Not a fan of Ritch's Precision Guns

aubie515

New member
I ordered a 20 Practical barrel from him on 4/6/2021 and of course I paid him. At the time, he said turn around time was 8-10 weeks, so I'm thinking ok I'll order from him since it will be plenty of time for this predator season. Flash forward to around August, as it's past way past the turn around time...so I call him for status. He tells me he broke a machine and that backlogged things a month...which I'm at 4 months into this order. I just got off the phone with him, and I told him now it's 7 months since my initial order and that he ruined my predator season with the 20 practical. I have dies, bullets and brass waiting on the barrel. I could have order from other companies that had the 20 Practical barrel in stock.

Ritch tells me today that he broke the reamer and of course the answer is...it "should" be here next week. I told him this is a horrible way to run a business and not inform customers that the item you ordered will take much longer. Had he emailed me, informing me of what happened, I would have been more understanding, as I get the cost of doing business.

I never heard from him once throughout this process. I had to call him multiple times to find out what was going on with my order. I just don't understand how a business owner can run a company so poorly and expect customer's to accept his poor customer skills. I asked him to refund my order at this point.

Moral of the story for me is...don't do business with him. Now, I am going to have to locate an in-stock 20 Practical barrel. I see that CompassLake offers 20 Practical, so I'm going to give them a call.

Any other barrel makers that you might recommend? When I was looking back in April...I did see one or two online vendors that had in-stock 20 Practical barrels.
 
So, now I'm not as annoyed as I have been calling around this afternoon for turn around times for 20P. I called Craddock and Paul tells me that he has a slightly used 20P in 20", threaded and fluted for sale. I am so happy that I stumbled on a Bartlein barrel that was in stock.

Good thing I called around and that Craddock answered their phone. In the end, I'm hoping that things work out for me.
 
Craddock precision kind of strung me along an a barrel blaming supply… which I suppose happens.

Then they asked if I wanted the barrel shipped w/o marking, which they said would take longer, I said I will wait as I'd like the mfg. marking on the barrel... they shipped the barrel w/o markings... oh well.

The last two years have been rough on a lot of industries which means communication needs to be better. Seems some customers are ok so long as they know... the flip side is more time gets spent communicating. Smaller operations seem to be getting the worst of it.
 
That's too bad about Ritch. I've done some business with him with great results and he even took in a second hand upper to test it out for me once. I don't see him or Greg on here much anymore but I think the barrel business is pretty tough right now.

I have no needs right now luckily but I'm just sitting tight and using what stuff I have rather than to bother trying to get anything right now.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your "luck" but its obviously become the norm for Ritch.

I had a horrible experience with him and Tactical Ordnance, as they are probably the ones actually making your barrel.

Once I posted my experience both him and Greg have been MIA as they are probably embarrassed to be part of the $hit show. I agree Ritch and Greg are nice and helpful but enough is enough.
 
Ugh here we go again….
I’m having flashbacks of incompetence, boondoggling and piss poor performance by Rich’s Precision. Rich’s problem is not a supply problem it’s a ‘Rich is the problem’ problem.
PSA just say no to Rich’s Precision barrels and save yourself some grief.
 
Originally Posted By: Kino MI'm sorry to hear about your "luck" but its obviously become the norm for Ritch.

I had a horrible experience with him and Tactical Ordnance, as they are probably the ones actually making your barrel.

Once I posted my experience both him and Greg have been MIA as they are probably embarrassed to be part of the $hit show. I agree Ritch and Greg are nice and helpful but enough is enough.


A small barrel business, and then a reamer issue, and things can go sideways. Just waiting your turn on the new reamer. And hope like he11 there is no issues with that new reamer. When it comes to guns and custom work, I learned to never expect a finished rig for the season I had planned in a same calendar year. Between dies and brass and a barrel, things pop up. And a lot of guys do the gun business as a second hobby/job. And with logistics nowadays, it requires several miracles for things to come out as originally planned on time. I hope they recover from this. Ritch and Greg seemed like stand up guys. And shared quality knowledge.
 
