I am gonna sound like a cranky old man, I won't deny that, only defend myself by saying that I am mid-40's of age with almost 30 years in buying, owning, shooting and thoroughly loving handguns.
I totally agree that some things about gun manufacture today are fantastic and inspiring-- especially the wide range of offerings and low prices.
But sorry, QC and final inspection are, let's choose a word: REVOLTING
It's like they almost don't do it at all and they ship it out and let the retailer or the end buyer handle all the final inspection, use warranty to make the product ready for sale.
If I were to name one to pick on, Smith & Wesson SO MUCH, but not the only offender.
However, none of the above is the actual point I wish to make in this thread.
My thoery on gun manufacturing today is that I want to guess that every employee hired in this industry must have a hardcore confidentiality clause that they are required to sign and it is being energetically enforced.
I can't think of any other way to explain how hun forums, blogs, comment sections and Facebook is bursting with the latest face-down QC FAILURE but yet these same venues of angst never, and I mean never have a poster that shows up to say "yes, I worked there 3 years ago and the process was..."
Closest we get is the occasional guy from years LONG gone by. Recently in the S&W forum we had a gent who told us that he was one of the last men to fit the 52 pistols... he told us that he'd still to this day never shot one and certainly couldn't afford one in 1986 when he was building them, given the $6 an hour rate of pay he was at.
Just tonight my shooting buddy took delivery of the BRAND new to market M&P 2.0 Compact... got it home to discover that something definitely wasn't right inside. Turned out to be a simple assembly fail, a spring well out of it's proper place. Minor-- nothing to an astute gun tinkerer but a total warranty return to much of the buying public. This bothers me, this seems to be the "new normal" and it's an epidemic.
And we never ever ever see a post that says "I work there and this is what we ship today because ______"
I think it's an enforced confidentiality order because I sure don't believe that the labor is paid well and elects to make a career shoveling these unfinished products out one door, through a loop and back inside under the door labeled "warranty."
I totally agree that some things about gun manufacture today are fantastic and inspiring-- especially the wide range of offerings and low prices.
But sorry, QC and final inspection are, let's choose a word: REVOLTING
It's like they almost don't do it at all and they ship it out and let the retailer or the end buyer handle all the final inspection, use warranty to make the product ready for sale.
If I were to name one to pick on, Smith & Wesson SO MUCH, but not the only offender.
However, none of the above is the actual point I wish to make in this thread.
My thoery on gun manufacturing today is that I want to guess that every employee hired in this industry must have a hardcore confidentiality clause that they are required to sign and it is being energetically enforced.
I can't think of any other way to explain how hun forums, blogs, comment sections and Facebook is bursting with the latest face-down QC FAILURE but yet these same venues of angst never, and I mean never have a poster that shows up to say "yes, I worked there 3 years ago and the process was..."
Closest we get is the occasional guy from years LONG gone by. Recently in the S&W forum we had a gent who told us that he was one of the last men to fit the 52 pistols... he told us that he'd still to this day never shot one and certainly couldn't afford one in 1986 when he was building them, given the $6 an hour rate of pay he was at.
Just tonight my shooting buddy took delivery of the BRAND new to market M&P 2.0 Compact... got it home to discover that something definitely wasn't right inside. Turned out to be a simple assembly fail, a spring well out of it's proper place. Minor-- nothing to an astute gun tinkerer but a total warranty return to much of the buying public. This bothers me, this seems to be the "new normal" and it's an epidemic.
And we never ever ever see a post that says "I work there and this is what we ship today because ______"
I think it's an enforced confidentiality order because I sure don't believe that the labor is paid well and elects to make a career shoveling these unfinished products out one door, through a loop and back inside under the door labeled "warranty."