Looks like it’s not just the lowly Reptile House Blog that’s gushing about HAO.
Check out this announcement from Tackleberry, posted on his Facebook page today:
“It saddens me to do so, but effective immediately I will no longer be dealing with SGT…
However every cloud has a silver lining ! I will now be dealing direct with HAO.
Their quality of product is superb, as is their customer service.
I will be posting a full price list on the Systema Forum very soon.
You can of course contact me here [on Facebook] for your requirements.
Cheers,
Tac”
I’ve got to be honest. This doesn’t come as a massive shock.
I have a couple of friends who’ve been waiting for the next batch of the SGT 416 for over a year. In that time, the market has moved on.
Back in February 2015 SGT was, by far and away, the top dog of aftermarket PTW receiver sets. It was all 7075T6, with beautifully crafted trades and Cerakote finish.
Even the issue of off spec AR and 416 lowers didn’t detract that much from SGT’s stellar status. The machining error in their lowers could normally be ameliorated during the build process, after all. They even provided a shim set to support this. This compromise seemed a small price to pay for such sublime receiver sets.
Even so, compromise had not previouly featured in the SGT lexicon.
At this point HAO looked like an also-ran in the 416 market. But they listened to all the feedback from their V1.0 416 kit and issued their V2.0.
That changed things forever.
The reason people had been so patient in waiting for their new SGT receiver sets – and why they were prepared to spend a great deal of money on them – is because no one else came close to SGT’s quality.
This was backed by Tackleberry’s endorsement of SGT – which means an awful lot in PTW-world. Many would argue that his opinion is definitive.
So, SGT had a monopoly, in many ways.
However, reading between the lines of Tackleberry’s announcement, I would say that if HAO’s receiver sets aren’t better than those of SGT, Tackleberry certainly thinks they are an equal.
And that is a significant, market-share changing endorsement for HAO.
I’ve not seen the HAO 416 yet, but I would really like to compare it to my own Tackleberry built SGT 416.
What I would say is that the HAO products I’ve seen so far have really impressed me.
So this is another reason why I’m not surprised by Tackleberry’s announcement. It’s not just the long wait for SGT, it’s the quality aspect of HAO’s offer.
Tac always says that perfection takes time. Well, it now seems that in the PTW receiver set market SGT’s level of perfection takes less time; because HAO is shipping its 416 kits right now.
You can read my reviews of HAO’s stuff here:
The Reptile House 