QC Rant

A

Artisan

Inactive
I am a hobbyist gunsmith, a small name in a small town, if you will. I'm really not sure if it's a huge hobby, or a small business, but I do some local work (mainly on revolvers). Recently, I've seen some stuff come in that really disgusts me. What has happened to the QC departments of these companies? I'm not going to mention names, but I've seen cylinders from the factory practically dragging on the forcing cone if pushed forward, endshake of .005 or even greater, headspacing problems, alignment issues, short firing pins, ridiculous trigger pulls, loose cranes, and fitting so bad that a little wear after first using the gun creates binding. I am convinced some companies will defend their product to the death without even listening closely to a reasonable complaint.

Why is it that every manufacturer seems to think that the leade on the cylinder are purely cosmetic? I've almost never seen a revolver (especially single actions) that drops the cylinder stop at the proper time. :barf:

Have these people no pride in their products and workmanship? :confused:

P.S. And why is it that so many people "need" the latest trick sights and actions fitted to their guns in a futile attempt to increase their poor accuracy when they would be better suited to buying ammunition and range time?

:rant off:
 
I agree 110% with your statements about quality control. I recently bought a 1911 from a "major manufacturer" and it looked like it was fitted by a 6th grade shop student. it looked fine at a glance but I got it home and pulled it apart for cleaning and I get a little bet out of shape. the ejector looked as if it had been cut with a chainsaw on one side, it had numerous deep grooves and was really thin. the slide stop would not go back in without a huge fight, the feed ramp was so rough that it was shaving copper off the jackets of the fmj I was trying to camber, jhp's would not chamber at all. so I over looked all the internal imperfection until I shot the thing. the thing would only feed fmj's, not a single hollow point I tried would feed. so I tried some Wilson Combat magazines and a few Chip McCormick mags to no dice! now buy then I was less than amused so I called the company's customer service and let them know what was going on. I also let them know that there QC sucked and they needed to do a better job. she said something about the pistol being in spec or some nonsense. I laughed loudly and said "in spec for what exactly the thing don't work". "I don't think I am asking to much out of a $800+ pistol to work right out of the box am I?" she said no. so I sent the pistol back it came back after what seemed like forever, still looking like poop and the slide stop still not fitting right, but working better with hollow points. so I sold the stupid thing and bought a FNP-45 and have had zero problems, go figure a pistol that works from the factory.

I agree once you have a good set of sights you need more range time. there is no replacing practice, shoot as much as you can it will pay off if you ever need to defend yourself.
 
"trick" sights? How about just decent replacements for crappy factory sights? I think they try to save money on a very vital part of the gun sometimes. Unless you have been working on Charter Arms or something like that, I wonder what brand of revolvers you are complaining about. Maybe you mentioned single actions. Perhaps you refer to cheap imported replicas. Well getting those smoothed out and working right ought to make you alot of business I would think. Would think that instead of talking down your customers choices to them, that just explaining what your improvements can do would be better for business.
 
I'm really fussy, know what I'm looking at and have been shooting / working on firearms for decades. There's junk out there, that's for sure. But the quality stuff from the name brands seems as well made today as it ever was -- maybe better because now we have CNC and lasers.
 
You won't mention names and possibly help the other forum members avoid poorly made products? Afraid to hurt your budding business?



Have a nice day :)
 
You won't mention names and possibly help the other forum members avoid poorly made products? Afraid to hurt your budding business?
Click to expand...

This reaction was unexpected. No sir, there's nothing nefarious going on here. I work full-time for a local employer and make fine money. I take pride in my honesty and willingness to stand behind my work. I'm not looking to forward myself through this. I'm not going to give a bunch of names because I don't see a significant portion of their products; they make millions of guns, and I may see a dozen in a year. It wouldn't be fair for me to make a blanket statement declaring their products junk. It just bothers me that these are getting through since many people bet their lives on the product. It's bothersome that sometimes customer service reps seem completely uninterested in helping the customer sort things out.

Of course, I don't tell somebody they stink and need range time. It just seems that some people want to buy their way into being competitive. Come on, I have some tact. ;)

I do, however, feel comfortable stating that the fit and finish on older models (like Smith & Wesson) do seem better (not that their current products are bad). Perhaps I'm just a picky old dinosaur that likes seeing guns fitted and worked on by human beings. :D

Perhaps I've just had a bad run-in with lemons lately and am completely out of touch with the larger industry?
 
Well alot of stuff is CNC nowadays. Some things could be better on modern guns, but if you want hand fitted and polished, you will pay and pay for it, as it is not possible to get hand craftsmen that do expert work on guns for peanuts anymore. I am sure that alot of hand fitting and work goes into some of the imported replica guns. But with those, you see the results. Sometimes they are not pretty. If all guns were made as nicely as second generation Colt SAA, and cost that much, you would not have so much work to do.
 
The per unit cost for these products seems to go up everyday.

Sadly most companies are publicly owned on Wall Street and they have to show a profit or an increase in profit every quarter to stay financially 'attractive'.

Pretty soon,after years of cutting everything you can out of the manufacturing side of the equation you are left with just lowering the quality of the product because you saved the cost of having someone inspect the guns or you raised the return requirements in the factory and just let the guns go to market as long as they would fire.

Usually those that buy them think they just got a bad model.

Many people never return the guns and therein lies why this pattern continues.

You are correct.

Quality means little today.

It's push-push-push that 'stuff' right out the door.

In the case of gun manufacturers that sell their guns at very low prices,they have little choice but to let the guns go to market.

The per unit profit is so low that trying to correct the problems before they go up for sale would quickly bankrupt the company.

Hopefully a majority of those guns function well and those that need fixing can be fixed economically and qiuckly to retain the customer.

Even manufacturers that sell very high cost guns can suffer this issue if the management is doing a great job of siphoning what little profit comes into the company into their bank accounts.

Remember that a high cost gun company may have a low volume of sales and that makes them be in exactly the same place as the high volume sales-low profit per unit handgun maker.

Almost going broke all the time.

I am continually astounded that we get to buy great handguns at relativiley low prices.

And very happy we can.

I can wish that everyone built Sig P210's we can buy for $300 but that's all it would be-wishing.

The new business model today is actively brutal and unforgiving and high quality means little if the customer will not support it with their money.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top