Does anyone know if A-Square has a website? I've been looking around, but can't seem to find one.

[ 10-24-2003, 18:05: Message edited by: Trailblazer ]

Do a web search, and you'll find it. Based on their past reputation, I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire.

George
P.S. By the way, the quote in your signature was from Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, not that dead thug.

TB,
in teh modern world of litigus americans, that quote should read
"that which doesn't kill me is attempted murder" and, in two-shot's case, DID manage to remove him from the gene pool

jeffe

The new owners seem to be trying to clean up old problems.

I wish them luck and have no hard feelings.

urdubob

[ 11-04-2003, 20:17: Message edited by: urdubob ]

Heritage Arms has a lot of A-Square stuff including brass, ammo, and complete rifles. Heritage Arms is the member name on AR. You can find them that way.

Give Jim at A-Square a chance I believe he will try his best to help you. Those that bitch would probably bitch that gold is not shiny enough or is to heavy to carry.

Dr Bob,
once bitten, twice shy... perhaps you could fund my expenditures to A2, and when I like it, I pay you back?

no? didn't think so.

Art was KNOWN to be an ass, and slow on delivery. People don't forget that kinda stuff

jeffe

Dear Jeffeosso

It is my opinion and mine only that you do not know or understand what Art Alphin has contributed to the shooting community.

It has been my experience that dealing with this excitable, eccentric and unique individual, that he has always treated me with respect. Unfortunately, he personally and his company were saddled with complicating factors that many would have thrown in the towel as the only solution. I commend the man with his passion for the shooting sports and his back bone to hang in there when it would of been so easy to give up.

I would suggest you take up your problems with Jim Smith, the new owner and I think he will try his best to right any wrongs that inadvertantly took place because of so many things that could have gone wrong went wrong and you were lost in the shuffle. Call him and give him a chance.

I have never met Jim Smith, have never had any dealings with him that I know of, and therefore have no reason to wish him ill. I have no problem with trying his new company's products, provided that there is substantial indication that the quality has dramatically improved and assurance that the new company has NO connection of ANY kind with Alpin. If Mr. Smith can accomplish that, I wish him well.

However, I fear that Mr. Smith has already blundered badly. The persona of lightweight Arty left an indelible stain on the A-Square name as some of the above posts attest. I cannot fathom how a reasonably intelligent businessman, who wished to salvage the sorry remnants of the A-Square business, could have failed to grasp the importance of changing the name.

I couldn't disagree with you more, Bob. The shooting community would have been better off without the son-of-a-bitch.
------------------------
"Serious rifles have two barrels, everything else just burns gunpowder."

A-Square was fine until 7 years ago when the ATF
and a disgruntled thief Art fired; framed him.
They raided his business and home, took all of his records, computers, tied up his money,
destroyed valuable firearms, terrorized his family, and so on. He tried to raise funds to fight them, and didn't get enough.Had a
terrible accident; laid up for months.Spent all time and resorces trying to fight government.
And couldn't do what was needed for customers,
without funds, records, licences, good health; so he and folks dealing with him were screwed.
Rotten shame what they did to him.Johnny Roland and I tried to get him public support threw
radio and TV, but no luck.I hope new fella can makea a go of it...Ed.

I had a very nice personal experience with Jim Smith after a particularly bad one with Col Alphin. In 1998 I had ordered a reloading manual from Col Alphin (in connection with an article I was writing at that time) and I sent him a banker's check for the book which he cashed and then promptly forgot about my order despite repeated reminders by mail and fax. I couldn't e-mail since the website address changed a few times.

After I posted about this on AR shortly after registering here as a member about a year ago, Jim Smith personally contacted me and sent me the book. It wasn't just that, he also enquired repeatedly until I received it and we have been intermittently in touch on e-mail since. I thought this was excellent of someone who honoured someone else's commitment because he had taken over the previous man's company. I can only wish Mr Smith the very best.

Dr Bob,
What you are saying, to me, is "forgive him for being an ass and a lousy business man, as his other factors outweigh these"

To which I reply, "If he had stayed in the background, providing these things as an engineer or pinoeer, great. Since he went into business and developed a bad reputation and poor practices, I shall not"

You can't possible read into a few lines of his business practices, which you are defending, that I do not recognize his merits as a contributor to the firearms industry. But, Art was SOOO modest about it, it's nearly impossible to not read it on their website, or any other time there was a possiblity of self agrandisement.

