I was surprised to see on their website that they admitted the problems they have had.

cool story bro, got a link?

From the Lancaster site:


NOTICE:  AK74  Barrel issues

There has been problems with some barrels installed in AK 74 rifles built by Lancaster. We now have a good feel for the cause and scope of the problem. Below is an explanation of the problems and the actions we are currently taking to correct them.

Problem 1: Oversized gas hole. Some AK 74 barrels we incorrectly drilled to a larger then spec gas hole. This leads to backward movement of the rear trunion, resulting in the dust cover coming loose and disfigure rear trunion rivets.

We have retrieved the majority of these rifles and replaced the barrels with the correct gas port specification. If any of these symptoms are present please contact us for inspection and barrel replacement

Additionally we have made arrangements with a new barrel manufacture for our AK 74 line of rifles.

Problem 2: Key-holing

Our former barrel manufacture provided us with some barrels that were out of spec. ( Rifling or bore, was not cut to correct specifications ) To date, we have  only had to replace a small number of these barrels However, anyone experiencing this problem should contact us for a barrel replacement.

The AK 47 rifles and barrels are not affected.

Our apologies for any inconvenience to our customers. We will repair or place any of our products at no cost to our customers. We stand by our products with a limited life time warranty regardless if it is convenient or not.

Best Regards,

Chet Durda

Lancaster Arms

ETA
Lancaster site Towards the bottom of the page.

Luckily, I'm fluent in Lancastereese.  Let me translate Lancaster's most recent announcement for you:

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-

"Notice: We Lied Before. Yes, Our AK-74 Rifles DO Suck:

Look, we know that we told several of you that there were no problems with our rifles.  And we know that we told a few of you that all the bad things being said about us on the Internet were just "Internet Urban Legends".

But apparently, a few people have called our bluff, as all of the popular AK forums (and gun forums in general) are buzzing about how much Lancaster Arms sucks.  And besides, our sales are falling off a cliff!  We had better engage in some damage control QUICK so that we can keep our doors open.  After all, if I - Chet Durda - can't spend my days lying my ass off to everyone who calls - what in the hell am I going to do with all my time.  Kick puppies? (Only in my dreams.)

Yes, we ignored this problem for as long as we could, and pretended as if it didn't exist.  But truth be told, we've had so many charge-backs on these (and other) rifles, that we lost our credit card merchant account, and had people complain to the Arizona Attorney General's office.  Yeah, we tried to sweep this problem under the rug, and we told several of our customers on the phone that we had no idea what might be causing these problems.  But of course, that was just one more lie from us.  We knew EXACTLY what was causing these problems.  We were just hoping that all you jackasses (oh, excuse me..."customers") wouldn't put two and two together, and figure out that we were full of shit.  Apparently we were wrong.

But rest assured, we will fix your broke-ass rifle!  Even if it's not convenient for us!  Sure, we might just ship another broken-ass rifle right back to you, just as we've done to a few other jackasses (whoops, I mean "customers".)  We're classy like that!  And when you call, we also might give you some attitude on the phone because, well...we're really stressed out these days that people have FINALLY figured out that all of us here at Lancaster are COMPLETELY FULL OF SHIT!

So if you have a problem, call us.  Sure, unless you're buying something, you won't actually be able to talk to me, Chet Durda.  I tell my office staff to say "He's in a meeting" anytime someone calls looking for me.  And in this regard, I've even been caught red-handed lying before.  I don't want to talk to you unless you've got money for me!  But if by some stroke of luck you get to talk to me personally, ask me how all those military sales are going!  Better yet, ask me if I've ever sold a single AK rifle to the US military!  But beware...I might, uh, well, "be less than entirely truthful" when it comes to such things.

In conclusion, yes...we at Lancaster are in a pickle right now.  Word has spread (and it's still spreading) that we are bad news.  In fact, if you Google "Chet Durda", you will find out that I'm not exactly the most trustworthy guy in the world.  But look...I really care about all you jackasses (damn...I mean, "customers"), so please hold your nose, pretend as if you don't care about little things like "honesty, "integrity" and "ethics", and give me your money!  I'll make you a REAL nice rifle, and I promise...it'll ship tomorrow!  I'm Chet Durda...would I lie to you?!?

My very bestest, bestest most goodest and bestest regards,
Chet Durda

P.S.  If you're not interested in one of my crap rifles, can I interest you in a nice car I have for sale?  It's a really nice 1985 Yugo, and this baby is CHERRY!  I'll even throw in free floor mats!  What'll it take to get this in your garage?  Oh, those aren't rust holes, they're "air vents".  And you've heard of "anti-lock brakes"?  Well this gem has "anti-lock doors".  It's the latest thing!  They aren't building these collector models anymore!  Its only got twenty-seven and a few zero miles.  And because I like you, I'll let it go for $9,999.  I'm Chet Durda...would I lie to you?"            

