Who's had a defective firearm right out of the box?

[Lee F]

Three Savage rifles. 1985-2004.

The first two in 1985. After firing the bolt would lock closed and had to be hammered open. I traded the first for another model off the dealer's shelf and demanded a refund on the second.

After reading great reports on the "new, wonderful, accurate" Savages here and else where I ordered a 10FP last week. It never left the gun shop floor with me. The barrel to stock fit was cartoon like. The screw heads were marred. With all those visual defects there's no telling what was hidden inside. I honestly tried to give Savage another chance.

 

[Kingson]

I had to send a CETME back to C.A.I. 2 times before to fired right. Now it shoots good.

 

[nvrquit]

Actually, Two...

I've had two pistols that were bad from jump-street.

The first was a Tanfoglio Witness Compact in 10mm Auto, Wonder finish. About as nice a fit/finish as I've seen on a Witness, but the thing would jam, misfeed and slide lock before emptying the mag. Several trips to EAA(USA importer/servicing agent) were a very challenging experience. The pistol still isn't 100% reliable, the slide isn't my original slide and to top it off, EAA seemed to feel they could never satisfy me so they asked that I never by another EAA product again(though they did offer to "buy back" the pistol). Not nice people and not truly customer oriented.

The second is a Walther P22. Correctly I should say that the next three are Walther P22's, as the original P22 and the first replacement P22 were both faulty to a point that S&W/Walther USA just decided to replace them. The third one isn't perfect either, but at least it has some brands of ammo that will function with some manner of reliability through it.

 

[Curare]

Had a Beretta Tomcat with a bevel on one side of the front sight. Didn't notice it until I went to the range that afternoon. Made for an interesting sight picture. Gunshop replaced it straight away.

 

[outofbattery]

AR-7 that wouldn't feed for beans directly out of the box . I put a slight chamfer in the bottom of the throat and it fed just fine but wouldn't eject . Now it works great as long as it's fed Velocitors , MiniMags of Super Max's .

 

[Number 6]

When I got my Benelli Nova, they failed to put the ejector onto the gun. I was pretty miffed, but the guys at the shop I bought it from called their rep directly and had the part there and installed in a few days.

 

[Ky Larry]

Tec-9 9mm. Jam-o-matic P.O.S. Sent it back to the factory twice and it still wouldn't feed. Traded it for a T/C Contender in .223. Best trade I ever made.

 

[TABING]

Colt Trooper Mark III, hammer would drop without touching the trigger, sent back to factory, came back, did the same thing, returned it to dealer in trade for a S&W model 19, haven't bought a new Colt revolver since (1979).

Do have an Official Police that I like, no problems there, made in the 1950s.

 

[4570Rick]

Winchester 1300. First shot out of the box and it scattered pellets all over the place. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a flaw in the muzzle where a dime sized chunck of slag was missing. Sent it back to Winchester, got it back 72 hrs later, new barrel.




Slag happens.

 

[io333]

The second is a Walther P22. Correctly I should say that the next three are Walther P22's, as the original P22 and the first replacement P22 were both faulty to a point that S&W/Walther USA just decided to replace them. The third one isn't perfect either, but at least it has some brands of ammo that will function with some manner of reliability through it.

nvrquit,

I don't have a P22, but I've been thinking about getting one for a long time and have been reading various forums regarding them.

Have you tried leaving the hammer cocked back for a week? I've read many times that when the pistol is new, the mainspring is too tight, and leaving it cocked for a week weakens it enough to make the pistol reliable.

 

[jojo]

Yes, another Walther P22. After three trips back, and one replacement It finally works like it should.

jojo

 

[Zonamo]

Kahr P9 Covert.

Rails that warped, loose sights, and a trigger pin that walked completely out after 30 rounds.


Sent it back to the factory. They said they would pay shipping but never did. Their idea of a fix was to melt and mash a piece of wire into the plastic frame leaving the trigger pin hole reamed out and sloppy. And they were nasty on the phone about it when I had the audacity to question their behavior after I was stuck for shipping charges on a brand new pistol that was jury-rigged and thrown back at me.

I don't care if they have worked the bugs out, Lucifer is going to be sellin' ski packages in Hades before Justin Moon sees any more of my money.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

3 letters; AMT. Nuff said.

 

[CleverNickname]

While out shooting today with my brother, his brand-new Kahr PM9 developed a problem after about 10 shots. The side panel pin came loose, allowing the panel to pop open at the rear. This allowed the trigger bar to pop out and jam the slide. After popping everything back into place, the gun fired ok, but the side panel pin kept coming loose and he had to push it back into place at slide-lock.

 

[drannor]

SA Milspec .38 Super, would drop the hammer with the safety in the on position. Traded it on a FN HP, never looked at SA products again. Although the M1A's are mighty tempting.

SIG GSR 1911, faulty hammer strut, bad ergo, stiff trigger, jammomatic from the factory. Two return trips later I have a very nice smithed SIG with great trigger and no reliability issues. Serial number in the low 700's probably contributed to these issues, need to learn not to be the 1st guy on the block with the new toy.

 

[TNGO]

Had a Ruger Redhawk with defective lockwork or defective cylinder, not sure which. Cylinder would not go through a complete revolution.

Had a Winchester 94 with a chipped stock.

Didn't upset me, though. I had a good relationship with the dealer, and he had a good rapport with his distributor. In each case I had a replacement inside of a week.

 

[itgoesboom]

Had a similar situation as TNGO but with a Ruger Blackhawk.

Cylinder locked up tight. Really sucked since I was buying it in Ca., and the waiting period was almost up, and since it was defective, they had to re-order the pistol, and start the 10-days all over again. :banghead:

That pistol was stolen only a couple years later, and the FBI returned it to me this year.

