Tactical Ordnance Barrels HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!!!

Kino M

Kino M

Moderator
Staff member
Folks if you are considering buying a barrel from Tactical Ordnance, you better think long and hard about it as I recommend you look elsewhere. I have NEVER had so many problems with a barrel manufacturer and it was with everything! Lack of quality control, bad machining, customer service, shipping, packaging as well as timeliness.

I purchased 2 AR barrels from Ritch (Ritchs Precision Guns) here on Predator Masters back in December of 2020. They are 6x6.8 barrels made by Tactical Ordnance with Ritch's specs. I want to make this PERFECTLY CLEAR, Ritch is a man of his word and has helped me TREMENDOUSLY in this fiasco with Tactical Ordnance and technical support to get my wildcat running. I truly feel Ritch did everything he could, always returned my calls and is very knowledgeable.I WOULD DEFINITELY BUY FROM RITCH BUT NEVER NEVER NEVER FROM TACTICAL ORDNANCE!!!

It took them FOUR times to actually get barrels to work, yes FOUR times!! My first pair was sent back and TWICE, they finally gave up and on the fourth try they made a new pair! The first three times the chambers was cut about 1/4" short!! Not only would a round not fit but my bolts would not even lock into the lugs!!! They actually accused me of having bolts out of spec! They absolutely have no concept of proper headspace and ZERO QUALITY control. My gunsmith borescoped them and the shoulder machining was also rough.

They shipped my barrels in a cardboard box 3 of the 4 times, last time was thin cheap cardboard sleeves with no plastic end caps, just poorly stapled, packaging looked like a five year old would box something as a Christmas gift! Barely taped, poorly protected and packaged. My threads was messed up the third time they was shipped to me because of the poor packaging! Instead of using quality packaging they skimp and risk damaging the barrel you've already waited to long for. I addressed it with them and they never made any improvements.

Tracking numbers.... Every single time my barrels was shipped I had to call and get the tracking number and every single time they acted like it was an inconvenience to give me one. They obviously don't understand logistics and the importance of a tracking number to their customers nor do they care.

Customer service..... Man I don't even know where to start here! They are probably the worst company I have ever dealt with in my life! They promise to call back, never do, hardly anyone can give you an answer and without question the thing that bothers me the most is their unapologetic and pompous attitude.

In the end I waited 9 months to get two barrels, was given every excuse under the sun for their quality issues, put over 300 miles on my car running back and forth multiple times to ship their junk back to them and they never offered to compensate me for my troubles and expenses, never really apologized for the terrible quality, never made any effort to follow up and simply don't care, so before you think about spending your money on their products, think again.....
 
Kino, if the barrels were bought from Ritch, why did you not send them back to Ritch and have him deal with the problem? I would have thought it would have been Ritch's responsibility to make them right.
You say you will buy from Ritch again..."I WOULD DEFINITELY BUY FROM RITCH BUT NEVER NEVER NEVER FROM TACTICAL ORDNANCE!!!" but if you buy from him again, Ritch uses Tact Ord barrels so if you buy from him again, it will be another Tact Ord barrel...??? Unless he changes brands again.
You also say..."My gunsmith borescoped them and the shoulder machining was also rough"...What "shoulder" are you referring to that was "machined"? Are you referring to the chamber shoulder that is reamed?
I am surprised this was not handled thru Ritch...it should have been. No need for you to have to have put up with this.

Gene
 
Gene, sorry my post wasn't clear so I'll try to clean it up...

I would NEVER BUY OR RECOMMEND ANYONE to buy any product from Tactical Ordnance from ANY seller, period. Ritch is fully aware of this situation and its his business and his decision to sell what he wants.

You are correct that it is/was ultimately Ritch's responsibility to see this through but unfortunately they don't listen to him either. Ritch is simply the middle man so shipping barrels to Ritch only draws out an already to long process. IMO Tactical Ordnance made it, their name is on it and the VERY MOMENT they knew they had major problems they should have immediately fixed it, period but it took them 4 times to actually make a barrel that would actually just go bang!

I honestly feel Ritch did what he could but unfortunately its very little when he actually has zero control over poor machining, no quality control, poor shipping, packaging or logistics, along with Tactical Ordnance pitiful customer service. Ritch helped me tremendously on load work and challenges with components.

As for the rough machining it was the shoulder area in the chamber. One of the issues was Tactical Ordnance was actually using a roughing reamer as a finish reamer! My gunsmith said its one of the worst he's ever seen.
 