Say it isn't so....I thought it was all just Internet Urban Legend.

Who wants to take a shot at one of their heat treated milled receivers?

I have to laugh so hard - It is so funny I think they had no other choice to do this with the few complaints (this is a joke) they have gotten. What a joke this is. Way to late for them to make any statement to turn this around. If it was just for this issue may be but how will they address the other issues. I can't wait to read that statement.

That is just funny right there.

Where are the Lancaster fan boys now?

Key holing barrels
Over sized gas ports
Bad batch of rivets

What were some of the other issues?

They should stop building any rifles until all the returned rifles are fixed to the buyers satisfaction.

Atlantic Firearms and Aim should return all stock to Lancaster and not sell any more of these rifles until they have all been inspected for any issues.  That would prevent any possible buyers from receiving a potentially dangerous firearm.

All along Lancaster Arms is hurtng  really bad . The internet has really tip the scale . No one can escape selling crappy product s ( if one has to succeed in business nowadays.
So im glad they have ackhowleged and will proceed to replace the right spec  barrel  and rear trunnion. What else could there be once I  get it back and shoot another 400 rds after the fact?  I hope this is the end of it. LOL

You are correct this would be the right thing to do for Atlantic and AIM however I do not believe that this is going to happen. Technically a good company would also contact all the Customers which they sold one of these Rifles to meaning AIM and Atlantic should contact everybody that purchased these Rifles to get those back either straight to Lancaster or to them. Also Lancaster should contact everybody that purchase a Rifle from them (again a good Company that is focused on its Customers and not just the bottom line would do something like this especially when it is a Firearm that could cause serious injury) this should actually be considered a Recall in my opinion. I am wondering what people or organizations would be interested in what Lancaster has posted Online perhaps the Consumer Protection Agency, the BBB will not be able to do anything about this. It would also be in the best interest of Atlantic and AIM to post this info in there respective Forums to let people know but I think this is not going to happen my guess is that they consider this to be a Lancaster problem. Well will see how it will play out.
 

Its just a matter of time someone's face will be injured and its too late the hero. Lancaster Arms should act now to recall all these bad barreled 74s or they will get their hands full in court and off the court. AIMS and Atlantic as co sellers of this brand must suggest to Lancaster Arms to go ahead and take the next step. Dont wait too long to cover up these flaws and substandard products. It will bite someone and end up biting them in turn.

This is all a pretty sad situation. Lancaster really had potential to be great ak builders!!!  I still own one of the "russian red" ak-47's and after 1k rounds, it is still as solid as ever. Of course, this is one of the early builds, back before the election and they actually gave a crap about quality. I started to get one of the RR's when they first came out. Now, Im glad I didnt!!  Whew!!!!    

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.....HE HE HE... So im guessing that ALL those military contract guns (ak-74's) will be shipped back to them.. and the wait time for YOUR repairs will be around  7-9 months...  just a question/guess.. your call!

  I have one question.

How does a company get Govt. Contracts when their workers:

 A.  Don't know how to measure a HOLE ?.

 B.  Don't inspect critical parts received from subcontracters ?

Because Chet knows how to dazzle the brass:








 

Edited to add someone should post the Lancaster message as a sticky here and in the Aim, Atlantic, and Bulgarain sections end of edit. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! What a bunch of bullshit issue a damn factory recall before someone gets hurt shooting one of these things!!!!!! They retrieved the majority of these rifles bullshit on that too.  At least 2 barrel types are now reporting problems and the ones they "retrieved" were sent back by shooters and at least in my case and some others were told to keep the damn things. Even as late as March 17th Erik from Aim was saying they've shipped Hundreds of these guns without issues and that Lancaster was currently getting dogged out online and people were getting worried about getting a bad one. Damn right I'm dogging them out online because I don't want anyone to make the same mistake I made and I don't want anyone to get hurt. Here's the link to that BTW it's the last post on this page. http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=2&f=217&t=186034&page=2 The same goes for Atlantic they helped me and quite a few others in getting different rifles but yet they still sell the rifles from a company that has major QC issues. They're giving themselves black eyes by continuuing to deal with Lancaster. Don't trust Lancaster!!!!!!!!!

Its mind boggling Lancaster's  so called engineers or builders didnt spot the oversized ports. AK is such a simple design. Now talking of American  sloppiness here. If they ve known the port early on and continue banking on the idea , Well  if its an AK ,  it will work anyway.––––and kept building and selling to the public,  then its pure negligence. A bubba out there will someday loses his or her  eyesight from exploding top cover hit by  gas and splinters flying few inches from the eyes.

