The BRAND and Credibility Of Suarez Group

[Gabe Suarez]

So I get this in my comms this morning. I thought it needed a thread of its own -

"Bro- after touting the AK for five years, some people, not the creme de la creme, but certainly past ,future, and potential OST/TSD customers are expressing doubt on the veracity of SI, in general. This is what I'm hearing from the whisper stream."

Well it seems the internet is filled with those who skipped school when they taugh reading. Anyone who wishes to do a search here, and on the blog can trace the development.

First, we tried improving the existing rifle by using the various "popular custom makers". That proved fruitless as they could not seem to make an accurate rifle even with new parts! Sure it was reliable, but that is only part of what is needed from a rifle. I wanted it to be accurate. One guy even "lost" my brand new unfired barrel and pristine polish kit and sent back a rifle built on a Romy kit with an off center barrel!! That was the last straw.

I suppose if I had shrugged and said, "Oh well...its an AK...what can you expect, those booger eating/ass picking morons would not question my credibility, taking the same low achievement view of life as they do. But the praise of lesser men is not my goal in life.

Next we tried to convert the Saiga rifles. The same rifle brand that Arsenal and Fuller, and Krebs was using for their uber-costly rifles. We even hired an AK smith to "build them". The problem was that the Russians don't seem to give an airborne dog f*ck about quality. I suppose they have been communist for so long that the work ethic is less than an inner city liberal union worker.

Rarely did we keep all the rifles we were sent. Most had to be sent back due to canted sights, front and rear, off center barrels, bent receivers, and a myriad of other problems. In fact, we began to experience a shortage of rifles because we could not get good raw material. If "those other guys" say that their rifles are fine, they either have such good luck that they should be spending their time in Vegas, or they are lying about the quality of their expensive rifles.

Then we found the VEPRs. Nice rifles, and good raw material. The problem was that VEPR kept changing the design. How can anyone go build 500 stock units...or handguards...or anything else, when next week, the dimensions of the rifle may change. And then of course was the incessant need to de-sissify the rifles yet keep it 922(r) complaint. A completed VEPR took many hours of work, many parts, and in the end....if we were going to make any money from it (something which those commie ass scratchers seem to be so against) we had to charge a premium. Those rifles and the ones before were great rifles, but far too much work and cost.

When we found the SIG 556R, it was languishing on SIG's shelf. The internet sodomy of the rifle by both the M4 and AK industry movers was complete. Before July 27, 2012 SIG had sold perhaps a thousand of the "new generation rifles", and they sat on the dealers shelves as the "Larry cableguy" types would pass it by saying, "I hurd they wasn't as reliable as tha AyKays".

After we penned the article about the 556R in July....between that day and now, SIG556R sales have risen to almost 4000 since July.

The SIG is a far better rifle - more accurate, more reliable, newer, cleaner, and more refined than anything to come out of the shops of the "famous AK makers", of whom I owned several rifles and whom I knew before they ever got into the AK market. The SIG556Rs will never have bent barrels, crooked sights, inadvertant full auto triggers, or anything of the sort.

That is why I closed the door on the eastern bloc AKs and moved toward other platforms....because I got sick and tired of compromising and thinking up excuses for myself why my rifle could not do what I wanted it to do.

Currently we have been working with the following rifles and I find them all exceptional and high quality weapons suitable for anyone with an interest for riflery -

SIG 556
SIG 556R
SIG 516
SIG 716
FN FS2000
FN SCAR (16....we have a 17 coming)
PTR-91

All of them DO WHAT I WANT A RIFLE TO BE ABLE TO DO without excuses, drama, extensive reworking, or anything else.

So if the booger-eating, ass picking, crap-for-brains morons don't like me because MY standards have surpassed theirs, they can also not like me because I upcraded my phone to a new Samsung Galaxy, upgraded my car to an Audi Q7, upgraded my watch to a Rolex submariner, upgraded my gym membership, the seating on my last flight, and do on and so on. I want the best, I seek the best, and I will have the motherfreaking best. Anyone that wants likewise can come along with us....anyone that does not can f*** off.

[Al Lipscomb]

Many of the "AK smiths", that build up the AK kits may find that with the 556R there is little need for their services? It is hard to find a reason to order a custom built rifle when the off-the-shelf models are better.

