Is Apache still in business? Returned poorly chambered barrel about 4 weeks ago, was told that would get replacement barrel but have not received barrel or had contact from Apache ? The phone box is full and cannot leave a message.
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Is Apache still in business? Returned poorly chambered barrel about 4 weeks ago, was told that would get replacement barrel but have not received barrel or had contact from Apache ? The phone box is full and cannot leave a message.
I have seen posts complaining of lack of contact with him. You might try to send an email via his orders page on the website. Just curious how long it took to get your barrel? I am approaching 6 months on two right now. Thanks.
I've ordered a custom barrel and been waiting for a long time on it. I usually try to catch his listings on ebay and they will get done within a week. Have had good luck with all the ones I have gotten (roughly 15ish) from him.
EDIT: since posting this have gotten shipment of the barrel I was waiting on. Did tell him it was for a nucleus and it was not a rush as well.
The one I bought from him, 6.5 Creedmore, was chambered off center, I returned it and he told me, phone call, that he did not have a replacement barrel at that time but he would have one in a week. Perhaps I am naive in believing what he told me and that he would make his work good!
Sorry to hear.
Curious what chambered off center means and how that was determined?
Again, bummer deal. It's a pain to wait for something like that, find it isn't right, and then keep waiting.
Made a chamber cast and riflings were heavy on one side, about 40% of diameter and very light on remaining %.
I'm but 3 months into my wait time which doesn't bother me because that's about the time it took him to ship my last order. Don't want to bombard him with unneeded e-mails either but as a paying customer I feel its not to much to ask for to send 1 e-mail in those 3 months to inquire on my order so I did with no response. It is what it is. Hopefully Ill be in town when he sends the barrel and or responds to my e-mail.
There was a guy on hear a while back. RC20 i think it was. I don't think he is on here anymore. Even though he had no dog in the hunt, he was always attacking Apache. I think that is the instance you remember, It became tiring with his rants about Jim.
Jim has had time to iron this out for sure. I would stay away from him if you fear his customer service. People say garbage about Fred too. He is the best with Savagesmithing. If I had a need for his services I would have no problem looking him up.
NSS and Bugholes will do you right with high quality prefit barrels. Bugholes is the ace. A Criterion 260 was junk and it was sold for a loss to someone who thought they could prove it was better. A different barrel, a 28" Criterion Bull 308 shot about like a savage barrel but was easier to clean. Two out of two were bad. Others have had great experience. Everything from Bugholes has been perfect. But so has Apache cut X-caliber.
Jim is stand-up guy. Have bought a few from him and he always delivers what he say's. As others have noted his communication is slow sometimes, but he is honest.
Just found out about this posting........
My apologies....
blveder, I'm still trying to get this taking care of for you....it's taking a lot longer than I anticipated. Sorry about the phone thing....it should be clear now.....please wait until working hours to call. Leave a message if I don't answer. I'll get back to you ASAP.
I periodically have email troubles that cause a lot of headaches for everyone involved. Still haven't found a permanent solution to that and in all honesty I'm running out of things to try on my end. My latest attempt is, I have setup a new email server on my website but haven't learned how to use it very well yet. All of this takes time away from the primary thing I need to do......make barrels. So until I KNOW it's going to work, I will have to work with what I have. Not enough time in a day to do everything that needs to be done.
I'm the barrel smith, president of the company, vice president, website designer/maintainer, the secretary, the janitor and the chief bottle washer all at the same time.....in other words, it's just me trying to do it all. As has been explained many times on this forum, I can't do 2 things at the same time. It's working on a barrel OR phone calls OR emails......I have to determine the most important things and run with that.......then try to juggle the rest as I can. And I am not working 12 hour days 6-7 days a week anymore....it's not happening anymore since my daughter's accident taught me there are more things in life that are much more important than working all the time.
Now for your barrel....While it's true the chambering was off slightly.....the barrel still shot MOA......according to your own words.....many barrel makers don't have any guaranties for accuracy at all and if they do, it's MOA guarantied only....In this instance I chose to replace your barrel without even checking it myself due to my current work load. Most of the time, I take barrels like these and shoot them for myself to see if I can get them to shoot well. I then charge the customer for the work and load recipe that I find that shoots less than MOA.........usually WAY less than MOA.
I almost always find that the barrel won't shoot the load they WANT to shoot out of it instead of letting the barrel tell them which load is best. Then I find they really don't have good reloading practices to insure the best accuracy in the first place.......and it all goes down hill rapidly from there..........not saying that any of these things are true about you......just stating what I normally find. As I said, I chose to replace your barrel without checking anything myself other than looking at the chamber cast you sent with the barrel. That was good enough for me. I may change that policy though from now on. I think it would stop many of these threads and posts that I have to deal with once a year.....
The short version of this story is, I've only had to replace 4 or 5 barrels that would not shoot less than MOA in all the time I've been doing this.
