Quality Control

[Rocketmedic40]

I think the people blaming "DEI hires" are blissfully ignorant of the high-quality work put in by those same people to compensate for the lack of investment by the (old white) ownership and management. Boeing, S&W, etc.

 

[McChemist]

+1

I think there's several reasons for that. When Glock began to dominate the US handgun market, US gun mfgrs panicked. I'm thinking they wanted to sell MORE guns at a cheaper price, making the same profit over a larger inventory. They had to cut corners SOMEWHERE & QC is usually the first stop for that, sadly.

I think another sad thing to happen is the CEO's of Colt & Smith weren't "gun guys", just MBA-types from general industry. No difference between making a gun or a toaster, right?

Smith doesn't listen, but I contend that increasing the QC standards saves Smith more $$$. Keeps the gun(s) from coming back for warranty work, keeps the customer happy & buying more of that brand & spreads good feeling about THEIR quality. CZ & H&K get it, which why their guns have the lowest of warranty & QC issues.

For every Smith that gets test fired, I believe there should be at least two people inspecting each & every gun before it's approved. In fact, *I* would prefer three people. All should be "gun guys" rather than yanking someone off the floor & telling them to go be an inspector.

Were I owner of Smith, I would hit gun shows & hire all those old crusty curmudgeons that has a table full of old Smiths. I bet they could do better in 3-4 minutes per gun than the DEI hires could do in 10 minutes.

My .o2

That the CEOs are not gun guys is a salient point. Business history is replete in horror stories in technology/craft intensive industries where MBA marketing wonks (a good manager can manage anything types) are imported to fatten the bottom line and then bail leaving wreckage behind. Ford did this. They brought in a marketing whiz from Proctor and Gamble whose last assignment were Huggies. He canceled engine R&D development and Ford's brand suffered (remember the supercharged 4.9 L that melted down if floored?) tremendously. They offloaded him fairly quickly. GM is still suffering through a woke CEO. But they have drastically funded V8 development. The idea that a 6-7000 lb vehicle with a turbocharged in-line 3 cylinder is ludicrous. S&W will learn its lesson, but it will be ugly and painful.

 

[MyTurn]

I've had poor results with Colt QA. And on top of that current pythons and anacondas have the California trigger, couple hundred bucks to get that corrected.

What "California" trigger?

 

[Dave Haynes]

I think the people blaming "DEI hires" are blissfully ignorant of the high-quality work put in by those same people to compensate for the lack of investment by the (old white) ownership and management. Boeing, S&W, etc.

I was in Safeway the other day, bought a few things. At the checkout, the person who bags the stuff was a man trying to be a woman. He/She had pigtails and tattoos all over. He/she had a nose ring that had to weigh 6-8oz. It looked like some of that Arab bracelet jewelry that they carry as money. He was very busy telling us all about the pros and cons of the new de-composing plastic bags being used in Calif. There were no paper bags so he/she put a huge amount in one plastic bag and stopping to pontificate some more, put almost nothing in two other bags. Finally as I left he/she handed me a half gallon carton of milk to hand carry. I told him/her to put it in a bag and he/she did. I was going to tell him/her that nose rings were originally used for pigs to control them but Safeway would have probably banned me after that because he /she is a victim of white privilege.....

 

[VinnieL59]

It is almost to the point of when you purchase a new firearm you had better prepare for the possibility of returning it to the company to correct flaws, or dishing out additional funds to have a local gunsmith do it.(if even possible) I own 2 Taurus revolvers, a model 85, which was a replacement for a "view" model that they could not fix, and a 6.5 inch Judge. The judge came with the interior filled with grindings and grinding wheel abrasive. It also had a hammer that was not completely formed. It took 2 times of sending it back before they got it right. (yes I cleaned all the gunk out of the internals myself.
But this is not new news. My S&W 4 inch model 66 delivered to me as my duty weapon in 1979 had the cylinder striking the inside top strap of the frame and had rifling that just plain stopped and restarted again. It went back twice also.
It also took S&W over 2 years to produce my model 60 that was also ordered in the fall of 1979.
I think that S&W was in new ownership about the time my Smiths were ordered.
Taurus, who knows. I'll probably never purchase another Taurus.

 

[bph9]

Can't say any company is perfect but I own many Colts, probably as many as S&W's and never had a single issue with any new gun. After 50,000 45acp rounds through my 70 series GCNM 1911 I had to restake the front sight (that took 5 minutes in my workshop) and replace a barrel finger bushing that they no longer use. Now they use a solid bushing on Gold Cups. I had many in my tool box to choose from. That's it! My vintage Smiths keep going strong as well! Never had any major issues I could not fix right here.

