The country is slowly, haltingly opening up. That includes gun ranges. That means lots of first-time gun owners are finally taking their shiny new guns to the range (and folks will be taking their long-awaited Form 4’s with their new cans out for the first time, too). I talked to a few other dealer friends and all seem to be seeing the same thing and getting the same kinds of phone calls.
May days are going a lot like this:
- The phone rings.
- Someone asks me if we fix guns.
- I tell them, sure, what do they have and what’s it doing? I do some information gathering for the gunsmith to work from.
- They tell me that the gun they just bought doesn’t work and they’re not sure what to do. I explain the costs, the backlog and if we need to order parts, here’s how long you’re looking at to get it fixed.
- I hang up the phone, wait 10 minutes and have the same conversation again.
Not to play the blame game, but there are some brands out there that many gun owners are familiar with that don’t have the best quality control, manufacturing standards and other attributes that make for a reliable firearm.
I won’t name names, but a lot of them should be pretty familiar to many readers by now.
Folks who ran to their local gun store, stood in line and chose their first gun because “that was all that was left” likely aren’t as familiar with this. They’re about to get a painful lesson in why product choice is important and why a good firearm retailer will suggest spending a few more dollars with a manufacturer that makes a better product.
Folks expect their new firearm to run 100%, straight out of the box. Experience has taught us that isn’t always the case.
We’re getting a lot of calls from folks who bought their new gun from a big box store and didn’t get a lot of info with their purchase. Now they’ve got a gun that doesn’t work and they’re not sure what to do.
If you bought a laptop from Best Buy and you opened it up and it didn’t turn on, or the battery didn’t charge, you’d take it right back to the store and they’d swap it out for a different one on the spot.
For your typical consumer, that’s what they’re used to. Firearms are different and the conversation usually goes something like this:
Hank: Well, I can write up a ticket and get the gunsmith to check it out. It’s shop rate with minimum labor and we’re about three weeks behind right now before we can get to it. Hopefully we won’t need to order any parts in to get it fixed because all our parts vendors are three weeks behind, too.
Customer: It’s going to cost me money to have you look at it? But the sticker says I have a lifetime warranty!
Hank: That’s run through the factory. The manufacturer doesn’t pay us to fix their guns.
Customer: But this is my only gun. I’ve got nothing to defend my house if I send this back!
Hank: Well, I mean we could sell you another firearm…something perhaps a little more reliable to cover you in the meantime.
Customer: I spent all the money I had budgeted on this one . . . .
This is an unfortunate situation. We’re seeing new gun owners who were desperate to buy anything…and that’s pretty much what they bought.
What are they supposed to do now?
If there was ever a time for the late great Gilda Radner to don her Roseanne Roseannadanna wig and tell us, “It’s always something — if it’s not one thing, it’s another” – it would be now.
Some customers who have shopped at retailers without full-time gunsmiths on staff like an Academy or a Big 5 are now going to independent firearm retailers because, while those retailers do a fine job selling guns seven days a week, their staff simply aren’t trained or equipped to actually go in and turn screwdrivers and torque wrenches.
So these new gun owners are taking their guns to retailers who can fix them. But what happens if that’s not an option?
The customer can call the factory customer service line and a lot of times the dialogue goes like this:
Customer: My new gun isn’t running right.
Factory: Can you describe the problem?
Customer: It jams
Factory: Is it brand new?
Customer: Sure is!
Factory: Call us back after you’ve got 1000 rds shot through it and we’ll re-evaluate it.
But even if the customer is willing to fire 1000 rounds out of a finicky firearm, they probably don’t have the ammunition to do it because there isn’t that much on the shelves these days.
Hopefully, if you have problems, the brand you purchased will have good warranty support and the manufacturer will issue a shipping label and get the item checked out and returned to you promptly. For the uninitiated, warranty repairs do not have to go through an FFL. You can ship the firearm to the manufacturer yourself and the repaired firearms may be shipped directly back to you.
That can be one way of working through the issues you have.
Another way, if your retailer supports it, is warranty swapping your firearm. Some distributors we deal with like Davidson’s have a lifetime warranty on all firearms. If you buy a gun with the Davidson’s lifetime warranty, the retailer calls it in, arranges a replacement and it swaps out. It can be a lifesaver if you’re a customer who doesn’t want to be without a gun for very long.
