[Siris]

So after three months of hard digging and having an RDB slip to my hands yesterday (they accidentally sold the one I called to reserve) I'm starting to wonder if I should look at other options as I would rather not have to dig for another three months to find a chance at one. I do have several feelers out there right now including several out of state but seems to be nigh impossible to find outside of gouged guns on GB and being left hand-right eye dominant ambi is a must so my options seem rather limited without spending several thousand dollars.

So that brings me to the meat here in that I've also been looking at Desert Tech's MDR which has several nice features including being .308 out of the box (kel-tec's mention of a .308 version of the RDB in a video is what made me take it more seriously) and that I can basically garentee I could get one. But at double the price I'm wonder if it would be worth the investment as I know very little about Desert Tech and detailed info on the MDR right now is scarce as it has yet to actually be released. Their bolt action line seems to be very nice and highly praised though. Anyone have any thoughts or know anything about this company?

 

[Shady]

you mean get a Garentee on the MDR that has been promised to ship for the last several months and the latest news is it will be December now.

good luck with that.

On top of them having TONS of them pre sold and dealers with orders for them. If you are not on a list or get lucky in finding a vendor that has some on order and not spoken for your looking at a years wait if your lucky.

 

[Siris]

Well that's the thing, the dealer sells direct from dt and can garentee the rifle at release. He apparently already has a fair number alotted

 

[BlakeHanson]

you mean get a Garentee on the MDR that has been promised to ship for the last several months and the latest news is it will be December now.

good luck with that.

On top of them having TONS of them pre sold and dealers with orders for them. If you are not on a list or get lucky in finding a vendor that has some on order and not spoken for your looking at a years wait if your lucky.

The previous post was made in August of 2016.
For those of you playing along, here's your 2018 excuses update:

MDR Update January 5, 2018
Dear Valued Customers,

Our November 2017 update stated that our expectation was to ship a small batch or two of MDR’s prior to February and then move to high volume production in late February 2018.
Shortly after this update went out, we received news from our MIM supplier stating that they were able to speed up the schedule of the MDR side panels, allowing a sooner than expected ramp up. This information was not announced publicly but was released to our customers on the direct pre-order list and many of our dealers.

Issue With MDR MIM Supplier
Most recently, a situation beyond the control of Desert Tech and our MIM supplier arose that postponed the timeline of the December batch. The issue lies with the foreign government where our MIM supplier is located. It has recently instated more stringent export regulations on firearms parts. The added scrutiny put a freeze on firearm parts being exported from the country, requiring our MIM supplier to jump through additional, unforeseen hoops of bureaucratic regulation to export firearm parts to the US. These new regulations were not unique to Desert Tech and affected many U.S. Firearms manufacturers.

Firearms Foreign Govern Regulations
Over the past few weeks, Desert Tech teamed up with our MIM supplier and several large U.S. firearms manufacturers to present a case to the foreign government, requesting relief from these added regulations. Thankfully, with the help of all involved, their government ruled in our favor, has released the parts and noted additional considerations will be made in future regulations.
These parts were scheduled to arrive in December. We now expect they will arrive by the end of next week (January 12th).
While we await the arrival of these parts, MDRs are being assembled and are only waiting on these parts for final testing. Once the parts arrive, they will be finished, installed and tested in the assembled MDR’s, then packed & shipped.

Desert Tech MDR Next Shipments
We are hopeful that our next shipments will begin in late January and that we will transition to high volume by the end of February.
Our internal goal is to have all MDR .308 Rifle preorders filled before the end of April 2018.

On another note.

.223 MDR Update
I’m Super excited to inform you that our testing of the .223 MDR is on track and we remain hopeful to meet our current timeline. We will have fully functioning .223 MDR’s at Shot Show Range Day{

}; along with a couple of surprises in our booth that will add even more excitement to the MDR.

They're riiiight around the corner....
any day now....

 

[guru2sum]

The issue lies with the foreign government where our MIM supplier is located. It has recently instated more stringent export regulations on firearms parts. The added scrutiny put a freeze on firearm parts being exported from the country, requiring our MIM supplier to jump through additional, unforeseen hoops of bureaucratic regulation to export firearm parts to the US. These new regulations were not unique to Desert Tech and affected many U.S. Firearms manufacturers.

Sounds like it's time to find a U.S. molder. :usa:One wonders if military weapons are also dependent on that country.

 

[BlakeHanson]

One wonders if military weapons are also dependent on that country.

I thought by law, all GI contracts mandated domestic production. (in case of, umm, war)
I know it used to be.

 

[zaitcev]

Ian and Karl seemed to like the MDR, with caveats:

Personally, I think their ejection mechanism is too complex. I would prefer the RDB, especially if Gen 2 comes out with a different magazine release like on X95 (that is not prone to accidental disengagement). But I don't have the experience that these two have.

 

[BlakeHanson]

Ian and Karl seemed to like the MDR, with caveats:

Personally, I think their ejection mechanism is too complex. I would prefer the RDB, especially if Gen 2 comes out with a different magazine release like on X95 (that is not prone to accidental disengagement). But I don't have the experience that these two have.

...One year later (02-2019):

"When Desert Tech initially sent us the MDR we had a lot of issues: short strokes, failures to eject, light primer strikes, torn rims. However, unlike some other companies, they took that input and collaborated with us towards actually resolving the issues. We have received the MDR back with an entirely new gas system, a new extractor and a new hammer spring. We are very happy to inform our audience that the MDR now lives up to the expectations!"