Eight years ago, we had recently moved to Colorado and started western hunting. I was using my grandfather's 7mm rem. mag. and my wife has a nice Weatherby .270. This combo is pretty good, and I am not a "rifle nut" so don't feel the need to own a caliber designed for each species. However, a friend of mine offered me a scoped .270 for a mere $100, as he wanted to focus on fly fishing. How could I decline? This would allow us to take the same type of ammunition on our pronghorn and deer hunts and I really like the .270 caliber anyway.
The gun is a Remington 770, which has, uh, lackluster reviews. However, I could shoot just fine to 300 yards with it and thus it worked for me. I didn't feel the need to baby it with the cheap price and synthetic stock. I took a couple of deer and pronghorn with it before a local mule deer hunt.
On that hunt, I found myself constantly struggling through oak brush. I had the gun strapped to my pack, and the bolt kept getting snagged on the brush. I should have more seriously taken note of this, but it seemed a minor annoyance at the time. I took great note of this once I reached my glassing knob and the whole freakin' bolt was missing. There was no turning it back up after hours of crawling through that brush. My wife was hunting nearby, so my hunt wasn't completely ruined, but boy was I pissed.
That gun went into the safe and I thought about what to do with it every once in awhile. Finally, a few weeks ago I stripped it down and sent it back to Remington to see what they could do. Friday night, I got an email stating the total cost of the repair would be $190, nearly twice what I paid for it.
Now, if this was a well reputed gun, I would just suck it up, pay, be embarrassed and tell my story as a warning to others about equipment care. However, I just don't trust the damn thing not to do it again. The bolt lock is entirely too easy to flip. I'm tempted to see what happens if I tell them to recycle the thing.
Thoughts?
The gun is a Remington 770, which has, uh, lackluster reviews. However, I could shoot just fine to 300 yards with it and thus it worked for me. I didn't feel the need to baby it with the cheap price and synthetic stock. I took a couple of deer and pronghorn with it before a local mule deer hunt.
On that hunt, I found myself constantly struggling through oak brush. I had the gun strapped to my pack, and the bolt kept getting snagged on the brush. I should have more seriously taken note of this, but it seemed a minor annoyance at the time. I took great note of this once I reached my glassing knob and the whole freakin' bolt was missing. There was no turning it back up after hours of crawling through that brush. My wife was hunting nearby, so my hunt wasn't completely ruined, but boy was I pissed.
That gun went into the safe and I thought about what to do with it every once in awhile. Finally, a few weeks ago I stripped it down and sent it back to Remington to see what they could do. Friday night, I got an email stating the total cost of the repair would be $190, nearly twice what I paid for it.
Now, if this was a well reputed gun, I would just suck it up, pay, be embarrassed and tell my story as a warning to others about equipment care. However, I just don't trust the damn thing not to do it again. The bolt lock is entirely too easy to flip. I'm tempted to see what happens if I tell them to recycle the thing.
Thoughts?
