Striker Fault ??

[brett1868]

Purchased an alleged "Brand NEW" DTA HTI G1 from Cleaver Firearms in Queensland and am now sorry I ever heard the name DTA. Rifle arrived at my local gun shop filthy with scratches on the receiver and all the appearances of being used. I came to an arrangement that Cleavers would Cerakote the receiver so I had it shipped back to them. I gave the barrel a good scrubbing during the week and it looked ok. Last night I disassembled the bolt to check and clean as there were significant carbon deposits on the face and all through the locking lugs which concerned me. Imagine my surprise at the condition of the striker, appears to have either broken or cracked before being welded up and rough ground and it's not even straight.
When I originally collected the rifle from the shop I didn't have my glasses with me, the guys at my local were not aware that the rifle was supposed to be new and mistakenly, I "Trusted" that Cleavers had done the right thing and simply had a 2 second look and put it in the bag to take home. I get home then take a good look and the faults start to pile up, I took photos, made notes then via email tore into Cleavers with a cc to Interdiction & DTA.
Cleavers only response was that if I didn't like it then they will either refund or Cerakote the receiver to fix the scratches. They never once addressed the issue of if they had sold me a used firearm nor apologised for their stuff up. Interdiction's attitude is that as Cleavers is their biggest customer they won't do anything to assist as they must support the dealer. I've heard nothing back from DTA despite several emails and a couple of phone calls where I've left voicemail despite it being core business hours in the U.S.

Now I've provided a little history, can anyone tell me if they've had issues with the striker breaking or cracking? Maybe it's worth inspecting that part cause if it breaks at the wrong moment it could be lethal. I returned the barrel, bolt and mag to the dealer this afternoon and now have an $8k credit on their books which I'm considering asking to be returned in cash. The DTA site states their mission to include "unrivalled customer service"...in this case it's mission fail. The dealers attitude, the importers attitude and the lack of response from DTA themselves has really turned me off the brand.

[Seddo]

Hi Brett,

I looks like you have had a terrible time. I have bought 2 SRS's from cleavers and none of them had any issues other than a very long wait and price increase on the second one. I have never tried ringing DTA direct but have had reasonably fast rely's to emails.

A mate bought a HTI and it had ejection issues but in stead of sending it back to Interdiction he paid a local gunsmith to fix it, the same day he dropped it off, and saved on postage and repair time. To my knowledge his HTI has never had any striker issues. I was there for the first 20 rounds through it and they all worked well. He had his HTI cerakoted as he didn't like the wear on the factory finish where the ejected cases were hitting the receiver.

No manufacturer is perfect but i believe you will be happy with the HTI, they are a very nice rifle to shoot.

[brett1868]

Thanks for the reply, I'd read many of your comments as part of my research before purchasing the rifle and it helped with my decision to purchase. Just ordered the SRS this morning in 338LM & 308 Win which will replace the Barrett & Colt im currently shooting. The G2 HTI's are stuck in government B.S and hopefully Aaron will win that battle soon and I can get mine. Really looking forward to seeing how the HTI in 50BMG compares to my Steyr HS50, might do a head to head comparison review. Pity about the one I sent back, but to Cleavers credit they did refund the cost to my local dealer which I'll use for the G2 from a different dealer.
Might be an idea for HTI G1 owners to inspect the striker just to be sure it's not cracked or damaged like the one I had. Hopefully it's just a 1 off and not part of a bigger problem.

[Seddo]

I'm glad to see your sticking with DTA, they are worth it. When i first had a play with them (about 18 months before i bought one) i wasn't very impressed and thought they were over priced but the second time i liked them enough to buy one and now two. I would like to own the HTI but as we cant have 50bmg in Victoria without belonging to a club i dont see the point in a HTI when i wont be changing the barrel and if i did it would be to a calibre with inferior ballistics, its hard to beat a 375 Chey.

