Made In America: McMillan Stocks - Built by Hand, Proven by Fire

There are many beautiful things in the anatomy of a rifle. Its tapered and elegant barrel. The crisp and precise break of its trigger. The fluid repeatability and strength of its action. Its balance, its weight, its sound. And its stock–the component that is both skin and skeleton of a rifle, bringing everything together, turning machined aluminum and steel into a functional instrument of art. Viewing a rifle in this way stems from a handcrafted approach to manufacturing, one that began with Gale McMillan building his first stock in 1970.

During my visit to the McMillan facility in North Phoenix, I could see the same attention to detail and handcrafted perfectionism alive and well today in their commitment to American-made precision rifle stocks. In a world of shortcuts, McMillan still does it the hard way, and that’s why their stocks are trusted from PRS podiums and NRL Hunter matches to combat zones.

The story of McMillan begins the way many great things do–at a workbench, in pursuit of something better. In the early 1970s, Gale McMillan, a benchrest competitor with a relentless eye for precision, began layering fiberglass to build a rifle stock that could meet the exacting demands of his sport. By 1973, he had crafted his first competition stock. A year later, McMillan Stocks was born.

What followed was a ripple effect through the precision shooting world, first with the HTG, the military’s first purpose-built sniper stock, and soon after with the M40-A1 rifle, issued to Marine snipers and built from the same bones. By the 1990s, McMillan’s fingerprints were on rifles carried by Navy SEALs, including Chris Kyle, whose .338 Lapua deployment rifle was built by McMillan Firearms, a sister company. These weren’t just stocks–they were instruments of trust in life-or-death conditions.

And yet, walk through the factory today, and you’ll see that much of the process hasn’t changed. Fiberglass still forms the foundation, now joined by carbon fiber in select models for those seeking even lighter builds. The same lifetime warranty still stands. What has evolved is the understanding of how design, ergonomics, and consistency come together to create repeatable performance, no matter the shooter or scenario. What began as a mission to serve precision professionals has expanded to hunters, competitors, and everyday riflemen–each with their own goals, each with a stock built for their discipline. From competition benches to battlefield sand, McMillan hasn’t lost its soul. It’s simply learned to speak more languages of precision.

Inside the McMillan facility, the air carries the scent of work. It’s a blend of epoxies, glues, and chemical concoctions that somehow land on the pleasant side of industrial–equal parts laboratory and garage. The sounds are subtle, but constant: the swish of a brush laying finish, the rasp of sanding, the gentle spray of texture, and the occasional thump of a stock being staked into a mold. It’s not loud. It’s not sterile. It’s a workspace that breathes. Dust floats in the air, but only just enough to remind you that this is a place where things are made by hand, not by accident.

The shop has an old-school soul, yet it scales with modern precision. Humming CNC machines sit alongside weathered benches, and every room is arranged with the quiet efficiency of a process carried out by focused men and women. People move with purpose. Each station has its rhythm, its role, and its craftsman. And at the center of it all is Varian Zingaro, the general manager, fielding questions, offering opinions, and trading laughs with a team that clearly respects him. There’s pride in the work here–visible in the way parts are passed between hands, in the eyes that double-check an edge or line. It feels less like a factory and more like a guild–tight-knit, confident, and quietly obsessed with getting it right.

In talking with Varian, it’s clear that today’s McMillan carries deep respect for where it came from, but it isn’t stuck there. The team moves with a balance of confidence and humility, knowing they won’t please everyone, but believing they should always listen. That mindset shows in how they’ve evolved. In a rapidly expanding market of new actions and rifle platforms, McMillan has kept pace, offering a wide variety of stock options and custom inletting without compromising their standards. What impressed me most is how they’ve maintained that precision fit and purpose-built feel, even as others have moved toward molded, mass-produced “Tupperware stocks.” While much of the R&D we discussed was off the record, I can assure you, McMillan refuses to follow that path. They’ve carved their own–helping customers shoot better and looking good while doing it.

Check them out at McMillanusa.com