These are just a couple of strategies you can use to get your firearm experience back on line if you have problems. Hopefully there aren’t too many of you having issues right now, but if you are, let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear about what firearm you purchased and your experiences working with factory warranty departments.
Obviously it’s going to depend a bit. But there is good news. If you have a 1911, no matter what’s wrong with with it, the solution is simple.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP4k4tOsZD8
I’ll admit it: I laughed.
Oh, so you likea Phuc Long?
His videos crack me up. The one where he gets Travis Haley to do the “gross motor skill reload” with an AK had me laughing so hard my side hurt the next morning.
OMG!
I know what I’m watching tonight!
Thnx
Ditto. Is Phuc Long first cousin to Me Love You Long Time.
I think his porn name is Long Phuc!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5CBuyx1whw
So true! Wish I had half of what he has on his rifle!
Yup, that’s how you fix a 1911 Type-1,2,3. Glock in the holster. 🙂
OMG, S9, that was funny!
His videos are great and spot on with how to fix the 1911, just get a Glock. The Glocks are basically farm and utility tools, they just work and accept any ammo that is the right caliber.
The only other pistols I may want right now are a big bore revolver for snakes, a mouse gun for deep concealment, and a Saxon wheel lock gun, because its lit.
My baby Glock 42 says otherwise. It’s a picky eater.
My glock 34 was a picky eater until I realized Glock cheaped out and increased the tolerance band on the springs. I received one at the top of tolerance (I design parts, including springs, so I put it on work’s spring tester). I replaced the main recoil spring with a wolf and it stopped requiring stout ammo. (I practice with cheap stuff). I went back to my Sig SP2022 and bought a Sig P226.
Glocks also have the ergonomics and grip of a brick.
“it doesn’t work”…ok, that could mean any of a million things.
If you can’t use your gun and have to have a gunsmith fix it then it does not matter if it’s your only one. You can’t use it. You would not be able to use it wether you have it with you or it’s at a smith being repaired. But if you don’t have it fixed, you will never be able to use it. This all seems simple enough to me. It would be exactly the same if it were a car or a computer.
Some things are trial and error but you will be happier if you research it a little before you put your money down.
I had a casual friend purchase a 12ga semiauto shotgun because he believed that he wanted a shotgun and that’s what the guy had.
Then he asked me for help.
It had an odd manual of arms (one I hadn’t seen before) but we managed to get it to run.
Several times he asked me why it worked the way it did. I had to answer: I don’t know.
Sounds like the terrible Beretta shotgun that had a brief stay here. Loaded shotgun, wouldn’t fire and surprised a certain someone (not me) didn’t put a hole in the roof, because, see before, it was loaded. The pump action wouldn’t chamber the damn shells either and it was basically junk.
ARC,
It was Turkish. I don’t recall the name.
There’s a lot of odd semi-auto shotguns on the market right now. Many of them are mag-fed bullpup designs that can barely get through one magazine without jamming. And as noted above, a lot are Turkish.
I’ll take a pump-action 870 or 590 over a no-name semi-auto.
Hannibal,
Yes, has I been asked, I would have suggested a pump (like my 870).
I wanted to start him with birdshot as an intro, especially the lack of shot spread at indoor ranges. We got stovepipes. He read in the manual that the shotgun was for “full-power loads only”. Hmm.
Well, I had him shoot some buck shot and those ran well. A couple of weeks later, we hit the outdoor range to try some slugs and more buck shot. Just for fun, I had him try some birdshot and it ran OK. I guess that it needed a break-in.
Yeah, I can identify with this. I have two friends I can think of right off the top of my head who bought guns within the past two years, and neither of them have ever shot the darned things yet. They simply wanted to be sure they had something “just in case”. Now that metro cities are imploding across the nation and everyone’s making sure their gats are on the nightstand, these two friends are in the fantasyland of believing their still-new-in-box guns will function flawlessly for them in an emergency, and that they’ll perform like operators to vanquish their foes.
Before the COVID-19 circus started, I offered to take them to the range or desert to familiarize them with their particular guns, as well as assess their shooting skills. They hemmed and hawed for months, and now it’s too late.
