Mike at Hells Canyon Armory

[TacoTaylor]

Just wanted to give a shout out to Mike at Hells Canyon Armory. I had some work done to a 700 and he killed it. His workmanship was excellent and did exactly what I wanted. I will definitely be using him again.

 

[Mackadoodle]

This makes me happy I just ordered a barrel and a brake from him ! Seems to be very knowledgeable and willing to share his info and recommendations .

 

[ktm450]

He built a fantastic rifle for me about 2-years ago. It’s been a tough, extremely accurate, and good looking companion ever since.

 

[mattmann]

Makes me happy as well. He has my tikka 270 and is chambering it with their barrel in 7 backcountry.


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[Lawnboi]

My first experience with a gunsmith. Many since then. Wouldn’t take another barrel or rifle work from him if it were free.

 

[Mackadoodle]

My first experience with a gunsmith. Many since then. Wouldn’t take another barrel or rifle work from him if it were free.

Yikes - care to share ? Or message me . Thanks

 

[Lawnboi]

Yikes - care to share ? Or message me . Thanks

Well he sent a non functioning rifle out. Stock and bottom metal, along with action screw length were all messed up. Rifle wouldn’t feed (factory tikka bm and mag) and rear action screw had one thread hanging onto the action. This stock was bedded by him (not well I may add)

No option to fix that mistake besides it going back to AG and Waiting. Ended up buying a bravo to shoot the gun.

Accuracy was terrible on the first barrel. Like 2+moa bad. Sent it back at his request.

Terrible communication once it was off to him.

First barrel was replaced. Terrible communication and unreasonable time between it getting there and being tested/fixed. I was without the rifle for almost an entire year. And out money for well over a year. This is for a job I paid for 4 months in advance to procure the components.


Was told a krg bravo chassis had to be bedded. Yea not paying for another bed job from a builder who bed a stock without checking fitment or function. I believe this was an attempt to keep from having to return money.

Finally after another 6 months (don’t quote me it was a while ago). I had the rifle back. Ended up having to hunt with a 223 that year because my only other rifle was with him. The rifle was sent to him.

9/2019: put down deposit, as requested to source parts.
12/2019: sent rifle. Estimate completion date of March 2020
6/2020 rifle complete and sent to me. Rifle was missing a rail I had ordered and paid for. Rifle would not feed. Bought a bravo to shoot it, sent the stock back. Rifle shot like crap. Was asked to send the rifle back following many different attempts at gaining accuracy.

7/2020 stated he would put on another barrel. September estimated.

12/2020 finally get the rifle after many attempts to get answers.

Second barrel had strange pressure issues. Would always cause pressure signs up to popped primers after 8 rounds. Suppressor, bare muzzle, factory and hand loads. Gave up on it after burning hundreds in components.

Ate the cost of the barrel, didn’t want to be without a rifle and didn’t want him fixing anything anymore, was apparent lack or QC or competency.

Other issues.

Sloppy seems like double coated cerakote job with chipping spots.

Zero grease on barrel tenon threads causing galling on my first few threads on the action.

Gave me a hard time when I asked for reimbursement for product that paid for and either didn’t receive or was part of faulty product.

I have a 1200$ barrel in the scrap pile with sub 200 rounds on it all said and done and was out over 2k in components and shipping, not to mention wasted time.

Never again. Have used many smiths since, been through many barrels. To say I was and still am dissatisfied with hca is an understatement.

I’m not the only one with issues on here either.

I’d take the money back for the barrel if he’s reading, but based on me making multiple comments like this he would rather keep the money and have a dissatisfied customer.

 

[eoperator]

My first experience with a gunsmith. Many since then. Wouldn’t take another barrel or rifle work from him if it were free.

X's 2

 

[Mackadoodle]

Well he sent a non functioning rifle out. Stock and bottom metal, along with action screw length were all messed up. Rifle wouldn’t feed (factory tikka bm and mag) and rear action screw had one thread hanging onto the action. This stock was bedded by him (not well I may add)

No option to fix that mistake besides it going back to AG and Waiting. Ended up buying a bravo to shoot the gun.

