Straight Jacket Armory
- Thread starter mxjoe35
- Start date
All im gonna say is buyer beware of these guys right now. I think they genuinely are trying to get products out the door but need some serious lessons in the proper way to do business. I just went thru a mess with them. In the end i got my barrel and action and it shoots lights out. Unfortunately the road to get there was a very long and bumpy one.
I’ve spoken with Joel at Terminus multiple times in the last few days and I’m pretty sure he mentioned to me that he had Apollo’s sitting on the shelf ready to ship. He may have said he was waiting on some to get back from DLC coating, can’t really remember. I also have spoken with Straight Jacket several times in the last few days regarding an order I placed for a barreled action back in June. Travis told me yesterday that he had my action there sitting in front of him and when I called back today he told me he didn’t have my action and that it had been ordered and he would have it in 2 weeks. When I called him out on the lie, he denied ever saying that he had my action and said he had me confused with another customer (he told me he had my action after we cleared up which action I had ordered) so I told them that I wanted my money back. I also called all of the vendors that they say that they order barrels from and all of them told me that they did not have any orders come in from Straight Jacket in the last 6 months for a barrel with the same specs as mine and two of them said they have never ordered a barrel with those specs. Long story short, I caught them in a lie and they didn’t own up to it. I’m a very easy going guy, if they had told me up front that they dropped the ball and forgot to order my barrel and action, I would’ve been fine, but instead they tried to lie their way out of it. The only positive thing I have to say about them is that they issued my refund without a problem. I would find it hard to believe if they had money tied up in parts for my barreled action that they would just issue me a refund no questions asked but I could be wrong.
I really don’t see what the point is in Bashing a supporting member on the hide over late delivery times. I have bought from Straight Jacket and had great success. The Hide has been down this road before with PVA and we are lucky we didn’t scare Bohem out of here altogether. I’m sure SJA is experiencing the same firearm related craziness that all companies are let’s give them a chance to sort through their 300 calls a day and 1000 emails.
If the stories here are to be believed, then they have been given plenty of chances. There is a difference b/w "bashing" and relaying unsatisfactory experiences.
I started this thread just tracking times. Again I bashed them for zero follow up. 5 times a week apart via phone and email I have contacted them with no answer. This is not bashing. This is relating an experience. Had i got a call back and told it would be another two months I would be fine.
Called and spoke with them 6 months ago about buying a AI barrel. The guy who answered walks into the shop and gets Nick on the phone. They were very nice and he was going to call me back the next day with some details, took my name and number. Never heard from them again.
The carbon wrapped barrels seem to be months out. I’ve had my order in with straightjacket for months still waiting on a 24 inch 8 twist 6.5 proof carbon wrapped barrel to show up. Very frustrating.
I was at 13 weeks for 6 week quoted Rimx barrel. They gave me a 100% refund they said they had no clue when they were getting blanks in.
I got my proof carbon barrel back in March. 6 weeks turn around very nice work. At that time they were having problems with supply. Spent about 2 hrs talking with nick about all the covid craziness. Like he told me then he can't cut em if he can't get em. Material shortages and labor shortages are the norm right now. I will for sure give these guys my business in the future.
I had the same conversations with Nick. He was 100% straight forward about it. He told me about all the blanks he had bought at full retail trying to stay ahead of everything but was trying to make sure that he had materials to build for people. There have been a few times that he's been late getting back to my emails but that being said he's also in the shop trying to build guns for everyone, so I understand. I also understand there's always something and someone that slips thru the cracks when you are busy as hell. And that sucks but it's life. I stopped in on my way to SLC and they spent a hour with me discussing my thoughts and my build. And they told me they were at the mercy of their suppliers which I understand. All the guys in there were slaving away, not like they were just standing around not doing anything. Nobody is perfect but Nick and Tristen are giving it 110% and are genuine good people and will be getting my business. Just my $.02 guys.
It's strange that some are saying they don't get replies or call backs. Each time I've called, I've been able to talk to someone, emails were answered in less than 24hrs (in a couple instances it was almost immediate) and this was within the last 2-3 weeks. I even stumbled onto Nick in a Facebook shooting page talking about absolute frustrations regarding distributors giving him a set delivery date, then they were not following through, not to mention the call volume they are facing has grown exponentially. I've dealt with gunsmiths that never return calls or emails, it's incredibly frustrating to say the least. Sounds like they are willing to refund if that's what you want, but I doubt you'll have much luck finding parts elsewhere. Hell, I've been waiting 2 months on a set of go/no-go gages from PTG, frustrating, but I can't do much about it.
