UM Custom Rifles - Reviews

[Unknown Munitions]

I should start a talent agency, representing gunsmiths. If you have more than a year wait, your prices are too low. I might as well represent taxidermists too. Put timelines in the contracts with component delay exception clauses. Weed out the jokers and help the guys that have 0 business sense but have talent.

I'll be the first to sign up.

 

[JM151]

@Unknown Munitions thanks for all the comments. Yes I will call and ask to speak with you directly. Thanks.

 

[Unknown Munitions]

@JM151

The longer this thread stays fresh, the more positive feedback will be reported.

I know this because I receive emails and calls everyday thanking us for what we do.

We support shooters, loaders, and hunters with free customer service and information on a daily basis who have never been a customer of ours. Guys asking for load data for a rifle built by someone else, paying for the SHoot2Hunt podcast myself to support education in the shooting and hunting industries, and personally reaching out and handling any customer issues that arise because no-one is perfect and I like to make sure things are handled the best way they can be. Implementing quality controls throughout my shop to ensure that customers receive phone calls before their custom rifle ships, or has a chance to change or verify things about their build or cerakote job before the rifle leaves.

We are not perfect, but we are most certainly not a marketing company. Again a 4 man rifle build team that has been the same for years and built 100's of top quality rifles.

Email me and I will take care of whatever is holding up your rifle build.

[email protected]

 

[Unknown Munitions]

@Unknown Munitions thanks for all the comments. Yes I will call and ask to speak with you directly. Thanks.

You won't get me on the phone calling the business, email [email protected] and I will give you my cell number.

 

[Sadler]

I had UM build me a semi custom tikka 6 creed with the rokstock when it first came out. I believe I was the 3rd guy with a tikka rokstock build. My total wait was maybe six months and Keaton would send me pictures of updates whenever I asked and Blaine would respond to emails if I had questions about anything, even if they had nothing to do with my rifle build. UM is a solid company and I plan on having them build me another rifle when they release their new action.

 

[Odd1out]

Only the best of course!

I was digging for specs but I will wait with the rest of the muggles to find out. I know it will be good. My experience with your products ie (rokstok, tikka and premier rings) has been great. My experience with your customer service has been excellent also. I haven't ordered a custom, but hope to in the future.

Sent from my SM-G986W using Tapatalk

 

[JM151]

@JM151

The longer this thread stays fresh, the more positive feedback will be reported.

I know this because I receive emails and calls everyday thanking us for what we do.

We support shooters, loaders, and hunters with free customer service and information on a daily basis who have never been a customer of ours. Guys asking for load data for a rifle built by someone else, paying for the SHoot2Hunt podcast myself to support education in the shooting and hunting industries, and personally reaching out and handling any customer issues that arise because no-one is perfect and I like to make sure things are handled the best way they can be. Implementing quality controls throughout my shop to ensure that customers receive phone calls before their custom rifle ships, or has a chance to change or verify things about their build or cerakote job before the rifle leaves.

We are not perfect, but we are most certainly not a marketing company. Again a 4 man rifle build team that has been the same for years and built 100's of top quality rifles.

Email me and I will take care of whatever is holding up your rifle build.

[email protected]

And I will be the first to give a positive feedback and eat crow. To clarify I never said you was a marketing company. Sounds good thank you.

 

[Unknown Munitions]

I was digging for specs but I will wait with the rest of the muggles to find out. I know it will be good. My experience with your products ie (rokstok, tikka and premier rings) has been great. My experience with your customer service has been excellent also. I haven't ordered a custom, but hope to in the future.

Sent from my SM-G986W using Tapatalk

Thank you for the kind words. I can say this:

It will pass the drop test!

 

[Unknown Munitions]

I had UM build me a semi custom tikka 6 creed with the rokstock when it first came out. I believe I was the 3rd guy with a tikka rokstock build. My total wait was maybe six months and Keaton would send me pictures of updates whenever I asked and Blaine would respond to emails if I had questions about anything, even if they had nothing to do with my rifle build. UM is a solid company and I plan on having them build me another rifle when they release their new action.
View attachment 836670View attachment 836671

Thank you sir for the great feedback, and the Raven will be badass!
Hoping for end of the year retail but we want some quality testing in there during hunting season.

