Bonjour!

Anybody here have any experience, good or bad, with either of this companies, please:

RifleGear Fountain Valley, CA

AR15 Barrels.com

Merci beaucoup in advance!


ETA: I fixed the link that I screwed up because apparently I'm an idiot. Thank you.



Thanks again for everybody's response. I went with John at R.A.W. (Retro Arms Works:  [email protected] ) in Illinois, and I couldn't be happier with his work, as well as with his Customer Service!!
In case you're wondering about the time frame, I'm blaming the post office, except for the one thing that's on me that we'll all just pretend didn't happen. A couple of barrels that were naked are now clothed in front sight bases. Take that, commies!!!

I've used Randy at ar15barrels.com.

Horrible.  Complete hack.  I'd never recommend him to anyone for gunsmithing work.  He nearly ruined my FAL barrel and refused to make anything right (neither offered a refund or an attempt to repair, not that I'd have let him touch my barrel or rifle in general again, but he did not so much as offer to make things right), and not only was I out the money paid to him, but I had to spend almost as much to get the barrel repaired.  He also seems to think that the correct way to time a muzzle device is to crudely grind on the crown of the barrel.  Also does not have an FFL.  If the work requires him to have possession of the lower, you have to be physically present with him while he does all of the work.  I would not dignify the man with the title of gunsmith, because a genuine gunsmith, he is not.

I'd like to find someone local to me that can install an AR barrel and FSB, but I know that if I post somewhere that gets a lot of California views and responses, like Calguns, that everyone will direct me to ar15barrels.com.  Same for just about any gunsmithing work.  It's frustrating, and he has a lot of followers there.

All I know about Rifle Gear are that they have stores in California and Texas, and that people tend to be pleased with their customer service on that side of the business more often than not.  I had no idea they did any kind of gunsmithing work, though.

I've had Randall do work for me several times without any problems.   Pin/Weld devices on 14.5" barrels to bring them up to legal length, remove permanently attached devices, open ports up on two BCM barrels that weren't cycling commercial .223 ammo (Short-stroking), and drilling ports in two undrilled military T91 gas blocks to replace the Wolf upper civilian gas blocks.   I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him.

Something doesn't add up with your story. I have had tons of work done by Randall with no issues. All sorts of shorten and threads for various guns, including fals. I would not hesitate to send customers over there for work.

I've bought stuff at RifleGear but never had any smithing done.

Sorry for your troubles. May I ask how long ago this incident was?

For future reference, here's which gunsmithing services RifleGear offers:

Gunsmith Services

Plus, I too am looking for FSBs to be pinned on a barrel. We're running out of gunsmiths up here in the Bay Area. Businesses are closing left and right.
Again from RifleGear:
Pin A2 Front Sight

I'd like to thank all of you for posting!  

Oh, what, pray tell, doesn't add up?  

He damaged a barrel to the point that out of several top FAL guys, only two thought it might be repairable (one of those two managed to do it, at no small expense to me).  He also got the headspace measurements wrong.  I had wanted him to time a muzzle device since the combo device on the FAL didn't time correctly, and he started grinding on the crown.  It still wouldn't time correctly.

When I expressed my concern about what he was doing to the breech of my barrel, he said it was fine.  Since he was supposed to be a gunsmith, I deferred to him, but it didn't seem right.  When I tried to chamber a round, the fact that what he had done was problematic could not be more clear.  It became impossible to chamber a round from the magazine.  He had taken so much material off of the breech that he had completely eliminated the chamfer that acts as a feed ramp, which resulted in every cartridge jamming up against the breech when trying to chamber a round.  

I communicated with him and he would not refund me nor fix the issue, and said I could just take a file to the chamber and use it to make a feed ramp.  Between that and everyone on the FAL Files telling me to run far away from that guy after seeing the pictures, I had decided not to try to push him to fix it, and ended up having a legitimate FAL-specialized gunsmith fix the barrel (while expensive, it was still less than the cost of a complete replacement).

This was the breech before he got his hands on it.  You can see the chamfer that acts as a feed ramp.



Afterwards.  Note the complete absence of the chamfer.





Every attempt to chamber a round from the magazine ended this way:



This is simply not okay.  I cannot and would never recommend this guy to anyone for work, and I've told everyone who personally asked me about him (especially guys looking to get FAL work done) to run far away from Randall (fortunately, they have all taken my advice).  Also was kinda miffed that he quoted me one price and then changed it after I got there to a higher one, so I had to find a bank to get more cash.

I used Randall in 2018.

Last time I sent out an upper for barrel install, pinned gas block install, etc., I sent it to ADCO, and was pleased with their work, but if it can save me time and money, and the work is of sufficiently good quality, I'd like to stay local.

I am 90% certain that the barrel didn't time correctly in the first place and was out of spec in your receiver. Randall probably told he can try to fix it but there was no guaranty.

He said nothing of the sort.  He said the timing issue was no problem.  If he actually knew what he was doing, he'd know better than to do what he did.  Pretty much every FAL expert on the Files was left wondering WTF he was thinking.

Steyr barrel, IMBEL receiver.

Randall does have some staunch defenders.  I noticed that on Calguns.  He's one of those folks you're not supposed to give any negative feedback, I found out.

I have had several AR-15 barrel work done by Riflegear, other than the long lines and wait time (normally 1 week), I am satisfy with their work.
My work involves pinned and weld muzzle devices to barrel.

No experience with AR15Barrel.com
I did my own work on AR's.

As for other gunsmith work on hand fit and finish weapons, I go to Wood River L&T Enterprise in Azusa.
If Perazzi send their guns to the shop to be worked on.

I'll check them out. Thanks!!!!!!

