I can’t even begin to guess the number of services ADCO has provided to me over the years or number of uppers he’s built for me.

Steve and the crew are top shelf. Being just up the road from my office is an expensive proposition.

ETA, Steve makes fun of my sneakers, so that is a down vote.

Double tap

Same here.  Steve has done several uppers for me and never an issue, and turn-around is always crazy fast (had him receive an upper, do the work, and have a tracking number back to me the same day).  In fact I think I'll be sending another project soon.

ADCO is solid, even offered to go above and beyond on a SCAR project for me. Much appreciated.

+1 for ADCO

-1 for the guys who post vague claims about anyone’s reputability

Attached File

I have used @bigbore for almost ten years. p/w jobs, Rem700 barreled action thread jobs, and other custom requests. (Cutting down 16” Colt barrels and not touching the gas port)

I’ve also sent all my buddies there and have never had an issue.

Not one of us has had an issue, but we always make sure to write

EXACTLY.
What.
We.
Want.
Performed.

On the paperwork we include with the well packaged parts.

Frankly, I’m surprised people have anything bad to say about him because even if you do have an issue he seems quick to publicly and privately make it right.

Glad to see their services were only temporarily removed.

So, I sent my barrel to ADCO the Monday after Christmas via USPS priority mail. Of course USPS it dissapeared for at least 10 days before it scanned again. Anywho Adco received it last Saturday. So today I got an email that it's complete and have a tracking# ! Not bad! Not bad at all! Great turnaround time. Thanks Steve! Now I can't wait to final assemble my 607ish 22lr pistol clone!

Here it is "stuck" together before the barrel chop.

ADCO has cut/ threaded/ pinned eight barrels for me over the last decade.  The also assembled a few uppers for me before I bought my own tools.  Each time I was very satisfied with the craftsmanship and customer service.

About 5 years ago UPS lost an upper, I only got a small part of the torn box with my address and old parts.  I submitted the claim and Steve submitted the supporting documents.  When UPS was dicking around Steve cut me a check for my cost of the parts, labor and shipping which was even a bit higher than what they were insured for (which was my mistake).

Maybe someone out there is cheaper/ better/ faster but based on my personal experiences I will continue to use ADCO.  YMMV.

Adco is is awesome.   They are somewhat local to me.   Adco cut my Hk MR556 barrel and had it ready in one day.  As  always , excellent service and very fast turnaround time.

To be straight with everyone, my intent with this post is not to damage ADCO's name, they have been in business for a long time and have made plenty of people happy, I'm sure.
My intent is to tell people that even with ADCO's good name, better quality can be found for similar pricing.
Such is the benefits with a free capitalist market.

My experience with ADCO: When I approached Steve early 2020 about getting work done on a few rifles I waited a long time for a reply, which eventually amounted to 'my experienced staff is out for medical leave, we can do this work but not this work' ok I said, lets talk about getting this work done. No reply. Month or two later get back in touch about the staff being in, staff was still out but Steve asked what exactly I needed done. I answered and never heard back again. Went to class 3 machining for a tapered crown, and my barrel was back inside 2 weeks of shipping it to him. Fantastic quality work. Went to DWilson for a thread repair among other things, 4 week turnaround. Again workmanship was 10/10 AND we chat all the time on facebook messenger now about guns. Then sent two barrels to nefarious arms for a dimple service, it's been months of waiting there. Can't really recommend nefarious yet because I dont have my barrels back but customer service there SUCKS and so does turnaround time but their quality is also supposed to be 10/10.

With that said:

Knights Armament/Nefarious Arms/Marvin Pitts dimple work:


ADCO dimple work:


D.Wilson MFG Pin and Weld:


ADCO Pin and Weld:


Class 3 Machining crown/threads:


ADCO crown/threads:

I have no complaint with work done at ADCO. Years ago during the Obama era when panic was causing back-ups with most smiths and retailers, I had sent ADCO a 20" AR Nation Match barrel to be lathed down to a lighter contour, and recrowned into an 18" barrel. The barrel was returned lathed, but they forgot to shorten it. I simply shipped the barrel back, and it was returned just fine within a week. Still have that 18" barrel today which shoots great.

ADCO is the best.  Got them to chop an ACR barrel, completely reprofile to lightweight, thread and crown, refinish, pin and weld muzzle device.  Came back looking better than it did when it originally left the factory.  Turnaround time was fast, price was good, communication was excellent.

Agreed. I sent in a barrel to ADCO for a chop/pin/weld. Fast turnaround, and everything was exactly to my specifications and liking. Very clean weld, and the brake that was installed was also perfectly aligned and level.

I'm not upset. You pushed me to seek other machinists that I'm very happy with.
Everyone's the busiest they've ever been and yet somehow they're able to keep up lines of communication and accept work. I'm not going to kill myself to get your business and emailing you was the equivalent to pulling teeth, very painful.
We talked about the services you do and the services you don't do, and you said you'd be taking them back up once your skilled employees returned.. you know what, I'm not doing this with you. I qualified my statement as my own specific case and even backed up your name before doing it. I had a poor experience with you Steve. Your work appears mediocre compared to others' in the business. And telling me that I didn't write enough sentences in my email isn't making your case or making me doubt my stance, quite the opposite in fact.

