Would Remington warranty this barrel?

[Kestrel4k]

[...] I was wondering how one small shop could handle all the warranty work for every Remington handgun in the USA. I am not saying that the man is not capable of doing any kind of work on a gun, just how does he keep up with all that demand with such a small shop.

My first thought was along these lines, earlier in the thread:

I had a Remlin 45-70 Cowboy who's barrel had even larger CHUNKS missing. It was sent back to Remington for barrel replacement and all I got back was the same rifle-barrel and a note that said they saw no reason for complaint. They sent back a target with five holes in it [...]

[LAKEMASTER]

These comments make me really sad to read... I guess I'll start buying old abused Remington rifles and start restoring them.

[john.k]

I have a vision of a guy sitting surrounded by piles of guns,he has a pair of glasses with white lenses,and a white stick."nothing wrong here"...."Nothing wrong here" .....Nothing wrong here"........"nothing wrong here"........(no disrespect to the disabled intended)

[rondog]

I hang out at the Marlin Owners forum, and stories abound about quality problems with Marlin rifles after Remington took them over. Nonetheless, I took a leap of faith and bought a new 1894 rifle in .44 magnum.

It had some minor issues like sharp edges here and there, minimal finishing and polishing of the receiver, the internal parts were rough and gritty feeling, the trigger was terrible, the loading gate spring was very stiff, it was miserable to load, things like that. The barrel bore looked rough, like it wasn't finished smoothly before rifling was done, it looked scratched.

I'm very skeptical about "warranty work", and very hesitant to turn loose of a new purchase once it's in my hands, plus I'd read horror stories from others. I like to tinker on guns, so I went after it myself. Besides, it actually shot quite well, had nice wood, and was fitted good. The barrel slugged right at spec, and the rifling was .004 deep, just right.

Long story short - after all my cleaning, deburring, smoothing, polishing, etc., my rifle is now my friend. It shoots great and operates smoothly. I didn't like the checkering or the fat forearm, or the Marshield finish, so I stripped the wood, sanded the rifling off, reshaped the forearm with a block plane, sanded it all smooth, and put a BLO finish on it. The difference is like night & day now! Looks and works like it should, IMO. I still want to do a little more to the trigger though.

Thankfully, I'm enough of a shadetree gunsmith to do this stuff myself, but the bottom line is that nobody should have to do things like this to a brand new rifle. I can't get any photos to upload.

Good luck to you, I hope they do you right!!!

[flybyjohn]

Well, got back the RP9 Friday evening and to my surprise, they replaced the barrel and to my surprise it looks worse than the one I sent back. I would take the old one back in a heartbeat rather than keep this new one they sent.

The replacement is bad in a different way. It has perpendicular machine marks on the lands all the way down the barrel. There is one step about 3/4" from the muzzle that is the largest of them all. I pushed a cleaning patch down the barrel right after I got it back and it tore the patch and left fur inside the barrel. The original barrel, although it had one bad grove in it, also had 5 good smooth grooves and 6 smooth lands. This new one has 6 bad rough lands and groves.

I called Remington back today just to give them my .02 worth and they want just the barrel back this time to have a look at it. I have already run a lap down the barrel for 20 minutes to try to smooth it out some but in order to get most of the machine marks out, the bore will probably grow larger than I would like. It wont pull the cleaning patch apart any more but it still has some major perpendicular machine marks the full length of the barrel. And the step at the muzzle end cant be very good for accuracy.

Not sure if I should send it back in or not. I guess at this point I have nothing to loose.

[gpidaho]

Sorry to say but that is pretty much what I suspected would be the outcome. Even though folks have been rifling barrels for hundreds of years the process seems to elude Remington. Freedom Group is pretty much King Midas in reverse. Everything they touch turns to **** I'm done buying anything Remington. Gp

[flybyjohn]

Well they just got back to me and instead of just sending the barrel, they want the whole gun again and to have me ship it to their main factory in Huntsville for inspection. Is a rough barrel that grabs patches normal quality for pistol barrels today. I have two 1911's of different makes and a berretta that all have mirror barrels. Why is it so hard to make a 4.25" barrel shinny and smooth from the factory if they were able to do it with Para, Springfield and Berreta.