On a side note, the only thing I really liked about SHOT Show was checking out the Italian women at the Perazzi booth. Granted this was back in the 2000s, and they could be looking like Nonna right now, but back then, they were worth the risk of being publicly scolded by Zio Vito!!!

I tried going to their website, and I had issues: http://www.woodriverlandtinc.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi

and https://www.yelp.com/biz_redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.woodriverlandtinc.com&website_link_type=website&src_bizid=bvCLDo6J69OKiTtjEKgapg&cachebuster=1601747176&s=4a819d4c6206a7420da594c9458566e76b42c227b60c2f6860033229facda147

I've never seen this before. Is this google's doing or is the company that bad with the interwebs? I'll have to find time to call.

But, again thanks for everyone's replies.

They don't do much internet business.

Give them a call, Tim or Lucio can help you out.
The place is not obvious, it have a big antique sign in front, instead of Gun Shop.
Here is the yelp link:  https://www.yelp.com/biz/wood-river-l-and-t-azusa

One of my Hi Powers either needs a new safety fitted or a repair to the existing one.  I may check them out for that work.  They're near my buddy's restaurant.  I've passed by them several times and had no idea there was a gun shop there.

Randall can handle easy and common jobs no problem, pin and weld etc.  
He's honestly a good dude but more than a little autistic.
He will overestimate his own abilities and screw up jobs that are beyond his normal range of tasks because he doesn't typically turn down work.  I used him a lot and even considered him to be a friend at one point but he fucked up a job on me so bad one time that he ruined a $300 barrel and we haven't talked since.  I'm assuming your FAL was a similar situation.
He's autistic in the sense that while the level of work he does he considers good enough for him, he doesn't realize that other people may be more picky about the level of work being done in their guns and won't settle for a half baked solution. His pride won't allow him to admit he screwed something up and he will act as if you are being unreasonable for expecting a level of perfection that he deems unnecessary.  He has a very casual attitude towards doing things that doesn't always line up with customer expectations (for example when he times your FH for a pin and weld, he will will just eyeball it to about even without measuring).

So to be perfectly honest if its something easy, go ahead and have him take care of it.  But if you need work done a specific way and care about small details, take your business elsewhere.

I've read good and bad stuff about Randall at ar15 barrels.

Seems people either love him or hate him from what I've seen including posters in this thread.

His accounts here are locked by the way.  Randall_Rausch  and AR15barrels

ADCO does great work.

I’ve got some stuff at Rose Action Sports right now. He’s a member and they have a good reputation

You describe the impression I got of him pretty well.

He almost ruined this barrel.  Luckily, a skilled gunsmith was able to save it, albeit at most of the cost of a replacement.  A lot of the most knowledgeable FAL guys thought the barrel could not be repaired.

So I was out what I paid Randall and then what I had to pay for repairs, and he ended up charging more than he quoted me for the work, too, which was annoying since I had brought enough cash to pay what he quoted.  He told me to just go find a bank somewhere.

I would still recommend Randall.

Out of all the work that I've had done by Randall I can't think of a time he's messed anything up. He is meticulous in his work. And when it comes to doing it cheap or right, he'll do it right no matter how many corners you want to cut to save a buck.

Honestly I like to save when I can.

He's posted plenty here with plenty of pics to back up his work and explain everything. A simple search here will give you all the info you need.

Hearing anything bad about his work is incredible. Not that I don't believe it can't happen but the fact that it's come to hearing about it here amazes me.

Nothing incredible about it.  Or do you think my post is not credible?  I got a very similar reaction from the CalGuns guys, too, and I remember trying to discuss the issue with my barrel without mentioning him over there, and when people said I should send it to him for repair, I replied without quoting them that he was the one who had caused the problem, and just like that they all deleted their posts naming him.  

It annoys me over there that whenever I ask about getting something done locally, they always want to refer me to him.  I have no interest in being out hundreds of dollars and weeks of time for nothing again, especially if I have to go all of the way over to Van Nuys to do it.  Too much risk based on my own experience, regardless of how glowingly others speak of him.

As for "doing it right", IME that's clearly not a universal trait for him.

So, guys, the truth is most likely you are both correct, both credible.  


The thing that I find incredible is there are so very few shops to get the work done.  I was expecting a flood of shop names with no way to truly discriminate between them, just anecdotes.

I just saw the threads about Riflegear.  No way I'd ever leave stuff for work with a company run by someone who behaves like that.

Pickings are so slim here for this kind of stuff these days.  From what I've heard from older folks, California used to be very much the opposite back in the day.

The last real gunsmithing I had done was at King's in Glendale.  A long time ago. And a little work on an 1886 at Walker 47.

I've been using danforth gunsmithing in riverside for about 20 years. Granted in the 20 years I've only had to use them a hand full of times. Never had any troubles always reasonable on price and quick turnaround. The owner is a bit strange but he provides a good service.

Kings Gunsmithing is now GunKings, the family gunsmiths are no longer there.

Ive heard of Tanaka in (Gardena?) is good, but not experience.

A smith to consider is Bolsa Gunsmithing on Bolsa Ave. Westminister,  CA...not too far from Riflegear. Been in business since the late 60's, I believe.

I've never used them. But they used to have a recommendable reputation. (Lifetime OC resident here) Don't know if they have had the same owner for all those years....back in the 1980's they were considered as a "go to" smith.

bumped for an update in the OP

I have used Randall twice, both times for precision rifle work. First time went great, no issues. Second time, he jacked with my bolt timing (not asked for) and had to get Defiance to send me a new bolt assy. He shaved too much off where the trigger meets.
I had Sinister Arms in Newbury Park, CA build me a rifle and it was amazing! Expensive, yes, but worth it. I'd recommend him.