Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters I will never purchase a firearm from Brand X again!

On every forum I read there is that rant. A guy buys a gun from a company and there is an issue with it so he is never going buy that brand again. Quite often the person doesn't even contact the company in question for warranty work, and quite often when they do and the issue is taken care of expeditiously they still say they won't buy from that company again. I laugh when I read those threads. I've had to send in a Weatherby, Browning and a CZ for warranty work and subsequently became more loyal to them. Why? Because the problems were handled with no fuss or muss. Every company that mass produces goods makes a lemon now and then. How many of us have had to get work done on a new car yet still buy that brand? Why is it that so many people treat firearms differently and hold gun makers to an impossibly high standard? By far my favorite gun dealer is a company in Utah. The first time I bought from them I purchased a 20 gauge. When I went to my FFL to pick it up a 12 gauge had been sent. I called the company and this is how they dealt with the issue. They had my FFL send the shotgun back on their dime and overnighted the correct shotgun which I picked up the next day. I was sold and have been buying from them now for four years. Have any of you ever made a mistake at your job? Being that I'm 55 I have made plenty.

Excellent post!

Thanks.

We buy $30000 automobiles with a 3 year warranty but want a lifetime warranty on scopes costing $300. Some things just don't add up.

Great post.

My step dad's old leupold 3-9x started fogging up in the mid 1990's. IIRC He bought this scope in the late 50's or early 60's. Had the metal rear eye piece and fine crosshairs. He sent it back to leupold for repairs. They sent a nice letter back stating they couldn't repair it and didn't make that model anymore. They sent his old scope back, along with a brand new, latest model 3-9x.

Can't argue with that customer service.

"Anecdotes are not data." -NPR


Maybe they meant that individually anecdotes are each a datum?


No. They are looking down their noses at your sampling. They fart in your general direction.

Not exactly sure what your point is but, I love you man.

The scopes don't have thousands of parts made by hundreds of different companies

If a person can,t figger out what they are looking at they most likely should stop looking.

Screw-ups are one thing // Failing to correct them or expecting the customer to pay more to get a faulty product made right the second time is my gripe/// I have done well by some of the//not so much by some others/If I'm wrong to be reluctant to buy from the companies that won't stand behind their products then so be it





Darned kid spilled juice on the keyboard//now comma and period are defunct!

Wait a minute! There are "mistakes" and then there are MISTAKES. Not all mistakes are created equal. Further, some "mistakes" can kill you, and the manufacturer has the absolute obligation to not do that. Some "mistakes" are impossible to do any kind of basic quality assurance test/check and miss.

When it comes to scopes, I tend to look at them like this:

A scope is a pretty simple device. All scopes have pretty similar design and construction. So, it should be pretty simple to make a fully functional scope for a competitive price. The science of transmitting light through lenses is well understood. When you wish to minimize the problems and maximize the benefits, the small changes in coatings, internal machining and quality of glass to accomplish that can add a significant cost. When you must have something mechanically suspended and adjustable and it must be reasonably light and it must be robust enough to handle impact and torques applied to it, there is a cost to accomplishing those goals that is variable though generally higher the better the goals are met. When you buy a product with a warranty, that warranty adds a cost, and the level of service accompanying that warranty adds a cost.

I can buy a "cheap" scope that maybe doesn't have the best glass, probably doesn't have the best coatings, won't stand up to a few thousand shots from a 6 pound 300 WM and has a poor or no warranty. That scope may serve me well for many years and when it dies I may have to spend more money to have it repaired or to replace it.

I have scopes like that.

I can buy a scope for a purpose that I am unwilling to compromise on the optical quality, that I can absolutely depend on for VERY rare mechanical failure, and when a failure does occur I can send it back knowing that I paid up front for a level of service I need and it comes back promptly and properly repaired.

I have scopes like that.

It's when the original deal is broken unilaterally, the rifle is not functional or unsafe, the scope is not designed to a standard, the warranty is not honored that people get pissed and rightfully so. And... if a person is the victim of that, they should react in precisely the manner the OP describes. It would be foolish to subject yourself to the same abuse again, and again.

Some companies like Leupold or RCBS get that.

fact is ,you can walk into walmart and buy a 300.00 rifle and a 50.00 scope and kill anything in north america.if the 50.00 scope doesn't fail during sightin then it may last for years.

i see just as many higher priced scopes fail as cheap ones.i bet i see twice as many leupolds sent back as anything else.but atleast half of those get sent back just because the owner wants something for nothing.hehas a scrathed up scope and sends it back hoping they will replace it free.

the average weekend hunter can get by just fine with a cheap scope.there are millions of people out there that never pay over a few thousand for cars to.lots of guys that i know drive junk and shoot junk. they get where they wanta go and some kill way more animals than most hunters.

I recently purchased a firearm made by brand X. There are some issues with it that I did not catch when I bought it (my fault) so I called customer service. I spent 2 1/2 hours on hold hearing "we are extraordinarily busy but your call is important to us." When I finally did speak to a person, I had a pre-paid label in my email before we hung up.

I sent the rifle back, it arrived 2/21/14, was fixed with a new trigger assembly and an "adjusted magazine box" on 2/25 and I had it back the first week of March. Not bad. While the rifle still is not 100%, it is far better now. Overall I'm pleased with the service I received.

