How long for a custom build?

How long does it take for a custom build based on assumptions provided in my post?

  • <6 weeks

    Votes: 9 9.1%
  • 6 - 18 weeks

    Votes: 17 17.2%
  • 18-24 weeks

    Votes: 20 20.2%
  • > 24 weeks

    Votes: 53 53.5%

  • Total voters
    99
One thing that many do not realize is that its not only the major componants that can cause delays but the accessary items can also be a serious pain in the rear. I have found this out personally over the last year. Since Washington decided to stir up the gun control pot early this year, not only has the ammunition and reloading component supply disappeared, but accessary items have also dried up.

Also, these companies that sell high volume items have put nearly 100% production into those specific items which leaves no production resources for other lesser volume sale items.

One example is jewell triggers. When this mess hit, all the larger custom rifle manufacturers and custom receiver manufacturers that offer the Jewell trigger as an option quickly bought up the remaining supply of standard Rem 700 style Jewell triggers. As a smaller shop, I just do not have the capital to make these huge purchases and have 100 jewell triggers sitting here on the shelf. As such, I purchase 5-10 at a time to cover the batch of rifles I am currently working on, then when those are finished, the final payments from those rifles pay for the overhead on the accessary items for the next batch of rifles.

Well, the standard Jewell trigger supply dried up and jewell put nearly 100% production into that specific trigger to try to cover back order demands.

That's all good and well but for my Xtreme Heavy Sporter rifles I have to use the Jewell trigger with the bottom safety. This is a relatively low volume sales item for them so they were not putting any production effort into these triggers. Was not long before there were no bottom safety jewell triggers anywhere and those that were around were just a few on the retail market and were going for $100 more then prices I had quoted customers. Still, the projects need triggers to ship or the cash flow stops so you eat $100 to get a rifle project out the door.

It has been that way with triggers, DM systems and especially custom loading die sets. Stock shipping times have increased DRAMATICALLY from some makers. Receiver and barrel shipping times have stayed relatively consistant, at least within a couple weeks of normal for the most part.

Still, you have have a receiver, barrel and stock sitting on the bench and if you do not have a trigger or a DM system of a set of custom dies for a wildcat rifle, none of the other parts do much good.

Currently I have over 20 projects just sitting here waiting for one of the listed accessary items to get in so I can finish them and get projects shipped. Parts are starting to come in a bit better now. Just a couple months ago, I had twice this many projects sitting here in limbo.

Just mentioned this because for a custom rifle manufacture, we are the only connection between the customer and component suppliers but we are where the buck stops.

We fully understand the frustration our customers feel when we have to reply to them and say we are still waiting on parts we are already several months overdue on our estimated shipping times. Most customers are really good about this and understand, some however simply do not understand that some things are out of our control.

It is very stressfull for us as manufacturers, especially the smaller manufacturers to deal with overdue projects. We want nothing more then to get every project out the door ahead of time but when something like this happens, it snowballs dramatically. You have the initial projects that are delayed by slow arriving parts, so you start other projects to at least be getting some work done. Then when parts do start to trickle in, you have to stop what your doing and pick back up on those old projects so the current projects, the ones that you really should be working on timeframe wise, sit and get delayed even more while the VERY old projects get the priority and finished up. Just a snowball effect and before you know it, its such an organizational mess that its hard to keep up or keep anything straight when you have 50 projects in partial finished status all the time.

Hopefully we will all get through this without to many really ****ed off customers but we totally understand your frustrations and we feel the same, only multiplied several times over with all the projects we are working on at one time.

This time of year is the rush for big game season anyway so its even more complicated then normal.

Luckily, most customers in the custom rifle category are the best people out there.
 
any palm trees where you live scout?

More cactus than palm trees but yes there are some.

FiftyDriver - good information. The waiting is the main reason I haven't started a new project. Just not patient enough to wait for parts which is a shame as I learned alot from my first build and i have the list of what I'd do different eating at me.
 
I have one a year built - 4-6 mos is about the norm in my experience. At the moment, i am working on a tactical rifle in .284 Win for lots of trigger time (leaving my 284. win hunting rifle alone). My bighorn long action just came in - 5 weeks. My Brux will arrive in 2 weeks - 7 weeks total. My Manners stock still has 13 weeks till delivery. The rest I can get in a week or so. Then my gunsmith will take 4 weeks to build and deliver. Its a fun process though. I really enjoy the build up - kinda reminds me of when my wife was expecting our kids - lots of anticipation. I say kinda of course bc nothing compares to kids on the way!
 
How much do you wanna spend?? My gunsmith usually can turn a gun around in a month if there is no waiting on parts. With the right amount of money I can have a gun in 24 hours If I have the parts lol.
 
That's why I deal with a local smith. If I take him all my components he usually has the rifle built in a week, sometimes a couple days and that includes bedding, machine work and all.
 
I didn't read this whole thread so sorry if this was already covered. Parts are the hold up. Krieger is 11 months out. I'm sure some of the action makers are the same. Added to this equation your smith and you may be be looking at a year+.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 11 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Recent Posts

Top