M14 Forum

Candyman · January 13th, 2012, 12:38 PM

I know that most of you know the name Red Jacket Firearms and know that they do the TV show Sons of Guns. I'm no big fan of the TV show, too much Hollywood BS for me, But I do know that they make some great weapons.
I have known Will for close to 20 years and will tell you that he is not a people person, but he is honest.
Will is a gun builder and that is what he loves to do. He has never been the guy that stands behind the counter to sell guns.
Know I have another friend (Tommy) that has been selling guns for as long as I have known him, which is about 25 years are so. Hell, I even worked for him for three years before I became a LEO.
Tommy is the owner of B&J Guns in Denham Springs LA. I have bought several guns from his store over the years. B&J Guns in now the distributor for Red Jacket Firearms. I stopped by there today and looked at the Red Jacket ARs he had in stock. These are some sweet ARs and I know what will be on my 2012 Christmas list.

heyjowee · January 13th, 2012, 12:47 PM

Looks familiar....
http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/p...elBlack+Finish

Get the s&w and have an extra $141.95 for a better looking flash hider, a few mags, and some ammo. That yhm qd mount can be had for $80.

I would personally never ever purchase anything with a red jacket stamp on it. The show gives me a headache and makes the gun community look pretty stupid. I wouldn't sell my company reputation for 15 min of fame.

CAVman · January 13th, 2012, 01:11 PM

Actually, I DID purchase something with 'Red Jacket' on it...

Years...Before The TV Show...

I wanted a can for an AK Pistol...

(Don't Ask Me Why I Get Into These Things...I'm An Addict And I Know It!)

NOBODY else I could find would even talk to me about Threading a can for the AK Pistol...
Except for some that wanted to 'custom machine' an Adapter !?

Finally Ended Up With Will and Stephanie...
They Made Me Exactly What I Wanted...(Wow! What A Concept!

)

The Can is not the 'prettiest' can I have...but it is very sturdy and reliable.
The biggest problem I had was my local Class III Dealer at the time was a total jerk about dealing with Red Jacket, and literally lied to me about the status of it several times...

Anyway...I can't say I'm a fan of the TV Show...I watched it a couple of times but wasn't drawn in...
But as to Will Himself...I Have Nothing But Good To Say About The Man!
Told Me What He Was Gonna Do, And Did It!

CAVman in WYoming

huntinghawk · January 13th, 2012, 02:20 PM

Please keep posts on topic which is their AR. This thread has nothing to do with the show or the characters on the show.

HH

oldman · January 13th, 2012, 04:35 PM

You know that lower reciever looks like the ones I buy at auction arms for $60.00. Oldmarine

boomer1983 · January 13th, 2012, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldman

You know that lower reciever looks like the ones I buy at auction arms for $60.00. Oldmarine

yeah it definitly looks like an aero precision lower.

patriot armory 308 · January 13th, 2012, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boomer1983

yeah it definitly looks like an aero precision lower.

No, its hand carved by the artisans at RJF, The rifle will be a real ''game changer'' and will bring them Billions of dollars in military contracts.

Swamp Rat · January 13th, 2012, 05:10 PM

So are their products really good or just plain crap? Does anyone else have any experience with them?

Albud3 · January 13th, 2012, 05:12 PM

While they do look good, I think I'll pass on them. The biggest reason is the fact that they used uppers and lowers from two different manufacturers and it looks as though they were painted to match colors. If I'm paying money for a semi custom AR, I expect the receivers to be from the same company. It just looks amateurish to have them mismatched as bad as those two are. I'd pass as well on the plastic MagPull MOE furniture...it just doesn't tickle my fancy. And the BUIS looks like the MagPull plastic offering; something that important should be metal. And what kind of flash suppressor is that? What is it supposed to do better than the A2 hider?
Sorry, but for a rifle that looks as if it costs at least $1200 (hard to make out the price on that tag) I'd expect more attention to detail and better build quality. For that money, I'd be able to build my own a lot better than that.

colder · January 13th, 2012, 05:15 PM

Who is forging their lower, I know they are not?

bigblock · January 13th, 2012, 06:55 PM

This is a made for TV special AR. Its other companies parts put together to make ARs, like OCC does with motorcycles. Do they make any of the parts for this rifle? I would buy a Red Jacket AK.

