Gun Makers and their warrenties

[Seabass]

I friend of mine was telling me how a friend of his was out sheep hunting with his Weatherby. His darn gun strap broke and he dropped his gun. The gun fell from his shoulder to the ground. Well wouldn't you know the dam stock broke in two pieces. He sent it to Weatherby in which they returned it in the exact same condition and told the guy he was on his own.

Doesn't make me think to much of Weatherby. Espeacily considering the price for their rifles, and thier small price they would have to pay to fix it to keep a otherwise happy customer.

So do any of you know what do other major gun makers have on their guns? Winchester, Remington, Ruger, Sako etc??

[huntwriter]

I have no experience with Weatherby but I have heard a few times that their customer service sucks. I used to buy Remington but their customer service went from bad to worse, now I am dealing with Winchester and couldn't be more happy with them. Personally I do not care how good a rifle is of a given company it is useless to me if the customer service sucks.

[Schmaus]

This august when me and a buddy were up north hunting for moose the stud stripped out of my buddies stock and he dropped his rifle. The stock broke in half luckily it was a common stock and we whipped into chetwnd and grabbed another one. Anyway the stock was a ram-line we took it back to the place we bought it (E&I Sports) and they sent it back with a sob story. It took a while but ram-line warrantied the stock and now my buddy has a 125 dollar credit at the store (since he already had a new stock, he just gave them the replacement one and they gave him the credit)

Schmaus

[416]

I don't mean to belittle us hunter types, but l have a hard time seeing why the firearms manufactures are responsible for non related actions that result in a damaged rifle. The stud stripping out maybe.......but dropping a rifle as a result of something that Weatherby has no control over.....while l would cry if it was mine, l can see their point not fixing it. Lets face it, any of our rifles that get used on a regular bases recieve some abuse (nicks scratches etc), although not intentional. How can we expect gun makers to be responsible for the things we do with their products? If it was a production defect or safety problem, l don't think there would be an issue of warrenty, but if the owner through no fault of the manufactures damages their rifle, why should they be on the hook?
I own rifles from 4-5 different makers and unless its a defect from the factory, any self inflicted damages come out of my pocket. my .02 cents

[Sniper]

Can't beat Sako I have sent a couple rifles back even after having a muzzle brake installed and they replaced the entire rifle no problem. As far as I'm concerned its Sako all the way for me.:smile:

[huntwriter]

I don't mean to belittle us hunter types, but l have a hard time seeing why the firearms manufactures are responsible for non related actions that result in a damaged rifle. The stud stripping out maybe.......but dropping a rifle as a result of something that Weatherby has no control over.....while l would cry if it was mine, l can see their point not fixing it. Lets face it, any of our rifles that get used on a regular bases recieve some abuse (nicks scratches etc), although not intentional. How can we expect gun makers to be responsible for the things we do with their products? If it was a production defect or safety problem, l don't think there would be an issue of warrenty, but if the owner through no fault of the manufactures damages their rifle, why should they be on the hook?
I own rifles from 4-5 different makers and unless its a defect from the factory, any self inflicted damages come out of my pocket. my .02 cents
You are right 416. At least in my case I was not talking about dropping or scratching a gun. It also depends on how high the gun trops. A friend had his rifle simply slipping of his shoulder then lighthly hitting a tree and the stock went to pices. By closer examination we could see from the discolouring of the crack line (wooden stock) that there had been a hairline crack already. You should have seen the long letter he got from Remington making excuses why they do not honor any warranty. Yet my friend not only sent a satement of how it happend but also a statement from a gun smith statting that the stock indeed had been manufacutred from faulty wood. Nothing came of it my friend had to pay for a new stock the gun smith felt sorry for him and did not charge him a labour fee. Remington lost a customer and the gun smith gained a new one.

At one time the spring of the firing pin broke in my gun and sent it to Remington the answer came back that this is not covered in the warranty and is due to normal use over time. Here is the twist, I sent my complaint along with the receipt of the gun which I purchased only a week before and had not yet shot 100 rounds with it.

[Seabass]

IMO I don't think a gun stock should break by dropping it. At least from your shoulder to the ground. I'm not talking cliffs here. For Remington and Weathterby and others who make multi millions each year I don't think its a big deal for them to replace a defunked stock. I've dropped my Marlin from my jacked up bronco onto pavement, didn't break, my old 303 has had the hell beat out of it and is still ticking. And so has many of your guys guns for sure. I know Marlin will replace older ported barrells(1998 guide gun to 2000 were ported I beileve) with non ported barrel because people didn't mind the recoill as much as they didn't like burning the eyebrows off of fellow bench shooters next to them as well as going deaf. Thats pretty good imo.

Regardless how good a rifle is I wouldn't buy from a company who wouldn't stand behind their product. Its not like these guys wanted a new rifle, just a new stock cause the last one was junk.

Cheers

Seabass

[416]

my old 303 has had the hell beat out of it and is still ticking

Haven't all of them!LOL Re-reading the posts l was under the assumption the fault for the damage rested solely with the owner but,.....from accounts of what you fellows have described, l would be sorely pissed off too, if it was obviously the manufactures fault

[islandhunter]

i bought a new henry repeater from SIR about a month ago and it was faulty and blew up the first time i used it. i emailed henry and they pretty much told me that because im in canada id have to get it fixed myself. they didnt offer anything else. I was pretty pissed considering this thing blew up in my face. i phoned SIR and they said send it to them and havent heard anything else, but anyways i would never buy another henry.

[rrfred]

I just had another negative warranty exerience with a delaminating / laminated remington with multiple stock defects; i've had 3 consectuive defective remington turds in 2 years;all bought new; will never buy another remington.