I was in the same boat as Kino with this barrel deal through Rich and Tactical Ordinance.
First Rich’s name may be on the business card but he doesn’t really run the business. Tactical Ordinance does. Rich is just a middle man who takes your credit card and is basically a pawn of TO. Rich cannot tell you when your barrel will be done or even started. Rich will tell you he is friends with the owner of TO but that gets him nowhere and me nothing.
Rich can play the victim here all he wants but when it comes down to it he pawns all the troubles over to TO. Then TO doesn’t care in any way shape or form.
Kino has given Rich a pass but I’m not.
When we realized this was going to be a miserable ride Kino did some research and found Rich doesn’t make the barrels but he outsources the barrels from TO.
So we jumped around the middle man and went directly to TO. As Kino mentioned they are a horrible business to deal with. They don’t care and they don’t give a crap about you, me or anyone else. Period.
I personally don’t think Rich handled this situation very well.
My personal opinion from this point on with ordering a barrel. The person you buy your barrel from needs to be able to get up from his desk and walk out into the shop and be able to put his hands on your barrel.
TO is in one state and Rich is in another.
 
To me customer service is No.1. Poor customer service will send me out the door faster than anything no matter how good the product is or isn't. I have no dealings with either people/companies mention in this post but will keep reading. You never know what the future brings.
 
I have 2 TO barrels...one is currently being used on my thermal AR and the other is an identical new barrel that I bought as a spare for another project. I bought the barrels from Ritch...I don't care where he gets them from...they were purchased from him and it is his responsibility to make it right...no matter what.
Fortunately the barrel I am using is a very good barrel and shoots really well...no issues at all. The new barrel I have, I have borescoped it and it looks flawless. I have not dealt directly with TO...only Ritch and in my opinion it IS Ritch's responsibility. Ritch has always farmed out his barrels, but in the end, he is the one taking your money. I have to agree that Ritch is a very nice guy and will always answer the phone and is willing to help you out...but his responsibility does not end there. So I agree that kino is giving Ritch a pass on this and should not have had to be going thru all of this. But it is what it is.
 

Originally Posted By: G AndersonSo I agree that kino is giving Ritch a pass on this and should not have had to be going thru all of this. But it is what it is

Reading between the lines, and in all fairness to Rich, sounds like he was willing to try and make it right and Kino decided bypassing the middle man was the best route to go to expedite the matter.

Originally Posted By: Kino MYou are correct that it is/was ultimately Ritch's responsibility to see this through but unfortunately they don't listen to him either. Ritch is simply the middle man so shipping barrels to Ritch only draws out an already to long process.

Irregardless, the final responsibility is TO's and they seem to have failed completely.

Regards,
hm
 
Originally Posted By: varminter .223I believed TO is the only place to get the 6x6.8 which is what it was. After 4 failed attempts, it seems not even TO can make one.
 
Any barrel company can make one if they have the reamer. All just depends on if the cartridge is popular enough to justify buying the tooling and the time given to do the work.
 
Originally Posted By: pyscodogAfter the second "bad barrel", why didn't you just ask for a refund and buy a barrel from a different supplier?

Great question and I often thought that would be the best option BUT..... I already had invested in 1000rds of new brass, CH4D and Redding type S dies, various bushings. Close to 2500 rounds of lightweight 6mm bullets, lots of powder and two 6.8SPC bolt carrier groups.

That is a significant investment in components and parts that I don't need or use for anything else so when someone decides to go down the 6x6.8 path, it's a lot more complicated than just a barrel.
 
I fully understand about buying the components, but not being an AR guy, although I've had a few, I'm having a problem thinking TO and Ritch is the only place in the country to buy an AR barrel chambered in 6x6.8. If it is the only place, they sure have the market cornered. Please excuse my lack of knowledge.
 
Originally Posted By: pyscodogI fully understand about buying the components, but not being an AR guy, although I've had a few, I'm having a problem thinking TO and Ritch is the only place in the country to buy an AR barrel chambered in 6x6.8. If it is the only place, they sure have the market cornered. Please excuse my lack of knowledge.

One big thing to remember here is TIME. The gun industry is "out of stock" or behind on everything. Trying to order a custom action or barrel takes a lot longer right now because of the shortages, covid and other factors. I started LAST YEAR on this project so I could be hunting by the first of October.

I actually did look at other barrel manufactures. The ones I was aware that made the 6x6.8 and variants was Ritch (TO). Dtech and White Oak, and Xcaliber. I called White Oak and they are currently to busy and not making the 6WOA at all and the other two options would not have been ready for the hunting season. It seems like everyone is a 6 month wait or more, I've been waiting on a Defiance action even longer.

Ritch assured me the barrels would shoot once they finally got them right so after considering all the options I felt that my "best" option to get a 6x6.8 by this season was to ride out the fiasco of Tactical Ordnance.
 
I understand wait times also. I called Hart about a barrel and install....7 months, Pac-Nor...6 months. Douglas was 2-3 weeks turn around time so I may just use Douglas. Not that I'm in a hurry, just hate waiting 6-7 months.
 
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