Heck, instead of using a CCW appropriate type of firearm as an untouched magic talisman, they could have bought a 22 revolver and practiced with colibris in their back yard.
I talked to an old friend about a month ago. Just catch’n up on times. The subject of firearms came up. He had a AR build. Spent Bo Coo dollars for all the bells and whistles. Come to find out it was 2 years ago and he’d never shot it. After much ridicule. He came up and we went to the range. After about 2 hours and several hundred rounds downrange. He found out he spent a lot of money for do dads that added nothing to the effectiveness. My guess is there are a lot corner/closet firearms out there owned by people who wished. They’d spent some time learning how to use them. Instead of buying them because they looked cool and made them feel badass. Maintain Op Sec and Keep Your Powder Dry.
Yep, that’s what one of these two guys did. Really nice AR with the FDE color treatment, $$$ optics, sweet grips, etc. And it *is* a nice gun that I wouldn’t at all mind having. But he had never shot it, performed a takedown/cleaning, or even knew how to load the mags(!!). He asked me to remind him how to operate it (I say “remind” because I assume he got a basic run-down from the LGS when he bought it a couple of years ago). Now it’s a closet anchor.
Basically, he bought it on the advice of a former LEO who told him he needed a gun (true) and should buy one of the best and most expensive models available at the LGS (false). It would have been better to buy a PSA, add a couple of accessories such as mounted light, red dot, and hand stop, and then still had enough money to take a gun course.
Funny you should say that. I was chatting with my daughter tonight about how I had five firearms that I have never shot. A 9mm, an AR-10 that I built, two black powder pistols and a kit percussion muzzleloader. Now that I have my shooting eye fixed up, I’d better get shooting.
I had called her to find out how many mags she had for her .45 and to see if they were loaded after she texted me to say that the mayor of Cleveland has shut downtown for the next two days due to protest issues. Well, they are all loaded now and in easy reach.
“Now that I have my shooting eye fixed up, I’d better get shooting.”
Cataract surgery? I’m thoroughly enjoying not needing glasses any more after being 20/400 nearsighted. The world is noticeably brighter as well, very nice at night…
Perhaps one area where revolvers have an edge over semi-autos?
Perhaps. Depends on who made the semi, and who made the revolver, I’d say.
Yep.
revolvers are absolute simplicity…always the best choice for a first gun….
Eh. I’ve had about equal luck with new revolvers and semi-autos. I’ll give this to revolvers, if there’s something wrong you can usually tell pretty quick and it’s not a matter of “needs to be broken in.”
In my case it’s been cylinder tolerances or timing issues that end up binding up the double action. Maybe I’m just super unlucky.
I have a new Taurus Raging Hunter that shaves jacket so badly I had three new holes in my face. Ain’t that grand? Back it goes. That being said, the last Smith 629-6 I bought snapped the yoke on its 4th cylinder. Ain’t I the lucky one?
The same things happened to me twice.
Which is why I don’t carry wheel guns, I just don’t trust them any more. I know logically that the chances of another catastrophe with a revolver are very, very, very slim but I still can’t bring myself to do it.
They’re mostly range toys for me at this point.
I’d say wheelguns don’t have failures as often as semis but when they do it’s usually more expensive and\or dangerous.
If they had bought a HiPoint and it didn’t work out of the box, they could mail it in for work and still be able to afford a second one. Or else, just buy an old milsurp firearm, it should work, they are almost indestructible.
Last I heard the Hi-Point factory was shut down. Has the factory re-opened?
Computer server farms work on this idea – if one server goes down, then another spins up.
The idea doesn’t quite work if your life depends on a particular piece of hardware being 99.9+% available.
All of my home computers have a hot spare.
Play with computers long enough and you have spares for everything. Once upon a time, I could probably build another computer just out of troubleshooting parts.
Some people just must be unlucky to have two new firearms fail that bad.
I brought dozens of firearms new and used over 50 years and had one used one break and that was a easy fix
Guy next to me at the range had a nicely equipped never fired AR. Kept noticing ejected live rounds on the ground next to me so I asked him if he was having trouble. Broke it down for him and discovered his firing pin tip broken off. Cheap easy fix, but is that something others have noticed, I never have.