My CETME came with the extractor spring broken as well. I really shouldn't consider it defective though, because it still functioned 100%, it just didn't eject very far.

I.G.B.

 

[Freedomv]

Many years ago a shooting buddy and fellow dealer had a SA M-1 Garand chambered in 7.62 slam fire twice. The first time it happened the 308 case looked as though it had been fired in a 30/06 chamber and had no bad side affects. the second time it happened the case came out of the reciever and actually broke the National Match appeture (sp) from the top of the elevator. That was enough of a warning that he quit shooting the rifle and brought it over to me to look at.

He had the rifle for probably a year and fired it a lot in that time in practice and competition with no problems. So what happened?

While inspecting the reciever I noticed a casting flaw or void in the reciever "bridge" that allowed the firing pin to "free float" and set the primer off before the bolt had rotated into battery for proper firing.

We drove over to Geneseo, Ill. to the factory and presented the rifle to them with an explaination that it was slam firing.

At that time the had a small (standing room only) waiting area where we were left while they inspected the reciever. After a period of time the technician returned with the reciever and the gage used to check the proper distance of the face of the reciever to the bridge and stated that it checked good.

We were allowed to check this out and it was obvious that the gage/gauge was wider than a firing pin and bridged over the void that allowed the firing pin to travel forward as it did. This was no fault of Springfield Armory but was faulty gauge making/design.

The remaining quistion of why the rifle did not fail for nearly a year of shooting was answered when I pointed out the shine on the inside of the reciever caused by the firing pin leg dragging on the reciever. This interferance had stopped the free floating untill it wore the end of the firing pin enough to allow it to slide forward under its own inertia when the bolt had stopped.

All this being said we were invited into the back room and giving a tour and allowed to pick a replacement reciever and barrel etc and watch them assemble it. Very GOOD treatment when they understood that we new what we were talking about.

The point is that there are many things that can and do slip through even after inspections etc.

We did have a good laugh on the way home when my friend says" We f#@&ed up!"
I asked "Why" and he said "If I would have bandaged up my face etc maybe we could have owned half the place."

Vern

 

[cracked butt]

Several:
Remington 597- Seems remington was building on Bill Ruger's philosophy and one-upping him by building a semiauto for the "honest man who doesn't need more than a 3-shot semiauto. I sold the POS as it wasn't worth my time or money to discover a fix for a $120 rifle.

Ruger Bearcat- the factory set fixed sights were off by about 1' low and to the right. Had it sent back to the factory, where not only did Ruger make it right, they even threw in a complimentary trigger job to make the formerly heavy trigger break at a nice clean 3 lbs.

Yugoslavian M48 and M48a- one had a safety that would not work, and I suspect that the receiver might be soft, the other had rough bolt lugs/bolt lug recesses that made it difficult to open after fired. I'm not entirely suprised as it was these people that gave us the Yugo.

 

[ID_shooting]

Kimber target II, 10mm. Bad barrel, would mar the brass the emery paper, feed issues, eject issues. Couldn't hit the braud side of the barn from the inside with it. On 3rd trip to dealer, we put the barrel uner a 10x glass and you could see chatter marks from the chamber reamer. They were too deap to polish so back to Kimber. The put a "new" barrel in it and after the "gunsmith" from Kimber called me and assured it was fixed and 100% he sent it back. (wouldnt send the test target and test brass though, got real defensive what I asked for them) Well, same thing. Another trip back to Kimber and they wanted to charge for the next barrel. I told them to stuff it and send the pistol back. The dealer refunded my money and said he would fight with them so I didn't have to. They eventually got it fixed but he had so much invested in the he lost like 50% of the value when he finally sold it.

 

[Tory]

S&W 625

From the Performance Center, no less. Lots of FTFs from light primer strike. Sent it back and then got a call, wanting to know who "butchered the trigger."

As I was there when the shipping carton was opened, I told them THEY did. It was either sabotage or incompetence; pick one.

The gun worked fine for the little use it got (50 -60 rounds per session,once or twice a month). However, it has started doing it again. :banghead:

 

[ID_shooting]

'From the Performance Center, no less. Lots of FTFs from light primer strike. Sent it back and then got a call, wanting to know who "butchered the trigger."'

I love these.

Had a savage once that fired on closing the bolt. Took back to the gunsmith to have the trigger readjusted. He asked "who is the three year old that did this trigger job?" I just looked at him with the straightest face I could and asked him when he was turning four. LOL The rest of the shop still teases him about that.

 

[Mixlesplick]

I bought a Firestar M40 that jammed and stovepiped a lot. I sent it back to Interarms and they replaced a part but didn't fix the problem. I sent it back and the ramp was polished and sent back to me. It worked fine after that.

A while later the slide would no longer lock back after the last shot. Interarms put in a new slide release lever that was made from a softer metal than the original. I later had a Gander Mountain gunsmith smooth out the notch in the slide.

There were other problems with this gun as well. It is now mostly a safe queen but I still want to keep it. Don't ask me why.

 

[standingbear]

too many to list.the most memorable was a leinad pm11 that had a barrel that blew up on the very first shot,I was just glad it didnt take my fingers with it and only left me with some minor cuts.The kicker was when I found out it had no warranty from the distributer as the manufacturer went out of business.

 

[TonyB]

A buddy had a new Dan Wesson 357....it would lock up when shooting DA with the hammer in SA mode and just freeze...he sent it back like 3 times...he finally used it's value towards a Pointman 45(this gun's front sight worked loose in like a month)..funny thing is I had a used DW 357 that did the same thing(lock up)..no more DW's for me.....