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When gunmakers go bad.

I'd just like to set the record straight.

This Gunmaker is far from gone bad. We are so damn busy at the moment that we often work untill 03.00.

Roedale Precision was run as a part time business along side a full time job, in mission control for the European Space Agency) untill the end of October 07.
The distance between locations was 370km.

1st Nov I was officialy unemployed and there then followed a couple of months burocracy through the transfer from part to full time, EU business grant scheme, and all the paperwork crap that went with it and legaly during this time i was not able to work. From 3rd Jan the business was full time in name and nature. The only problem bieng the size of the premesis was far to small, Fine for a part time operation but no use for a full time shop with space for employees and customers alike.

Now having bieng let down by one building contractor after another and there bieng a lack of available tradesmen in the region we where presented with a problem.
We badly need the new workshop started and finished asap and finnished before the winter is a must.
I ended up digging foundations, shoveling concrete and bricklaying, tiling roofs, afixing guttering, laying drainage piping etc,
all instead of what I should be doing, which is building rifles and looking after customers!!!

The building work is almost finnished,all thats left is fit windows and doors,plaster the walls, fit electric sockets, lay the flooring and fit the security system.
Then we can move in.
Its been a long haul and a right royal pain in the ass.
As with any building project things never go to plan and as a result, contactability and time to dedicate to customers has suffered as a result, we have had to cut the "telephone availability time" down to just friday afternoons as its impossible to operate machinery, make calls and supervise / carry out building work all in one go.

Untill the new building is finished,which should be within the next 3 weeks) the riflesmithing operation is spread over 3 locations, the furthest away is 1 hour drive. As you can imagine, much lost time occurs traveling and not bieng onsite all the time.
The new building will house all equipment under one roof and will cut rifle production time by almost 50%.

So Gentlemen, yes things haven't gone smoothly and yes we've pissed some customers off, and for that i'd like to appologise sincerely.
But I would like to state for a fact that no one has been stiffed, ripped off, or anything the like,exept me that is, ive been ripped off and stiffed a couple of times lately)
We've done the absolute best we could under the circumstances, yes it wasn't good enough, and i'm the 1st to admit that.
So please, bear with us, the light is at the end of the tunnel, Rome wasn't built in a day and we are almost there at this end.

Infact the webshop went online today.

All the workload was way to much for one guy to handle, hence I've now got an employee and another one starting soon. I will be concentrating on Riflesmithing and rifle developement work as well as rifle customers customer service.

Tom,ex German Military, Dipl Engineer by trade, life long shooter and hunter) is running the webshop, taking care of CAD CAM work on the many new products we have in line,infact we've brought several out this year already), he also does all the pc type stuff like website, the rifle photograpthy and the contact stuff to other firms who work for us on things like anodizing, CNC production etc,

Geof, Ex Royal Marines, life long shooter and hunter) who will start work fairly soon full time as a general dogs body, phone, post and everything that the rest of us dont get done etc. It is also planned that he attends a Duracoat certified user course in the USA so he can take over painting of stocks.

Geof and Tom will share the accessories customer service role between them.

Angus,longlowdog) last i heared from you you where going on holiday,
I wrote back asking you to let me know when you are back, so we could get settled up and get the finnished rifle on its way.
If you want pics i can send you some as soon as Tom has done them.
Don't forget that the long delivery time is due to the originaly specified rifle action not bieng supplied to us in anything like a timely manner, the order was cancelled at 24months waited by us.
With your agreement we swapped to another action and continued)

So the wait was due to supply just as much as it is to do with our building work. You are recieving the original spec McMillan stock, as well as an RCS system,free of charge by the way to make up for the wait).

The advert in Targer Sports, as well as the rest of the UK shooting press has been stopped. We simply consider it as a waste of money that could be put to good use some where else, like paying for a young lassie to help with the paperwork).

With between 10000 and 13800 website visitors per month we think that we no longer need to advertise reqularly in the press. We have banners on websites and are looking at expanding that as soon as we get ontop of the workload.,which should all be in hand by Christmas.

Justin, have I ever let you down yet? as soon as i can get my hands on a 12-50x56PMII you will get one. I have them on order, I spoke to the wholesaler the other day, they haven't recieved any yet.

Gents, give a guy a break, Ive had a lot of shit to deal with, including the personal stuff that a lot of you know about connected with my parents illnesses and my wife) over the last couple of years whilst building up my business. Im a genuine stand up bloke who has just had a string of bad luck and hard knocks of late.