List it on Armslist for 30% above MSRP with the phrase “I know what I got.”
LOL!
Glad I wasn’t drinking anything when I read that.
It’s a long time ago but someone I used to know had a problem with a new .22 semi-auto rifle. He complained he was only get five shots out of the ten round magazine.
So we got together and he demonstrated the problem. I was kind of stunned. He loaded it properly, handled it safely, aimed well and hit the target just fine. Then, still holding the gun to his shoulder with one hand, he reached up and worked the bolt back and released it. Then fired again. After firing five times and working the bolt between each shot, the gun clicked empty.
He was stumped.
I wasn’t mean about it, I just told him to look down at the ground and start picking up brass. He found five shiny new cartridges in the dirt, among the empties. I told him to hold on to those and watch what I do. I loaded ten rounds in his magazine, worked the bolt just once and fired all ten slowly, counting them out each time, into the target.
He started to say “Wait you did that wrong”, but stopped and we had us a discussion about how the gun worked. You know, semi-auto versus bolt action, all that trivia.
Aside from that sort of simple ignorance I have to wonder about new gun owners who never read the manual, never learn about cleaning and lubricating. How long will it take for their gun to work at first and then get dusty, dry and start jamming on them?
Perhaps an extreme example, I bought an old H&R Sportsman (9 shot .22LR top-break) off GunBroker that the owner said was a project gun, heavy trigger and weak hammer strikes. Thought I’d give it go, got it cheap enough. When I got a good look at it I saw the first problem was decades of filth inside. Worked a large can of carb cleaner thru it, even let it soak overnight. Black gunk and chunks of ancient powder residue and oil came out of it. After a good flush and some Rem Oil, the piece works fine. It’s ugly and the finish is long gone, no collector gun. But it would have sold for much more than the price of a can of carb cleaner had the prior owner simply thought to scrub a dub dub that old gun.
Enuf
It always amazes me that people don’t clean or correctly lubricate firearms.
I bought a “broken” Mini 14 about 40 years ago. A similar weekend of cleaning made it run fine.
I was at the shotgun range a while back and the person next to me was struggling to reload his bought brand new under and over 12ga. After the round I asked if he had ever greased the action. Not in the two years he’d had it. 30 minutes at my truck and it was a different gun.
I saw the same thing with an SKS. Seemed nice and clean. Took it straight to the range and it would alternate between slam firing 2-5 rounds and weak primer strikes.
Disassemble it and she’s shiney and clean. Hrmmm… take a pick and poke at the firing pin, it’s not movable with the pressure I can apply with the pick.
Take the bolt group, drop it in mineral spirits and the liquid turns black immediately. Just as I suspected. Over the next ten days I soak and soak and soak this thing (I didn’t have a disassembly tool for the bolt group at that point). Little bits of earwax type shit start floating up. Yup, exactly what I thought. The rifle was stored in cosmoline, sold milsurp by someone who gave it a quick wipe down and then shot by someone (or a line of owners) until it started to do things they didn’t understand. It never occurred to them that powdersoot + cosmoline would eventually mix to a nasty concrete and stick the firing pin in place inside the bolt group.
I did this with an old .22lr, post 0311s. I may have assumed it was a manual bolt and the .22lr didn’t have the power to cycle a rifle. IIRC, I saw a case eject on the second shot and figured it out.
/sulk.
The scum are LOOTING and breaking stuff NOW in my southern Cook County ILL town. And TTAG is posting this stupid chit…
That’s very concerning news fww, but then, this is the Truth About Guns. For your local issue, you should probably visit The Truth About Looting.
A fair point ….
Or perhaps The Truth About Socialist Utopias.
There can never be a Utopia under any ideology. All such attempts by nations rapidly devolve into tyranny.
Curiously, same thing is true of religious cults.
You know what they say: The problem with socialism is that you can loot your way into it, but you have to shoot your way out of it. Or was that vote your way into it…? I get easily confused.
I hope you and yours are not in danger, fww. I’m happy that you’re armed and prepared.