I ordered an impact prefit in the first week of August with a definite deadline for a retirement present. In November I called and was told he still didn't have any Bartlein blanksbut I was able to switch to an in-stock Proof steel barrel. There were a few more phone calls with unexpected delays, but Nick was able to get the barrel to me with 2 days to spare prior to the party (3rd week in Dec). It shoots and looks excellent as expected. Everytime I called or emailed I was able to talk with Nick. Yes, supplies are delayed and it took quite a while to come in, but Iwill order from him again.
I have been waiting since the first week of August but when I emailed them they called and emailed back the next day offering a different contour. I’m in no big hurry so I guess I’ll wait and see if Bartlein gets caught up.
I ordered a barreled action on the 7th of August. When I ordered, I asked about lead time, as I was going to be on the road about 8 weeks after I ordered and was told that they probably would not make the 8 week lead time for steel barrel. In October, I called in and they said my barrel was done, just waiting on the action. Terminus has made some changes to the Apollo, so I am guessing that may have slowed them down some. I have emailed them twice, and general response time has been about a week. I actually called and talked to Nick the other day, he said that my barrel and action should ship out next week. I ordered a Terminus Apollo with a 22BR MTU profile barrel, and they said mine will be a new one fully DLC with the integrated lug. If it ships nest week, it will have been right about 21 weeks from when I ordered. Nick did say that they have about 500 orders currently in their backorder log. The lead times on the website are no where even close to being accurate with that kind of backlog.
I ordered in March of 2019. Finally got a response in beginning of December after several emails and calls, and set up a time for a phone call and never got one. Coming up on one year and I have no idea where my order is at, and I don’t mind the wait but would cut the sting of waiting a little if they updated me once or twice. But I’ve heard nothing but great things from them so I’m waiting impatiently lol.
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Every time I've emailed them, I've gotten a response. For me, it seems like it's been around a week after I email that I get a response. The last time I emailed, I got a auto reply that said there was a 5-7 day window to get a response back. The 2 times I called for an update, I talked to Nick directly.
Email seams to be the slowest to get a response... calling has resulted in speaking direct to Travis or nick the same day
I sent them parts for two builds 7 months ago.. barreled action.. I still have nothing.....
Kasey
Kasey
The only way you are going to get your stuff is to call and be the squeeky wheel that gets the grease. The impression I got was they are so far behind and still getting tons of order but don't have a great system in place of making sure things get done in the order in which they came in.
I placed an order with them on Nov 4th. Guess I'll get mine sometime this summer based on what I'm seeing here.
Riiiiight..be that guy that calls every week till it's done. No thanks. We have called plenty and got the run around
I placed a order with Travis earlier this week for a Big Horn barreled action and was quoted 10-12 weeks but did mention it could be a bit longer due to supply chain issues. He did say he just got off the phone with Big Horn and I called at the perfect time and one of the actions heading his way will be allocated to me.
This is my first purchase from a gunsmith like this. My fingers are crossed that everything goes smooth. I’ve heard some really good things about them and didn’t see this thread until after I placed my order.
This is my first purchase from a gunsmith like this. My fingers are crossed that everything goes smooth. I’ve heard some really good things about them and didn’t see this thread until after I placed my order.
I have 3 barrels from them (different calibers) and a 4th on order. You won’t be disappointed. The wait time is just the times right now, but it will be worth it.
There barrels shoot great but what I've been doing is as soon as I receive one I order another. My order was from August so should be getting close. But I'm still waiting on a action to ship from Halloween. From Curtis Custom
update...barrel came in...I tried shooting it but there is an issue either with my brass, my dies or my chamber...got on the phone with SJA and there customer services is great...after a discussion and long process of measuring brass and a few other investigations we decided to shipping the barreled action back to SJA to see what the issue is....
Issue was it seemed like the rounds were too long and hitting on the shoulder...very difficult to extract after firing....came home a resized the fire formed brass...bumped the shoulder back 3 thou and still could not close the bolt without force and still very hard to extract....tried my Whidden and SAC dies...trimmed the brass...bumped the shoulder back more...still the same issue...
