Better To Know Less

Than to know so much that isn't so...

I've finally been around the gun blogosphere long enough to see what I'd long seen in forums.

There's a rather large group of people who should shut the hell up because they don't know what they're talking about and should not be giving others advice.

This is especially true when their anecdotal experience with a product or vendor is taken as unimpeachable proof of future performance.

Remember what I said about statistics?

It's infuriating to hear about someone getting burned when you could have warned them off or worse they ignored your advice.

It's sometimes hard to spot the inexperienced from the experts when you're new to a particular gun.

Hit the forums for the gun you're working with.  If nobody has heard of a vendor it's a coin toss if you'll get treated well.  The good(?) news is the good and the bad tend to have lots written about them.

For an item that puts an explosive charge mere inches from your hands and face; price should not be your overriding concern.

When vetting a vendor you should be sure that there is something about them out there on a search.  The story you're looking for is an absolute horror story where the vendor stepped up the plate and made good with little or no screaming from the customer.  That company will also have very few negative stories about them.  That's someone you want to do business with even if you have to pay more for it.

The vendor with lots written about them and no positive feedback is easy.

A half decent way of tracking this is to look for them on the industry section of Arfcom and watch the posting there regularly.  Be especially watchful for negative posts that disappear.

Here's my anecdotal list of good and bad for 5.56 AR.

Here's my list of No-Buys.  It's not every vendor out there, but it's the ones I will not do business with again.  I've noticed that it's pure customer service that makes me boycott a vendor and haven't bought any defective parts that weren't taken care of or so cheap I can't remember.

DPMS: For treating me like a criminal because I wanted a shorter than 16" AR barrel.  LEO sales only.  OK, if LEO is all you want, I can accommodate that!

Bushmaster:  They lie.  They lied about when a barrel would be in several times and lied about why.  Did they think I would not keep notes and cross reference them?

High Powered Armory aka Metal Slingers:  Over promises, under delivers sums it up.  Anyone who's had to change their name three times on Gunbroker and plays the time-out game on the feedback in addition to character assaults when replying to feedback... don't waste your money or time.

RGuns: Well the FAL Files convinced me to not do business with them long before I learned they made AR parts.  Now I see they've snared poor Erin.

Here's where I would buy from again (with caveats).

Bravo Company:  They seem expensive until you see the feature list that others are charging twice as much for.

Brownells!  A little pricier than some others, but they often carry stuff you can't get any other place.

DSArms: conditional that you call first and make sure they have the part you want in stock.

Del-Ton: Just be aware that when there's a panic on they stop being a parts seller and haughtily declare themselves to be "rifle manufacturers".  They had a bad run of bolts and replaced them for the asking just to make sure they got all the bad ones back.

J&T Distributing: Solid parts and friendly.  They required a copy of my Form 4 before they'd sell me a 14.5" barrel, but they let me email them a jpg of it.  It's even a good shooting barrel!

M&A Parts: The only part I've ever gotten from them that was "bad" is a fiberlite stock that for some reason smells like a swimming pool.  Nothing I've applied to the thing has removed the faint smell of chlorine from it.

Midway: Virtually one stop shopping and the place to get some of the parts from two of my no-go makers.  Even if the makers are dicks, Midway will make it right; even when it was ME who caused the problem.

Nodak Spud: The best people I've dealt with on AR receivers do date.  They really need to expand to complete retro guns.

Palmetto State Armory: No problems with me.

Provisionally I'd add Spike's Tactical to the list but I don't like how they jacked up their prices ahead of the panic of Obama being elected.  On the other hand they did us FL folks a solid with the FL Home Town lower group buy.  Good parts, but kinda flakey.