I'm tempted to put in an order just to reserve one. Who knows how much longer they'll be available for.

 

Me too, I regret selling mine.
m14brian

 

Any insight as to how the new production chassis will be marked ie: Sage or US Tactical?

 

Mine is marked Sage, it was a recent one made after US Tactical bought the chassis. I think they’re keeping the Sage name.

 

When I emailed them a few months ago they said they would be doing other colors also later in the year. I’ll be waiting. Hopefully they do an emr version, I’m getting nostalgic.

 

I've been waiting years to get out of California, and now that I finally have I just ordered a black one and I'm going to get it cerakoted FDE, and keep my M1A Socom 16 I'm putting into it gunmetal. I think it's going to look nice. I found a picture YEARS ago and i fell in love with it, I want it to look like this.

 

They will have new Markings with there address and so fourth,not gonna be the same as the old ones from Sage.

 

I placed an order yesterday for a Chassis and received the following.

I apologize if there was some confusion in the checkout process, but the website does state that the EBR Chassis are currently on backorder. We are currently working on the newest production run of these chassis that will be done in Mid-July. However those chassis are to fill pre-existing backorders, and the earliest your chassis could ship would be sometime in Fall.

For the life of me I can not understand the lack of production capability to meet expected market demands. Dont get paid until it ships. You’re running computerized milling machines. Add a shift, put in more mills. I have a M14.ca chassis and I was in touch with the Mothership in Canada and their US distributors. They are expecting end of year shipments as well.

Kevin (us) said that the market is mature and most M14 are safe queens that will never see a chassis. Where is the demand coming from? Maybe the production of chassis is so small it just works to long leadtimes.

 

For the life of me I can not understand the lack of production capability to meet expected market demands. Dont get paid until it ships. You’re running computerized milling machines. Add a shift, put in more mills.

For those that might not be aware, I will note that SAGE International sold their entire EBR chassis line of business to US Tactical Supply in 2023. So the new owners have to presumably set up everything at their new location and re-start production, along with new employees, etc, so it’s not like SAGE International is running anything at this point re chassis systems or EBR parts. I might speculate that SAGE made their last EBR chassis in 2022 or so, but that’s just a guess.

My understanding: the U.S. military (Crane) bought approx 10k plus EBR chassis from 2004 to maybe 2014? - but after that demand dropped off. So with U.S. military orders tapering off maybe a decade ago, SAGE made chassis in small batches from time to time for the civilian market, based perhaps on orders by their two main distributors at the time, Clyde’s Armory and U.S. Tactical Supply. The founder/president of SAGE told me back in 2019 that they were mostly focused on their “less lethal” / Law Enforcement line of business. He said that demand for that business line was “overwhelming”, so his small company and his employees ware focused on that line of products.

I asked him if SAGE could make a small number of the unique Navy Mk 14 Mod 2 straight-back connector pieces, maybe 8 or 10 of them, and the owner told me that an order of 50 pieces was the bare minimum needed to justify setting up all the equipment. That was never going to happen, as demand for that part is limited to those who want to make a replica of an unusual Navy EBR rifle. Digressing some, but the company owner also said that all future orders would only be black EBR chassis, and they weren’t offering anodizing in other colors like NSG or FDE given the costs, etc. He also mentioned that SAGE switched anodizers years ago due to high costs and inconsistent results. He said they “might” offer other colors but it would be only via Cerakoting, not via anodizing.

During the pandemic SAGE was apparently not really producing any EBR products (circa 2020). It seemed like a two-man show back on 2020-21. They quit taking direct orders from the public in March 2020…don’t ask me how I know this, but I had to wait until late 2021 to get my heavy barrel chassis that I tried to order on March 2020. So SAGE made some chassis and other EBR parts circa 2021-22 to fulfill back orders submitted during the pandemic, but I think that’s about it, as they then sold that part of the company.

My opinion is the large military orders out of Crane circa 2004-201x justified that EBR chassis-based product line, but once those orders dried up, the demand was limited to lower volume civilian sales, and the owner of SAGE eventually decided to sell-off that product line. Hopefully US Tactical can figure out how to make the chassis and be profitable, but it’s a very niche product with a relatively small volume of civilian sales, when compared to 10 to 20 years ago…My 2cts.

 

Based on the current description listed on US Tactical, are the chassis with alternate colors also anodized or will they likely be cerakoted to the requested color?

 

Me thinks only a phone call can answer that question.

 

Random Guy, thank you for that update on Sage and US Tactical. I am certainly an outsider on the Sage saga. I was not aware of the sale or the current situation. The Sage website nor the US Tacactical website tells the story and none of my searches brought up the story. I must confess, an injury makes details fuzzy so maybe I just missed it but its news to me.

Now it makes sense why the backorder. It’s not really a backorder at all. It is a completely new product, made in a new place, by new people. Had I been aware of this, my purchase decision would have been different. At this price point, I wonder if this build should be redirected.

What do you guys think about doing a Sage build in light of the above info? Do any of you have orders pending? Would any of you place an order with this knowledge? Maybe someone has some bones they want to rehome?

Im going to do some study and reflection on this build.

 

This seems misleading after hearing the story.

 

Well, both of these are small companies, and it seems neither has updated their websites with news about the sale or purchase of the EBR line of business. What I wrote was learned on two phone calls. In fact SAGE International has apparently not updated their website since 2018….(see attached)

….time will tell, but small companies like this don’t have a full-time webmaster. They probably pay a company to do that work, but I guess not lately.

If you want one, I’d call US Tactical Supply and see what they say about any changes to the EBR system, etc. Curious if they bought the rights to the “SAGE EBR” name or not, etc. Since no one on this forum likely works for US Tactical Supply, a phone call with them is the best and only option to learn about your order.

 

I recently received my order from US tactical. To answer a couple questions, the chassis I received was originally ordered from Sage and was shipped after US tactical took over. It came in black and is marked “Sage international oscoda MI” in the chassis.
it functions beautifully and I absolutely love it

 

I recently received my order from US tactical. To answer a couple questions, the chassis I received was originally ordered from Sage and was shipped after US tactical took over. It came in black and is marked “Sage international oscoda MI” in the chassis.
it functions beautifully and I absolutely love it

Pictures man! 😊 👍

 

 

I love mine just wish it wasn’t so heavy

 

Anybody know where I can buy a Sage scope mount? This Sadlak is a pain to install and remove.

 

I have had my sage scope mount on order for quite some time. I think just order it from US tactical and wait. I looked at the sadlak ones and some others, I like the way the sage one looks but no experience with it