If burning the bridge makes you feel like you've won this, then I'm happy for you Steve. I'm done.

I've had great experiences with ADCO and John Thomas. I'm old enough to remember when us retro guys had JT virtually all to ourselves. Can't wait til his AR work slows down a bit so I can send him more of my weird shit.

So it isn't a bad joke so I pull up the website while sitting next to my wife... "John Thomas RAW F--CK Club" didn't escape my wife's attention.
I'll never hear the end of that!!

Same.  Adco has cut and threaded many barrels for me.  Even had to reprofile one a bit for a HALO and reparked without me asking.  

ADCO did a barrel for me, re-contoured for an Ops collar, made a custom collar to fit my gas block, threaded, crowned, pinned gas block.  It is perfect and the can locks up tighter than on any block I have ever seen with almost zero poi shift.  Truly exceptional work.

Adco has cut/threaded/crowned many of my ar barrels, p/w at least 4 I can remember, 2 beretta 92 barrels threaded, 3 10/22s cut and threaded, a few fsb reprofiles and probably a few more odd jobs I’m not mentioning.  All have been done beautifully and returned with amazing speed.  C3 and John are also fantastic and have done amazing work on my rifles as well, but I still send the majority of my stuff to adco.  They are excellent and that’s with many years and many services they’ve done for me.  

Pissing over poor communication from a gun company during one of the busiest times in firearm history is just dumb.  I can understand if there was a bad experience with the actual services rendered, but these small shops don’t have a dedicated customer relations department to answer everyone’s questions immediately to the potential customers satisfaction.  Having said that, every time I post a question on the Adco industry forum, Steve is along shortly with a quick and complete answer.  You don’t see that from most.  YMMV.

Not to mention if you see the join dates for most of us posting great experiences, we’ve been around the block a while.  Not to say I know everything, but I’ve had experiences with quite a few companies over the years and adco has always been excellent.

OP here. After taking USPS most of the time in this transaction I got my cut and threaded barrel back today. It only took one week at ADCO and the work is first class!
Great Price !
Great Turnaround time!
Beautiful work!
What more could you want?
Thanks Steve!

My finished build.

I don't know.. would've been nice to not be led on to believe ADCO could perform work that ADCO could not in fact perform.
Also months later when ADCO finally confirms ADCO could do the work would've been nice to receive help creating the order or a reply at all.

Then when you share your negative experience, would've been nice to not be blamed by the owner/operator of ADCO over something arbitrary like the lines of text in my email..
Would've been nice if the owner/operator owned his mistakes.
Would've been nice to not have my merit called in to question based on the age of my profile? Even though I purchased a member account to support this community and admitted at the beginning of my testimonial that ADCO is known to do good work.

What more could I want? Well, let's just start with: to be treated like a fellow American, human being and potential customer who was personally shafted out of months of build time by the owner and then hopefully not have that owner attempt to publicly humiliate me. I don't know, seems like a decent starting point.

I'm not too young to know when the saying 'the customer is always right' applies and does not apply.

Glad you're happy with the work done though OP. I'm sure what happened to me is not typical but how Steve chose to handle what I initially said here , publicly, is enough for me to steer clear indefinitely. God forbid someone come forward with a negative experience and share positive experiences and good work found elsewhere.

YMMV.

How many time you going to repeat this sob story...? We can all see why Steve didnt want to work w/ you based on your replies here. Get over it & move along.

ADCO is amazing. That is it.

Put a sock in it soy-boy.  Steve is not "burning bridges" as you have already stated you found other machining service providers.

Being in manufacturing I can certainly understand ADCO wanting to focus on their actual machining services.  There is a fixed amount of time in a day.  You can either spend 3 hours answering emails, or an extra 3 hours machining barrels.

That being said, I have probably had work done by ADCO a dozen times.  Mainly barrel threading but also some Surefire P&W.  I have had 1 issue (that was most likely caused by one of MY customers) and they were very willing to correct the issue and got the barrel back to me in record time.  I wouldn't hesitate to recommend ADCO and I'm glad the OP got his barrel back and is satisfied.

There are better alternatives than Adco, but Adco still goes great work. They remind me of the old school gun stores, where, unless you know them, they act like they are doing you a favor by providing their services and hit you hard with shipping. They do fine work, but their customer service leaves a lot to be desired

ADCO seems to be a love or hate relationship.


Agreed on the attitude towards customers/potential customers.


Good thing is....they are not the only source for smithing. To each their own.

Gonna have to take ADCOs side on this one. Your posts and join date speak to an agenda.

ADCO has done a ton of work for me and has always been second to none!  The last job they did for me on a beat-to-hell A1 was unbelievably outstanding!  They will continue to get my jobs...

I have used ADCO Firearms so many times I can't possibly remember them all. Never had a single bad experience. Turn around time has been phenomenal. I have also used John Thomas and he was just as good. I don't have any idea what other people have available in their local communities, but as far as quality gunsmithing services I live in a wasteland. Several of the locals have butchered the easy work I gave them. I appreciate the quality and am astounded by the speed with which these to companies perform their craft.

All I can say is thanks.