Tell me about the craziest issue you've seen with a new gun...

[morcey2]

Said the guy who bought it brought it back a hour later asking the 'trick' to loading it.

Bigger hammer. Or an arbor press.

 

[stonecutter2]

...and I'll start it off with something I saw today. A friend of mine wondered why his new single action .22 revolver was keyholing at the range this afternoon. It was the first time he was shooting it at paper. "Let's check the bore," says I. I pulled the cylinder, and...

...no rifling!

It was an accidental smoothbore.


What other "fun" things have you experienced or witnessed?

Glock 19 gen4, new to me and had about 500-1000 rounds or so through it. Was on my land with a friend and he said he wanted to get a pistol, I told him (of course) how reliable the Glock had been so far, pretty accurate, etc. I pulled it out of my holster, dropped mag and racked it to empty it, pulled the trigger and the slide slid right off but somehow I caught it. We both laughed and then I was like, what the heck?

The slide lock spring had somehow bent itself in half, part of it missing. The slide lock lever was still in the pistol though. I put it away and ordered a couple replacements online.

I have seen other people reporting this sort of thing too, I suspect a bad batch of metal at some point that was too weak or soft.

 

[EternalKnight]

A friend bought a SCCY on a whim and on his third shot at the range, the front site came off. Several years ago, the person next to me was shooting a Keltec 9 and the magazine blew out and burned his hand. I don't know if he had a squib or what, but someone took him to the ER for treatment.

 

[hdwhit]

I have never purchased a new gun that had a defect.

I've bought some used guns that were postiviely nighmarish, but no problems with new guns. That's probably why I gravitate towards making sure I really want something, buying it new and then keeping it forever.

 

[silicosys4]

I haven't purchased many new guns, but the one that I've had the most trouble with was a Sig 1911 railed tacpac. The gun came to me NIB and in the four years or so that I've owned it, it has never gone through an entire magazine without a FTF. A trip back to Sig and an extractor adjustment didn't fix the problem, so it just sits waiting for someone who loves manually cycling their slide. That ended my fledgling fanboyism for sigs.

 

[Speedo66]

Ordered a new S&W Model 60, .38Spl. back then. Stainless for S&W was pretty new at that time. The gun new out of the box had several defects. You couldn't even pull the trigger! Well, you could, but it didn't go completely back and turn the cylinder. Take off the grips and there is a long curl of machining metal inside that is preventing the hammer spring from compressing. OK, remove that and now you can pull the trigger.

The extra piece of metal on the left side of the frame that prevents the cylinder from coming out when open wasn't machined enough. When you went to eject the empties, if one was under it, it caught the cartridge head and prevented it from ejecting. Also, what are the extra little holes appearing on the target? Turns out the cylinder wasn't aligned and it was spitting lead like crazy out the side.

Sent it back to S&W with a note that I'm a LEO and need the gun back quickly please. Two weeks later the gun appears. OK, ejects now, and it's not spitting lead.

Go to qualify with it and after 40 rounds or so, the heat expansion locks it up. Hmm, this is familiar. Operates again once it cools down. Back to the factory.

I completely lost trust in that revolver and quickly traded it back to the dealer I bought it from for a used .380 German Walther PPK/S. I later bought an early 4" stainless 686 and couldn't have been more pleased with it. First 5 shots I fired with it formed a one hole cloverleaf at 50'. Unfortunately, an unrepeatable event. lol

 

[TRX]

New Norinco SKS with visible cracks at the muzzle, extending back along the lands of the rifling.

 

[bannockburn]

Bought a new AK from Century Arms as a present for a friend of mine. Found a hairline crack in the buttstock and so contacted Century Arms about a replacement. They told me to take all of the hardware off the old stock, send them the damaged one, and they would ship me a new stock. Did this and eventually they sent me a new stock, new as in totally unfinished; like it just came from the lumber yard. Had to sand and fit the stock to the gun, then had to stain it (a bit tricky trying to match the stain to the other wood pieces), and finally seal it. Turned out alright, just not what I was expecting with a new gun or in the way of their customer service turning into a my DIY job.

 

[Bbear]

Worked for one of the Italian gun mfg. I ordered my samples one year and received a box with one model on it and a completely different one inside.

 

[Kingcreek]

early 1970's my cousin bought a beatiful new blued Colt python. We took it out to shoot it and he decided to check the bore first. Obstructed with a stuck bullet 1/3 into the bore! He decided to send it back to colt rather than drive it out himself. Came back with no bullet but had an awful gouge in the bore and some scratches. Sent it back again. Came back beautiful with a new barrel, a nice presentation case, and some other Colt brand stuff ie hat and belt buckle IIRC.

 

[JohnKSa]

Two guns from two makers with the same problem.

The first Beretta 92FS I bought, many years ago, had a large amount of some kind of grinding compound/shavings/beadblasting media inside the takedown latch compartment. It didn't cause any function issues but it's something that should have been addressed.