 

[atmat]

I’ve always been pretty blunt and transparent in my assessment of UM.

They have had growing pains with the Rokstock, much of which derives from supply chain ahead of them. And yes, they’ve had some QC issues that shouldn’t have existed.

But why I support them is twofold: (1) they’re catering to our community and creating new products; and (2) their customer service is great.

Example of #2: when the Tikka level came out, it didn’t have torque specs published. I torqued the heck out of it and broke it. They laughed, sent me a new one, and published torque specs.

It’s why I bought the new MRC collab rifle within minutes of it dropping. They’re good dudes trying their best, and the quality when right is incredible. The quality when wrong has been fixed quickly.

And to top it all off, they’re an American company.

 

[bojangles808]

not builds but I used them to cerakote and thread a couple barreled actions this past year and they came out excellent. customer service was fantastic.

 

[huntnful]

We are far from a marketing company. The marketing side is Shoot2Hunt. We have 4 gentlemen that build rifles, I would consider that a very small business with no time for marketing.

I've laid out very clearly to the last gentlemen exactly who is working on your rifle. 2 guys on the lathe and 2 doing assembly, and yes Blaine is one of them. Where is it you guys get this info that you base your comments on?

I'll list it out again on this comment so it can be clear:

Blaine Painter and Taylor Thom have been the only 2 chambering rifles at Unknown Munitions for it's entire time in business. Both are absolutely phenomenal machinists, need to clear up that gunsmith word.

There are only 2 other gentlemen on the rifle build team, one is Keaton Lyons who came to UM from Weatherby with 5 years of rifle building and Cerakote experience and has been with us for 2 years. And Alek who is the newest member of the team and also of course is phenomenal at his job.

These are the only gentlemen building rifles and they are very good at what they do!

That’s a great clarification. Obviously the gentleman didn’t know who was building his rifle since he kept saying “gunsmith”. Now he does know them, by their names and what they do and that it’s actually a team of experienced rifle builders, with 1 new employee who is learning the ropes (which is perfectly fine and a necessity with any trade).

I guess I just figured it’s the same thing to be partnered with? Own? Hired? A company that revolves around marketing? I didn’t say it was negative. I’m a customer. As a customer, I see a lot of marketing going on. Which is fine. How else are you supposed to grow/expand? Doesn’t mean from the customer perspective that there isn’t a bunch of marketing and hype trains started around new and existing products.

 

[Unknown Munitions]

I’ve always been pretty blunt and transparent in my assessment of UM.

They have had growing pains with the Rokstock, much of which derives from supply chain ahead of them. And yes, they’ve had some QC issues that shouldn’t have existed.

But why I support them is twofold: (1) they’re catering to our community and creating new products; and (2) their customer service is great.

Example of #2: when the Tikka level came out, it didn’t have torque specs published. I torqued the heck out of it and broke it. They laughed, sent me a new one, and published torque specs.

It’s why I bought the new MRC collab rifle within minutes of it dropping. They’re good dudes trying their best, and the quality when right is incredible. The quality when wrong has been fixed quickly.

And to top it all off, they’re an American company.

Thank you kindly sir for your support!

 

[Unknown Munitions]

not builds but I used them to cerakote and thread a couple barreled actions this past year and they came out excellent. customer service was fantastic.

Thank you sir!

 

[Grizzle]

I've had multiple orders with UM and only one issue/ problem. When I brought it up to them Directly (not on a forum) they went above and beyond to solve it and completely exceeded my expectations of customer support. I have since orderd more products which showed up perfectly and that's saying something coming to Canada. From my understanding and what's been said in the rokstok threads they have recently fired an employee that was a the root of some problems with QC and shipping and things have improved since. I'll continue to support UM for their innovative products built by and for people like myself.

 

[swavescatter]

I had a "dream" 22 Creedmoor Ace/Tikka build commissioned with UM last year. Took around 10 months, but a few months of that wait was due to manufacturing issues with Ace. Unfortunately, the delivered rifle had effectively zero chamber due to a reamer issue (not sure if undersized or simply worn down). Form even talks about his 22 creed with no throat and issues reloading for it.

