General opinion of gun quality lately.

[luv2safari]

Yeah he's not a paid shill for the gun companies or a professional YouTuber. He's just a 67 year old guy telling you that if you spend $900 on a S&W revolver it should be correct right out of the box.

He could just tell us and show us that, and not waste our time on his self importance.

 

[TTv2]

People are more forgiving when their ~$1,000 revolver has issues vs a comparable size/caliber revolver that's a third of the price.

That's backwards, IMO. You pay the high price to get high quality that's free of problems while if you buy the cheaper product you expect there to be more shortcomings.

Then again, backwards mentality seems to be the modus operendi of everything today where murderers get released on bail and protestors are locked up for years with no trial and called traitors.

All I can say is all the Taurus wheelguns I've bought work and feel like something double the price while the Ruger's I have, the Redhawk being the exception, have cosmetic flaws or feel like they were built by monkeys.

 

[CraigC]

My general opinion is that people whine a lot. I agree with @Styx that social media outlets not only breed a lot of self-absorbed narcissism in general, people are far more likely to get on Facebook or a gun forum and complain about a bad experience than they are to brag about a good one. I've been observing this with interest since about 1998 and in my opinion, the average consumer is more lazy and less informed than ever and virtually nobody inspects a new firearm with any idea of what they're looking at. I figured out long ago that a new firearm needs to be inspected as thoroughly and critically as a used one. Most problems are avoidable. Anybody who goes home and realizes their front sight is crooked has only themselves to blame. I remember specifically about 25yrs ago my favorite local shop had a new Ruger Bisley .44Mag in stock but I had them order me a new one because it had faults I couldn't live with. It pissed them off but they did it anyway and I was a happy customer. Same for internet sales. If the gun doesn't pass inspection, don't fill out the 4473 and bitch about it later. Send it back. A couple years ago, I had an older pinned barrel S&W 57 that I paid a premium for show up and it had an obvious hitch in the action. I thought about having it fixed but I had already spent too much on it on Gunbroker and wasn't about to sink another $300-$400 in it, half of which would be shipping to and from the gunsmith, so I sent it back. If you don't want problem guns, don't buy them.

 

[SKILCZ]

This guy lays it out correctly. He clearly doesn't get cherry picked guns from a manufacturer and owes nobody anything except the truth.
I'm sure he's not the only one just by reading the gripes here. Enjoy this video.

44 Magnum ABYSMAL - American Gun Manufacturing

MAKE AMERICAN GUN MANUFACTURING GREAT AGAIN - Tim Sundles of Buffalo Bore Ammunition lets it all hang out! WHY is not the NRA on this???Join our email list ...

youtu.be

Disclaimer: Did not watch the video, but read your synopsis.

I think it's a mixed bag.

On one hand, one can get a reliable semi-auto handgun for a reasonable price and have several options (brands, models, etc.) near that price, to boot. Patents are expiring, and the floodgates are opening, bringing down price and up availability. So in that sense, we're in a golden age of handguns, especially plastic striker-fired options.

On the other hand, some of the manufacturers are cutting corners and churning out things with seemingly suboptimal quality control. Worse yet, if/when you do have a problem, some of the companies do not seem to offer the level of customer service they were once reputed to offer. Some manufacturers, despite changing to cheaper production methods and materials, are maintaining, or even increasing, seemingly unnecessarily high prices.

It seems like if you're fortunate enough to not get a lemon, you're probably happy, but if you do get a lemon, you're probably not. As some have said, a lot of people don't shoot much. I do, so it really irks me when a gun doesn't work, especially one I bought new. I enjoy gunsmithing to a point, but I want things to work out of the box. I've had to deal with the customer service departments of two firearms manufacturers recently for warranty issues, and both were sub-par despite one being alleged to have "great" customer service. The other surpassed (in a bad way) their spotty reputation for customer service and quality. I don't enjoy sending guns back and forth, especially when the service sucks.

 

[PapaG]

I can't really speak about recent gun quality as I have purchased very few new guns. I have, however, sold hundreds out of the shop where I worked. Very few had to go back to the factory. There are some guns that sell well.which come with glaring engineering mistakes, the cylinder throats on Judges and Governors, for example.
I think back in horror about S&W during the Bangor Punta years when almost every gun we sold had some defect, from minor to major.
I think today, most are pretty well executed. Except for a few Turkish shotguns, but they make some good stuff, too.

 

[dogtown tom]

My general opinion is that people whine a lot.