Thanks Ralph…hope you’re OK. We’re OK. The BS going on will affect you idiot’s making retarded comments. Oh and I’m defending me and mine. The pathetic po-leece aren’t doing chit…and I don’t live in Chicago doofus.
Thanks, fww. My areas are having no issues and never have. But in the very unlikely event that we do, I’m armed to the teeth and ready.
I would suggest you go stop them!!!! NOW!!!!!
lol
Why don’t you call the police instead of typing it into a firearms blog.
Read “second city cop” blog or listen to the scanners for the area. If you’re in the wrong part of Chicago you are on your own right now.
It’s almost as if the politicians and chiefs of police that say people don’t need guns are full of shit…
HaaHAAAAHAAaaa. Call the police. Hahaaaa.
Gang bangers have had enough now. Two Six and Latin Kings sets are declaring war on the looters.
They’re willing to shoot and stab on sight apparently.
I wonder why people in some neighborhoods support their local gangs more than the government gang.
Same reason Capone was supported.
‘You Bought Your First Gun and Now it Doesn’t Work…What Do You Do?’
Buy a Glock instead…or alternatively a 6.5 Creedmoor. 8- )
I wouldn’t buy one of those cheaply made pieces o plastic….
Buy yourself a REAL firearm…. BUY AN HK!
Ha!
Wife has an HK VP9….30 rounds in brand new and some spring broke. Sent it to Trussville, AL their repair facility or at least one of them. Smaller than the town I live in currently, who knew
So a overpriced piece of plastic?
In terms of reliability alone there isn’t enough variance between HK and Glock to justify the price differential until you get into tens of thousands of rounds.
When Glock comes out with a 6.5 Creedmore handgun, then maybe I’d be interested.
But it better be DA/SA, with an external hammer and a de-cocker or no sale!!!
Stay away from ATI, anything made by SAM in the Phillipines, Rossi, EAA and Taurus and your chances of having a problem are very limited. Used guns are hit and miss. Generally if you find a used Smith and Wesson revolver it is good to go. But the gun butcher is a busy class.
When times of panic come the manufacturers go into high gear and the folks that build marginal pistols make worse pistols when they get in a hurry. Study legit reports of terrible customer service. It is much much worse now.
That said had a new Springfield 9mm EMP, great shooter, failed to feed.
Failed with several loads. Sent it to SF, ten days later it was back. They had a list of things they had done. Everyone has a bad gun slip out. They sure made it right in record time but thank God is want my only gun.
The Glock should be a baseline. The Glock is always reliable. If you pay less than the Glock what corners have been cut? Probably quite a few— if you pay more be certain you are getting more quality.
My Tauruses run great. You’re inept
…
I considered buying a new Rossi lever gun once. Then I picked it up. Rattled like a can of spray paint and felt like a toy. I bought a used Winchester 94 instead, and never looked back.
Don’t buy cheap shit!
lol. Hi-Points. Amiright.
Two days in a row during the recent gun rush I was in different sporting good stores when I hear customer telling sales clerk “bought a new gun, don’t know what ammo it uses.”
Seriously?
I relieved the poor flustered sales clerk, got the customers lined out.
Worries me about all the new owners.
By the way, referring to comments above, in 40 years of revolvers I’ve only had one fail. It was a 20 year old Rossi.
I can’t say the same about semi’s.
First of all. Who buys a gun because they are concerned for their families safety and only buys 1 gun? They probably only buy one box of shells and call it good.
The same kind of people who hear there’s a respiratory virus on the loose and buy five shopping carts worth of TP?
If I had not seen the feeding frenzy over TP with my own eyes I would not have believed it. Un fucking real. And those folks are allowed to drive and vote.
Even worse, they’re allowed to reproduce.
Yeah, those amateurs. If you’re going to have 200+ rolls stockpiled, you have to use OPSEC and buy just two 12-pks of Jumbos at a time. Then hide one from the wife and squirrel it straight away to the attic to keep her from thinking “there’s plenty” and using it at the rate of literally a full roll per day. Build up your safety atock under cover of darkness, and you’ll be the unexpected hero who saves your wife’s keister when the next Great TP Panic hits.
My wife doesn’t understand the concept of emergency prepping.
Seems like the analogy would be someone who brought two ARs and 3 Glocks having never fired one.