Accuracy was terrible on the first barrel. Like 2+moa bad. Sent it back at his request.

Terrible communication once it was off to him.

First barrel was replaced. Terrible communication and unreasonable time between it getting there and being tested/fixed. I was without the rifle for almost an entire year. And out money for well over a year. This is for a job I paid for 4 months in advance to procure the components.


Was told a krg bravo chassis had to be bedded. Yea not paying for another bed job from a builder who bed a stock without checking fitment or function. I believe this was an attempt to keep from having to return money.

Finally after another 6 months (don’t quote me it was a while ago). I had the rifle back. Ended up having to hunt with a 223 that year because my only other rifle was with him. The rifle was sent to him.

9/2019: put down deposit, as requested to source parts.
12/2019: sent rifle. Estimate completion date of March 2020
6/2020 rifle complete and sent to me. Rifle was missing a rail I had ordered and paid for. Rifle would not feed. Bought a bravo to shoot it, sent the stock back. Rifle shot like crap. Was asked to send the rifle back following many different attempts at gaining accuracy.

7/2020 stated he would put on another barrel. September estimated.

12/2020 finally get the rifle after many attempts to get answers.

Second barrel had strange pressure issues. Would always cause pressure signs up to popped primers after 8 rounds. Suppressor, bare muzzle, factory and hand loads. Gave up on it after burning hundreds in components.

Ate the cost of the barrel, didn’t want to be without a rifle and didn’t want him fixing anything anymore, was apparent lack or QC or competency.

Other issues.

Sloppy seems like double coated cerakote job with chipping spots.

Zero grease on barrel tenon threads causing galling on my first few threads on the action.

Gave me a hard time when I asked for reimbursement for product that paid for and either didn’t receive or was part of faulty product.

I have a 1200$ barrel in the scrap pile with sub 200 rounds on it all said and done and was out over 2k in components and shipping, not to mention wasted time.

Never again. Have used many smiths since, been through many barrels. To say I was and still am dissatisfied with hca is an understatement.

I’m not the only one with issues on here either.

I’d take the money back for the barrel if he’s reading, but based on me making multiple comments like this he would rather keep the money and have a dissatisfied customer.

That sucks . I did some digging on him / HCA and found mostly outstandingly positive reviews so I didn’t hesitate to order . I never did find your info till now . Barrel is paid for and already inn the queue . I guess I’m folding the rest of it together myself so I’ll hope
For the better . Thanks for the info .

 

[Lawnboi]

That sucks . I did some digging on him / HCA and found mostly outstandingly positive reviews so I didn’t hesitate to order . I never did find your info till now . Barrel is paid for and already inn the queue . I guess I’m folding the rest of it together myself so I’ll hope
For the better . Thanks for the info .

Lesson learned from me…. Bum barrel is not worth the time or money!

 

[TacoTaylor]

I should be getting mine back soon. I'm have a 6.5 PRC barrel put on a T3 action. Will report back once I have it.

 

[Bsnyder]

His communication skills are nothing short of awful. Lucky when I was looking and considering him and his product. I got tiered of waiting. My buddy also had horrible communication experience with him but lives close enough to the shop to stop in and even then he got the run around. He finally got his barrel blank and it shoots but neither of us have been back nor will we.

 

[wind gypsy]

Mike used to be an active poster on the forums here. It seemed that he was one of the early guys doing a lot of tikka work when the tikka love affair was starting on rokslide. He got a lot of recommendations on this forum until a lot of those who followed recs had a bad experience. I got the impression that he took on a lot of work before he had his feet under him and it resulted in a number of unsatisfied customers voicing their displeasure here. I am another who wasn’t happy with how things turned out but that was 6 years ago. Things might be better now but there are too many solid smiths out there for me to find out first hand.

 

[TacticalSquatch]

That is good to know as I was looking at having him do some work.