Let's recast this to ENRON. Enron was a fantastic company, that gave back to the community every year, developed new business and employed over 100,000 people, being ranked in the top 10 most years, and top 20 sine 1998, as places to work. Then accounting principles were broken (about only THREE) and the company became the deamon of the western world.
Anyone so foolish as to buy the company's remaining shell would not hessitate to change the name of the corporation, in fact, that is partof the emergence from bankruptcy plan.

TO REMOVE THE STIGMA ASSOCIATED WITH IT"S NAME.

Since Jim choose to keep the name, he also choose to keep the associated stigma. It's pretty simple

jeffe

Time heals all wounds. The greater the number of viable businesses within the gun-world, the better. I hope they thrive, make restitution to those wronged and that Mr. Alphin and his family derive some benefit, both financial and emotional.

I think keeping the A-Square name was a fine idea.

When the majority of the shooting public hears "A-Square" they think "big guns" and that's it. Maybe a few are familiar with the ATF/tax troubles but even fewer are familiar with any quality control or customer service issues.

My only wish is that A-Square would kick up their marketing and distribution efforts. More suppliers of big bore rifles and bullets is a good thing! It wasn't too long ago that Midway announced that they would start carrying A-Square products but to date they've only been selling the book.

Sam B.
http://www.fireflyarms.com

The orignial A-Square was Art Alphin, and due to lack of managerial expertise and general cantankerousness, he ticked off a lot of people.

The new A-Square is Jim Smith with Mr. Alphin as a technical consultant. Mr. Smith has successfully managed several businesses and is providing prompt, responsible, quality service that many complained was lacking at the original A-Square. Mr. Smith has also stepped forward to take care of a number of unfulfilled obligations of the original A-Square. It seems that the new A-Square is a place of competence and integrity.

I bought a rifle from Art, and went through the troubles with him. I got my rifle and ammo, although it was really slow in coming for obvious reasons.

Recently I emailed an order to Jim Smith, and he filled it quickly.

jim dodd

Folks, I am curious to know if anyone had problems
before the ATF/Commerce Dept raided him in late
1996......Custom rifles and ammo are slow to get, as we have all found out on here..Ed.

I bought a few things from him before the troubles, and a few things after. Never really noticed a difference. I was happy with the service and the products, and would deal with them again under the new management. FWIW - Dan

[ 11-01-2003, 02:28: Message edited by: Atkinson ]

Doc,
Well, I got a little hot on the abouve posts and I suppose it reflects on the new owner and I suppose that Alphin has suffered enough, so who am I to judge these men....I'll just let the past die and give them another shot at success..All my gripe was over a reloading manual I never got.

I apolagise for my rudeness to you and them, Everyone deserves a second chance..so I withdraw the above posts.

Ray--I to wish them good fortune, and they will need all the luck they can get, after what gov did to them.You should talk to new guy, and get the book.

The only things that I feel they
did wrong before the gov troubles, was some of their brass runs were soft(but most were for lower
pressure cases anyway) and most of their
wildcats were done before and they didn't give credit(like 470 Capstick was done 60 years ago
as the 475 OKH).of course many others have done the same......

The soft brass issue got our best gunwriter,
a wee upset with them when a soft ASq case
wouldn't extract from a double rifle, and the
gun had to taken apart in a milling machine.A
real pricey gun at that...

The thing I really like is their stock design,
as it tames hairy recoil very well.Ed.

Ray,

Please e-mail Jim Smith. He is a very helpful gentleman and you should get your manual rightaway.

Mr. M,
I don't even want the manual, thats a dead issue with me today...

I can see I set off a firestorm here. I myself am impressed with the new ownership. Within a week of my original post I received a personal message through this website from Mr. Smith. I found this rather impressive. Not only does he see and belong to this website, but he took the time to send me a personal reply. I would consider this good business practice.

Dear Ray

Through the short time I have followed the AR I have learned some things from your input. Which I appreciate and I would like to say thank you.

With regards to that manual I do not know if it is really a bible to end all but it does have some interesting concepts and to a novice as myself I think it has stimulated some thought which is what I like.

