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Old 11-18-2006, 07:14 PM
Cajun Blake Cajun Blake is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Youngsville, LA.
Posts: 775
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Rampro actions were owned by John Illum as he produced a sweet little action quite a few years ago. For the money, they were hard to beat as action prices were in the $500 range. Shooter Corner used to advertise them for sale as I'm not sure if Bob still has any actions left. The custom rings were hand fit to the action as no base was required. Very nice look although rings and actions were not always a perfect fit.

Many who frequent this board have either owned or still own a Rampro action. John had a good thing going BUT he was not the smartest businessman. Talking on the telephone often kept him from building actions and rifles, which resulted in lengthy delays on delivery times.

As I understand, John had some business partners who knew very little about custom actions. They invested their money in John's action building equipment in order to get a good return on the finished product. As business slowed and their financial expectations were not met, the partners basically locked up the shop and sold whatever they could to recoup their money. Machinery, tooling equipment, actions, etc.... were all sold as it got pretty ugly.

Not exactly sure how much John knew about this as I haven't seen his name mentioned in quite awhile. I'm pretty sure he was responsible for "Shooters News" magazine which lasted for about 3-4 years ?? Very similiar format to SCN yet catered to the benchrest shooting crowd. Lots of promise, yet folded overnight and left some people pretty pissed who had invested in the magazine.

I beleive several contributing forum posters here lost their deposit money and complete rifles which were being built or serviced by John. Basically overnight, the phone lines were disconnected and people waiting on orders were not told a thing.

About the same 3-4 years ago, Brad Stair of Wasatch Precision (Performance ??) bought the rights to re-introduce the new Rampro actions under his company name. Things have been a little slow as I think the actions are now offered for sale yet in limited configurations ... i.e.e R/R SA 700 style action. Much of the delay was centered around the action bolts as Brad had Dave Kiff (PTG) produce some of the first bolts.

here is an address , ph# for Brad's company. Not sure how current this is as I obtained it from a google search.

Performance
3621 S. 4700 W
West Haven Utah 84401

(801) 731-8152


Maybe someone else can share more details. I'm pretty sure Alex C., Ken R., Brooks, Snake Eye, and several others had Rampro built rifles.
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