Buying one gun …when you know nothing about guns…. is probably pretty stressful.
In the 60s and 70s, most every hardware store, discount stores, and a fair number of drug stores sold guns.
H&Rs held a place of honor in their own case. Non- gun people wanting a gun often bought an H&R because they were simple and 50 percent of a Smith and Wesson.
Mostly 22s (some were 9 shot) and 32s. Clerk sold em a box of ammo and they were good to go for years.
One local hardware store sold centerfire ammo by-the-round, so someone could reload their revolver.
Former non- gun folks on a limited budget.
Same as people who buy a cheap-shit generator when there’s a hurricane coming …… tomorrow.
Got about a 50/50 chance of it working.
Sometimes it makes people re-think their priorities……or not.
“you get what you pay for”….always good advice….
New gun not working? Did they read the manual. Check the internet? Look up on YouTube? Or even cycle the action several hundred times?
Guns, even today, are like old cars fresh out of the factory. They need to be worn in before they are close to 100% reliable.
Hollywood is a bad teacher.
Most modern guns work reliably from point of sale. Those that do not are usually either
1) the El Cheapo brands. This is bad because someone buying the cheapest guns probably can’t afford hundreds of rounds of practice ammo in one go to get it ‘worn in.’
2) The overpriced guns. These are the companies that want you to believe that it’s acceptable for a gun not to work right until it’s ‘worn in’. Seems prevalent in the tacticool 1911 market.
If it’s a new Glock Gen 3 or 4 in 9 mm and they are experiencing brass to the face and double feeds, time to learn to work on your own gun.Simply order a Gen 5 trigger housing with a 47021 ejector and replace the ejector in your Gen 3 or 4.
Time to send that lemon back to Glock.
If you are in the Atlanta area just stop in at Glock’s facility.
The armorers there will inspect and replace everything to new..free of charge.
Attend the Armorers course and you can order direct from Glock at a significant discount. (Snail mail though using a form)
Working on guns isn’t especially difficult, I agree, but if you’ve just bought your very First one and aren’t even sure how to clean it yet, it’s a lot to ask that someone immediately learn how to start replacing and upgrading parts…
It is fun to figure out a problem on a firearm. It can go easy to the bizarre. But it keeps you on your toes.
“You Bought Your First Gun and Now it Doesn’t Work…What Do You Do?”
Put it next to the stockpile of toilet paper, hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes you panicked bought.
As RSO & firearms instructor for my LGS I am also saddled w/ the responsibility of test firing trade in guns and the “…new gun but it doesn’t work. Keeps jamming.” guns.
OMG. Half the trade guns they take in don’t look like they have been cleaned in about a thousand rounds, if ever. And for god’s sake people, When you buy new… READ the owner’s manual!
90% of these new gun problems are due to inattentiveness. A simple clean and lube, proper grip when shooting, and they run like butta.
And while I’m at it… semi-auto shotguns! When ya buy a new semi-auto shotgun, clean and lube it, then run a minimum of 75 rounds of the hottest (>1300fps) ammo you can buy. (Usually 00 buck and slugs; if it can take 3” shells then those also.)
And only high brass! None of the cheap, low brass crap. Thank me later.
That’s my experience. Hope it helps somebody…
Your comment makes me wonder how many of these “broken” new guns are actually just being limp-wristed by first time owners who don’t really know how to shoot.
^By a large % in my experience.
And it’s most prevalent with the mouse guns, especially.380’s.
And then they argue that they’re not doing anything wrong. It HAS TO BE the gun!
BTW- that would be only men that argue w/ the instructor during the lesson.
(Not all men; but men are the only ones that know more than the instructor.)
((face palm))
Ego, ego, ego. Give it a rest.
You’re probably aware of this, but this is probably going to be useful information to others. That’s a common problem with pure import shotguns that aren’t specifically produced for the U.S. market by the manufacturer. Issues exist because of the loads, mainly SAAMI’s extremely conservative spec, which are piss weak compared to what the rest of the world shoots. Consequently, when running typical domestic ammo, target loads, or worse low recoil, stovepipes abound until the springs are broken in & the reciprocating parts polish themselves through usage. Or, you can shortcut it a bit, and polish them yourself.
