Sarco, Inc. — Local services in Williams Township

I can't recommend Sarco for anyone wanting to build an AR15 from a parts kit. I bought two M16 A2 kits several years ago. Then about 2 years ago I bought 2 M4 kits. We had just moved so it took a long time to get our new house organized and I never found the time to get started on my build. Enter CoVID-19 lockdown. Built my shop. Built my bench and got started. A couple months ago I inventoried the kits and realized that one of the M4 kit did not have the bolt, bolt parts or bolt carrier included. I reached out to Sarco but they told me I had 30 days to inventory and it's been over a year. Too bad. I was not happy but its my own fault. To be honest I would have had a hard time knowing what I was looking at with all the small individual parts, springs, pins, etc. I just procrastinated. That's on me. Well I have now completed two rifles. One A2 and one M4. The other A2 and the other M4 are 70% complete. I had many MANY issues with the parts kits. The M4 bolt group I got included a bolt that was too big to fit into the bolt carrier without considerable force. This is not safe to use. I confirmed the bolt to be the issue comparing with a known good Palmetto State Armory "NEW" bolt/bolt carrier group purchased to replace the second bolt group missing from the other M4 kit. All 4 kits included a trigger guard that was mis-dimensioned such that once pinned in place it would not rotate without force once the catch is depressed. One kit missing a pivot/takedown pin detent. BOTH M4 kits missing their gas tubes. One A2 kit missing the barrel snap ring. One trigger group with a Trigger/hammer/safety that were mis-dimensioned such that when testing you should be able to pull the trigger, let the hammer fall and hold the trigger back, reset the hammer and then as you slowly release the trigger the disconnecter should pick up the hammer. It did not. I hand fit the pieces and was able to fix that. One of the A2 barrels has a forward hand guard flange mounted such that the hole in it for the gas tube is not lined up with the hole in the gas block for the gas tube. On that same barrel assembly there is a burr sticking into the barrel from the drilling of the gas port. This is unsafe and will need to be removed. Lastly, upon testing the 3 bolts I DID get with my 4 kits, the one M4 bolt would not fit into a bolt carrier so no good. Then the 2 bolts that came with the A2 kits failed their NO GO test. ie: first you insert a GO gauge and try to close the bolt on that. Testing that the chamber is not too short/tight or bolt oversize. That test passed. Then you insert a NO GO gauge and attempt to close the bolt on it. If the bolt does not close that is a successful test...sufficient space in the chamber. A successful test assures the chamber is not too deep and/or the bolt is not excessively worn. That test failed on both the A2 supplied bolts. Chambers too deep/loose and the bolts should be replaced. Finally you insert a FIELD gauge into the chamber and attempt to close the bolt on that. If the bolt does not close you have passed the FIELD gauge test. The purpose of this test is to indicate that the bolt while worn beyond acceptable limits leaving too much space in the chamber, the rifle may still be used in the field until a replacement can be attained. Accuracy will be negatively affected in this case. I discovered all this over a week of building. I will try once more to contact Sarco in an attempt to get replacements for the missing parts. Not really expecting much help. If you want to purchase a parts kit, I cannot in good conscience recommend Sarco. There are may other vendors selling quality parts kits for just a fraction more than the prices Sarco offers. I will have spent as much as an additional parts kit to replace all the missing and out of spec parts. Basic stripped bolts are a little over $50 each. Gas tubes are about $30 each. Add in the cost of the other small parts and springs that were also missing, some gunsmithing for the other issues you have the cost of a...

UPDATE- June2021: Since my last review in 2018, I have purchased ammo, targets, and a firearms from sarco and I have to say things are slowly yet steadily improving. Little pockets of weird insecurity and bravado are still semi-there, but I can see that the small details are being polished out and I am happy for their team to see such improvement. The environment is no longer adversarial, and customer service has drastically improved. Management seems to be more available and responsive to issues that customers are experiencing. I commend Sarco for listening to their customers and I hope they keep up the good work moving forward.

October 2018: It kills me to write this review because I have loyally given almost $9K of my money to Sarco over the past 6 years, but I hope that someone sees this and starts making changes:

Franco, MG Dave, and their gunsmith (I forget his name) are the ONLY people worth talking to at Sarco. Anyone else I have interacted with there has some form of arrogance, insecure bravado, paramilitary wanna-be personality, and/or typical "I know everything about firearms" vibe coming off to the public and I am truly getting tired of dealing with it. After reading the reviews and seeing the loyal customers complaining about the same exact issues for literally years, I would hope that someone in management sees our reviews before their customer-base shifts to Heritage Guild down the street or online sales, and Sarco loses business. As a business owner myself- flat out some people need to be fired and never re-hired back regardless of how long they have been there or what they know. It's about culture, people, and the experience for a customer regardless of the medium that they are patronizing you from.

It's getting to the point where my shooter friends and I try to only go to Sarco when we absolutely need something and not just to peruse their showroom like we used to. The little things truly add up like- lack of eye contact when dealing with customers, purposely making you wait minutes without acknowledging that you are standing less than 10 feet away staring at them patiently, lying to fill their knowledge gaps in firearms/equipment just so they can sound cool to strangers, answering the phone with just a simple yell of SARCO!!!, laziness/lying about what is in stock, and genuinely treating customers as if they are a nuisance is a systemic problem at Sarco. I would hope that management or the owner are not supporting this type of corporate atmosphere, and hopefully something will be done soon.

Good Luck Sarco, I hope you are...

First, to the reviewer saying they won't sell ammo to anyone from NY: are you confused? Why did you think you could go across the state lines to PA and buy ammo? As PA residents, WE can go buy ammo anywhere we want. But, my take is, they have gotten folks from NYC wanting ammo. It is illegal to be armed in NYC, as is buying ammo. They're protecting themselves. Also, it's not illegal to refuse to sell anybody ammo. Period.

I had a GREAT experience with Sarco. They let me handle every single 9mm in stock, let me hold it for a few minutes, and answered every single question I had. Their prices are very fair--barely above dealer pricing for the models I handled.

Did it take a while to run my background check? Yes, of course. It usually does. You can thank the government for that, not blame the folks at Sarco. Were they busy? Yes. Do they maybe need to hire more help? Yes, but I understand knowledgeable folks are hard to find for FFLs. If you're walking in here expecting this to be like JCPenney, with someone greeting you and hoovering around you to help you--you're not gonna get it. But if you are truly interested in something, you will find very knowledgeable folks to help you--as soon as they are done helping someone else.

Let me say something else as a woman. Often, when I go into a gun store, I am treated poorly. I am treated like I am some stupid chick who doesn't know squat about guns, ammo, or anything regarding the shooting sports. I am usually laughed at, talked down to, and generally treated like a stupid child.

Sarco didn't do that to me. It was refreshing to not have to "prove" to the folks there that I knew my stuff. They were awesome! They didn't even ask me "how much do you know about guns", which would be a fair question to ask anybody!

Anybody should be at least going to Sarco if you're considering a new firearm. I loved my experience with them and, if I get the opportunity, I will return for my...