[DC950]

Many of the "AK smiths", that build up the AK kits may find that with the 556R there is little need for their services? It is hard to find a reason to order a custom built rifle when the off-the-shelf models are better.

I've never understood why anyone would think taking cut up Romanian "G" rifle parts and putting them on a US receiver and refinishing them would make the rifle function markedly better than the original Romanian rifle that was built to just be good enough for the reserves anyway. Custom my foot; you can do the same in your garage. It makes no sense.

Great post Gabe. There are just some people, if not most people, who can't advance. If one chooses to stick with what one has for good reasons, that's fine. To complain about someone who can afford to choose not to stick with the same old and changes for good reasons is silly.

[B+Shooter]

Okay, since this door has been opened- I do have to ask regarding the original PM in question asked about the credibility of SI in general. Everyone wants to beat the drum about weapons change. Who cares? Weapons=Tools; Better Weapons=Better Tools. I see no issue with that. Do you have any statements about the credibility of other aspects of SI as of recently?

[CR Williams]

I question the idea that they are really "future and potential" SI customers that are looking askance at this kind of change. I wonder instead if they're not just negative from the get-go and seizing on this as (Finally! After all the time spent searching for it!) a reasonable-sounding reason to continue to be negative about it. They've just been looking for a better reason than they have, and now they think they've found it.

The only way to know would be to somehow get them to say honestly what would provoke a buy-from-OST/TSD decision from them. I daresay it's not worth the effort to do that. Why bother anyway? Plenty of people understand what is going on and why.

[bmp_sbi]

Many of the "AK smiths", that build up the AK kits may find that with the 556R there is little need for their services? It is hard to find a reason to order a custom built rifle when the off-the-shelf models are better.

I've heard the same thing about GLocks...literally...out of the mouths of gunsmiths...."you cant work on them like 1911s" (meaning you dont have to work on them like 1911s)....like the object of a pistol is to tinker with it.

[Vigilant]

Credibility as in touting a particular product, trying to market it to the best markets, and ending only with the lowest common denominator wal-mart types? Then, dropping it in favor of a better system, and along with dropping the products, also the people that would buy the lowest common denominator tools? You ask me, THAT is credibility, being willing to walk away from something you had so much time and money invested in, because you have come to find that there is something better, along with a customer base that is more in tune with the way you are PROGRESSIVELY aligning your companies? I am sure Gabe and his staff can convey much the same message, in a more eloquent fashion than I though!

[Fulanito]

Gabe,
Your credibility is exactly why I have hung out here for the past 7 or 8 yrs. One might say that I've been around the block a few times. Seen organizations come and go...lots of good guys fall by the wayside. Not seeking the approval or acceptance is the key to success. Doing as you see fit and watching your lane is what makes you you! Keeping your eye on the prize and sticking to your plan of always seeking a better way means change and not all are up for that challenge. Oh, well, as mentioned, "their" approval in no way correlates with your goals and objective so, fuk'em. Move out and draw some of that good fire you are so used to. I look at it as firing the customer...they are not your long term target audience anyway. the great organizations are not built by doing what everyone else does, but rather by stepping away from common methodology and reaching for something new. So, keep on keeping on.

And no, Im not just an SI fanboy. I don't agree with everything and I don't take well to all new ideas and concepts, but I do know whats good when I see touch, smell it.

When I want unquestionable top of the line new stuff, I put my money on SI. Everybody else can suk it. thats why I just bought a Tier one Glock 19 pkg from you. Nuf sed.

[Jack Rumbaugh]

It's simple, really. Mythbusters proved you could, in fact, polish a turd. But it's still a turd. When you start with used com-block parts, it is still a poorly manufactured rifle that didn't use the best steel and CAD-CAM techniques, regardless on how good it looks once it is finished. The SIG 556R is in no way in need of polishing because it isn't starting life as a turd.

If the interwebz is upset we are supplying our customers with the best tools available, then they need to get a life. Although I do have a couple beater AKs I could sell them for bump-fire practice. I'll keep my SIG, thank you very much.

[TFA303]

The transparency offered by the SI leadership's posts here and on the blog go a long way toward establishing credibility in my eyes. Even when I don't make the same decisions, I can learn here exactly why SI chooses to offer certain products. What other businesses offer that kind of window into their decisions?