Rifle of the year

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Did it also win the "Out of Battery Award" and the "Should Have Been Recalled But Wasn't Award"?

Dude, there was basicly a recall.. well not officially but all gun shops were made aware of this and a "silent " recall was issued and rifles could be returned. Customers were made aware of the issues and were instructed IF they have problems how to get it fixed. As there are MANY original 15 22 owners here with ZERO issues to date. Look at Beltfed. He has OVER 20 k rounds in his DTH rifle, and so far its flawless. Now im NOT saying this is the perfect weapon by any means. Not by a long shot, Especially when it first came out.

Also the OOB wasnt a HUGE event, ya it happened from time to time.. no arguing that.. its a hard fact. But it didnt happen on a regular daily basis to every rifle. But I agree this SHOULD have been fixed before they were even launched. But as with all new product, there are flaws to be fixed. . And it was made for any and all failures to be fixed as well. Per the lifetime warranty. The point is the issues were fixed, and once that happened it won rifle of the year for 2010. The new specs went into affect around late 09 to start of 2010.
 
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Also it won the award THIS year, I think they had the revisions worked out 6-8months ago for the award.
 
Yep, and sounds like the T/C barrel rumor was just that, a rumor. I have a DTU that has functioned flawlessly. The worst look/comment I ever got is, why get something like that to shoot .22's? Because when your 10-22 your grandfather swears by jams up on you I'll still have 24 rds left. Bang!
 
Dude, there was basicly a recall.. well not officially but all gun shops were made aware of this and a "silent " recall was issued and rifles could be returned. Customers were made aware of the issues and were instructed IF they have problems how to get it fixed. As there are MANY original 15 22 owners here with ZERO issues to date. Look at Beltfed. He has OVER 20 k rounds in his DTH rifle, and so far its flawless. Now im NOT saying this is the perfect weapon by any means. Not by a long shot, Especially when it first came out.

Also the OOB wasnt a HUGE event, ya it happened from time to time.. no arguing that.. its a hard fact. But it didnt happen on a regular daily basis to every rifle. But I agree this SHOULD have been fixed before they were even launched. But as with all new product, there are flaws to be fixed. . And it was made for any and all failures to be fixed as well. Per the lifetime warranty. The point is the issues were fixed, and once that happened it won rifle of the year for 2010. The new specs went into affect around late 09 to start of 2010.

when/where were our shops told that there was a problem? we had shops locally that quit selling because S&W wouldnt give any answers, they just told them to send them in and they would be fixed. (which is good enough of course, but it would have been nice to know why they were firing OOB)
 
Yep, and sounds like the T/C barrel rumor was just that, a rumor.

It sounds like a correct rumor to me. Mr. Stone from Thompson/Center takes credit for the barrels.

It's going to be nice to tell people I own one of the "Award Winning S&W M&P15-22s".
 
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when/where were our shops told that there was a problem? we had shops locally that quit selling because S&W wouldnt give any answers, they just told them to send them in and they would be fixed. (which is good enough of course, but it would have been nice to know why they were firing OOB)

Have to go along with Jswiney on this.

S&W CS denied knowing of any issues with the 15-22 when I specifically asked them about cycling problems and OOB.

I sent a letter to all S&W Corporate Officers asking what steps they were taking to remedy the 15-22 cycling and OOB issues. No reply.

Local Harrison TN gun shop operator told me he refused to sell 15-22s when he began to hear of problems. S&W sales rep came in to his shop and couldn't get the rifle to cycle well on their range. The S&W rep denied there was any issue with the rifle except probably being dirty.

From my limited experience, S&W has a great warranty and repair operation. However, from my limited view they appear quite willing to put a problematic firearm in your hands and let you find out about it. That type of business practice isn't unusual if a company weighs the costs of repairs, sales and revenue loss for correcting a problematic product before shipping and determines it is less than after sale repair costs, potential liability and damage to reputation. From my limited perspective, I think it's clear what path S&W chose.

There were several reports here of retailers actually refunding the purchase and exchanging rifles. That's unheard of! And it's an indicator of how much of a stink was raised about this rifle.

The good news is.... since there was never a problem with the 15-22 then that means .22LR ammo manufacturers must be making better ammo than they did last year cuz there are few new 15-22 problem reports. It was all the fault of the ammo manufacturers, right? :rolleyes:

BTW... what was the criteria for the 2010 award?
 
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Just sounds like typical corporate CYA. Plausible deniability and all that. Car manufacturers do it all the time (not that they are shining example of corporate responsibility).

I've got the same issue with T-Mobile/Samsung b/c of the poor GPS performance on the various Galaxy S phones... for several weeks they denied knowing of any such issues until finally Samsung officially announced they were working on a fix, which I'm still waiting for...
 
when/where were our shops told that there was a problem? we had shops locally that quit selling because S&W wouldnt give any answers, they just told them to send them in and they would be fixed. (which is good enough of course, but it would have been nice to know why they were firing OOB)

While I cant speak on any "national" basis. I can tell you the info I was given by a local gun shop here in Louisville, Ky. They told me that they sent a shipment back to S&W. As a S&W employeee told them that the rifles may have "issues" and wouldnt say anything else as to what the"issues" were.. and that S&W would accept them. Im pretty sure that fits the silent "recall" as the employee himself said they could send them back in. Like I said it was NEVER in any form of "offifical" terms by any means. But it could be due to the fact( and im betting this IS the reason) the the S&W employee is related( I think married into his family) to the owner of the chain stores as well. I dont have the details. Just going 100% off of what they told me when I bought my 15 22 mid July. As we got into a discussion of the "new" versions of the 15 22 while I was wating on the background check to come back on me to purchase my rifle.
 
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Thompson Center is S&W.

Sometimes, when you think you know everything, or at the very least your confident in the answers you give your own questions, you read a post that leaves you talking soprano.....I had no idea. I've been researching t/c for a couple weeks now, to gain info with the intent to get rid of quite a few contender barrels, and haven't once ran accross that tid bit of info. Thanks Brett for the lesson learned. I just got served:D
 
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