Hi fellas, I have not posted here in a while, but recent events have caused me a need to vent.
Within the last week I've had to return 2 rifle parts due to bad QC or shoddy manufacturing. Both were US manufactures/companies.
First was a 300 BLK KAK 9" melonite barrel...while swapping out muzzle devices, the barrel extention came loose. Yes, you read that correctly. My comp I was removing was not even "torqued" on and while unscrewing with little effort, the entire barrel spun as I saw the gas block turn and the gas tube twist I thought.. "OH S% $#,..what have I done!" I thought I sheared the index pin or broke through the upper's notch. After inspection I was..well livid. Contacted KAK and sent it back. This barrel was over a year old but Kurt told me to send it to him, which i did. They are very responsive and CS is top notch..but it should not have happened in the first place.
Next was the GG&G QD bipod with cant and pan feature. Just arrived in the mail. Mounted it on my rifle and noticed the cant feature was very loose, the rifle would keep flopping over to the left or right, so I tried to tighten it up but would not lock up tight enough unless you cranked down on the thumb nut so hard i thought i would strip the threads. After further investigation I noticed the the cant axis and the pan axis were assembled differently. The one that worked had a brass cap on the end of the thumb nut that produced varying amount of friction to the axis pin and the thumb nut was captured with a roll pin so it could not be accidentaly removed. However, the cant axis was missing both. I emailed GG&G, but have not received a response as of today. These bipods have a lifetime warrenty and other than the issue above, it is a very nice bipod, great design and features like 45 and 90 degree locking legs and silent operation. Also the thumb nut to adjust the legs move with the leg extension so its one-hand operation. Very nice.
I try to buy US when possible and I know these things happen but it just seens more often lately (I have more examples but these are the most recent). Most chinese is crap but cheap, US is expensive but quality is suposed to be high. I hope this is not an indication of what is to come.
Good day Gents
Within the last week I've had to return 2 rifle parts due to bad QC or shoddy manufacturing. Both were US manufactures/companies.
First was a 300 BLK KAK 9" melonite barrel...while swapping out muzzle devices, the barrel extention came loose. Yes, you read that correctly. My comp I was removing was not even "torqued" on and while unscrewing with little effort, the entire barrel spun as I saw the gas block turn and the gas tube twist I thought.. "OH S% $#,..what have I done!" I thought I sheared the index pin or broke through the upper's notch. After inspection I was..well livid. Contacted KAK and sent it back. This barrel was over a year old but Kurt told me to send it to him, which i did. They are very responsive and CS is top notch..but it should not have happened in the first place.
Next was the GG&G QD bipod with cant and pan feature. Just arrived in the mail. Mounted it on my rifle and noticed the cant feature was very loose, the rifle would keep flopping over to the left or right, so I tried to tighten it up but would not lock up tight enough unless you cranked down on the thumb nut so hard i thought i would strip the threads. After further investigation I noticed the the cant axis and the pan axis were assembled differently. The one that worked had a brass cap on the end of the thumb nut that produced varying amount of friction to the axis pin and the thumb nut was captured with a roll pin so it could not be accidentaly removed. However, the cant axis was missing both. I emailed GG&G, but have not received a response as of today. These bipods have a lifetime warrenty and other than the issue above, it is a very nice bipod, great design and features like 45 and 90 degree locking legs and silent operation. Also the thumb nut to adjust the legs move with the leg extension so its one-hand operation. Very nice.
I try to buy US when possible and I know these things happen but it just seens more often lately (I have more examples but these are the most recent). Most chinese is crap but cheap, US is expensive but quality is suposed to be high. I hope this is not an indication of what is to come.
Good day Gents