Mikey · January 13th, 2012, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Albud3

While they do look good, I think I'll pass on them. The biggest reason is the fact that they used uppers and lowers from two different manufacturers and it looks as though they were painted to match colors. If I'm paying money for a semi custom AR, I expect the receivers to be from the same company. It just looks amateurish to have them mismatched as bad as those two are. I'd pass as well on the plastic MagPull MOE furniture...it just doesn't tickle my fancy. And the BUIS looks like the MagPull plastic offering; something that important should be metal. And what kind of flash suppressor is that? What is it supposed to do better than the A2 hider?
Sorry, but for a rifle that looks as if it costs at least $1200 (hard to make out the price on that tag) I'd expect more attention to detail and better build quality. For that money, I'd be able to build my own a lot better than that.

I'm not really taking one side or the other cause I've never used any of their products but I did ask about the flash hider a while back - it's their QD muzzle break to mount their suppressors on.

Mindfield · January 13th, 2012, 08:05 PM

looks like a YHM attachment/hider to me

http://yhm.net/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=7

Candyman · January 14th, 2012, 12:22 AM

Not every rifle is everyones cup of tea. I know a guy that thinks, if it doesn't have COLT on it , it aint worth nothing. He also told me that all Smith & Wesson ever made was crap.
I have fired guns that Will has built and fired rounds through his suppressors. His guns work great and his cans are quite.
I gave two friends that have had custom work dune at Red jacket. One of them had two rifles cut down, an AR and a Ruger Mini 14. Both guns look great and shoot great.

Albud3 · January 15th, 2012, 01:24 PM

Candyman: While I have no doubt that Will and his guys do good work and send out reliable weapons, I still have a couple of problems with the ARs shown in your pictures. While neither are major, they just make me wonder about some things.

The first I have already commented on: the mismatched receivers. While 90% of customers will never notice such things, to me it raises questions about the quality of the parts used at RJF. A firearms manufacturer must find the lowest priced parts of good quality in order to make a profit and stay in business. However, the effort and cost of finding matching parts (fit and finish) would only add minimally to the finished weapon and probably with less cost and time than it took to paint them. If they skimp on this, what else do they skimp on? More than likely nothing, but it does raise the question. BTW, I've built/repaired/modified somewhere around 50+ ARs for myself, friends and others. The only times I've used mismatched receivers are when the owners bought the parts themselves. Most of them had never noticed it until shown and some went back to get matching parts even if it cost them.

The other is the use of their QD suppressor mount/flash hider as seemingly standard equipment. While it may seem very improbable, if the wrong person sees this the owner may get unwanted attention from certain agencies. Personal experience: in '84 I shot a HP match at a local range with a newly built AR that doubled twice during the first round. I got off the line and replaced the sear, hammer and trigger and was able to finish the match with no other problems. About a week later I got a call from "Bob", a BATF agent I'd talked to in the past, asking me about the "automatic" rifle I shot at the range. I explained to him the problem, that it was fixed (bad trigger) and the part returned to the seller for replacement. Seems someone at the shoot had called the BATF about an 'illegal' M-16. Luckily, "Bob" knew me and called to see what was up, end of story. Imagine if a new hot shot that wanted to make a name for himself had gotten involved. At least a "friendly" visit from them, at worst a "no knock" on a known "gun nut". Nowadays, in the aggressively anti-gun regime we have in DC, with the BATFE always looking for any reason to illegally tighten the screws on law-abiding makers and owners, why give them any reason to suspect a completely innocent, law-abiding shooter has an illegal suppressor? All it takes is an over zealous agent, a supervisor looking for advancement, a liberal judge with very loose "reasonable suspicion" standards and someone gets a visit from your "friendly neighborhood BATFE SWAT" team at 0300 hrs and hope nothing goes bad. There are too many self-righteous, self-serving "public servants" willing to break the law to impose their law in this administration.

Plus, a screw-on mount is just so "old technology"! They loosen up during long strings of fire (has to do with different materials and heat absorption rates) and have a tendency to "launch" your $500+ "can" downrange damaged! Ask me how I know! If you're going to advertise your other products in such a manner, at least show you're up to date. The twist-on cam lock mounts as made by Gem-Tech and SureFire are much more reliable and secure than any screw-on mount.

While none of these problems are deal killers to the majority of new gun buyers, to those of us "in the know" and who look at the details, they do raise questions. The RJF ARs do look good and are more than likely very well made and reliable (unless Kris worked on them), but I think I'll pass.