Omega Weapon Systems - Website is Down

[Robidouxs]

Does anyone know what happened to Omega Weapons Systems? This company is based in Tucson and offers many gun parts. I last purchased SKS parts from this company in December 2018. I went to visit the website this morning and noticed it was under construction.

http://www.omega-weapons-systems.com/

 

[Suck My Glock]

Jeez,...I hope Don Bell is ok. He's an old coot and this makes me nervous he might have come to an end.

 

[Suck My Glock]

Just checked with a source in Tucson and it is unfortunately true;...good ol' Don Bell is no more. Happened a couple weeks ago.

I wish I knew what happened to his inventory. I know quite a bit of what he had undeclared in reserve out back in those conex boxes. Neat stuff you just can't get unless you raid ATF's reference armory. Back when he first imported all that stuff in the 70s, it was not inspected thoroughly.

 

[needsmostuff]

Man ,,,,that does suck ,,,,,He was my go-to guy for weird stuff.
For at least a couple of months I have been wanting to get over there for a stupid M44 Nagant rear sight and kept putting it off.
Where else do you walk in and get that stuff, .He will be missed.

 

[Robidouxs]

Please contact me via private message if you happen to have contact information for Donald Bell’s family. Numrich Gun Parts Corp is interested in contacting the family to discuss Omega Weapon Systems further but Numrich communicated to me that the telephone number associated with the business have been disconnected. Any information you share with me will be only sent to Numrich Gun Parts Corp and no one else.

 

[Suck My Glock]

My source in Tucson close to the family informs that Numrich is already too late, and that Don's niece has already sold out everything to everygunpart.com

 

[kote786]

very sad to see this, Don was a stand up guy!

 

[Steve_In_29]

Always a sad day when another old guy passes and takes a bit more of the gun knowledge off the table.

I learned something though as I had never heard of everygunpart.com

 

[needsmostuff]

Don's niece has already sold out everything to everygunpart.com

Just my thoughts but that sounds like it would have been Don's personal worst nightmare.
Just to have persons unknown sort the stuff out or box it up and ship it out.
Having been in the warehouse building many time going back into the early 90's I can tell you there were places you could go look around , and places you were told to stay out of. Who knows WHAT was stashed in the dark corners or high shelves. Much of which was procured years before bans or elevated scrutiny . Places you could go look around were like the world's grungiest museum and you could wander for a long time looking at things but truthfully recognizing maybe 10%. Only Don knew what every piece was. The Omega web site was a very small representation of what was under the roof ,,,, or in the back couple of acres. All stuff Don planed to organize ,,,,,,someday.
I don't see where everygunpart will be a good or even possible fit for more than a small part of I remember seeing in there.
I'm guessing most will get wholesaled somewhere.

 

[Suck My Glock]

Don's niece has already sold out everything to everygunpart.com

Just my thoughts but that sounds like it would have been Don's personal worst nightmare.
Just to have persons unknown sort the stuff out or box it up and ship it out.
Having been in the warehouse building many time going back into the early 90's I can tell you there were places you could go look around , and places you were told to stay out of. Who knows WHAT was stashed in the dark corners or high shelves. Much of which was procured years before bans or elevated scrutiny . Places you could go look around were like the world's grungiest museum and you could wander for a long time looking at things but truthfully recognizing maybe 10%. Only Don knew what every piece was. The Omega web site was a very small representation of what was under the roof ,,,, or in the back couple of acres. All stuff Don planed to organize ,,,,,,someday.
I don't see where everygunpart will be a good or even possible fit for more than a small part of I remember seeing in there.
I'm guessing most will get wholesaled somewhere.

Now that he is dead and liability to his heirs has been transferred,...I can tell a little more about this.

Back in the late 70s after China openned up, Don went over there to see what gun stuff could be had. The Chinese had warehouses after warehouses just jammed to the gills with "obsolete" weaponry that were now just 3rd tier war reserve stocks. The kind of crap a major country just gives away to the rebels in some bush war somewhere. Everything from Broomhandle Mausers from the Boxer Rebellion to SKS rifles that were no longer considered front line stuff. Don bought as much as he and his investors could afford, which was many (perhaps dozens) of shipping containers full of this bounty.

While today such things are usually required to be shipped intact to an American port and deactivated (cut up) under ATF supervision,...back then, it often occurred (because labor in China was cheaper) that everything was rendered inoperable and demilled at the port of origin, then packed into the shipping containers and sent.

You can probably guess the results. While the Chinese complied with ATF directives and criteria on what was legal to import,...there was some lack of attention on occasion during that process, and some things made it into those shipping containers that should not have. For instance, instead of cutting completely through the entirety of a ZB26 receiver, the guy running the chop saw or torch got 50% through and decided it was lunchtime. Into the pile it went. As the workers got lazier, it occurred to them that anyone inspecting the containers were likely to only open up the ends and dig only so far. Upon seeing everything within the first 10 feet of the containers was cut up within appropriate compliance,...was it likely said inspectors would inspect the ENTIRE contents? And so it occurred that at least a few of the shipping containers had properly cut up guns in the easily accessible ends, but had midsections jammed full of UNMODIFIED original stuff. Most of that was piles and piles of factory new SKS rifles that were so new, they had not yet been put in stocks or given serial numbers. I know for a fact Don still had at least one container still filled with those back in 2010, and I'm pretty sure they were still there when he died.