I worked at a shop for a while, and back when everybody was drinking the kool-aid, we has problems with the company from the beginning that made me question their integrity. Lots of BS claims about the quality of the guns too, that didn't add up to the product we were getting. Hit and miss quality, and a couple that wouldn't even run out of the box.

Just one man's experience. YMMV and all....

StainlessAR15shooter, I was thinking along the same lines.

On the one hand, Lancaster claims that they've retrieved the majority of these bad guns.  But on the other hand, both AIM and Atlantic have claimed that they've sold "hundreds" with only a few returns.  I find those two positions to be incompatible.

And yes, any company worth a damn would just issue a recall.  But all the participants in this drama won't do so unless they're made to, because they know it means losing money.  They'd rather risk injury to YOU than do the right thing.

If BATF gets wind of this, Lancaster and it's distributors are gonna have some explaining to do.  They have now admitted they know about a problem with an entire batch of barrels.  And yet, they're just gonna post a note on their webpage about their potentially dangerous rifles, and then wash their hands of it???

I don't think so.

Well AKsRule, there has been speculation that Lancaster has never sold anything to the military, nor to several of the other governmental agencies they CLAIM they sell to.  I suppose one could just ask them, but we already know that Chet lies about anything and everything.

I've always suspected that the "military sales" bit was just BS to make Lancaster look bigger and more important than they are.  And to be sure, if they made any real money with military orders, why does Chet still show up at gun shows to sell a few rifles here and there?  Doesn't make any sense.

Hahahahaahah. I thank all of you who have posted facts and TRUTH about these putrid indaviduals at Lancaster. Im telling you guys get the run around for six months and be at the mercey of Chet durdra holding your cash and you would want these guys to go up in FLAMES. Broken promisses fake tracking numbers and the Arizona state law stateing that if it is an open order and as long as they are shipping (1-2 rifles every month or two)that it is perfectly leagal for them to keep my money,you would be pissed. Thank you all and God Bless...Oh and keep up the great Feedback for Crapcaster and Filth Durdra.

I just read the Thread that stainlessAR15shooter posted. AIM must be in fantasy land or something like it. I will state it again anybody that does business with AIM or Atlantic should really reconsider this. In my opinion they are part of the problem how can they after it is now fact still sell these Rifles or any Rifles from Lancaster that is just something that I do not comprehend.
I think I should put them to the Test and Purchase a Rifle from either AIM or Atlantic and see what will happen and what kind of Rifle I will get. This would be a very interesting thing to do. What would the implication be if in fact they would send out a defective Rifle even though they know about the problems that these Rifles have ? Do they offer a Discount for ARFCOM Members?

It s just a matter of time a blowup and injury to shooter using one of these defective 74s  will bring home the bacon. AIMs ,  ATlantic  and Lancaster Arms better be prepared to answer the legal implications of this.

I agree!!!! I think one of these barrels is going to pop especially if what I believe to be true at least from the stainless steel barrel experinece I had with my rifle is that the barrel metal was too soft and the rifling was ground down in under 100 rounds. Unfortunately I still keep seeing posts about the build quality being great and how people love their rifles. The only problem is they haven't put a round down range yet or just a mag or 2 and figured they're ok.

I bought one of the rifles and (going against the grain here) so far have been satisfied with it. But I have a real problem with a SUM BITCH that knows he has a defective product and knowingly sells it to the public.Chet Durda if this describes you...then you are lower than whale shit and i hope your ass hole grows together. and if you do have an outside vendor making your product you should have some sort of incoming inspection process. It appears to me that Lancaster knew they had a problem and CHOSE to do nothing about it. Thats Bull shit!

Well, it's unclear whether it was an outside vendor or not.  On the one hand, Lancaster's website says that a barrel supplier is responsible for some of the problems.  On the other hand, Chet personally told me on the phone that Lancaster makes all of their own barrels.  Obviously, both of those statements can't be true.

Yes, I think Lancaster knew they had a problem long ago, even while they were telling people on the phone, "We have no idea what the problem is.  Send your rifle back and we'll look at it."  I think they only decided to mention it when it started costing them their reputation and money.  (Although as we all know, their reputation problems pre-date the massive quality problems.)  

The fact that they still haven't issued a recall, is a problem for them.  While they claim that most of the problem rifles have been retrieved, Lancaster's own vendors claim that only a few rifles (out of hundreds) have been returned.  Here too, I find it hard to reconcile these statements.    