So, please give me some time to get it fixed for you.......or I can refund your money if you would rather do that.......try contacting me again through email or by phone (during working hours listed on my website) if you want a refund. I'm currently waiting on your replacement blank if it makes any difference to you. Don't try communicating through this forum......I don't frequent this site very often anymore......just not enough time. And as has been said, people are tired of these types of threads.
Jim
I hope RC20 and Cry Havoc read this. LoL
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At the bottom of every post you make there is an edit button. Press that, delete text and put three or four dashes then save to remove text.
I’m on day 309 for a single barrel. Jim hasn’t been the best at communication, but did answer my inquiry. (I thought he possibly forgot about me!) I hope he can get it done before the 1 year anniversary. But as long as it’s done right and we’ll, I can overlook the long arduous wait (what else do I have do? Lol.)
Exactly. What else are we gonna do? Lolo. I know my tinkering is gonna take over and with my luck I'll make the barrel I'm replacing give me tighter patterns while I wait to replace it with one of jimmies x caliber barrels. Lololo. What else am I gonna do? Lolo.
Jimmy is a stand up guy. He,ll eventually come through.
I have had contact with Jim since this post started. He is working on my barrels.
Would sure like to get my 6.5 Creedmore back together.
I'm in the same boat as some of you are waiting for a barrel. I hesitated to make the order from Apache as I saw some posts complaining of excessive waits and poor communication from him a couple years back. I also saw many of posts praising the quality of his work. For a while there was a message on his website explaining the errant customer service as growing pains and saying how he was going to keep things a small one man show from then on so that he wouldn't become so far behind again. He seemed to be making a genuine effort to do better and the price was decent, so I decided to roll the dice and give him a chance. I made a order in July of 2017 and am still waiting. I understand these things take time, but 9+ months for a Savage pre-fit barrel seems excessive. I expected to wait around 4-6 months. After about 6 months I would occasionally send inquires on the order status by email or telephone message. Most were ignored or went into some email and voicemail "black hole". I've gotten some responses back, always polite, apologetic, and promising to look into the situation and complete the work. Then nothing happens. He's told me in email that he's had the barrel blank for quite awhile now, but still hasn't completed the work and sent it out. I've politely asking for a refund if he can't complete the work. No refund has been issued. It's been a frustrating experience to say the least. I can't afford to eat the money I paid him. I can't order from another vendor without a refund. I understand that it's a one man show and life events can happen that can cause delays. But it seems to me that if you're willing to take people's hard earned cash in advance there would be some sense of responsibility to get them what they paid for in a reasonable time. Is he a genius on the lathe who is just terribly disorganized? People say he's a stand up guy who will come through...........eventually. It certainly seems that I've been getting the run around so far. It would be nice to get this rifle back together in time to salvage some of this year's shooting season. As far as I can tell my options are to keep waiting and hope that it's worth the wait. Alternatively, I could try to get a chargeback done through Paypal or my credit card company. I'm not sure what the time limits are for chargebacks on goods ordered but never delivered though. Do any other forum members have any suggestions or experiences to share?
Robinhood, Been waiting a year for a Fred's stock. I figure that my money is lost on this buy!
It takes 6-8 weeks for X-Caliber to produce a contoured blank. I’ve had similar results at Hart. If Ragged Hole has your desired contour in stock, I get it in 3-4 days. Most reamers are about the same unless it’s in stock. Manson gets custom reamers out in a couple of weeks. I’m not sure if that’s the norm, just my experience.
I’m no gunsmith. It takes me pretty much all of an 8 hour day to thread and chamber a barrel. A little less for Savage but the day is pretty well shot for me then too. I usually cut/crown/muzzle thread the next day in a couple of hours. I don’t have a pressurized system for cutting oil, my setup time is long, and again, I’m no pro.
The pros who do it every day and have all the toys can produce 2 a day without issue, some 3. This does not include the administrative aspects of running a small business.
I’m not running Apache down or anyone else. This is my experience with the mechanical aspect of doing the job, for those who don’t know.
Defently a waiting game. Last barrel jimmy cut,chambered,contoured, and threaded took him a mere 3 months to finish and deliver. Judging by others comments, I fear I have a long wait for mine. I'm only 5 month's into the 2nd barrel. For me?......its a waiting game. It gets here when it gets here. I hope alls well on jimmies end.
I am in a similar situation with Robot and have hesitated to post publically because Jim seems like a great guy, but I am beyond frustrated with my order. I ordered a barrel in June of 17 and from that point on was unable to get any status updates at all. I finally contacted Paypal at the beginning of April to see if I had any options and was informed that I was past the 180-day dispute window, but they offered to send him an email for me. Got a phone call shortly after and I was told that the blank was in and would be to me shortly, and I am back to no return for phone calls since. I have already missed out on two matches that I had hoped to shoot in, and have a prairie dog hunt coming up in two weeks. I went ahead and purchased a different rifle because I am not missing out on another opportunity, and just want a refund at this point. In case anyone is wondering, Paypal is 180 days, and if you use a direct withdrawal instead of a credit card, it is 90 days.
