I have had a very different experience than you, as I have found rifles to rarely meet the accuracy guarantees. When I hear that X rifle have a guarantee of .5moa, I expect the rifle to be capable of EVERY group to be under .5moa with the right ammo (Most of the time the company claims “factory match grade ammo”). From what I have seen, when you complain about accuracy, the company either 1) tells you that you’re full of shit and it must be your fault, or 2) send the rifle back, they “tested it with their ammo” and it meets the accuracy standard (which is the polite version of “you’re full of shit and it’s your fault”). So anymore, I don’t put any stock in accuracy guarantees, I look at the experiences of people that I trust
I'm not really a fan of DD right now for a couple of reasons. First was their support (initially) of the FixNICS bill, which while I will point out that they have since walked back, I'm getting a little tired of people with lousy instincts re: regulation of the 2A of any sort (looking at you, Crenshaw). It's always bad. ALWAYS.
If you're a respected firearms manufacturer who is known for making the very rifle every anti-gunner wants to ban and you're a trend-setter to 2A supporters and the industry, you need to have it figured out that the political opposition hates you and your customers. If you're too stupid to realize this , you don't deserve to stay in business or earn any of my money.
Second, the intro of the Delta 5 base model baffles me. It never made sense in any way. It's too heavy to be mountain or hunting rifle which is how they've marketed it, the action isn't an improvement upon anything already out there, the trigger isn't their trigger, and while I don't hate on CHF barrels, for a precision rifle most prefer a good Krieger or Bartlein instead of the $600 CHF barrel they offer as a replacement once the factory barrel is shot out.
For the money they want, I can piece together a budget custom on a Mack Bros action with a prefit that isn't some stupid proprietary barrel nut design while still taking advantage of the R700 aftermarket. To make matters worse, for some fucking reason they're trying to charge above sticker right now even though market demand favors ARs and semi-auto fighting rifles, not bolt guns.
Now with the Pro model out, I think they've seen the writing on the wall and are at least marketing it appropriately - kind of. They're aiming at production class, but are as of yet unproven as a company in the territory. I'm sure they make a competent rifle, but with GA Precision, MPA, and so many others in the market space, why would I trust the newcomer with a new rifle and no aftermarket when I can put my trust and money in a company that has been doing this for decades on a proven action footprint? FFS, GA, MPA and all the others were the driving force behind PRS in the first place. In many ways they invented the sport. This seems like an opportunistic cash-grab at the wrong time.
DD isn't known for precision rifles, they're known for good quality ARs, and they do make good ARs. Right now, every fuckin Everytown, Moms Demand Action, and Bloomberg supporting Democrat is rushing around trying to find an AR to defend themselves from other rioting democrats and to defend themselves against the consequences of their own idiotic decision-making. I'm not privy to DD's financials, but I am speaking as a professional who does this for a living when I say that right now DD wants to hammer their strengths rather than trying to get market penetration into a new business segment. Machine time is a finite resource and they can move a lot more product a lot more quickly producing what they're already geared up to manufacture.
As has been said, I'm skeptical of their half-moa claims and skeptical of the support to actually back that up if those figures can't be reproduced. A half-blind smith with palsy can make 168 FGMM shoot well if they take their time - but it takes more to have that translate well to other loads. It's also tricky to have that work for both conventional ogive shapes and VLD designs like Bergers. It's not an easy thing to do and few actually pull it off.
Maybe DD will stick it out long-term with this rifle, but I don't know if they should given the market competition and the direction of the current market.
My $.02
