No, this whole situation came into play because your son failed to take personal responsibility for his actions.
Wrong, I know I was using reloads, I was upfront to FN about it and asked them if they wanted to inspect the firearm.
Their manual said don't use reloads. Your son violated that and you expect them to replace the gun? Why?
Again, in my initial call to FN I told Robert Ailes up front that I had used reloads, I asked if they wanted to inspect the gun to see if they could find out what happened, he told me that he would talk to his boss and call be back the next day. I never received the call, so I called for an update and asked him to return my call. He called me Wednesday and said that he talked to his boss and that they would be having "someone" contact me. I asked him how much it would be if I could just get the gun replaced, he said he didn't know and I would have to wait until "someone" called me. I waited 2 weeks and never received a call. So I called again to check up and see what was going on and why I hadn't received a call yet. He said the best they could do for me was take the gun in, inspect it, destroy it after 30 days, and give me a "deep discount" on a new one.
After talking to Tommy Thacker, Product Manager for FN, he told me that after the call took place Robert Ailes realized who I was and was very frustrated at that point. Tommy told him to calm down and just call me back. So I neither received the call-tag to get the gun picked up, nor did I receive a call from Robert to fix the situation.
That is what happened, I never once asked them to replace my gun for free, I simply asked if they wanted to take a look at it. Robert Ailes told me to just hold on to it for now and that he would talk to his boss.
I do reload. Unlike your son, I've never blown up a gun. Unlike your son, I only load using recipes (bullet type and weight, powder, primer, etc.) in accordance with data published by manufacturers and/or reloading manuals. In contrast, your son loaded his cartridges using a bullet and powder combination for which there is no published load data! Why did he do that? The limits in the manuals don't apply to him? So tell me again, which of us is a safety concern? Someone who follows the guidelines in the reloading manuals or someone who decides to reload a very sensitive caliber and to do so using a recipe that has never been tested?
The load data I used has been extensively tested by the owner of it, EliteAmmunition.
Your son screwed up. Now you are screwing up as a parent, because you are blaming someone else. You need to teach him to take responsibility for his own actions. He chose to reload. He chose to use a recipe for which their was no data. If you do that type of experimentation, particularly in such a sensitive caliber, you have to expect that failures may occur. That is why manufacturers do such testing with test barrels, in test labs, with elaborate safety precautions.
Your sons injuries will heal. Thank the Lord for the cheap lesson, accept responsibility, stop blaming someone else, and move on.
Blaming FN for the kaboom... no, the OOB firing is merely my observation and no one will know for sure until it is completely inspected by FN. This has been 100% about customer service, the ball was dropped more than once. If FN had just straight up said, "Nope, sorry we don't want to look at it and we have no interest in replacing your firearm." Then I would have said, OK thanks.
Would I buy another one, probably not, probably won't buy another polymer gun either way. Do I think there
might be a problem, yeah I do. But that's just my .02