I've never said it here before but I hate Lancaster and would never try to buy one of their products at any price. I tried to buy an AK-47 from them. I wrote in to ask a question and someone calls me back, I was impressed and placed an order. The person on the phone told me it would ship in 7 days. One month goes by and I hear nothing so I call back and they say it will be another 3 weeks before it ships. Another month goes by and I call back, speaking to a different guy this time. He laughed when I told him the first guy quoted me the 2 previous ship dates and said the guy didn't know what he was talking about. I had tried calling about 20 - 25 times at this point but kept getting the runn-a-round by a rude female. Asked for returned calls but none came. I kept on calling and kept getting excuses for the slow ship date. The receptionsist didn;t know anything and seemed incapable of putting me in contact with anyone that could help me. No return calls, just BS excuses. The main excuse I got was that the whole place had the flu. I finally asked for a refund and they were reluctant but finally after more than a month of trying, I finally got refunded.

They either lied about the ship date or were just wrong by more than 3 months, either option is unacceptable. The receptionist was rude, apathetic and call back requests ignored. The staff is ignorant of their own proceedures, by their own admission. They held my money hostage for many months and were reluctant to return it, citing the excuse that they had already started building the gun months ago.

They changed how I do business with EVERY company. I will never again allow a charge on my account until the product is ready to ship. I would never consider Lancaster for anything.

I just buy from a local dealer,where I can inspect a firearm before buying it. You buy sight unseen online and give payment, when it shows up at your FFL guy and it's not as they said it would be. Your SOL because there is nothing your FFL dealer can do except say, Sorry pal.
Then you must call the seller and get it ready to return, and pray it all works out good. Many time it don't.

i just wish i could dig up some old posts on what a wonderful company lancaster is.  i remember the govt. contracts being brought up to back up how good they were........



reading some the current posts it's almost like nobody ever posted how wonderful lancaster was.  notice i said was, that's because it's a fact now that they suck.  they have no quality control when it comes to slapping together an ak.  and i mean slapping together.  



the good old american made 74 barrels are good to go!

Wow I am glad I saw this thread, I am getting ready to pull the trigger on a SGL31.  I was thinking about ordering it from AIM if this is the way they do business I will vote with my money and buy elsewhere. Are these bad rifles still listed on their site?

AIM is most certainly not the problem here.  Buy that gorgeous rifle from them and be happy.

AIM is no longer selling the Rough Rider...nobody is.  AIM did get in a new batch of Lancaster AK-74's (not the Rough Rider) and I haven't heard of any issues with them yet.  But who knows, there was only 20 or 30 of them sold and I only know of two that have actually been shot.

That is precisely how my last attempted order with Lancaster went...right down to the second guy saying that the first guy didn't know what he was talking about when he promised the rifle in just a few weeks.  And yes, the secretary was rude...as if you had no business being troubled by their games.

In retrospect, I wonder if they had a cash-flow problem last fall.  They sat on a LOT of peoples' money, and gave the same excuses to a lot of people.  For some reason, they were taking money, but not sending out guns.  I later found out that, at least in my case, they didn't have the parts to make the gun.  Which, of course, didn't prevent Chet from telling me on two separate occasions that "Your rifle is shipping tomorrow."

After 3 months of playing games with them, I finally told them they could give me an immediate refund, or I'd do a chargeback.  I did the chargeback.  Then a week later, they issued a refund anyway (which I think they did purely for cosmetic reasons.)

Usually, when AK manufacturers destroy their own reputations, it takes years.  Lancaster was very efficient, in that it only took them about six months.

I might make a exception for buying a unseen AK online, if the Bravo Company started selling the AK rifle.

I remember someone in particular saying how wonderful they were as well in fact I believe said could even compare with a SGL31 I believe.  Sooooooo glad I trusted my gut and stayed away from the US S.S. barrel.

Substitute the word "Lancaster" in your post with "Ohio Rapid Fire", "Elite Firearms", "Interordnance" or any of a number of other builders, and you could post the exact same thing.

It is unfortunately not terribly uncommon in this industry for builders to start out with decent products, but then run into trouble and be unable to successfully manage growth or some other factor in their business.  And as such, they may have a good reputation one month, but a tarnished reputation months later.  

Lancaster made decent guns at one point.  I know, because I have two of their guns that don't have issues.  But when Lancaster started mismanging their business on a large scale, and a lot of people came out of the wood work in a short period of time to complain about it, their reputation suffered accordingly.  So, the process of Lancaster going from "good" to "bad" is simply the marketplace at work.  And that process is, of course, a good thing.  

Your post seems to hint that you don't think this process is a good thing.  Strange.

That is the definition of a successful federal contractor.....

I seriously doubt they are doing contracts for the US military. It sounds like  classic marketing ploy to lure  the public , Hey we are big time. You can trust us bec the US govt trust us making guns for them.  My sixth sense tells me so.

Makes me double glad I bought locally. It might be a WASR, but it works. And I supported my local gunshop in the process. WJ

i bought a RR from aim back in november/december with the chrome line barrel.  sumbitch has a loose dustcover, bryan said shoot it a bit more.  if there's a problem he'll get lancaster to fix it.  it'll probably take a year though...