[Soundguy]

Yikes.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

[flybyjohn]

Heres some pictures of the replacement barrel.



My camera doesn't focus down the barrel very far but is is like this the entire barrel length.

[nekshot]

I totally understand your frustration and by the integrity of commerce that is not acceptable. BUT, I have seen worse quite a few times and they shot great. If that was my gun I would keep it and shoot the heck out of it. Would possibly better for your blood pressure but that is from my point of view at your predicament.

[flybyjohn]

Look at how different the cone into the rifling is on the two barrels. Both from the same factory and for the same gun. The original barrel had a good smooth cone and the replacement looks like it is missing a lot of the cone into the grooves. The land right at the top of the ramp also has a good edge to catch anything trying to get past it.

[Soundguy]

Looks lil the cut the bore with a hand drill and flat file.

[vzerone]

To me accepting a firearm with those little flaws such as the OP has, how many of you would accept a brand new car that had a scratch down the hood and they didn't discount it? I wouldn't.

There seems to be no pride in this country anymore in the craftmanship trades. I imagine myself at wherever Remington makes those barrels and I'm rifling it and I WOULD LOOK THROUGH IT and see those ripped out metal places and say to myself "nope, this one is going in the reject box". I wouldn't want and I wouldn't send it out to a customer. That's the kind of thing used car dealers do more then to often.

[lefty o]

that is truly pathetic. now i get sometimes stuff slips thru when made even though it shouldnt. on something that is in for warranty care should be taken to make sure what is sent back is better than what was recieved. speaks volumes about how little remingturd cares.

[flybyjohn]

That's what I was thinking and I even wrote that into my letter that is in the box for them to read when they open it. "if a warranty came in with a bad barrel, I would **** well make sure it left with a better barrel than it came in with." I also gave them the whole deal about taking pride in a made in America firearm and that I hope this is not the "within spec" that the last gunsmith that put on the barrel stated. I also let them know that my Mosin Nagant that has seen battle in the trenches had a better barrel than what they sent me.

They might not even take the time to read my letter as I got a little long winded but hopefully they take the time to pick out a dandy barrel now that it has been back two times for the same thing.

[john.k]

In the automated factory,there are no "barrel inspectors' or any other kind either. The only workers are maintenance/fault clearers.If a CNC machine malfunctions ,production is moved to another machine.....Small portable robots replace machine tenders,and move slow enough that WHS guarding isnt needed...There is no one to look down a barrel.....QA is inherent in CNC machining,and any further QA is by analysis of enduser feed back.....Returns......if buyers dont reject product,then QA is good.

[Soundguy]

Scarry as that sounds, I have a buddy that worked at a mostly automated amazon sorting/fulfillment center...

[john.k]

i wonder at the term"fulfillment"....what does it mean....I suspect in Amazon speak it means when there are zero human employees being paid to waste time having breaks,talking,getting tired etc. Or using free facilities such as company supplied water and sewerage costs.............All the salesmen for the new gen robots show a little vid of a worker wasting something like one hour of production time just to have a whiz...........robots work 24/7....and so far the state govt hasnt figured how to get all the taxes they load onto human employment back.....but they will.

[Soundguy]

automation is double edged. cut humans, save money.. but now those humans you cut have no money, so they can't buy your product, thus you sell less, and then close.

[flybyjohn]

I wonder if it is a robot fitting these guns together after all the parts are made. I can only imagine that someone has got to pick up a barrel, slide it into the slide place the spring, and install the slide assembly and then test fire the gun. How hard could it be to sight down the barrel and notice smooth from rough.

The Customer Service rep I spoke on the phone with from Remington was shocked that I had looked down the barrel. He boasted that in the 85 sum handguns he owns that he has never looked down the barrel. He just runs a brush through them and shoots them. I find that really hard to believe. I look down every one of my barrels while cleaning, that's how I know when it is clean.