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I think you're correct.
It looks like you are setting yourself up for confirmation bias. It looks like you have your mind made up and want info that will justify your decision. It might be wise to look for all feedback rather than only the positive.
Man I'm jealous! You got exactly what I wanted.
that's a bummer buddy, sorry to hear that. Hopefully they will still find a way to make it right, otherwise I guess just move on and try a new smith next time.Man I'm jealous! You got exactly what I wanted.
here's my experience this year…
Back in December I decided my tikka 300wm just wasn't for me and my options were to sell it or pull the barrel and rechamber in something that wouldn't try to rip my shoulder off when I shot it. I did some research of some gunsmiths that do tikka conversions and came across OMR, Oregon Mountain Rifles. I called and talked to Lee who was extremely helpful, patient and willing to answer all of my questions.
We agreed that he'd chamber my gun in a 7 saum, custom throated to run the longer eld/Berger bullets. He was very particular with what he needed, 3 dummy rounds seated to the exact length I wanted, plus a handful of bullets. He would throat .020" off the lands to give me room to mess with seating depth.
I was quoted 6-8 weeks turn around and off the rifle went! A week later I got a call from a female that confirmed details and told me that it would be 8-10 weeks. It gave me pause that he already over promised, but realistically I wasn't in any hurry and a couple of weeks didn't make a difference.
At the 10 week mark with no correspondence I called and asked how things were coming and was told the parts were coming in slowly. I wasn't surprised and let him know I understood. At 16 weeks I was told all the parts were in stock and he was prioritizing the gun and it would be shipped that week. The following week I followed up to see what was going on. He said that the seated dummy rounds were seated so tight he couldn't budge them, and broke his tool trying to push the bullet out. Wait…what? It's a dummy round, why would you want to unseat it.
I called a local gunsmith and asked him what he thought and he was perplexed. He said you remove the barrel, drop the dummy round in, and if it's not seated all the way you ream is out, little by little until it seats. Then go another .020" and you're done (Layman's terms of course). The gunsmith couldn't understand why OMR was trying to push the bullet out of the case and how he broke his tool, which I assume was some version of a Hornady OAL gauge.
after talking to Lee it was apparent he was struggling to find the lands and figure out the correct OAL plus .020". I mentioned that he could cut 2 slices into the neck of the case and then pinch it together so it held the bullet. I also offered to send the gun back unthroated, take off 75 dollars which is what I was quoted by the local guy and I'd do it myself. This upset him and he told me what a good deal I was getting and how the custom throat was being done at no charge to me.
he said he'd work on it and it would be done at the end of the week. I called him the following Monday to see if it was done and of course it wasn't and he was on vacation. He would work on it when he got back. Ok, fine. So far I'd been extremely nice and understanding, knowing this guy had my rifle and I wanted him to do a good job. The following week, 19 weeks later, he shipped it.
I got the rifle a few days later and it looked great!!!! I immediately went to start load development. Step 1, find the lands, come back .020" and seat the bullets there for my ladder test. I already knew the OAL of the dummy rounds, but did a test just in case. I got the number and double checked and triple checked. He cut the throat .100" long!!!! The dummy round was a 175 eldx, one of the longest ogives out there, so any other bullet would be jumping a mile!
I called him immediately. He played dumb. I don't know what happened, how does it shoot? Honestly, that doesn't matter. I paid for a custom barrel to be done at an agreed upon way and it wasn't. He had no answer. It's clear what happened…he couldn't get the dummy round bullet to slide in and out and had no way to check the lands, so he cut it long and called it a day.
Ok, well I guess we will see how it shoots? I loaded the 3 dummy rounds into the magazine to make sure it cycled. Nope. Failure to feed on all of them. He didn't even check to see if the gun would cycle?
I asked him about it and he blamed the cartridge. I asked him why he didn't make sure they at least fed…crickets. It ended up being that the stock was too fat and the bolt wasn't catching the base of the cartridge.
I sent the gun back to him at his request after talking to him and AG composites. AG stepped up and even paid for the shipping which should have been on OMR because that gun should never have left his shop. When I spoke with Lee on the phone (btw the helpful Lee failed to exist as soon as he had my gun 19 weeks ago, and the new Lee was annoyed and too busy to talk, preferring to not answer and text) he said that he had some tricks he wanted to try. I told him the inlet was too shallow but I didn't want him to drill out the inlet anymore, and he immediately agreed offering up that "the bottom metal wouldn't fit flush then". Yep, I agree and I don't want to spend that kind of money to upgrade my rifle then have a big gap on the bottom.
Off the rifle went again. By this time I'm annoyed and want my rifle back ASAP. I call the day after the rifle arrives and tell him it looks like the rifle arrived and was hoping he looked at it. Nope, he's too busy but will get to it by the end of the week. A couple days later I follow up through text because it's been so unpleasant to talk on the phone. Rifle is done! I ask what he did to fix the issue "a stock adjustment". I ask what that means, fearing he just sanded it down. "Sorry I'm too busy to talk" was his answer!!!!!!
The gun shows up and of course he drilled out the inlet and now the bottom metal fits about 1/8" into the stock.
AG composites stepped up and has offered to help remedy the situation. Their stock feels amazing and being my first custom stock I'm really surprised how a good fitting stock soaks up recoil.
In the end the rifle is ok. The stock feels great, the fit and finish of the barrel is great. I'm not sure where he gets his barrels but I have no complaints about the barrel, just his gunsmithing. I wish now I would have had him send it back and let the local guy (who I found after I shipped my rifle) do the actual gunsmithing. When reading reviews there were a lot of positive, but also a lot of negative reviews. One guy on here said something along the lines of "Lee is a great barrel maker, but not a very good gunsmith." That review seems to be spot on, even though I don't think Lee actually makes barrels.
They're coming out with a new generation I was told. Sounds like very soon.
Why positive...I'd be more focused on negative results. If you don't want to hear the negative....just buy it....seems your mind is already made up! So okay...i truly no nothing about OMR....but they are awesome...buy 2 of everything you want!
To be honest. That is the intent. But twice threads were deleted last week when folks were writing negative comments.
