’s been more expensive to produce flat-base actions than cylindrical actions because the latter could be turned on a lathe. Controlled-round-feed actions, though, have been more complex to build properly and therefore more expensive.

Tight Tolerances

That’s the perfect challenge for a company like Grace Engineering, which specializes in producing metal parts with exceptionally tight tolerances. The MRC 2022 action is held to within 0.002 inch, which is exceptional, and the barrel interface is half that.

Highline rifles feature front and rear optic mounting rails. This is a substantial benefit on a hunting rifle simply because it eliminates the risk that the optic bases will come loose while you’re in the field. I’ve had it happen, and unless you plan on spending a day at the shooting range and have the right tools to address the problem, a loose scope base could ruin a hunt.

Highline barrels are hand-lapped and button-rifled, and they’re machined using the same methods and equipment as the original MRC 1999 rifles. Muzzles are threaded, and a brake and thread cap are included.

Thread pitch is 5/8x24, and the twist rate on the .300 Win. Mag. version I tested was 1:8, the same for the 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC and 7mm PRC. The .308 has a 1:10 twist. Magazine capacity for the 6.5 PRC, 7mm PRC and .300 Win. Mag. is three rounds; the Creedmoor and .308 versions hold five rounds. The barrel and receiver are protected by a Burnt Bronze Cerakote finish.

Hunting Pedigree

The .300 Win. Mag. I tested has a 26-inch barrel, which put the overall weight right at 7.25 pounds unloaded—very manageable for a hunting gun.

All MRC rifles use internal box magazines and hinged floorplates, and their gold pre-’64-style triggers are factory set at 3.5 pounds but can be adjusted down to around two pounds if you like. The Highline features a three-position Model 70-style wing safety that allows the rifle to be loaded and unloaded with the safety engaged.

In anticipation of range testing the Highline, I mounted a Leupold VX-6 HD 2-12x42mm and also attached a Magpul M-Lok bipod. So equipped, the rifle weighed about 9.25 pounds, call it 9.5 pounds with a full mag.

This overall weight made the rifle pleasant to shoot, especially since I ditched the included muzzle brake in favor of the thread protector because I avoid shooting with brakes under a metal roof whenever possible. Still, recoil was quite manageable.

Cartridge Offerings

The company has promised that Highline rifles will be available in .375 H&H soon, and perhaps they’ll even be available in sizes large enough to accommodate the whopping .505 Gibbs, even if the action is available only for custom builds. Those heavy-hitting cartridges imply that these rifles are suitable for hunting dangerous game, and being able to quickly top off the rifle without the risk of a broken extractor is an enormous selling point.

In addition to the safety, there’s a bolt stop/release on the rear left portion of the receiver, and a magazine floorplate release located at the front of the trigger guard. The release is similar to the Model 70 design, although I found the MRC’s a bit tough to operate.

Overall fit and finish is superb. The Highline is clearly built to a high standard, and rifle nerds can enjoy hours just cycling the sleek action. The 26-inch pipe is a bit long for those among us who like to run suppressors, so adding some models with shorter barrels would make sense for Montana Rifle Co.

The test rifle had clearly spent some time on the range, likely at media events, and someone had lowered the trigger down to about 2.2 pounds from the factory setting of 3.5. That certainly didn’t hurt accuracy, and the gun proved capable of shooting groups around 0.8 inch with loads it liked. A few groups went over an inch, but overall this was roughly an m.o.a. rifle with all three loads. For hunting out to moderate or even long distances, that’s ample accuracy.

Lasting Impressions

The action is buttery smooth thanks to the precision-machined raceway, and there’s plenty of room to top-load the rifle—or single-load it, if you like, which I did on multiple occasions. I’d be hesitant to do that with my old Model 70s but had no issues with the Highline.

I did encounter two malfunctions. In one instance, as I extracted a spent casing the last round in the magazine spilled out on the tabletop. I couldn’t get the issue to recur, and I blame it on either a poorly seated cartridge in the magazine or ghosts in the machine.

I also had a hangfire with the Norma ammo—a pronounced click as the firing pin fell and a split second before ignition. A weak or broken firing pin can be the culprit for hangfires, but upon examination the primer had a proper dent, and once again the problem never resurfaced. More ghosts, I guess.

My most important yardstick in a rifle review is: Would I take the test rifle on a personal hunt? The response in this case is an unequivocal Yes. The Highline is reliable—the two weird issues notwithstanding—and is accurate enough for any hunting situation. I’m not crazy about the color combination, but the overall function of the rifle is superb. I would have cased the rifle, grabbed boxes of ammo and boarded a flight to Johannesburg or Anchorage without reservation.

Thumbs Up

At $2,595 the Highline isn’t inexpensive, but it isn’t terribly out of line with similar rifles like the Winchester Model 70 Extreme Weather MB ($1,869), Ruger Hawkeye FTW Hunter ($2,049) and Kimber Mountain Ascent ($2,632)—at least not when you consider it has features the others don’t.

Montana Rifle Company is back, and it’s a shot in the arm for the controlled-round-feed rifle market. The Highline is one high-class hunting rifle, and I hope the Highline’s release prompts other brands to invest in feature-rich controlled-feed rifles.

Montana Rifle Co. Highline Rifle Specs

• Type: controlled-round-feed bolt-action centerfire
• Caliber: 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC, 7mm PRC, .308 Win., .300 Win. Mag. (tested)
• Capacity: 3+1
• Barrel: 26 in. button rifled, 1:8 twist; threaded 5/8x24
• Overall Length: 47.25 in.
• Weight: 7 lb., 4 oz.
• Stock: McMillan Game Hunter, green with tan/black specks; M-Lok fore-end rail
• Finish: Burnt Bronze Cerakote
• Trigger: user adjustable; 2 lb., 3 oz. pull (measured, as tested)
• Sights: none; integral bases machined into receiver
• Price: $2,595
• Manufacturer: Montana Rifle Co., MontanaRifleCo.com

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