Question about Dakota Tactical...

[atltrader]

So from everything I've heard and read over the last few years, Dakota Tactical is supposed to be a top notch producer of the MP5/rollerlock platform. I can't help but notice though, every time I visit their website, it looks like half of their inventory is sold out or unavailable. Even when I go on Gunbroker, there are rarely any listings showing up. At the time of me posting this thread, there are way more HK SP5 listings and at way more affordable prices than what DT shows on their site. Does it just come down to a scalability issue?? Am I missing something here??

 

[cmshoot]

l33571

 

[Steve58]

I didn’t know they had inventory. It took over two years for the MP5 clone I ordered to be delivered.

 

[l33571]

All of the really good HK smiths, including Dakota Tactical are always busy on custom requested builds and almost never have items in stock. That is unless they decide to do a run of guns which are almost always pre-paid and spoken for before they even get started. You'll need to hang out on the HKPro forum to learn of such things in vendor listings.

Most HK builds are custom and with the SP5 readily available, a lot of smiths have simply moved over to using those as the base platform. A lot of the best smiths are never short of work and have a backlog from months to years depending on what they are focused on such as building MP5SD clones, etc.

Be advised, HKPro is a heavily moderated forum and you need to read the FAQs and such before posting. Trash talk and BS is not accepted there nor is anything off topic.

 

[cmshoot]

All of the really good HK smiths, including Dakota Tactical are always busy on custom requested builds and almost never have items in stock. That is unless they decide to do a run of guns which are almost always pre-paid and spoken for before they even get started. You'll need to hang out on the HKPro forum to learn of such things in vendor listings.

Most HK builds are custom and with the SP5 readily available, a lot of smiths have simply moved over to using those as the base platform. A lot of the best smiths are never short of work and have a backlog from months to years depending on what they are focused on such as building MP5SD clones, etc.

Be advised, HKPro is a heavily moderated forum and you need to read the FAQs and such before posting. Trash talk and BS is not accepted there nor is anything off topic.

That’s the kind of forum that I like.

 

[atltrader]

All of the really good HK smiths, including Dakota Tactical are always busy on custom requested builds and almost never have items in stock. That is unless they decide to do a run of guns which are almost always pre-paid and spoken for before they even get started. You'll need to hang out on the HKPro forum to learn of such things in vendor listings.

Most HK builds are custom and with the SP5 readily available, a lot of smiths have simply moved over to using those as the base platform. A lot of the best smiths are never short of work and have a backlog from months to years depending on what they are focused on such as building MP5SD clones, etc.

Be advised, HKPro is a heavily moderated forum and you need to read the FAQs and such before posting. Trash talk and BS is not accepted there nor is anything off topic.

So it sounds like DT is more of a boutique style company since their inventory to the public stays on the lower side. Just not sure why the average buyer would pay more for a DT clone when HK's platform can be had for less in the current economy.

 

[l33571]

I would say all of the companies that work on roller delayed systems are boutique style niche companies. A lot of them produce items in calibers other than standard and cater the F/A crowd as their products/clones are "sear" ready. Dakota Tactical makes an MP5 clone in 300blk for instance or has made in the past. Other companies fix other clones like PTR, MKE, etc. that won't function with an "F/A sear."

The SP5 has a carrier block and companies have made removable trips for the bolt carrier and one company even removes the carrier block although this is gray territory as far as he NFA is concerned. Many companies will only take a HK SP5 & work on it to make something else such an MP5SD. Parts are hard to find and most especially German parts. Much more so for platforms other than MP5.

It comes down to what do you want, how close to all HK German parts, and what do it want it to do? That could something like an HK53, all German parts, to work with my Fleming sear in burst pack. Good luck finding some of those parts that are German because they have been out of production for years. The SP5 I hesitate to say "revived" the interest in the MP5 platform since you could have one for "lower" cost that was all German and supported by a manufacturer. Otherwise it was find an SP89 or HK94 and then still have to have a smith work on it to make it an MP5 or an MP5SD. I long for the days before the SP5 when many parts were much cheaper and easier to obtain.

Just my 2 cents and lots of HK folks would likely disagree or correct me on several points.

 

[atltrader]

It's all very interesting IMO to say the least. The other thing that I find curious when talking about the MP5/rollerlock platform is how the word "clone" gets used so frequently. It's like every other company out there making the platform is always referred to as an HK clone more times than not. That's definitely not the case when other companies make their own version of the AR-15. You never hear the wording of "Colt clone" or "Armalite clone" used in discussion and the like. Maybe there's more to it that I'm not educated on but I find that interesting for sure.

 

[l33571]

It's either all German made using German parts, in Germany or it's a clone That includes the Turkish guns made on the German tooling using the exact same processes. Still a clone. Welcome to world of HK.

Go hang out on HKPro for a while and you'll see it in action. Do you read the rules and such please. They expect everyone to follow them and moderator pretty hard.

 

[Soul]

You're legitimately better off taking an SP5 and sending it to HK ralph or some other vendor to fab up your SD setup or whatever. You'll get it back within a sane time frame.