Valid comment.
In 1975, if you had a defective gun you returned it to the gun shop or manufacturer for repair or replacement. You told friends, family and coworkers about the issue. If you were really unhappy, you wrote a letter and mailed it to Guns & Ammo, American Rifleman, Shooting Times or Guns Magazine. The editor could choose to print your letter or not. Being that gun manufacturers advertising paid the bills, the likelihood of your complaint appearing was slim to none.

In 2025, if you have a defective gun you immediately make a video using your cell phone and post it for the entire world to see before you even leave the range.

The point I'm making is defective guns existed decades ago, there wasn't "perfection". You couldn't do a Google search for "S&W Model 53 issues", you had to wait for a gun writer/shill to mention it in a gun magazine. Now you do a Google search for "Sig P320 uncommanded discharge" and you get thousands of hits and hundreds of videos.

If S&W decades ago, "made premium revolvers that were handcrafted perfection".......then why would there be a "dash eights"? Or is it 12?
Fact is, people want perfection, they just can't afford it. If the gun buying public put their $$$$ where their mouth is, then gun makers would be churning out premium quality guns at a premium quality price. Corners are cut, materials a bit less expensive are used, less human, more automation and quality control doesn't mean the gun was perfect when it left the factory, but functional.

I love my wood grips and polished blue T- series Hi Powers, but I'm not carrying them. I'll carry a $400 plastic Glock 43X with a painted finish because its functional, and sometimes functional is a quality all its own.

 

[balin]

With wages going up about 30% in just the last 5 years and many materials going up as much. What would have been a premium price years ago is now just an average price as I see it. With gun manufacturers ramping up production for years which can lower quality to meet the buyers needs. And with the low unemployment rates employers often have to take what they can get. To make sure no low quality guns get out means m9re inspection means higher prices. At lest in my decades of working in manufacturing that is what I have seen. As for me I have never had a new gun with an issue .

 

[GuyInTN]

That's because how YT videos are monetized ... channels won't make much money until viewers watch beyond 9-11 minute threshold hence why some videos are full of blah-blah til the very end of the video and I stopped watching such videos.

Not trying to derail the thread, but I thought YT demonetized most gun-related channels/content, no?

 

[Kookla]

I have an excellent condition Ruger Blackhawk old model 357- with chatter marks down the entire length of the bore. I think most companies kicked out rough stuff back in the day as they do now- we just hear more of it now due to reasons mentioned above.

 

[Kookla]

Just wanted to add one more thing- back in the day, people were more willing to put up with something that might have been off. I recall reading an article by the late John Taffin where he had a Colt SAA ( think it was 45) where one of the bolt notches was cut too deep and the chamber was weaker than the others. Enough so that it would leave an imprint of the bolt notch on his brass when he fired it with warm loads. His solution? He marked that chamber and didn't load it. Throats too tight? They reamed them out. Not saying we should be doing this these days, but back then people were more willing to make lemonade out of a lemon.

 

[Ignition Override]

New gun quality is a concern? Then buy a gun built 30-40-50 years ago if quality control, in any of those time spans...for a specific company's models/types... was much more consistent.

Create your own solution but multiple hours might be required to read about provenance. I had read enough in 2022 about many problems with DSA clones of the FAL rifles being documented for their FAL Clones built circa 2020 and in earlier years.
Patience might be the issue for So Many people (being 'Muricans we typically want something Now), because plenty of time must be spent determining whether a given rifle was assembled by a competent builder, ie over at FALfiles Marketplace.

* Bolt-action rifle acquisition: An older, possibly 1980's, but truly pristine Remington .308 (18" barrel) was inherited by a friend from a late coworker, via his widow.
With the nice Vortex scope we hit the small 500 yard gong several times. He will never need a newer version to hit distant gongs.

The prev.-mentioned, very common concern about DSA's clones in recent years is nothing new:

Are new DSA FALs even worth considering?

I’ve been wanting to pick up a FAL to round out my Cold War battle rifle collection, but everything I can find is saying that their new rifles are out of spec and have issues (2017-2019). Not only that, but their customer service has not been helpful in getting issues resolved. Even Tim on the...

www.gunboards.com

This is from 2022. "Gunplumber" (Google "ARS") only builds and repairs FALs and derivatives or clones. He built one of my StGs and repaired my Brit/Aussie (on Imbel) version, an L1A1.

What’s the deal with DSA rifles these days?

I’ve been out of the fal realm for a while. I went through some hard times and unfortunately had to get rid of my 3 imbel builds (to pay f-ing lawyers no less). I built them myself from 2001 NOS Receivers from one of the group buys years back. Back then it was relatively affordable and easy to...

www.falfiles.com