Podunk Montana we vacation in billing for the last 4 years and surrounding parts like red lodge, bozeman and dip into Cody Wyoming and Sheridan. Where about you talking about?
- Thread starter Peter Laurvick
- Start date
I live in NW Montana, flathead valley. There's a Lotta gun nuts around here, even a large local militai crew, but they all packing 400$ 80% lower builds in 65grendel. AI is lil too rich for most these folks. If they gonna spend that kinda money, they go with proof or Defiance as they are local in valley companies.
Nothing wrong with either of those two. Lots of good gun related companies up in that area like Hornady,weatherby, huskamaw,proof research, Falkor Defence and I am sure I am missing some. Not a weatherby fan myself because they just slap their name on imported rifles. But I have proof barrels and even a .308 on my ai is a proof and they all hammer. I couldn’t justify $200 more over the proof to buy the bartlein barrel for my ai.
As long as you never think stuff you buy for a hobby is an “investment”, you’ll be happy.
You want an investment? Speculate in real estate or in the stock or bond markets etc.
You want an investment? Speculate in real estate or in the stock or bond markets etc.
I agree with this but...
Man, I've got a lot of old and limited run guns that have climbed in value quite a bit over the last decade.
Initially most weren't purchased as an investment...however, I plan on financing a lot of the kids' college with their sales.
Certainly buying as an investment takes a lot of the fun out of it though.
What are the draw backs, is it just the trigger issues you have had recently or have you had more bad experiences?
Totally get it. Some camera gear I own became an accidental investment over the years. I think that’s the rub…when buying gear it’s mainly a miss and rarely a hit if you’re trying to make money on it. Especially new gear.
We’re all going to die very soon in the grand scheme of things, so just enjoy the thing and don’t whinge about losing money.
Great question...it isn't the simple trigger issue/fix that I had earlier. That was as much on me as anything else for not checking to see if anything loosened up.
If you go to page 100, and start on post 4,964 and go down to the bottom of the page you'll see where my factory 6.5CM barrel shot okay out of the box, but had/has a significant copper fouling issue - as in after shot #4 I stuck a patch halfway down it and broke a cleaning rod getting it out. I'm at 58 shots on that barrel now, and it just sits in the corner...waiting on me to start messing with it again. I had it looked at, and I'll leave it at that due to the rash of expulsions on this site lately. Let's just say that it still holds copper. I emailed and also called and left a message with AINA. I never hear back.
In fairness though, I have a factory 6CM barrel too, and it hammers with 108 ELD-M and H4350 across probably the widest charge range of any barrel I've owned.
The #1 gripe is essentially being ghosted by the company itself. For two years there were requests by consumers and little hints by the company at things like magnum bolts. Plus items like the gen 1-2 cheek and LOP...it seems like the company is good at making upgrades...but you have to buy the new model (and take a bath on the old) to get them... screw retrofitting. Add in part availability and support for legacy models and it just doesn't appeal enough *to me* anymore to buy another. Not that I don't enjoy my rifle, because I do. Like I said earlier, I wanted one for 20 years.
*****
Conversely, a week ago I found online an like new custom build (decade + old) on an old Prague, OK - built Surgeon 1086 action. I know the gunsmith who built it, and he used to work at Surgeon back in the day (I really wanted a Surgeon back then too). A 30 minute phone call later, and he's not only going to spin me up more barrels, but is also going to be my source for the vice and action wrench so I can have prefits done by him. He seemed just as excited about the project as I am, and actually gave me all of the original build info. He's also the guy who was happy to measure and spin up a new barrel for my AT-X, and now has everything to do prefits for them too.
When I spend several months' worth of disposable income on a 'want' and not a need, I appreciate a little customer service. You're not required to give a shit about me, but I'm not required to make more purchases either.
This guy gets it
Love my AI but the $1100+ just for a bolt is a little steep
I can get a new bolt and barrel for my Impact for that.
I’ll keep my AT a 308 and use my Impact for the 6mm/223 role and rock on
@diggler1833 My factory 65cm barrel was no star either, moa to a bit less with factory match for 10 shots, a custom barrel in same cartridge shot groups half the size with same ammo. I picked up a wintac 6br pipe, it shoots well, as does the custom 6gt barrel I had spun, it's consistently 1/3 moa on paper at 400y, almost no load dev. That's made me more tolarable about the few short comings with the rifle, or AI in general.
Most high end bolt gun manufacturers in the states, have the vast majority of their sales to the public, they know good customer service and parts availability is key to success in such a niche industry. A bad reputation spreads very quickly.
The public consumer of AI rifles is likely less than 10% of their sales. The majority is gov contracts and private security forces around the world. That's who they're going to cater to and make happy. The defense budgets allow them to buy without remorse, resale value, repairs, parts aren't much concern, as long as failure rates are within expectations. Perhaps the militaries get priority in extra bolts or components, hence the reason with have such low availability on the public side.
Maybe I'm way off base, but money always talks.
Most high end bolt gun manufacturers in the states, have the vast majority of their sales to the public, they know good customer service and parts availability is key to success in such a niche industry. A bad reputation spreads very quickly.
The public consumer of AI rifles is likely less than 10% of their sales. The majority is gov contracts and private security forces around the world. That's who they're going to cater to and make happy. The defense budgets allow them to buy without remorse, resale value, repairs, parts aren't much concern, as long as failure rates are within expectations. Perhaps the militaries get priority in extra bolts or components, hence the reason with have such low availability on the public side.
Maybe I'm way off base, but money always talks.
I agree completely.
Understandable.
I don't think there will ever be a world in which AI is a real competitor to the custom action companies when it comes to options, CS and ongoing upgrades.
I guess where AI have run into problems is trying to appeal to the competition market but not offering the same level of CS as people are used to. Perhaps they didn't anticipate the difference in the customers between those wanting a military rifle vs a purpose built custom rifle.
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