The primary complaint again tracks to QC, as Blaine knowingly sent out the rifle with throat issues (I spoke to him on the phone and he described it "throating weird" and struggling on the chambering.) My guess is that the reamer was killed by Blaine chambering barrels that had already been nitrided (in my communications with UM they updated me on where my build was in the process, and that it was chambered after nitriding). A few other gunsmiths I spoke to were adamant that they would never let a reamer touch nitrided steel as that would ruin it.

UM offered to fix it of course, but I opted to have the rifle rebarreled by my local gunsmith and we came to an agreement on a partial refund. I'll be selling the no-throat Tikka prefit here in a few weeks as soon as I get it back.

Bottom line for my experience - QC is really bad, customer service is acceptable/good. Hopefully they turn things around with UM, though I'm a bit skeptical that all these spinoff companies are truly separate entities (not just separate CEO's on paper) and not just competition for the skilled labor. Instead of nailing down quality in one endeavor they seem to be making an aggressive push for market coverage. Some great ideas coming out, but I'll keep it local whenever possible going forward.

 

[Unknown Munitions]

I've had multiple orders with UM and only one issue/ problem. When I brought it up to them Directly (not on a forum) they went above and beyond to solve it and completely exceeded my expectations of customer support. I have since orderd more products which showed up perfectly and that's saying something coming to Canada. From my understanding and what's been said in the rokstok threads they have recently fired an employee that was a the root of some problems with QC and shipping and things have improved since. I'll continue to support UM for their innovative products built by and for people like myself.

Thank you sir!

 

[JM151]

Everything I’ve heard so far is that UM will do the right thing when there is an issue……they have integrity which a lot of business don’t.

 

[Unknown Munitions]

I had a "dream" 22 Creedmoor Ace/Tikka build commissioned with UM last year. Took around 10 months, but a few months of that wait was due to manufacturing issues with Ace. Unfortunately, the delivered rifle had effectively zero chamber due to a reamer issue (not sure if undersized or simply worn down). Form even talks about his 22 creed with no throat and issues reloading for it.

The primary complaint again tracks to QC, as Blaine knowingly sent out the rifle with throat issues (I spoke to him on the phone and he described it "throating weird" and struggling on the chambering.) My guess is that the reamer was killed by Blaine chambering barrels that had already been nitrided (in my communications with UM they updated me on where my build was in the process, and that it was chambered after nitriding). A few other gunsmiths I spoke to were adamant that they would never let a reamer touch nitrided steel as that would ruin it.

UM offered to fix it of course, but I opted to have the rifle rebarreled by my local gunsmith and we came to an agreement on a partial refund. I'll be selling the no-throat Tikka prefit here in a few weeks as soon as I get it back.

Bottom line for my experience - QC is really bad, customer service is acceptable/good. Hopefully they turn things around with UM, though I'm a bit skeptical that all these spinoff companies are truly separate entities (not just separate CEO's on paper) and not just competition for the skilled labor. Instead of nailing down quality in one endeavor they seem to be making an aggressive push for market coverage. Some great ideas coming out, but I'll keep it local whenever possible going forward.

I will let Blaine chime in here @UM GM ......but as I remember this, the reamer was throated incorrectly (not as ordered). It was a new, fresh reamer. Factory ammo was fired from the rifle safely, and it was released from our normal QC process.

We didn't know at the time that the reamer was throated incorrectly until we chambered one for @Formidilosus and attempted to shoot long ammo.......after diagnosing the problem we immediately had the corrected reamer ordered.

In regards to before or after Nitride, I don't have those details but that didn't cause the 0 throat issue.

I'm always short on words when issues like this arise, we do everything we can and solve the problem, and people summarize our entire QC process as really bad.

We will gladly purchase the barrel back from you, unless we already refunded it.

 

[swavescatter]

We will gladly purchase the barrel back from you, unless we already refunded it.

I won't hash out the details here, but I will be in touch to take you up on your offer - that's excellent customer service.