Lancaster Arms recently announced that, as of January 1, 2011, they will no longer be selling firearms direct to the public. Whether this is actually true or not remains to be seen, since - as those of you who follow this blog already know - you can't really believe anything Lancaster says anyway.
But if it is true, one can only wonder: "Lancaster, what took you so long?"
Those who have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with Lancaster Arms during the last two years are keenly aware that Lancaster was never set-up or equipped to do business with the public; a point enforced by the fact that even though Lancaster Arms' victims were often promised ship times measured in weeks, in reality it often took months to get a rifle shipped. The buffoons who work at Lancaster Arms, headed by Chief Buffoon Chet Durda, couldn't seem to do simple stuff like, oh, I don't know...remember to actually build and ship the rifle after they were paid for it?
This new situation at Lancaster (again, assuming it's true) should solve one of Lancaster's problems. That is, the problem of pissed off retail consumers who were systematically lied to by Chet Durda. Now, Chet will have to lie directly to FFL holders, who I suspect (and hope) will be less tolerant of his mountains of pure, unadulterated bullshit.
Does this all mean I might now by a Lancaster Arms AK rifle?
Not just "No.", but "Hell no!" With this change, I still expect that Lancaster will continue to over-promise and under-deliver. The only difference, is that there will just be a new middleman (the buyer's FLL or dealer) involved now. I still don't trust Lancaster's products, many of which have proven to be shoddily built. And I for certain still don't trust Chet Durda. He is in this business strictly for the money, and if that means you might get a crappy AK because he doesn't want to spend the money on building it correctly, he doesn't care. (Those of you who want an example of this, need only look at the post below, where one of Lancaster's AK's blew itself apart due to sub-standard build quality.) As far as I'm concerned, doing business with Lancaster Arms is still a huge, huge gamble and mistake .
Lancaster Arms has essentially lost the trust of the AK community, and if you doubt that, just go to any of the major AK forums and mention Lancaster Arms. On nearly every forum, you'll hear variations of the same thing: "Those guys went downhill bigtime!" "They have a history of ripping people off." "Don't believe a word Lancaster tells you!" "Lancaster's guns are bottom of the barrel, perhaps even worse than Century." "Avoid at all cost!"
Whatever you do, don't be lulled into a false sense of security that because you ordered your Lancaster gun from a dealer, you won't have any problems. The same person is still in charge at Lancaster. As long as he is running the show at Lancaster Arms, then a Lancaster Arms rifle simply won't be worth owning. Any questions?
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I'm glad I stumbled over this blog! I have been an AR guy for 20 plus years, but recently became interested in AK's, and was gonna treat myself to one for my 40th birthday. I found Lancaster arms, and actually traded Emails with Chet Durda. His responses were quick, confident, and he seemed knowledgeable. He addressed all of my concerns succinctly and cited the numerous builds Lancaster does for the State Department. He even told me that he would give me a special "law enforcement" discount.
ReplyDeleteI started researching the company, found this blog, was able to substantiate the information found herein, and promptly removed Lancaster Arms from consideration.
Thanks!! Really, Thanks!!
Glad to help, James.
ReplyDeleteYes, Chet Durda puts on a very convincing front when you first contact him. With me, he even talked to me for 20 minutes before I placed my order. At the time, I was very impressed with his apparent knowledge. So impressed, that I placed my order. Chet assured me my rifle would be delivered within 15 business days.
3 MONTHS later, with no rifle and after a series of increasingly ridiculous excuses, I realized I had been conned. Even worse, on one of my phone calls, Chet Durda told me my rifle was done, and was literally sitting right in front of him to be shipped "tomorrow". Needless to say, "tomorrow" never came. And as I later found out, Lancaster never even had the parts to build my gun.
I'm really a pretty easy going guy. I understand delays. And I understand honest mistakes. But I DON'T understand, and certainly don't appreciate, outright wanton dishonesty. If Durda wasn't selling bottom-of-the-barrel rifles, he'd make a killing selling used cars.
Given my extensive collection of records detailing people who have been ripped off by him, he can't pass off his actions as mere incompetence, either. The complaints I have show a clear record of someone who knew exactly what he was doing. I sorta view Durda as the "Bernie Madoff of the Firearms Industry". At first glance, a seemingly upstanding guy. Until you find out that underneath, something much darker exist.
If you want a good AK, check out Arsenal, Red Jacket, Vector, or any of the non-Lancaster builds at Atlantic Firearms. I have no relation to Atlantic Firearms; they just happen to have one of the best selections online. A few of the Century Arms builds are good too, like the Yugo rifles or milled Polish rifles (although those are the only Century rifles I'd buy).
I love Chet's BS line about how he builds AK rifles for the State Department. I had no idea the U.S. government bought crappy kit-build AK rifles from used, demilled parts. I was always under the impression that when they bought AK rifles, they purchased factory rifles from official foreign or other NATO sources.
ReplyDeleteChet will say anything to sell a rifle. That guy is the biggest crook around.
i've been waiting for my rifle now for over 6 months(was returned under the recall)! Was supposed to have shipped 4 times now. I contacted the Attorney general and local police. Next step is to contact the BATF.
ReplyDeleteI believe my rifle is lost, after saying it was complete and would be shipped, 6 weeks later they asked my what color it was and what kind of furniture it had on it!
stay away from these losers.
My son has a defective Lancaster Ak-74. Took him a month to get shipping info from Lancaster for them to make repairs. Been at Lancaster for several weeks now and he can't get an answer as to when it will be repaired and returned! What a pain...........
ReplyDeleteGood bblog post
ReplyDelete