Winchester SXP trigger fail ***DANGEROUS***

My son has been having some issues with Winchester. Below is a detailed description of the ordeal.

Video:

[video=youtube_share;80Fax49fUAI]https://youtu.be/80Fax49fUAI[/video]

In his words:

- about a month ago, early December, I was out in the duck blind hunting and just enjoying a nice sunny day in December when a nice drake Blue bill comes zipping by. I get excited, draw my gun, take the safety off, pull the trigger, and nothing happens. So, I was like, what just happened. I pull the gun down to my hip, the barrel still facing out away from me and my friend and the gun goes off, flies out of my hand and lands in the water behind me. Scary. So, I thought what the heck? Maybe the shell was partially wet and that it didn't ignite right away? Who knows. So, I continue to hunt. Happens 2 or 3 more times that day. The trigger just wouldn't work. I knew that it could go off so I kept it pointed in a safe direction and ejected the shell and reloaded a new one and it sometimes went off and sometimes didn't. Here is a video of a at home demonstration.

Now the next day, I called into Winchester and asked if they had any idea of what it could be and asked if I could just buy a new firing mechanism because that's what I thought it was. The guy on the phone said "why not just send it in?" I said "I don't want to pay a company money to fix it if I can fix it myself. He said " well it's under a 5 year parts and labor repair warranty so whatever it is it will be covered" I (not knowing about that warranty) said "wow that's awesome!! Here's what I'll do, I will go buy this same exact shotgun again and ship this gun to you because it's the middle of duck season right now and I can't afford to not have a shotgun to hunt with." He said, "well that's an expensive way of doing it but ya go buy another one and send yours in" so I did.

A month later, I receive a letter with an estimate in the mail explaining that the gun is in need of a new trigger/firing mechanism. (I already assumed that) and that they want to charge me $259.07 to do the repairs. So I think to myself "that's odd" and I give them a call. Instantly I get a guy that says I have treated my gun horribly and don't maintain it and that it's all my fault and not a faulty product from them. He continues to go into detail about it repeatedly saying that he's gonna be upfront and blunt about it. He says there's rust in there and that they would need to replace the unit. So, I told him that I don't want to be spending another $260 on the gun and I just want the gun back and I'll just buy the firing mechanism. ($100) He says " well the mechanism is a controlled part and I could not buy it" so I said well I don't understand how I'm in this situation. I call and ask to get help and order the mechanism or what not and the guy tells me it will be covered under warranty and now you guys are telling me I owe you. And to top it off I went out and bought the same exact shotgun again.......... I'm really bummed about this and would caution anyone thinking about buying a Winchester firearm to really dig deep and think about it. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE THE SXP!! But that leaves a bad taste in my mouth about Winchester and their customer service.

Sorry for your trouble, no matter what company I deal with if I am not getting satisfactory answers or feel they are being unreasonable I go up the chain.

I don't know what your maintenance procedures are but I always clean and inspect after the season. With shotguns, especially semi-autos and pumps I pull the trigger assembly out and make sure there is not rust or debris present. You can get a lot of crap inside a shotgun receiver over the course of a season.

Agreed and he has gone up the "chain" but he's at a roadblock currently thus the thread here and on other forums.

So it fires after you click the safety on and then off again?

MJE2083 said:

So it fires after you click the safety on and then off again?

Click to expand...

Thats what im seeing.

Yes and it has gone off completely on its own as well.

Was the trigger mechanism not taken care of?

JM77 said:

Was the trigger mechanism not taken care of?

Click to expand...

Here was his reply to me on this:

That's the thing, I kept the gun cleaned. (For the most part) and the gun was always oiled. If I didn't get the chance to pull out the old tooth brush and actually get in there and clean it the least I would do is lube it all up. Not too much of course because less is more with lubrication.

I didn't know Walker went to work for Winchester.

I have put some shotguns thru hell, Benelli, Beretta, Browning, and Remington autos.. dumped them in saltwater, not cleaned them for entire seasons, duck blood, snow, ice, rusty shells and mud in the receivers..Not one has ever done anything like that. I was going to go with the Winchester for my new gun, but I think I will be checking out the design and parts. Unless this one was allowed to completely rust internally or gunk to build up to the point of parts failure, I would say they have a design problem. Have you asked for a picture of the parts?

I will ask

UPDATE: Winchester finally returned his shotgun to him. They returned it in the same condition (Malfunctions) I was surprised they did that. If it were my company there is NO WAY that gun would leave in that condition with the possibility of a serious accident with liability issues, Especially since it was sent in for a warranty repair that they decided to re-nig on.

orarcher said:

Instantly I get a guy that says I have treated my gun horribly and don't maintain it and that it's all my fault and not a faulty product from them. He continues to go into detail about it repeatedly saying that he's gonna be upfront and blunt about it. He says there's rust in there and that they would need to replace the unit.

Click to expand...

That's a lame move by Winchester unless the gun is all full of mud and gunk. I used to shoot in a trap league and hunt with my Beretta AL390. I probably went 5000-6000+ rounds and multiple years before I learned how to really take it all apart and clean it, and I never once had a misfire.

I'll reserve my judgement until we see a pic of the actual trigger mechanism.
Just because he says he kept it "lubed up" doesn't mean it wans't also gunked up.