Question about warranties on new guns

[ArcherandShooter]

Hey, y'all, I have a question...

I just bought a Henry Big Boy in .44 Magnum, and noticed in the printed material that using handloaded ammo voids the warranty.

How do you respond to this? .44 mag ain't cheap, so we reload, but I'm thinking of maybe shooting a few boxes of factory ammo to break in the rifle and make sure there are no obvious quality problems. In your experience, how much of this would be needed before you'd be willing to give up the warranty?

Thanks.

 

[jfh]

ALL manufacturers void the warranty

if you don't use factory ammunition.

I had a Glock 20 blow up after 284 rounds, shooting ammunition I had loaded myself, and all Glock said was "we're glad you weren't seriously hurt."

I had run 250 rounds of factory FMJs down it to burnish the barrel a bit, then shifted to my handloads. My handloads are not powerful loads, and I'm inclined to blame the polygonal rifling / lead bullet issues--but it could have been a double charge. The chamber split at the 4:00 position, vented, and twisted the slide assembly out of the frame and launched it over my left shoulder. I ended up with a sprained trigger finger and a couple of blood blisters on the same digit.

So, your procedure of at least confirming the firearm shoots / works OK with some factory ammo makes sense. Then, it simply becomes your own comfort factor--do you want or need that 'factory warranty' or do you want to save money?

This assumes, of course, that you are knowledgable about reloading, and willing to commit to your reloading needs. FWIW, on another forum I worked up startup costs, and you can start out with a good complete setup (Lee classic cast turret, dies, tumbler, etc) for about $350.00. Components are on top of that.

Jim H.

 

[Walkalong]

None of my guns are under warranty, technically. I have shot 1000's of rounds of handloads over the years. My fairly new EMP never saw a factory round. Springfield fixed the issues it had when new. They didn't ask and I didn't tell. It runs flawlessly now, with the same reloads.

 

[Steve C]

Its a trade off. Lower cost ammo vrs warranty. Too many careless reloaders out there for the gun manufacturers to warranty their products if using reloads. A KB (ka-boom) is pretty rare though and manufacturers will still warranty the gun if the failure isn't due to ammunition.