 

[jdvangeystel]

Well he sent a non functioning rifle out. Stock and bottom metal, along with action screw length were all messed up. Rifle wouldn’t feed (factory tikka bm and mag) and rear action screw had one thread hanging onto the action. This stock was bedded by him (not well I may add)

No option to fix that mistake besides it going back to AG and Waiting. Ended up buying a bravo to shoot the gun.

Accuracy was terrible on the first barrel. Like 2+moa bad. Sent it back at his request.

Terrible communication once it was off to him.

First barrel was replaced. Terrible communication and unreasonable time between it getting there and being tested/fixed. I was without the rifle for almost an entire year. And out money for well over a year. This is for a job I paid for 4 months in advance to procure the components.


Was told a krg bravo chassis had to be bedded. Yea not paying for another bed job from a builder who bed a stock without checking fitment or function. I believe this was an attempt to keep from having to return money.

Finally after another 6 months (don’t quote me it was a while ago). I had the rifle back. Ended up having to hunt with a 223 that year because my only other rifle was with him. The rifle was sent to him.

9/2019: put down deposit, as requested to source parts.
12/2019: sent rifle. Estimate completion date of March 2020
6/2020 rifle complete and sent to me. Rifle was missing a rail I had ordered and paid for. Rifle would not feed. Bought a bravo to shoot it, sent the stock back. Rifle shot like crap. Was asked to send the rifle back following many different attempts at gaining accuracy.

7/2020 stated he would put on another barrel. September estimated.

12/2020 finally get the rifle after many attempts to get answers.

Second barrel had strange pressure issues. Would always cause pressure signs up to popped primers after 8 rounds. Suppressor, bare muzzle, factory and hand loads. Gave up on it after burning hundreds in components.

Ate the cost of the barrel, didn’t want to be without a rifle and didn’t want him fixing anything anymore, was apparent lack or QC or competency.

Other issues.

Sloppy seems like double coated cerakote job with chipping spots.

Zero grease on barrel tenon threads causing galling on my first few threads on the action.

Gave me a hard time when I asked for reimbursement for product that paid for and either didn’t receive or was part of faulty product.

I have a 1200$ barrel in the scrap pile with sub 200 rounds on it all said and done and was out over 2k in components and shipping, not to mention wasted time.

Never again. Have used many smiths since, been through many barrels. To say I was and still am dissatisfied with hca is an understatement.

I’m not the only one with issues on here either.

I’d take the money back for the barrel if he’s reading, but based on me making multiple comments like this he would rather keep the money and have a dissatisfied customer.

This has been the same experience I’ve witnessed with him- I had a buddy have him put together a 7 SAUM- shows up and it wouldn’t shoot anything better than 2 MOA- he had drawn a really good quality mule deer tag- rifle showed up 10 months late, he sends it to me cuz he doesn’t have the time to try to figure it out before his hunt- I burned up 100’s in components, while trying everything under the sun with different stocks and chassis and finally found that the gun would shoot 1 single load very well as long as it had 1 certain brake on it- I took pics of all the different groups with just changing the brake- basically using the weight of the brakes as a tuner- finally got it to shoot 1 load well enough to hunt with. My buddy tried to get ahold of him for months and he never returned an email- I emailed him pictures and he never returned my emails- I have put together probably close to 100 very well shooting custom rifles with all sorts of different barrel brands and I wouldn’t take an HCA if it was free- I also have a benchmark that he wrapped that absolutely will not shoot well- my theory is the barrels are wrapped too tight- if you look at his carbon weave versus any other carbon barrels out there it’s way tighter than anything else you’ll find


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[mattmann]

Now yall are scaring me

Guess I’ll give him a shout and see how things are going. I did have a rifle shipped to him from euro optics to build my 7mm backcountry and haven’t heard a word. Not even if he got it……


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[Pistolpete28]

Mike built me a 28 nosler back in 2017, it took a long time and i agree his communication wasn’t the greatest. I love the rifle and it was very accurate. I had him re barrel it in 2022, he got it back quickly, and made a few upgrades on it. I love the rifle it shoots great. That’s my experience with him.