From: Rock McMillan <mcbros@indirect.com>
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: History of the McMillan Name
Date: 6 Dec 1995 08:29:21 -0500
Organization: McBros RIfles
Lines: 68

From some of the e-mail I have been getting I can tell that some of you
still don't know that not a single member of the McMillan family is in
any way associated with Harris/McMillan Gunworks formerly McMillan
Gunworks or G. McMillan Co.

McMillan Fiberglass Stocks, McMillan Optical Gunsight Co, McMillan
Machine Co and McBros Rifles are not associated in any way with Wes
Harris at Harris/McMillan Gunworks (by court order soon to be Harris
Gunworks).

My father sold the G. McMillan Co nine years ago. Wes Harris, an
accountant, brokered the sale between my father and a group of German
investors and was hired by the Germans to stay on and run the company. 
Within a couple of years Harris was able to get rid of the Germans and
now owns 100% of the company.  Under terms of the sales contract my
father was required to stay on as an employee for 3 years, Gale has had
no association with the gun company for the past 6 years.

After the sale of his gun company Gale, through his other company,
McMillan Fiberglass Stocks now run by Kelly McMillan, continued to sell
stocks to Harris.  Sometime in 1991, because of a dispute over past-due
payments owed to the stock company, Harris terminated his dealings with
McMillan Fiberglass Stocks.  The fact is that if you bought a rifle from
McMillan Gunworks since 1991 it probably does not have a McMillan
fiberglass stock on it.

Sometime around 1990, in spite of our objections, Harris changed the
name of the gun company to McMillan Gunworks.

About 2 1/2 years ago, while in bankruptcy, Harris decided to start his
own fiberglass rifle stock division.  McMillan Fiberglass Stocks was
forced to go to court to have Harris prohibited from using pictures of
their stocks in his catalogs and calling his stock models by their
proprietary names.  The judge issued a permanent injunction baring
Harris from using the pictures and names.  Unfortunately we were again
forced back to court last month because of Harris's violations of the
injunction.

No matter what Harris' stock literature says he does not now sell nor
has he in the past sold stocks to the US Navy or the US Marines.  These
branches of our military have been buying from McMillan Fiberglass
Stocks for nearly 20 years now.  The "famous USMC M40-A1 Rifle" listed
in Harris literature was, in fact, developed by my father and the USMC
back in 1976 and has always had a "McMillan" fiberglass stock.  Another
fact, the only contract Harris has been awarded by the Navy was canceled
by the Navy because Harris failed to deliver the first article units on
time.

In a settlement agreement reached last year in a trademark infringement
suit filed by Harris against the McMillans, Harris is required to
discontinue the use of any form of the McMillan name on January 1,1996
(definitely a happy day for us).  In the same settlement agreement my
brother and I agreed to call our rifle company McBros until January 1,
1996.

Starting in just 4 short weeks if you do business with a firearms
company starting with the name McMillan you can be assured of dealing
with a member of the family.  This is very important to us, you see,
it's more than just a company name, IT'S WHO WE ARE.

Anyone bothering to read down to this point please drop me a note so I
can figure out if this article was too long for people to finish.

Thanks

Rock McMillan
President of McBros Rifles

From: Rock McMillan <mcbros@indirect.com>
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Actions in Brownells - Harris - McMillan ??
Date: 12 Dec 1995 21:59:30 -0500
Organization: McBros Rifles
Lines: 47

#Hey Rock - I got to the end of the story.  BTW, the only questions I
#still have regard the actions.  Brownells used to carry
#Harris-McMillan actions, although I no longer see them in the catalog.
#Who originated those actions and what type of actions do the McMillan
#companies now use on their firearms?  Also, what's the story regarding
#Wiseman/McMillan vs Harris/McMillan barrels and what do you use now?
#
#You may want to post your response back to rec.guns.  I used E-mail
#since my posts take forever to show up.

#P.S. Do any of the McMillan companies have home pages?


The actions sold through Brownells were made by Harris and you are 
right, Brownells no longer carries them.  If you think about it you will 
probably be able to figure out why they stopped.

The action was developed by my father back in 1985, the first 480 units 
were sold to the Navy (Seals) and Army (Delta).  The action is nothing 
more than a modification of the Remington 700, why try to re-invent a 
proven product.

I made about 1500 actions for Harris before he decided not to buy from 
me, I quit selling to Harris in late 1991.  The actions I make now are a 
further improvement on the action my father developed, we use different 
materials and processing plus have changed the bolt face and bolt stop.

When my Uncle Pat sold his barrel company to Bill Wiseman back in the 
early 80s he sold Bill the name "McMillan Barrels".  Bill latered 
registered the trademark "McMillan Barrels".  Harris started advertising 
"McMillan Barrels" around 1990 and Bill decided to fight back.  I was 
standing by at the Dallas SHOT Show when Bill informed Harris that he 
had a registered trademark, Harris said "it's not worth the paper it's 
printed on" and walked away.  Bill filed a trademark infringment suit in 
Federal court which was later dropped when his lawyer missed a deadline 
for filing some paperwork.  It appears that Harris got the message 
because he quit advertising "McMillan Barrels".

Bill is still in business in Texas and selling match grade barrels using 
the name Wiseman/McMillan (or is it McMillan/Wiseman) Barrels.

We use Schneider or Lilja barrels on the rifles we build, this is not a 
slam against Bill, he makes a fine barrel, it's just that we have 
developed a good relationship with the other guys and it has been 
working for us.

Our home page is under construction.

From: Gale McMillan <gale@mcmfamily.com>
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: What can a felon own/posess?
Date: 26 Mar 1999 18:20:01 -0500

FLYERM14 wrote:

 > ...

Wes Harris of Harris gun works was convicted of assault with a deadly
weapon against an employ and given a probation. He has from the day he
was sentenced worked in his factory making guns and attended trade shows
showing his guns even though the judge ordered him not to work in the
factory that he could run the business from a satellite office away from
the guns and when he was in the factory they had to be locked away. He
has ignored this and worked every day even though it breaks federal law
because no one gives a damn! While the company supposedly is run by his
son it is against federal law to hire a convicted felon but no one cares.
The ass holes of the world can ignore the laws and no one cares! His
probation officer knows this is happening and has done nothing to stop it
because he doesn't care. According to law he was supposed to get rid of
the guns he owned and that didn't happen. He has ignored all laws and
nothing has happened. So does this tell you anything about what a felon
can do?

Gale McMillan