And it might just as likely die the next day. And to add insult to that, a 50 dollar scope is unlikely to track properly through a sight in session much less a workup. That scope that doesn't track properly will at more often that not lose zero because they same thing that keeps it from tracking accurately (it doesn't move smoothly inside) cause it to move when you didn't adjust a turret. And, of course that uncoated $50 scope will not begin to allow you to see, much less shoot, an awful lot of deer. Of the three deer I shot last fall, I could have killed one with a fifty dollar scope, and that only if the scope hadn't shifted zero or broken. The other two I would not have been able to see well enough to shoot with my Leupold VX-III 1.5-5x20, much less a Walmart blister pack special.



Show me numbers.



And they by and large shoot just like they are shooting junk.



And wound more animals too.

I am sure you believe what you wrote. That doesn't make it true though.

I have shot Leupies since the fifties. I have never had need to send one back. I have a dozen or so high end scopes. I bought one used that had a leak in the objective lens seal, I called the Meopta told them it needed repair and I bought it used. When the got it they chose not to repair it and instead sent me a new scope with my choice of reticle at no cost to me. All inside of two weeks. None of the rest have ever failed to hold zero, failed to track precisely enough to use the turrets to put a bullet exactly where I wanted it or failed in any way.

In the last ten years I have thrown at least six cheap scopes in the trash after they failed, and would have thrown another half dozen in right after them for not tracking and not holding zero, but they belonged to people who didn't care that they didn't hold zero. In one case alone, that resulted in at least four wounded deer. And at least two other deer that were either wounded and left no blood trail or were missed.

Don't give me this latter day hero who takes a minimalist piece of crap out in the woods and does just fine. It is more often than not a jackass who's too cheap to put together a decent rig and make it work right in my experience, and I've done this dance a lot of years now and seen a lot more dumb [bleep] than people who knew what they were about. A ten to one ratio easily.

When I was growing up we shot all of the meat we ate, family of seven, all five kids hunted, my brother and I took two big game animals per year each, minimum, same for mom and dad, sisters hunted on and off. We didn't have the money for "high end" scopes. I grew up with Tasco World Class being the best we had. Our range sessions were a PITA - we couldn't see .30 cal bullet holes at 100 yds on the target, so someone went downrange and hid behind a hay bale while someone else shot and the downrange person would direct the adjustment. The adjustments sucked. The optics sucked. The mechanics sucked. We just assumed that the scope wouldn't hold zero from year to year, which also meant that we shot a lot. I vowed that I would own Leupolds some day on my rifles. Fast forward a decade and a half. My rifles wear Leupolds - one Nikon, but the rest Leupold. I saved my pennies and paid for the glass and the service up front rather than tossing a scope in the trash that had no warranty. After I mounted Leupolds on my rifles, I hunted for used Leupolds to put on mom's gun and dad's gun. They've never known such convenience. Scopes that hold zero, scopes that adjust properly, optics that reveal detail on par with a lot of decent binoculars. I too would love to see the numbers on "just as many high dollar scopes failing". Admittedly, I've sent one Leupold in - the only one I purchased brand new. A VX3 Handgun scope that didn't adjust properly and ended up shifting POI on me after initial sight-in. It cost me my Minnesota deer that year and I was ticked. I sent it in and they made it right. Tasco wouldn't have done that.

Save your breath Selmer, compared to a Walmart blister pack special, the older Tascos are high end scopes. I still have one or two.

I have a high standard for firearms based on the industry's fine history of functional products that last for generations. I wouldn't hesitate to trust my life to the function of my 110+ year old Winchester lever action in good old 30 WCF.

When modern guns don't live up to those standards it is very disappointing.

It is nice to be able to save money and I often have tried to save in the wrong manner. When you miss the biggest buck you have ever seen because your crappy scope lost it's zero - good quality scopes don't seem like such a luxury.

My contender barrel came to me with a 79.00 $ scope . Luckily the seller included the factory open sights . My eyes are not as good as I wish , but I still think I can get buy till I can up grade . This scope is a 4 power and can be hard to see target due to parallax and having to find that just right spot to be in focus . Will appreciate any wisdom . Need good scope for T/C 14" 223 barrel will try to hit target at 200 + yards

You are absolutely correct. That is the reason I don't purchase Remington/Marlin and Mossberg. My experience with the Customer Service at both companies was a joke. I'm talking about people who don't give the manufacturer a chance to make good or when the company makes good, the customer still trashes the company.

Another thing is that no matter how good a company is, they all have at least one employee that is a jerk and normally more than one. If you have an issue with a gun, contact the maker and the first person you talk to is a Douche Lord then you
will get a bad taste in your mouth. I am guilty of falling in to that trap myself. I've found though that if I call back and talk to someone else then normally everything works out for the good.

It would be like judging this site based on only reading Ingwe's posts.(Attempt humor, I enjoy reading his posts).

1.Get a brand of scope from a manufacturer who will honor warranty.
2.Get an objective lens big enough to gather sufficient light.
3.Get a magnification that will allow you to clearly see the target. at 200 yards.
Sounds to me like your gonna spend some money!...possible options
A.Weaver 4x28 Pistol Classic Handgun Scope $155
B.Weaver Classic Handgun 2.5-8x28 Scope $237
C.Burris 2-7x32mm Handgun Scope $350
Leupold and Nikon are even better but most models are low magnification and more costly.
...or post on 24 HR your need in the classifieds and let your brethren assist.
P.S. At least use a bipod at those ranges
Good shootin', my friend
Jimmy