Rifle Shoppe?

kb466 said:

bioprof said:

I have it from a pretty reliable source that some of their suppliers will only deal with them on a cash-up-front basis because of past history. Therefore, the problem may be from a lack of capital to pay their suppliers for materials.

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That is not good to hear. I hope they are not close to shutting down. I still want the M1795 Springfield parts, but I am wondering if I should try to retrieve the considerable amount of money I have paid them. If I don't, I am afraid I will be left with nothing. I will try emailing and calling them again to try to get some more information.

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Well, after reading the posts here again and thinking about it, I just emailed the Rifle Shoppe to tell them I want them to give me a firm date when I can expect delivery. If they can't do that or if it is too far out, I told them I would request a refund of my money. As I have repeatedly said, I really want the parts because there is no alternative for accurate M1795 parts. However, in spite of how much I want to build a M1795 Springfield, I am just unwilling to wait much longer and take the risk of losing the considerable sum of money I have paid them.

bioprof said:

I have it from a pretty reliable source that some of their suppliers will only deal with them on a cash-up-front basis because of past history. Therefore, the problem may be from a lack of capital to pay their suppliers for materials.

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I don't know why but I've never really trusted unnamed "reliable sources". I do trust businesses with whom I have managed to successfully conduct business so, for now, The Rifle Shoppe is more trustworthy than "reliable sources" and "a(n unnamed) visiting riflesmith and well-known builder".

Va.Manuf.06 said:

bioprof said:

I have it from a pretty reliable source that some of their suppliers will only deal with them on a cash-up-front basis because of past history. Therefore, the problem may be from a lack of capital to pay their suppliers for materials.

Click to expand...

I don't know why but I've never really trusted unnamed "reliable sources". I do trust businesses with whom I have managed to successfully conduct business so, for now, The Rifle Shoppe is more trustworthy than "reliable sources" and "a(n unnamed) visiting riflesmith and well-known builder".

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You raise some good points. We should be careful about putting too much stock in "unnamed reliable sources" or those that prefer to remain anonymous. In my case, the "unnamed visiting riflesmith" did not describe his own experiences, though I should have asked. I also note that he has apparently chosen not to weigh in on this, though I am fairly certain he has been following this discussion. I feel I am in a bit of a dilemna with this-- on one hand I still really want the parts I paid for. On the other, I don't want to lose my money. I still want to build an accurate M1795 and the only way I can do that is with Rifle Shoppe parts. I have waited a year, which I guess is not unusual. There have been enough posts here from people who are not unnamed and have had personal experience dealing with Rifle Shoppe to cause me concern. I guess if the Rifle Shoppe responds to my latest email and can provide me with some sort of a firm idea when I might receive the parts, I'll go on waiting for them.

I would suggest you just forget about it and go on with life. One fine day your parts will show up and you'll be happy as all get out. I have always eventually gotten everything I have ordered from them. Even got a pistol trigger guard once four years after I ordered it, didn't even remember what project it was for at that point.
"IF" I could get them on the phone I would probably order parts again myself, I just don't have the patience to play games with the phone just trying to contact them.
I can't use them for parts on customers guns as they are too unreliable and I have no idea when the parts will arrive and your average customer wants a realistic delivery date on a gun. My last contact with TRS I canceled the everything I currently had on order as I had several customers cancel due to the wait involved. Cost me 6K in canceled orders.
I do get to build guns from TRS parts, I always have the customer order the parts and send them to me. That way I don't have to fool around with trying to contact them or worrying about when the parts will arrive. I must say their parts are excellent. I have a 1776 rifle parts set I'll be building this winter, third one of those! :thumbsup:

What Mike said. :thumbsup:

I'm really curious, since I have no experience building a firearm. I've been looking at some of their parts, and I've seen a few pictures of a couple of parts sets which looked like most of the inletting was already done on the stocks.

Those who have received parts from them, specifically stocks, have you noticed that their stocks are usually inletted, or is this only on a couple of models? I know to expect a lot of work to be done to complete them, and I plan on working my way up to such a project, but even rough inletting would be helpful.

