Me too. Try http://bullockcustom.com, he is near Steve and MARS does some machining work for him. I have heard good things and I believe his wait times are measured in months not years
Mine is pushing 5 years at his shop. Frankly, I’ve run out of patience.
It’s great to offer priority to LE/MIL duty guns, but if you get so much work from them that all other guns are perpetually on the back-burner it’s poor business practice in my opinion. John Harrison has a much better system where he just puts your name on a waiting list and when he’s actually ready to work on it is when he has you send the pistol in. Once my name came up on his list my pistol was only gone for 10 weeks.
I am pretty sure I would not go down this route again either.
Four years is a long time to wait. And now I’m depressed because both dsa and Hunter Rose have had their guns there longer than I have.
My good buddy has had a pistol there since Nov 2011
I have another gun with a another well known 'smith and it is taking longer than he quoted too. Steve has always promptly responded to my texts and I am confident the gun will exceed my expectations when it arrives.
Steve built me an Axiom a few years back. I sent the gun to him and was quoted 10 months. In reality it took 18, and that was when he was not so busy.
I am going to take Steve’s word.
According to Steve, he is able to fit in LE guns (10 day wait) that are only having minor work done (not complete builds). As most of his work is done by machining and on schedules, he accepts pistols based on where he is at in his machining schedule. My CRG will be going to him in April for the following work:
-Furnish, true and golf ball steel mainspring housing, blend to frame; Hi Cut, true
and golf ball front strap (With Gen 2 ILAP Magwell)
-Contour, Blend, and Fit H-D Single Safety
-MARS COLT Model O Reliability Package
-Fully dehorn pistol for carry
-Cerakote Pistol in MARS Black
-***NOTE: Duty gun, we will expedite in 10 work days from receipt of pistol
I had asked him for a few other options, and he told me that he could not do anymore as that would be very unfair to everyone that has been waiting FOREVER. I thought that was more than fair.
Just to be clear, and to tie this into your other thread…You fired your first 1911 a few weeks ago, and now you’re building a “duty gun”?
You betcha.
Read. A crapload. Start with stuff from Hilton Yam, LAV, and Ken Hackathorn; I’ve seen - and been guilty myself - of building an ostensibly duty oriented 1911 and still speccing all sorts of dumb or non-ideal stuff onto it. That said, with MARS packages it’s nearly impossible to go full retard, as their basic to mid-level stuff (Axiom and THUG) are practical over flashy.
This.^ I went full circle from wanting every newest way to do a 1911 to eventually asking for Steve’s opinion and essentially having an Axiom built. And I’m very happy with it.
I’ve purchased three 1911’s from Steve. The first one took a few weeks. The second set of Colt, THUGs with golfball grip took several years.
Although it was frustrating at times the guns are absolutly excellent. Accurate, perfect fit up, finish etc. He is a good guy and well intentioned. He just gets slammed with orders. I know he stopped taking orders for a while so he could get caught up. Perhaps he is caught up.
One note of advice, his work is great but adding features like blended magwells appear to take much more time. Keeping it simple helps expedite the process.
My pistol is apparently done so there is one less in line for the guys still waiting.
I got a text last month saying mine was almost done. I sent shipping info and am waiting on a final invoice.
I recently received my invoice as well.
Final invoice came Tuesday night. Bank check sent overnight yesterday. Notification today that a FedEx shipping label had been ‘created’. Estimated delivery date is next Tuesday. Almost exactly four years from when the gun was shipped.
I’ll be excited when it does actually ship.
Talked with Steve tonight, he seemed very honest and knowledgeable. I’ll be sending my 1911 in tomorrow, I’m all sorts of excited for the results.
my Rana took over two and a half years, thug close to that, i’ve had a 9mm series 70 there for over two years. His work is very very good, he builds a really good fighting gun but i will never say he is amazing with timelines. If you want a morrison gun send and forget, harder to do for some then others. His guns are awesome, ned christiansen is at a 7 year wait right now and chuck is at a fairly lengthy wait as well. Last time i checked Jason and the heirloom boys are around a year or so out, I will say that Jason and Ted, steve Bailey etc are probably one of the best with scheduling from a custom gun shop. Anyways yeah long waits are par for the course and adding a ton of features only lengthens that. a year or so ago he had almost 70 guns in his shop in line to be built. He is popular for a reason but just realize like a long ride at a theme park there is usually a line for a reason, you are welcome to go to the ride with out a line but i think you get what you wait for…
I was about to get worked up when I saw ten days, then I saw the rest of the thread and laughed. I’ve had a gun over there for at least 3 years for an Axiom with some extra work. Someday. In the meantime, lost my mind and bought a Wilson. So, well, that.
The big difference between MARS and other 'smiths, is in the time he has your pistol, and I ASSume that is because of the way he schedules specific tasks in the shop. Some makers work on a couple of pistols at a time, start to finish. Some work on half a dozen, and schedule “sight install days”, or “checkering days”. A smith with 70 pistols IN THE SHOP, must be scheduling “checkering weeks”, or in Steve’s case, “golfballing weeks”. We all know setup time is huge in a machine shop…
The longest a smith has ever had a 1911 of mine was about a year and a half. But he told me it would be long, and I told him it didn’t matter. He was traveling the country training, and could only work on my pistol in his spare time. The others, no matter how long the list was, or how many years it takes for my name to come up on the list, only has the gun for 6 months or so.
Steve’s saving grace is that he builds a damn nice pistol