Been working with my Apache 6.5 Creedmore barrel, and to this point it likes Sierra 140's better than Hornady 140 ELD's. Will shoot 5 in an inch at 200 yards. Think it will do better with a little more test and tune.
Thats a FINE start. Who made the barrel blank?
Evlshnngns, Probably an Excalibur
42.3 +or- will get you < 1 inch at 400 5 shot group with a good setup, Lapua with br4's. Slightly larger at 600
What powder are you using? I am, at this time, loading 40.3 4198 touching the lands. Guess I will have to increase load faster and just go to 42.0 and go from there.
H4350 Start at 41.1 and go up in .3 increments. I would load no greater than 42.3. I use 400 yds for my tests. When you find that node, work around it.
Got my rounds mixed up. Am using 4350 in the 6.5, but am using 4198 in my 30 BR. My 30 will put 5 in under an inch at 300 yards. My range is only 300 yards, but I occasionally shoot in 600 yard shoots at another range. Hope I can get the 6.5 to shoot as well. Take care Bob
To update, I did finally receive the barrel from Jim at Apache. It ended up taking about 10 months to receive it. For the last several months I would send an email or call every couple of weeks to inquire on the status of the order. I usually didn't get a response back, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to keep checking. I don't think he's a crook or rip-off man. He just seems very disorganized on the administrative side of the business. In my opinion, if you're going to take people's hard-earned money for pre-orders you should make every effort to get them what they paid for in a timely fashion. But as they say...good, cheap, and quick, pick any two. The the machine work on the barrel looks good. I did run into an issue installing it though. The barrel threads have a sharper point or "peaks" on them then the factory barrel has and the new barrel it won't thread onto the rifle action. I put never-seize on everything. The factory barrel comes off and threads back onto the action with no problem. The factory barrel nut threads onto the Apache barrel with no issue. The recoil lug slides over the threads with no issue. However, when the Apache barrel is threaded onto the action it will only go on about half a turn. I stopped there as I didn't want to force anything. I did some research and it seems the issue is the "peaks" of the threads are cut a little taller and sharper then the factory barrel. Visual inspection seemed to confirm this. A known issue with tolerance stacking that some people can run into with prefits? The most often recommended remedy seemed to be lightly sanding the threads with very fine grit sandpaper/emery cloth to knock the peaks down a couple .001", cleaning the grit off thoroughly, and test fitting until it fits properly. Has anyone else run into this issue? I'm a little apprehensive to start sanding on the thing after it's finally arrived looking so nice, but a barrel I can't install onto the action isn't doing me any good. Any other suggestions?
The factory threads can be as small as 1.055, where often someone cutting threads single point may be as much as .0075 larger. also it is not uncommon for metal to get pushed to the peak in the thread cutting process. You will find many machinist will use an abrasive like cratex or even roll sandpaper to remove that proud metal.
You can measure the OD of the threads. If it is larger than 1.055 it would not hurt to wrap some abrasive around the threads and give it a few twist taking time to measure often. The pitch diameter will not be affected and the amount of thread engagement percentage wise is not impacted that much either. Remember, the area you are sanding is small and things can happen quickly.
Mr. Skinner (apache barrel) finally came through! Received my 26" .243 X caliber bull barrel last week ,I installed it, shot it this weekend and wouldn't you know, I found the load it likes 40 rounds in to load development. 4 rounds thru the same hole, one 1/16" off @100... Couldn't believe my eyes. 107gr SMK , Lapua brass,BR2 Primers, 38.5gr H4831sc. 020 off the lands. If I repeat it again this weekend, I'll take pics and clock the load. It was worth the 6 month wait.
Truth be known. I started showing concern when he wouldn't answer any of my email. Finally got a hold of him through he's order page. Asked him about my order. He confessed it got lost in the shuffle. He chambered, threaded both ends and had it delivered in 3 days. You may want to get a hold of him through he's order page
If anything, I believe what made my order come about faster I s that he didn't contour my barrel. He basically chambered, cut to 26"....threaded both ends and shipped. He does great work. Clean threades. The reamers he uses are to specs, at least for the calibers and barrels he's done for me.
Well that makes sense. I requested a very thin contour and a couple extra requirements. I’m in it for the long haul and if mine shoots as good as yours, the wait (the long silent excruciating wait) won’t kill me. I hope Jim is knee deep in chrome moly shavings as we speak.
I know it's been awhile since I've posted in this thread, but i thought I'd give an update. Robinhood, thank you for the advice regarding working on the threads. I ended up shipping the barrel back to Jim at Apache. He worked on the threads and the barrel threads nicely onto the action now. It took about 2 months to get the barrel returned though. Also, he neglected to reimburse the return shipping costs like we had discussed, but at least I have a barrel I can use now. Hopefully it's a shooter.
Good news I see. Its a surprise he didn't keep his word as far as the shipping. I'm sure it'll be a shooter once you find the load it likes. He made a mistake on the contour on my barrel. Once I advised him of his mistake he offered to cut the barrel to my specs but I opted to leave it as is. I didn't want to hassle with shipping cost and wait times.