Red Jacket

[railsplitter]

Have any Members seen some of the Red Jacket Show? I've seen some postings here. Quadmount MG42 creation . Must have a SOT 7 (?) license {building FA '42's from kits}

[Assassin42]

Do you mean Sons Of Guns on the Discovery Channel?

They do seem to do a lot of builds involving MG-42s on the show. The quad mount for the 42 was cool. I do wonder what the client's job was. Is that mount now on the bow of a ship or maybe riding in the back of a gun truck?

[Assassin42]

Since Red Jacket is used to being in front of the camera, maybe they are the ones that could do a "How To Build An MG-42 Video". Vince and Flem could do it, or them. One video on a semi-auto build using a parts kit and the receiver halves. And another on a full-auto build using the 3 cut receiver. Have parts identification in it, the build process step-by-step, and finish with the quality checks like gauging. Maybe have guest appearances or segments from some of the people from the forum like jbaum to give some history, etc.. I hope they would sell it for less than $20 though, the parts cost enough already for a build.

[drooling idiot]

Flem and Will are forum members.
They learned how to build 42s right here by asking questions and reading. Most can learn the same way.

A video might have been a good seller back when kits were more common.

[flemgunner]

Damn wish Id have thought of that

[railsplitter]

Sons Of Guns on the Discovery Channel That's the Guys

[longhorn109]

I have been watching this show for a few weeks now and it is really cool. I have just watched the one were Will was taking on a new member of staff and the new guy takes out a semi M53 and what looked like a Bren. My first thought was I wonder if he is a member here? Then when I heard his name I thought Flem as in Flemgunner! And Will is a member too, I tell you it is getting to be wall to wall celebrities around here!

[Assassin42]

Did an online search to see what updates there were concerning Red Jacket. This pulled up as 1 of the first results:

http://www.complaintslist.com/guns-fire ... -firearms/

If even 1 of these complaints is true I would seriously think twice before ordering anything from them. There does seem to be a pattern through these complaints of messed up builds, very bad customer service, and extremely slow build times. If any of it is true Red Jacket should seriously look into correcting these deficiencies. Personally I hope it is just smear by competitors.

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

They should make a decision over what they want to do, be reality TV stars or gunsmithing. They can't do both effectively and keep the entire volume of their customer base happy. Their operation is just too small to do both and keep the service quality at the top. The gun reality show that is truly annoying as heck is Family Guns. IMA just charges way too much for everything. Their the Pawn Stars of militaria and watching the host acting as excited as a 12-year-old on sugar candy about every little thing he plays with or talks about without a moments rest is grating on the nerves.

[JBaum]

For all the reality gun shows, it needs to be remembered that they are actually an entertainment show, and have little to do with reality. Red Jacket Firearms had a good reputation before their TV show. The extreme increase in their business was overwhelming, I'm sure. Where can a small gun/machine shop suddenly get qualified people to do work that is so specialized? Finding 10 people qualified to work on guns just isn't that easy, as shown by the difficulty they had just in finding Flem. I'd guess they're still short-staffed. The doofus types who want in on the excitement and buy from them would also be the ones who don't have expectations based on reality, because they think the TV show IS reality. It's not. I'd guess many of the complaints are legitimate, but there's a back story that isn't being told.

The TV director is there to make things look interesting and exciting, and encourage the guys to act high on guns, goofy on guns, and stupid on guns, just to make the show interesting for the boobs who watch who don't have a clue about the real world of guns, licensing, and ATF.

The owners and employees at IO and Red Jacket have to be a little smarter than they appear on TV, or they couldn't stay in business. For them, the TV shows are free advertising. It's good for business if they can control it. It has exceeded expectations and abilities for some, obviously.

It's all about entertainment, not reality. Give them a break, and realize that they have enough brains to have been successful in business for years. What's on the TV is not reality for them or us. We know what's real and not real, it's the non-gun people who think it's all true. Red Jacket's business troubles started the same time the TV show started. Once they get the business smoothed out, I'd think they could handle both sides of the situation. IO is what it is, and they're having a better time with it because they don't depend on manufacturing for a living like Red Jacket.

[Assassin42]

They had to have had a good reputation in order to get the show in the first place. Which meant they had to do quality work and (at a minimum) decent customer service. A problem I see with all of the "reality TV show stars" is that they let it go to their heads. They leave behind the qualities that got them on the show in the first place. Especially if it is a business. Hopefully the people at Red Jacket don't let it get that far.

A quadriplegic friend of mine contacted Red Jacket about seeing if they could build him a new mount for his wheelchair. He got a reply back within a couple weeks telling him they were not accepting new jobs and they were trying to fill current orders. That the back log at the time was at least 6 months. That is being truthful and is a sign of decent customer service. Some of the complaints show people being told their order was currently being worked on and would be delivered in 3 weeks. A couple months later the complainant calls back and is told his order hasn't even been started, that is a sign of clearly bad customer service. If it was just the 1 complaint showing that I would pass it off as a smear but I have seen the same type of complaint repeatedly on multiple sites. That is not a good thing.

I agree that they should drop the show and concentrate on going back to fulfilling orders with quality builds. At least until they can get enough employees to handle the huge flux of orders from people doing it just because of the show.

Which is more important: being remembered for building quality firearms or being remembered as burned out has been TV stars?

[shred]

Sadly, if you can get the merchandising deals, the TV show is worth a whole pile more cash. The wrench-throwing motorcycle dudes make millions on T-shirts and accessories. The profit on the bikes is miniscule by comparison.

[42rocker]

"""Which is more important: being remembered for building quality firearms or being remembered as burned out has been TV stars?"""

Which pays more???? Is the first question that pops into my mind.

Really there are at least one or two good builders there on the show. We have seen some of their good work and ideas shared with us here on this site over the years.

Later 42rocker

[KABAR2]

I was reading somewhere that the owner of Redjacket had lost his FFL for unaccounted firearms on his books and that they are using someone elses FFL to run the company and the show......one of the things I don't like about the show is how they present things.... they built a full auto M2 50 cal .... what do they do? they show one of the gun smiths taking a semi-auto plate and milling the denial island off to turn it into a full auto plate.... So now every bubba out there is going to think hey that cool I can just remove the little island and have me a machinegun..... you don't need to show things like that even if you are licensed and can do it! Just say that we machined a new full auto RSP that's all that had to be done. I don't watch the show after that. I think they can end up doing more harm than good...