Considering all their past products before new ownership I cannot atest to them all as being perfect but I would guess they are trying to rectify any wrongs. I do not think they are the only company that has generaly a good idea that may or may not stand to up the tests of others. With that I can certainly say my H1 Hummer is not near as tough as an Arnold S. makes them out to be. With the three that I have had the central tire inflation is neat but is a hassle, the hoods all rattle then eventually break, when you have a flat the runflat system makes the tire a waste in short order, it takes a tire shop hours to change the darn thing they do not balance well and you better suck your gut up tight when you go to change the heavy thing. Though I have to say it darn sure goes where others have difficulties and may not. I use mine to get around in deep snow to lion hunt here in Wyoming.

Again Ray, I appreciate your observations. Please keep sharing them.

I just got back from Zim last week. I was hunting elephant. Saw some good bulls but they would not come out of the park into that Tsholoto (sp?) area. We moved into the Plum tree area and had early rain, what a rain, it was maybe as dramatic as Mosses parting the seas. Mud in short order, it seemed darn near belly deep on a saddle horse. Unfortunately, terminated my hunt early will try again.

Bob

Hate to hear about a hunt going bad but some do, mother nature can be unkind..Hope you have a better hunt next year...

I recently visited the offices of A-Square in Jeffersonville, IN on the way back from the annual OWAA convention in Missouri this past June. Other than buying their ammo and reloading manual, I have had no business dealings with them, nor are they an advertiser in African Hunter magazine.

I was walking along at the last Shot Show and unexpectedly came up on their booth, where I spoke to Jim Smith at length about their past troubles. I am surprised that some of the more critical posters here have no knowledge of the despicable violations of Art Alphin's rights the BATFE have perpertrated.

Here are a couple of links that will educate you to his plight, and hopefully deter any more ignorant posts in the future (at least on this subject). BTW, the second address will get you to a page that can't be accessed from the Home page because of a busted link.

http://members.aol.com/vetvsatf/Veteran_vs_BATF_Home_Page.html

http://members.aol.com/vetvsatf/Egregiously_False_Warrant.html

Art Alphin may not be the best "people" person in the business, but personality alone doesn't get my business. His rifles and ammo are superb and that is all I care about. However, I would be perturbed if I had placed an order that was never fulfilled, but in this case I feel the ire should be directed towards the BATFE, who absconded with all his records and computers. It has been a long fight back for them and they are making right on past mistakes as best they can.

Jim Smith has said MANY times on this forum that anyone who felt that they had been harmed in any way by the A-Square Company had only to contact him and he would make it right, which he has done with Mehulkamdar, as was posted above. If anyone never got their order and HASN'T contacted A-Square to make it good, then they should shut up bitching publicly about it. I have zero tolerance for whiners who won't help themselves, but want everyone else to feel sorry for them, and constantly moan about being "wronged".

What is wrong is when one doesn't have the energy to contact the company involved, but has plenty of energy to obsessively post complaints on Internet forums. I have seen this many times in the past with regards to lost magazines, and I never fail chastize the offender for being a fool.

My sympathy is directed towards Art Alphin who single handedly took on the most Machiavellian law enforcement department this side of the KGB and whipped them to the point that they recently paid him off with a very tidy sum to settle out of court his civil suit against them. I think it took a real man to fight the power of the US government for 7 years and never give up, and finally win in the end. During that whole time he never was charged or indicted with one thing.

I would buy one of their rifles or their ammo with out any hesitation, and after bench and rapid firing a Hannibal in .458 Ackley at Knob Creek Gun Range, I'd take it over anything else available.

Alan

Well said, Sir.

Alan Bunn,
I wish Jim Smith the best with the A-Square company but please don't paint the picture of the prior A-Square company in such glorified colors. I don't know what involments you had with the Company prior to Mr. Smith but dealings were not easy and the products were not of the quality you describe. I agree let sleeping dogs lie and hope for the best for Mr. Smith.
Take care,
Dave

Hey 470 Mbogo,

I have only bought four boxes of .416 Remington in softs and solids from them and I agree that the brass seemed too soft. Also, I bought their reloading manual back in 1996, but I don't have any knowledge about their rifles or the quality of that era.

I'm not trying to paint a glowing picture about anything, but I am trying to inform everyone about the fight that they have had with the BATFE, and how it impacted their business. I have no dog in this fight, and only dropped by at their invitation to see their operation with my own eyes.

I don't know about their quality control prior to Jim Smith's involvement, but the rifle I shot in June worked flawlessly and handled recoil very impressively.

I do wish them the best of luck as well, for their success will be good for all big bore shooters and the safari industry in general.

Alan