I've been looking for a 357 mag handi for a few years now with no luck. If I did find one, it was $5-600 and I wasn't interested for that. I noticed a while back traditions had the new outfitter g2 single shot break barrels chambered in 357 so I started doing a little research. Reviews of that particular rifle were nothing but good as initial magazine reviews, but there was next to no info from the public. The only things I found were muzzle loader reviews which were mixed.
I ended up at a dealer 45 mins from me looking at a topper I was going to rebarrel but decided to just order the G2. I was chatting with some guys on here about them and went ahead and took the chance for the masses. I told everyone I'd post up my experience so here it is. Sadly, much of it is with customers service and quality control, not the gun.
I picked the gun up right before Christmas while cruising up to my in-laws so I spent only a few mins checking it out on the dealers counter. When we got to the house I cut the box open and pulled it out to look it over.
It was hard to miss the big glob of ceracote on the side of the barrel. Crapolla. I looked over the rest of the gun and all else looked good. The manual tells you to contact traditions... Not the dealer... so I waited until we got back home, Again driving past the dealer, and sent an email off to traditions. After my second email with no response I decided to call. I spent 30 mins on hold and hung up. I did that 3 times that day and finally got ahold of someone on the 3rd try. I was instructed to send an email with pics to the customer service representatives personal email because the others to traditions just go into a pool... I did as instructed and sent pics. I didn't here anything back that it was received or what to do. After Christmas, I called again with a similar experience of being on hold. I finally got ahold of the rep and had a bad connection. After some mis info from me for a call back, I heard nothing for a few days. I sent a rather perturbed email this morning and got a quick response.
My options are now to cover the expenses to mail the whole gun back or go through the dealer and pay to send it back while adding 2 round trips to the tune of 3 hours in the car. My great deal is getting worse at every turn.
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