I emailed you. No response. I've held my tongue for a while. Couple of years actually. But every time I see you weigh in on the whole R700 vs custom debate, this comes to mind. I respectfully disagree about the trued R700. I do think you all do many things well and your prices and lead times are great. But my experience with an assembly line heavily modified and trued 700 wasn't awesome. It wasn't nearly my first 700. But I realized the limitations after that purchase. First, I let stuff like this get to me probably more than it should. I do this because I feel like I need to if my business is to ever have any resemblance of success. 2nd, my wife is part bloodhound and when something smells wrong, she will stay up for days researching until the facts appear. The two of us make a pair in that regard. So, moving forward... I keep really good records and my wife makes sure they are excellent records. It took her less than 10 minutes to figure out exactly who you are, when your parts were here, every single email ever sent during the duration of their stay, and prior, along with the projected time that your stuff would be here.
Facts:
- Your serial number ended in 783G
- You were logged into LRI's A/D books on 8.22.2016 by Kalli.
- This action was purchased 3rd party and sent to us by them. You were required to submit a 4473 prior to taking possession.
- 16 emails sent between your email (. . . [email protected]) and my shops ([email protected]) addresses regarding details of this order begining on August 14, 2016 and ending on November 3rd, 2016.
- With the exception of the email covering the formal quote we generated, all of those emails were all answered within 12-24 hours of being sent.
- The email dated Monday, August 15th, 2016 states in its opening line that the LRI Group Buy Special has a 10-12 week rotation.
- Your rifle was dispositioned on 11.15.16. 85 days to be exact which is exactly 12 weeks. The email dated 11.3.16 from you details how you struggled to locate a TB CBA muzzle break. If you recall, we were supposed to install it with no peel washers which is difficult to do when the part you are sourcing is not here. -This is where the bulk of the wait time originated from. Waiting on you to provide the part you said you were providing.
There is a 17th email dated January 7th, 2017. Just like you said, there was no reply. It was found yesterday unopened. We never saw it. It describes the issues you were having:
- It states how you took a top 10 slot in a local match
- 130 grain Hybrids run sub half minute with .2" groups at around 50% of your strings
- You had some light strikes. Inspection by a 3rd party smith found the following: A "short" striker spring and some Cerakote that was heavier than what he likes in your bolt shroud. (1)
- A chassis that was reluctant to feed your AW magazines (2)
- You struggled to match the headspace we have documented as setting the rifle to. (3)
- You claim our barrel threads were "loose" and this was discovered/documented by a 3rd party shop/smith (4)
- Your parting remarks detail that overall you enjoy the rifle and that I am not to take this as a "passive-aggressive complaint". (your words) (5)
- Your final words: "I consider the BA you built for me a great buy." (6)
Response to (1)
LRI has had a standing policy regarding returns, rework, complaints, and anything else related to fixing a mistake: That policy is to let us know about the problem and to get it back to us. Document what you paid for the shipping and you will be reimbursed in either the form of a check or with store credit. That choice lies solely with the client to decide. This has been on the books from DAY ONE of me announcing to the world that I have a gun shop. Anyone on this site who has ever had a problem can validate that piece of information.
Response to (2)
We never had a chassis stock for this rifle sent to us by you. All we did was put a barreled action together. This can be verified by the invoice you posted detailing the work. No fitting of any kind mentioned or charged. If you think for a moment that guns don't occasionally require some kind of fitting work I'm here to tell you that is not the case. There are no prints for AIAW magazine cuts on a Remington M700. At best shops are attempting to clone/copy what any number of OEM's are doing. Now add a 3rd party to the mix. Another company completely on their own making the rifle stock. Does the installed height of the action exactly match other brands? I'm here to tell you they don't. Heights between receiver bore and magazine vary. Latch height on magazines vary. Magazines themselves live within a tolerance that is set by each and every individual magazine manufacturer. I have no crystal ball to know exactly how you are ultimately going to end up putting things together. Again, had a 5 minute phone call taken place, this would have been solved.
Response to (3)
Your rifle was chambered in 6.5x47 Lapua. I have the build sheet in front of me. It left our facility headspace at a value of "GO gauge + .001". I have no less than around 8 Pacific Tool and Gauge 308 Go Headspace gauges. I used to buy a gauge for every reamer I ever bought as a standard practice so that one tool&one gauge could live side by side in the tooling drawer. The idea was to keep continuity and make things move in the shop smoothly.
I had an issue once where a Palma rifle I'd done was long on HS and the owner was struggling to get it sorted out. Further inspection revealed that these gauges were not consistent. Not by gauging standards. Not even close... It was yet another lesson as to why PTG is on my permanent ban list for future business. In the 5th paragraph of your January email, you plainly state that PTG also made the gauge you have. If I can have 8 different GO gauges of the same cartridge on my floor from one vendor and they vary, what are the odds that the gauge you and I have are identical? There are a few ways to validate that question. One is with no contact part inspection using an optical comparator. I have one of those. Does this other smith who told you it was out by .002? I would be curious to see where that rabbit hole lead to.
Response to (4)
Loose threads. Quite frankly, your "smith" does not know what he is talking about. CNC machines don't just suddenly decide to cut an internal thread big. It's actually the polar opposite. If a tool wears it's going to make the hole smaller, not bigger. The exact opposite is true with barrel threads. They will always cut larger on the pitch diameter with tool wear.
This "thing" that exists in gunsmithing where a barrel is thought that it must fit a receiver like a thimble on a micrometer if it is to ever produce acceptable performance. It is perpetuated by people who fail to understand how threads even work. Under load, the flank of the thread pushes against the opposing flank. It has a self-centering tendency. A threaded joint is nothing more than a spring working in linear tension with a tiny amount of torsion thrown in as well.
I use 1.085-16 as my standard thread pitch for M700 receiver blueprinting work. I have a single plug gauge made by West Port gauging. It is heat-treated, hard chromed, and ground. I paid almost $800.00 for that gauge because the threads are not a typical size. Every single action we do is qualified off that gauge. The opposing side (barrel) is fitted to a ring gauge made the same way. It's a pass or fail exercise. Have we had a mistake before? You bet we have and in every circumstance, I have either replaced or repaired that action AFTER calling and advising the customer about what happened. I have one cardinal rule about this: I never, never, ever call a client to advise them of a problem without first having worked out a solution. It's been that way for the 12 years I've been in business.
Ask anyone.
The threads on your parts were in tolerance.
Response to (5) and (6)
Your own hand in the email plainly states that you are happy with the gun. 16 out of 17 emails were answered within 12 to 24 hours. We finished the job in the timeframe quoted. A portion of that time exists because we were told to wait for a part you were supposed to supply. ONE email, sent almost 3 months later got overlooked. Our phone number is plainly listed on our website and in the signature block of every email that leaves this place.
This was an easy, easy problem to solve. Why you chose to bite your tongue for 3 years is on you, sir. Not me. FWIW my wife takes a deep and very personal interest in making sure that people feel good about spending money in this place. She is the voice of this company and if you ask anyone they will very likely tell you that speaking with her is always a pleasure.
It's my fault your last email was missed and I do apologize for that however there are some deep underlying inconsistencies here that facts fail to support.
All the best,
Chad
LRI
Facts. Without them, you have an opinion. -Paul Yost