I was looking over a friend's Ruger SR9C and while detail stripping the slide, I found that the slide cover plate was extremely difficult to remove. When I finally got it off, it was damaged badly and it was obvious that some of the damage happened during installation. The reason it wouldn't come off as easily as it should have was because the channel of the springloaded plunger that held it in place was jam-packed with grinding compound/shavings/blasting media. The spring and plunger had been installed on top of the garbage in the hole and the spring had been compressed to the point that it was solid during installation. Ruger replaced the part at no charge, but had no comment and did not want to see the damaged part or the recovered grinding compound/shavings/beadblasting media.

s&w m&p 9mm full size will close the locked slide when you seat a magazine hard

Because of the way most slide releases work, it is possible for this to happen in most autoloading pistols when the magazine is inserted forcefully with a little bit of an angle towards the front of the gun.

 

[mnrivrat]

In the 70's a friend had an FFL license for personal use. I was with him one day when a package arrived and he unwrapped it to expose a $&W box. He had ordered a new M629 . When he removed the gun from the box and tried to work the action it was frozen.

So he proceded to remove the side plate. The problem was easy to find. The hammer pivot stud had not mated with the side plate hole and was bent in a near 90% angle. Whoever assembled that one in the factory hammered the side plate down bending the pivot stud and partly flattened it agasinst the hammer. Talk about a drunken monkey !

 

[Dr.Rob]

I got a stripped AR upper (Anderson) that had a piece of debris stuck in the channel for the charging handle. It was so well wedged in I thought t wasn't fully machined. Charging handle wouldn't seat. Flash light and a dental pick manage to pry out the piece to my surprise. It was not a big deal but it sure was confusing for a bit. That piece had been through the anodizing process so it was stuck in there during machining.

 

[tuckerdog1]

I bought a Taurus 8 shot revolver new from a dealer years ago. While paperwork was being done I fondled the gun and asked if the fact that the cylinder spun clockwise and counter clockwise was normal. He didn't know much about revolvers, suggested I call Taurus. I did. They sent FedEx out the next day to pick it up. I had it back within 5 days fixed.

If you'd said it was a 9 shot, I'd wonder if it was the same revolver I ordered. Mine was a 22LR 9 shot revolver. Took it out of the box to inspect, and the cylinder had zero lock up. Just spun freely in both directions. Back in the box and returned. The replacement has been fine.

Tuckerdog1

 

[made2cut]

I bought a Glock G30 off of this board years ago that I couldn't take the slide off of without a ton of fiddling. I know this is a "new" gun problem thread but I'm sure it came from the factory with this problem and was the reason the guy I bought it from was dumping it. I finally figured out there was a high spot inside the frame that was catching the bottom or the slide. Just a touch of sanding brought it back to spec and never had a problem with it after that.

 

[outlawjw]

Freinds bought a 399.00 scope & all Mossberg 308 . The plastic bedding block / mag well had .020" space between the reviewer & bedding block under rear tang. 3 1/2" was best it would shoot at 100 yrd added the .020" of shimn & less than 1" was norm at 100 yrd . Don't know if this is common for Mossberg bolt actions or not.

 

[Deus Machina]

My CZ and handloads, so can't say it's a defect but...
Cast lead 9mm loads would fire in absolutely anything I or any of my friends owned like clockwork. Except my CZ PCR, in which they would wedge into the start of the rifling and lock it up hard. Unless I started seating them right at the absolute minimum OAL for the load.
Turns out CZ rifling just doesn't have the same clearance, or possibly lead angle, as pretty much anyone else.
Switched to a mold with a slightly less ball-nosed profile, problem cleared right up.

 

[jasonv]

Was in Ace Hardware looking at new guns about 13 years ago. Was looking over a new Remington shotgun and noticed the choke was in the barrel crooked.

I told the guy working and we looked at all of them on the rack and almost every one was that way- visibly crooked in the barrel. From .410 to 12 ga they all had it.

 

[Cowhide Cliff]

I ordered a new Uberti 1873 lever action rifle and it would not chamber either .357 Mag or .38 Spec factory ammo. The cartridges protruded back into the action about 1/4 inch. The wholesaler exchanged it, but it makes me wonder how the manufacturer proof tested the dern thing...

I have just received two (yes two in a row) 1873 custom order rifles that neither one would chamber a round. The headspace is too tight and wont close on the case rim. There is no way Uberti test fired those rifles unless they have some odd brass in Italy with very thin rims. I tried brass with seven different headstamps.

A friend of mine also received a Uberti revolver 44 with a 45 cylinder in it.

I think their spaghetti is spiked with something over there in Italy.

 

[Bartojc]

Bought a new Ruger American in .243 a few years ago. When I took it out to shoot I absolutely could not close the bolt with a round in the chamber. Took the rifle back to a LGS, they looked at it and tried it. Would not work for them. They contacted Ruger and they wanted the rifle. 3-4 weeks later I had a new rifle. No explanation of what was wrong, but between LGS and Ruger it cost me nothing but the wait. FWIW it was not purchased form LGS, but I have since purchased a number of firearms from them

-Jeff