It's unfortunate that their company is taking some heat lately. We all want and expect a quality product in a timely fashion when we pay good money for it. Hopefully it will all get corrected and their products will shine once again. Both have been extremely gracious with their time and knowledge on this forum answering the questions of our members. For this they deserve credit. I hope if there's a problem they correct it soon so they prosper. If not... well it will not pan out for them.
 
Originally Posted By: crazyyoteIt's unfortunate that their company is taking some heat lately. We all want and expect a quality product in a timely fashion when we pay good money for it. Hopefully it will all get corrected and their products will shine once again. Both have been extremely gracious with their time and knowledge on this forum answering the questions of our members. For this they deserve credit. I hope if there's a problem they correct it soon so they prosper. If not... well it will not pan out for them.


I couldn't agree more, I actually appreciate what Ritch and Greg have done BUT it all starts with ACCOUNTABILITY!!!

Ritch doesn't make barrels, Tactical Ordnance does, so for starters they need to be held accountable BY RITCH, period. They are the root cause and its because Ritch allows it.

All these excuses of supply chain and logistics are a hindering factor in some things but businesses now blame their lack of work ethic, quality and accountability on it. Its a sham and businesses still need to forthright and honest.

As for the fanboys of Ritch, and there are a bunch here, get over the fact that they got major issues not with just timeliness but QUALITY and thats the real deal breaker for me.

The healing to all this IMO is instead of being silent on these issues here at PM, Ritch and Greg needs to man up and post on these things. They expect guys from the board to support them and customers/members should expect them to support us.

No private messages, no phone calls, just something public so EVERYONE can see that they are a stand up business that won't be silent and support us.
 
If you mean MAN UP by telling you that Ritch had tried tirelessly to get barrels delivered that's about it. I know about broken CNC machines, buttons that have chipped and taken three months to replace, reamers that have chipped and taken four months to replace, I know about cerakote businesses they use that went out of business taking two months to replace, I know about barrel stock running sixty days past delivery and the drillers taking about 60 days to drill the holes.

Try stacking that together and you might get a picture of what slows things down. Also the issues aren't volunteered to Ritch when it happens. He has to slueth it out when no barrels are shipped. As a personal aside I ordered three 20 caliber barrels. The blanks finally arrived yet I waited far longer than I liked. Mine weren't unusual but I suffered through the wait just like you all have.

One thing is certain TA is not going to issue a press release when they have a production glitch no more than any of the big boys like Shilen and Krieger. Expectations are high in our group and we all have our idea of how things should be. If I lived in St. Helens I'd be in that shop trying to improve things.

Ritch tries to move things along and he gets as frustrated as any sane person would. I to push when I can but I pay for my barrels just like everyone here and have no real power to alter the process. The only difference is I place my orders on the phone and I happen to have met some of the employees there.

Ritch and I continue to deal with production rates and still input into the company with new cartridges and are in weekly contact with shooters that are learning about non-standard cartridge loading. I personally deal with shooters all over the US and in several other countries about load development. I've amassed a treasure trove of loading data and share it.

In summation the situation is dictated by the manufacturer who is in turn dictated to by his raw material suppliers. Neither Ritch nor I are directly in the loop. If the barrels didn't offer some advantages by design the effort would not have been expended.

That's about all I can say guys.

Greg
 
Thanks for finally posting Greg but you FAILED to mention in this post about TERRIBLE QUALITY CONTROL, terrible shipping procedures, terrible packaging and HORRIBLE customer service from Tactical Ordnance!!!