[ShadowPeo]

Not had an HTI (it is on my wants list though) but my Gen 2 SRS has not had any issues that I have not caused myself.
I am glad you are sticking to DTA, as with Seddo, I had a play with a Gen 1 several months before I purchased mine and I was impressed but not enough to go out and spend the cash, after a play with a Gen 2, I bought one (I rang up my dealer from the USA and ordered one on the spot)

I, unlike Seddo I will be getting a 50BMG barrel for mine (although not with the rifle I will purchase it afterwards, as that way I do not have to worry about the registration of it, and I am a member of that club that is allowed them anyway) but I will also be getting 375Cheytac and 416 Barrett to go with it.

Personally I try to avoid Cleavers as much as possible, I would rather spend a little more and not deal with them due to their horrible service, and non-delivery of products. One of which, I had ordered a DTA accessory (specifically one of the adjustable buttpads made by Interdiction) from Cleavers along with other things (Flare launchers) that never got through customs (so cannot blame them for that as the demo units got in), and I changed the launchers to a 308 Conversion. Anyway they stated several times that they had shipped my items, before I finally got told they were not available and will ship with the next batch, fine whatever. Then when I did receive the conversion, the buttpad was not with it, so I called them, they told me the dealer had it, so I messaged the dealer to confirm that they didn't have it, which as I suspected they did not, so I went back to Cleavers, got the same story again it had shipped, dealer had it, at which point IIRC the dealer called up to find out what had happened to it. I then called back again later and they stated they had marked it as shipped, which I challenged and when challenged, they said they would investigate. It then took more phone calls to chase their "investigation" and they found that it has been marked as shipped but never shipped and was floating somewhere in the store (or some BS), I then received it about a month and a half or two months after the conversion.

To give you an idea about these guys, one Australian forum has put the store name into their banned words filter, because another Australian forum was sued because someone on it stated the truth, and spoke their mind about the store, their behavior and their service. Just for some perspective

[aussiebob]

Yes I agree I received the wrong rifle after waiting for 6 months from this "company"when I asked for an srs-A1 and somehow got a covert with the short barrel 308 that can't even be regesterd in act/ nsw due to minimum length restrictions I was then told to fit a muzzle brake but they are not counted in nsw or act and it was still a covert at the end of the day. I have my A1 now 6 months later. I am now up to 9 months waiting on a dta torque wrench i orderd with the original wepon and the hard case which isn't as big of a deal so I sympathize. horsey park gun shop has been great the whole way through tho with getting answers and finding other solutions as well as archaos from on here being a massive help thanks again

[ShadowPeo]

Don't even get me started on hard cases, ok, ok its to late.

I had to get Aaron involved to get my hard case. I ordered an OD green case and they told me there was none in Australia till the next shipment, so I rang Aaron to find out when it was due he told me it was BS and he had plenty in stock he took one round there personally and had them put my rifle in it.

[aussiebob]

I would say that's probably somewhat like what I think happened to me I ordered the package deal with a short action conversion ,mag conversion , scope mounts , chassis , muzzle brake , hard case and operators toolkit with wrench for $8,900.oo they didn't have one but I was able to buy the whole lot separately for $10,800.oo but I had struggled to justify the 8,900 to my wife/miniser of finance and 10,000 + was out of the question and to be fair it was more than I was willing to spend so had to buy it like everyone else piece by piece . I have never been through so many issues purchasing aneything like this in my life but at the end of the day it was soooooo worth it

[Archaos]

I ended up making my own case from a 1750, a bit bigger so I have space left over. I still need to make the cut outs below the grip and mag for extra magazines and another barrel cut out. The spare barrel is my 28" .375 barrel and MB, so the case does provide the room. Making my own hot wire cutter was easy as also. I have never bought anything from the for mentioned dealer so have no comment. But Sefton Gunsmiths arranged everything for me to get my DTA direct from Aaron without dealing through another dealer (that was back in 2011).




Shame about your HTI Brett, I swore never to buy another second hand rifle again. What's worse is yours was supposed to be new. I would be concerned with parts welded in a *NEW rifle with clear signs of wear.

[Seddo]

i did it my own way for the covert, there is a mob in melbourne who can laser cut foam.



I have ordered new foam for my SRS case as well. I left some barrels in there for a few weeks and when i got them out they had moisture on them. Never had that with a foam case before.