I have two other 6GTs that chamber no problem...so we are shipping the barrel and action to SJA to see what the issue is.....
I wish I had new brass to try but Alpha is out...and I prefer the Alpha OCD brass....
by the way...my 6gt old krieger barrel lasted just about 2000 rounds and my velocity dropped off 50 FPS and now I get fliers....went from 1 hole groups to 1.5 inches .....the SJA barrel was shooting .3 even with the issue...should be even better once I get a proper fitting round...
Issue was it seemed like the rounds were too long and hitting on the shoulder...very difficult to extract after firing....came home a resized the fire formed brass...bumped the shoulder back 3 thou and still could not close the bolt without force and still very hard to extract....tried my Whidden and SAC dies...trimmed the brass...bumped the shoulder back more...still the same issue...
I have two other 6GTs that chamber no problem...so we are shipping the barrel and action to SJA to see what the issue is.....
I wish I had new brass to try but Alpha is out...and I prefer the Alpha OCD brass....
by the way...my 6gt old krieger barrel lasted just about 2000 rounds and my velocity dropped off 50 FPS and now I get fliers....went from 1 hole groups to 1.5 inches .....the SJA barrel was shooting .3 even with the issue...should be even better once I get a proper fitting round...
Yeah Nick called me to let me know my Barrel from August was next in que and confirmed the specs.
I ordered an Apollo barreled action 2 weeks ago and was quoted 16 weeks, they did say it could be longer. I had ordered a Sig Cross but after that cluster fuck I decided to just get a barreled action and build my own light weight hunting rifle. I am betting I will get the one on from SJA before the new Crosses are shipped 
I ordered a prefit for my havak last summer when they had the proof cf deal going. Basically right before proof committed to supply savage with a shit ton of barrels. They were great about communicating this and even emailed me and offered to change it from a proof cf to a bartlein cf with no up charge. I took them up on that, lead time was longer than originally quoted but that was communicated to me.
Sent my rifle in and they installed it for me. It’s a 26” bartlein cf chambered in 300PRC and it hammers with Hornady match ammo. I have another Seekins Havak in 6cm I plan on having them rebarrel when it’s shot out. Things are crazy right now and I’ve come to terms with giving small business the benefit of the doubt, it’s a struggle out there for everyone. They put out a top notch product.
Sent my rifle in and they installed it for me. It’s a 26” bartlein cf chambered in 300PRC and it hammers with Hornady match ammo. I have another Seekins Havak in 6cm I plan on having them rebarrel when it’s shot out. Things are crazy right now and I’ve come to terms with giving small business the benefit of the doubt, it’s a struggle out there for everyone. They put out a top notch product.
I ordered an Apollo barreled action 2 weeks ago and was quoted 16 weeks, they did say it could be longer. I had ordered a Sig Cross but after that cluster fuck I decided to just get a barreled action and build my own light weight hunting rifle. I am betting I will get the one on from SJA before the new Crosses are shipped
I'm currently at 26 weeks for my Apollo barreled action, so 16 weeks may be pretty optimistic.
I spoke with Nick yesterday and he said that they had server problems, when I looked after talking to him it was back up. I would suggest if you have having a problem with them to give the shop a call, I have called and been able to talk to Nick both times.
So, my action and barrel is on the way, as I got my tracking number. I originally ordered 7th of August for a Terminus Apollo and MTU profile barrel in 22BR. I ended up switching to an Impact 737 about 2 weeks ago after talking to Nick, and it shipped very quickly. If you ordered a Terminus from him, I would suggest calling Straight Jacket as he said they've had problems getting actions from Terminus. I'm glad to know my barrel and action will be home before I get home.
On 1-26-21 i spoke to nick. I asked for a prefit for my impact precision action. He said all he had in stock was a proof stainless barrel. I agreed and placed my order. he said it would take a couple of months. I said no issue.
Its now 4-25-21 no barrel.
When i inquired (email) i got an email thanking me for not calling in. No other explanation.
i replied asking again for a status where is my barrel?
Again i got the thanks for not calling in.
must be nice to be able to placate
Clients with bs emails.
Its now 4-25-21 no barrel.
When i inquired (email) i got an email thanking me for not calling in. No other explanation.
i replied asking again for a status where is my barrel?
Again i got the thanks for not calling in.
must be nice to be able to placate
Clients with bs emails.
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