I actually have one of the Turk pups mentioned by another, & the same was true of it, took a case of heavy slugs to break it in. Even the manual states a warm up period of 50, which is very overly optimistic. Prior to that, stovepipe city. Just wasn’t enough carrier velocity to eject without some pretty stiff rounds to overcome that spring, and the initial testing was with 1330 fps 1 1/8 00. Works pretty smooth with anything above 1200 fps in the ever after. Albeit, the preferred is still 1300+ for flawless operation. 1600 fps works a treat, lol.
Same was true with my Vepr, though to a lesser extent. It would cycle properly with anything above 1200, but FTE with a stovepipe below that. Can’t say an awful lot about that one in reference to, it was a FIME 922R compliance job, so most of the gear was swapped out. Since, it runs beautifully @ 1100, even on birdshot.
Although she does have an issue, clipping hulls on 2 3/4″, and anything longer FTF’s, getting hung on the shoulder. Probably mag well or catch is slightly out of spec (both are Tapco parts, replaced by FIME). Normally I’d just cut a thicker than required spacer shim and adjust via lapping, but the design necessitates splitting the shim due to the widened relief cut for the larger magazine. Don’t have access to a mill right now, so making an accurate guide plate for precisely lapping a split shim is pretty well out the window for the moment. Frustrating that I can fix that, just don’t have the tools to do the job…
Doesn’t help that shops carry junk brands. And the Fudd working the counter doesn’t help the customer make an informed purchase.
Concur on reading the manual, do an initial clean an lube then take it and run it hard. If you’re considering a revolver learn how to check timing.
I’m sure the fact that they are buying “what’s left” has something to do with it as well.
Plus, a lot of people buy the least expensive option.
With plastic guns…especially small ones….the lemon factor is there.
It can probably be fixed with new drop in parts (cause that’s how we gunsmith now). But it will have to be fixed.
I have two LCPs that have never failed. A friend owns two. One is a picky eater. The other wouldn’t eat at all when he got it. After return, it perks like mine.
When most people buy most things retail they expect the store to stand behind the purchase. When a store doesn’t, I hope it isn’t surprised when the next time customers need a gun they just buy one online and have it shipped to a kitchen FFL.
I remember reading/hearing a story – for the life of me I can’t remember where I heard it, might have been Paul Harrell or The Yankee Marshal – about a customer who couldn’t load their new gun. I might have a few details wrong, but it went kinda like this:
They called into the gun shop where they’d bought it, and complained the gun was broken. The gun shop employee tried to walk her through the problem, with no luck.
They stumbled on the answer by sheer luck. The lady (or guy) with the gun said they’d bought the right ammo for the gun, because the gun was a SIG and they’d bought SIG brand ammo. As it turns out, the pistol was a 9mm and the ammo was .40 SW. D’oh!
The issue might possibly be operator headspace and timing. I have started assisting new shooters in our church. Most of what I see is just new guns in new hands.
Obviously, there are better manufacturers and better choices.
I have yet to encounter an issue that couldn’t be fixed by an hour or so on Youtube.
Firearms are simple devices once you understand the basics. Otherwise idiots like me couldn’t cobble them together in our basement.
So I have a few stories: I had purchased a Glock 27 that the owner said it just stopped shooting. I got it for $200.00, While disassembling I noticed the trigger spring was incorrectly installed. I called the previous owner and asked about it. He said he completely disassembled the pistol and after that it would not work properly. I put the spring in the correct position and it has worked flawless for over ten years.
So a close friend calls me and asked if I wanted a lawn mower, it was about 4 months old and he said there was something wrong with it as it just wouldn’t cut the grass properly. He said he bought another new one and I could have the older one and maybe fix why it won’t cut the grass properly. Confused, I accepted and picked up the lawn mower, a nice like new self propelled Troy built. Got it home and tried it out. He was right, it wouldn’t cut the grass. I checked it and quickly discovered the blade was put on upside down. this meant the back side of the blade, not the sharp side was beating the grass into submission, took the blade off and put it on correctly. Mower works great. A while later, my friend admitted he had taken the blade off and sharpened it but did not pay attention when he put the blade back on.
Just proves, some people can screw up an Anvil.
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