I worked my self almost to a burn out before taking the big step to go full time and i've been full time all of 9 months. I had to find the right help and I've had 1 employee part time since June an another will be starting as soon as he can, its dependant on the closing down of the local Garrison) and we will certainly be employing a secretary at some point too.

In that time we've designed, had manufactured and marketed several new products, built several rifles,see gallery for pics, they are not all posted on there yet but there are several) built a new manufacturing facilty with our own bear hands, me, the wife and son that is, with little help from any builders / joiners)

The light is at the end of the tunnel, within a short space of time things should settle down to an efficient working routine and we will do our best to provide the level of customer service wich is so often lacking in the gun trade today. We aim to offer a refreshing, innovative and competent service, with excellent quality. Your support is key to our success and our success is beneficial to the whole of the European shooting community as well as further afield.

WE ARE DOING OUR VERY BEST.

Regards Pete
 
Pete, you said you would invoice me before I left. Also action changes and stocks aside I have ben told that the second spec' rifle was ready for shipping mid Jan'.
As you had my money on trust for thirty months, would it have hurt to have trusted me and began the transfer of the rifle.
I am deeply sorry it took a public airing to settle this, it is not my way for I try to be a 'grey man' going unnoticed and hoping to attract no attention as I go about my business.Airing my thoughts has left me unable to sleep at night,,just as the thought of loosing money from our family account did) I have never 'called out' anyone before.
If this can be settled honourably then I will gladly post another thread telling this site what a wonderful thing a Roedale rile is.Fair in=fair out.
Longlowdog,,Angus in Bonnie Scotland).
 
30 months is unacceptable, I agree with that, bear in mind that the deposit paid contains none of the profit from which a riflesmith must live, untill the rifle is delivery ready no living is earned.
But don't loose sight of whats actualy involved.

The original rifle was to be built on a remington type clone action. After 24months the action hadn't arrived. Its impossible to build a rifle without the required action.

We where starting to have production of our own actions, to combat this very problem of suppy) so with Angus ok we swapped to one of our own, more expensive,but at no extra charge to the customer I might add) actions. As i had already threaded and chambered the barrel to the spec of the 1st action this meant a new barrel. The new actions had a couple of teething troubles until they where right, this had to be ironed out.
No one inletted for the new action, exept the machinist who makes the actions for us. Which meant waiting for his time schedule., this problem will /is now addressed with our own machinery in the new workshop) and also a few months later we where developing the RCS for the Avenger actions and Angus wanted one, this also has had us waiting on parts, powder coating etc.
Basicaly what i'm saying is that this rifle is an absolute one off, never been built before item, Its not a Remington clone that some one slapped a prethreaded and chambered barrel on, screwed into a prebedded stock and called it a custom rifle.. it has been built from scratch piece by piece, That takes time.

Add the business set up, stress, building work and everything else to that and damn we are late..

The communication with Angus hasn't been easy, he's a difficult man to get on the phone or email his self, having had several pc problems, his house struck by lightening blowing his pc on at least 1 occasion. I always felt however that there was a trust between us on this joint project.

End of the story is the rifle can be shipped next week.,german unification day this week and it would sit in a depot over the weekend if i ship this week)

and Angus, no worries about public airing, ive honestly nothing to hide. Things haven't gone right over the last couple of years, but despite all the setbacks ive delivered some outstandingly accurate, high quality rifles, at a price that no other QUALIFIED riflesmith in Europe can touch, and if you look at the delivery times of the other QUALIFIED smiths, your looking at not far off the same delivery time, and thats without any setbacks !!!
What does piss me off is that some moan about my delivery times, but forget that what i'm offering for a service isn't just slapping parts together,
Find another Riflesmith in Europe who is fitting badger mag systems to Tikka 595's and other actions,by machining the actions to accept the mags) custom engraving, developing mag and stock systems for actions that dont already have them.Developing after market parts and accessories for anything other than remingtons.. custom inletting stocks. Find another who will helicaly flute barrels and bolts !! Own action developement, own supressor developement.. take a look and i bet you can count the smiths on half the fingers on one had. Then take a look at the pricing structure, comparable?

Anyhow, Angus, i'll email you and we can get the matter finalised.
All the best. Pete
 
Pete, thanks for posting. I had confidence when I saw your named dropped that there would be an explanation for the issues.

I hope your life changes continue smoothly and I get to lay my hands on a Roedale action one day :)

Cheers,
Jason
 

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