I picked up one of their kits indirectly, from someone who bought one then never worked on it. Every possible inlet is done by machine. This makes me really nervous on any build project as there's no room to move things around.

For what it's worth, when I ordered my M1795 kit, I was told on the phone that the stock would be largely inletted to fit the Rifle Shoppe parts. Additionally, I was told that they made their own stocks and that they would use American black walnut for a M1795. It sounded good to me--- still does.

When ever I have used their parts I have worked from a blank. Like Rich Pierce, I don't care for all the parts being inlet as that usually creates more work than it saves.

Thanks for the responses on the stocks. While I understand why it could be favorable to start from a blank, there are a number of kits (such as Chamber's) that people recommend which are precarved. At some point I may want to go to that level, but with my experience level, I think having a precarve would very much help me to manage such a project (if it's done well, which given your reports of the quality of their parts is likely).

I have ordered many complete parts sets from TRS over the years, and have been pretty lucky. I don't think I've had a wait over 9 months on any of them.

It seems that if you try to order a stock and/or an assembled lock it exponentially adds to your wait time. Buy a stock blank and only order lock castings and everything should arrive much faster.

I think that we would be a lot more patient and accepting of the delays if the Rifle Shoppe would respond to emails and let us know the status of our orders. I think most of us understand and sympathize with issues of inventory and foundry delays, etc., but not hearing anything back in response to email queries can be troubling.

Well folks, I ordered some parts for a second model bess about six months ago. I did get someone on the phone on the first try. The parts I ask for were "in stock" and were supposed to ship the following Friday. A coupla months later I received half of my order. I just received the last half this week.

IMHO,the parts are good castings. With a little work, they will make excellent parts.

The big complaint I have is the broken promise of shipping within a few days, rather than an honest delivery date. Moreover I was hit with double shipping for two deliveries of small parts, when there should have been only one shipment.

They are good parts, though. And while TRS is more than a little iffy on delivery dates, I probably will order from them again, at some point. However, I'll Check with Blackleys or Dyson first.

God bless

I am pleased to hear that you received your TRS parts and you are happy with them. Your post clearly illustrates what we are saying about the Rifle Shoppe-- that is there are no complaints about their parts or the quality-- the complaint is that they are not forthcoming about delivery times, nor are they responsive to customers. We all understand that long waits are often involved, so the Rifle Shoppe should be upfront about those waits. It seems that it would eliminate a lot of the bad feelings.

The problem I have with both Blackleys or Dyson is they have so little selection and not much of what I want. The Rifle Shoppe has such an abundance and has gun parts I want.

I did email The Rifle Shoppe earlier today and asked for delivery update on a complete set of parts (with just lock casting/not a built lock) I ordered about 8 weeks ago. They said six weeks delivery when I ordered. I'll let you know if and when i get a reply to my query.

I emailed them on 10/31 with a list of desired parts to find out availability. I've yet to get a response, though I emailed them a while ago (9/07 and 3/08) and had about a month delay one time and about 3 days the other times.

I could call, and have gotten through to them about 80% of the time when I call during their business hours, but it's an inquiry of a lot of parts (not planning on ordering them all at one time), so I don't want to leave anything out, and I really don't have a problem waiting.

Zoar and Widget,
Let us know if and when you receive a response to your emails to TRS... also, let us know what they say. I am still waiting for a response to my most recent email to them. Also, I am continuing to wait for me M1795 kit from them.

Yes I will let you know. So far: "zero".

Well, I solved my Rifle Shoppe problems. I ordered the lock sets I was interested in & waited the wait. I put them together & never sold them. Now I have patterens to scratch build these locks with no wait. I can scratch build a lock in about the same time as putting together Rifle Shoppe lock kits.

As I started this thread, I thought I would offer a bit of an update on the Rifle Shoppe. Last week I ordered a copy of their catalog and just received it today-- about a week from order to reciept. There is still no word on the M1795 Springfield parts set that I ordered.

By the way, I was quite impressed with their catalog-- there is a lot of neat stuff. I wish one could order these items with some expectation of receiving them in a timely manner. I was impressed with the M1795 bayonet they offer and show in the catalog. I will probably order one after Christmas and hope it comes with the M1795 parts set.