I know Colt had a few minor issues with the new Python's but that was quickly resolved. I have not heard about a "California Trigger". I can only guess that is a harder to pull trigger spring or a trigger that is intentionally slower. That is the State of CA, not the Company. Again, no manufacture is perfect, but the lack of QC in Springfield (now TN) is disgracefully allowed. It almost seems to me that their employees can only drop in semi auto pistol parts but when it comes to revolvers and their parts fitment, they are lost, bewildered and lack experience and work ethics. Plenty of manufacturers in a rush to market might drop the ball temporarily, but NOT for 20+ years!

The California trigger is a bit more complicated than just a spring. The trigger has been discussed and how to modify it over on the Colt forum. Its one of the primary reasons I have not bought the new ersatz python because if I spend the outrageous price for a new python I certainly do not want to pitch in another $250 to get their crappy trigger fixed. I might add the new Python trigger is hard to pull the entire length of its stroke compared to the original Python that had a light pull up until the end of its stroke when it stacked but this never was a hindrance to me. On the other hand I cannot stand the pull on the new ersatz model.

 

[bph9]

No excuse for those chips.
I also noticed the crappy roll pin trigger stop with grinding flash around the perimeter. That's what the "Performance Center", more like Clown Show, did to my 25-5 three years ago, which wasn't even necessary because N frames then had an internal trigger stop. It wasn't the only thing they messed up, but now I see it was no fluke, just SOP shoddy workmanship. The worst thing they did was the so-called trigger job, where they shoved the hammer and trigger contact points into a buffing wheel instead of using stones and jigs, taking off the color case, polishing and rounding the sear engagement, filing the double action sear out of square and introducing terrible, mushy trigger creep. The gun shot 8" above POA at 25 yds, so their fix was to file .025" off the front sight, raising POI even more.
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Wow! Thanks for your post, I felt like taking a few prosaic pills after reading this.

 

[bph9]

I was in Safeway the other day, bought a few things. At the checkout, the person who bags the stuff was a man trying to be a woman. He/She had pigtails and tattoos all over. He/she had a nose ring that had to weigh 6-8oz. It looked like some of that Arab bracelet jewelry that they carry as money. He was very busy telling us all about the pros and cons of the new de-composing plastic bags being used in Calif. There were no paper bags so he/she put a huge amount in one plastic bag and stopping to pontificate some more, put almost nothing in two other bags. Finally as I left he/she handed me a half gallon carton of milk to hand carry. I told him/her to put it in a bag and he/she did. I was going to tell him/her that nose rings were originally used for pigs to control them but Safeway would have probably banned me after that because he /she is a victim of white privilege.....

Well I must say the sales clerk certainly is to be commended for supporting the new plastic bags which will self destruct. I saw a special on plastic ocean pollution and its getting so bad there are times when you could walk on plastic from Tokyo to California and never get your feet wet.

 

[Doug M.]

A few thought, all of which are worth what you paid for them.
1) We know more about flawed products from ANY company because communication is easier. %)-odd years ago, if you got a problem product, you might tell a few people. Now, with the 'net and fora, one good gripe might be seen by 100K people in a week. That also prompts 10 or 20 people to write about their similar experiences.

2) MBAs should never be allowed to do anything more responsible than count widgets. Look at how they have damaged Boeing, which used to be a company ruled by engineers. I have seen many examples of MBA donkey behavior, like changing the specs on OTR semis to removed power steering and other "options" that are necessary. They should beaten with their clown shoes, fired, trespassed and forced to work a menial job the rest of their life (but a career janitor will be a better worker). iAd to sit through a couple classes with MBA candidates in them after our program (MPA) was combined into that college. I was dumber in the Billy Madison sense after some of them opened their cakeholes.

3) Go read and re-read the post by AverageEd about his GM dealership. That is competent leadership and management. Those employees were not expenses - they were an investment. Leadership means making sure that you hire good folks WHO CARE, and with at least the potential to be proficient, and then making darned sure that they have the various tools to be the person you want. They don't care? AMF, right now. A couple times I found typos in briefing I did, and I was horrified. If you are not horrified by that kind of low level mistake I will not want you around me.

4) The non-guy issue might be really huge. I was having a proceed done a few years ago and the doctor and her support staff were bellyaching about the new system for issuing scrubs. Even I, a non-medical person could tell it was stupid and that the person responsible must have been huffing paint with the Good Idea Fairy. The only response to that is to fire the idiot. Too many managers don't have a clue that such is only path and they have not the gumption to do it. Answer? Fire them too, then file a guardianship.

I am as nice as people let me be, but if they mess that up, that's their problem, not mine. If they up crying and incontinent, that's not a bug. It's a feature. We need a lot more Ermey, and a lot less Carnegie.