I know your FULLY aware of the issues and thats what I mean by saying man up. The fact that you ONLY mention logistics and supply issues is insulting to customers that have had multiple issues, its an excuse to blame all their shortcomings. I'll take your reamer "issues" for example and call BS on the entire thing because PTG is NOT the only reamer manufacturer in the US. In fact I talked to Manson last week about a custom reamer and the timeline was 2-3 weeks so my point is there are options out there and instead of being aggressive to fill customer orders, Tactical Ordnance is either to lazy or incompetent to get production going to meet customer demand.

Again I stand firm on my comments that I greatly appreciate your contributions to the forum and shooting community and I also think you guys are good people but why Ritch doesn't DEMAND accountability from Tactical Ordnance and is loyal to them after all the issues is beyond me.
 
Well Kino it's not my company nor Ritch's and we can't control QC stuff You have no idea why a company uses another exclusively and I'm not privy to that. I've never got a custom reamer in less than three months. In this climate that would be what I would expect.

I think you don't have a clue about what Ritch has done to get accountability so I wouldn't be questioning that at all. Maybe you should talk to him directly.

So that's all I have to say about this.

Greg

 
Kino

If you have an issue with Tactical Ordinance then contact them. That is not Ritch,s problem and you should not bad mouth him for it. Then there are customers that waste your time and never follow through.
 
Originally Posted By: reb8600Kino

If you have an issue with Tactical Ordinance then contact them. That is not Ritch,s problem and you should not bad mouth him for it. Then there are customers that waste your time and never follow through.


Actually Reb I have many times so before you shoot your mouth off get the whole story, I actually put up a post here about the whole ordeal in the firearms section titled "Horrible experience with Tactical Ordnance ". Not once did Ritch, Greg or anyone from TO respond to my thread.

I BOUGHT my barrels from Ritch so he absolutely has responsibility as well as Tactical Ordnance because they are the actual manufacturer.

Its unbelievable how many fanboys are in denial that they got major problems and some don't think accountability is needed.
 
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Actually Kino I will spout my mouth off. I get the impression you are the type of customer that complains and is quite rude to deal with. Attitude goes a long way when you want help. I am glad you didn’t follow through with your purchase with me. Now I don’t have to deal with you. I get the feeling nothing meets your satisfaction.
 
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Originally Posted By: reb8600Actually Kino I will spout my mouth off. I get the impression you are the type of customer that complains and is quite rude to deal with. Attitude goes a long way when you want help. I am glad you didn’t follow through with your purchase with me. Now I don’t have to deal with you. I get the feeling nothing meets your satisfaction.

Reb you are pretty much the definition of internet troll.....

The OP posted about an issue with Ritch which you never had anything to say about, instead you chose to make something personal with me?? I actually have had a business transaction with Ritch recently that was without question the worst custom gun barrel transaction of all time so that does pertain to the OP.

Your whiney impression of me is not pertaining to the OP or thread. Your "impressions " can be whatever but they are simply that, we have never done any business together, you don't know me or anything about me so please keep your whining piehole shut when comes to me, if you have nothing condusive to add to the OPs thread about his issues then troll along somewhere else.
 
Originally Posted By: Kino MOriginally Posted By: reb8600Actually Kino I will spout my mouth off. I get the impression you are the type of customer that complains and is quite rude to deal with. Attitude goes a long way when you want help. I am glad you didn’t follow through with your purchase with me. Now I don’t have to deal with you. I get the feeling nothing meets your satisfaction.

Reb you are pretty much the definition of internet troll.....

The OP posted about an issue with Ritch which you never had anything to say about, instead you chose to make something personal with me?? I actually have had a business transaction with Ritch recently that was without question the worst custom gun barrel transaction of all time so that does pertain to the OP.

Your whiney impression of me is not pertaining to the OP or thread. Your "impressions " can be whatever but they are simply that, we have never done any business together, you don't know me or anything about me so please keep your whining piehole shut when comes to me, if you have nothing condusive to add to the OPs thread about his issues then troll along somewhere else.

If you are trying to hurt my feelings, you are going to have to do better than that n
 
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