Gander Mountain...ugghhh

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MattO

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A quick back story. My son has Muscular Dystrophy, he has little to no strength in his arms, or core muscles. His legs gave up long ago and has been wheel chair bound for 9+years. He loves the outdoors and guns. He wants to hunt, but because he can't even lift his arms any longer it's not physically possible. He barely has the strength to pull the trigger on most of his guns, or handle the recoil.

So what is a dad to do? He lets his son have a hunting experience through me. I haven't hunted since I was in my early 20's, and have never turkey or deer hunted in my life. But he wants to go, so I got my hunter certification, and have bought a turkey shot gun and we are heading out on our first hunt this weekend. But we also bought a rifle to deer hunt and coyote hunt. I purchased the rifle, a Vortex scope, and a set of rings with the help of Gander mountain "Salesman" The rifle we bought 2 months ago, the scope 2 weeks ago as we had saved enough "extra" money to buy one. Tonight we took it to them for the "free mounting and bore sighting" we dropped it off with them, went across the street to eat and came back and picked it up. They zip tie your gun case closed so you aren't walking around the store with an "Unsecured firearm"

I get home from the store(a 45 minute drive) open the case to find the rings they sold us were too short, and the scope is digging into the rail.... So the brand new scope has the "zoom" ring dug into the rail of the gun, and it's obvious the scope is under some pressure. I open the package the rings were in, but the employee kept the tool it came with to unbolt it and relieve the pressure. I scramble around the garage and find a bit to take it loose with, and hope it hasn't been damaged. The store was already closed so I have to call the manager in the AM. But seriously, who couldn't see this and realize something was wrong?

Untitled by MattOphotog, on Flickr

Untitled by MattOphotog, on Flickr

Sorry just venting.
 
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I'd be mad too. No excuse for that. He at least could have held off mounting it once he seen the rings were too short, until you approved a set of taller ones. I just would have mounted it with taller rings, and returned the other rings to inventory.

Larry
 
Yes he could have done anything other than mounting it like he did and possibly damaging the new scope. I'll give the manager a polite earful in the morning. If their employees don't know how to do something, perhaps they shouldn't be working there or doing that!
 
Off with their heads! This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen! Obviously some kid that was raised by his iPhone.
 
Yikes! You'd have had better success asking a blind monkey to mount the scope for you. That is beyond words for a company that is supposed to cater to sportsmen!

If you are patient dealing with them after looking at that mess, you're a better man than I.

Good luck and happy hunting to both of you!
 
I suppose......

I suppose since it's tightly on, how to turn the zoom ring is your problem. He did give you a 'free mount' though so he's fulfilled his obligation. You know, he COULD have used a slightly longer screw ring and explained that if he put those on, the zoom ring would dig into the gun and said that he didn't think I would want that and that he would put the short ones back on if you wanted the zoom ring to contact the gun. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

:mad::mad::mad:
 
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If I were you I wouldn't try to fix it myself. They might blame any damage to scope and rifle on you. Call them, talk to the manager and make an appointment to meet with him.
It looks to me that what's holding the scope in place is the pressure from the top part of the rings to the pic rail on your rifle. Might have damaged the bottom of the scope and the pic rail itself. If so, I'd politely ask for a whole new setup plus 10% off for the extra 1.5 hour two way drive. Too bad there's not a Cabela's near you.
 
I to would speak to the manager. I see a bend in the rail from the pressure applied by this "employee scope mounting expert". I would most definably ask for a new rail. If the scope has ring marks from this "mounting job", I would request a replacement. Stay with them and inspect the scope. I bet is has ring marks after that much pressure has been applied.
 
Gander Mountain hires people in their stores to be gunsmiths and the quality of people they get is pathetic. I would certainly let them know of the poor work they done for you and get the manager involved. In my way of thinking there is no excuse for that kind of shoddy work.
 
I had a WW-2 Enfield that had a bad Barrel so I bought a new one and had Them install it.
I was waiting to get charged out the wazoo for doing it but the GunSmith only charged Me $10.00.(For the Machining work)
I thought We were talking about a different Gun but He said that He had never worked on a Enfield before and since I supplied the Barrel He used it as a learning experiance.The Headspace was right and it shot as accurate as a WW-2 Enfield was able to do.
I have had some minor issues with Them but not anything They did not satisfy Me over.
 
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I called the manager when they opened this morning. He didn't sound a bit surprised about what I experienced. So we have a meeting to get things "fixed" with him and the fire arms manager on Sunday after I get out of the woods turkey hunting.

Frustrating isn't a good word to describe, but at least it won't end up with these things covering up the real word I want to use ******


Matt
 
Matt, good to hear they're doing something about it but I would be very upset with what happened to you. I've had so-so experiences with them myself and a place I don't go to often.
I once bought a rifled slug shotgun barrel from them and got busy and didn't try it on the gun for a couple months. When I did try it I found it would fit correctly nor would it shoot. I took it back to them for a refund and since it was over 30 days a manager had to get involved. At first he refused to even take it back but finally gave me store credit for my purchase price. I spent it on a T/C Omega at an inflated price but at least got something out of it. Glad you're dealing with your problem right away and good luck with it.
 
Provided it's not touching somewhere else, you could fix it by taking a file to the scope base were the zoom-ring is touching. That way you get the lowest possible scope mounting, closest to the bore, and more naturally inline with your eye. Higher rings will make the interference problem go away, but it will introduce new problems. The scope itself will be less handy with higher rings.
 
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