I absolutely agree that the internet in general and especially a forum basically for S&W products is about the BEST place to post about problems people have with a gun. Perhaps the way I said :
>>You almost always hear from those who've had problems....<<
sounded a bit tart, but I did not intend to insinuate that those who complain are whiners or some sort of malingerer. I just think that generally, there's more people who are quietly satisfied with most products, that don't tend to come forward as much as the folks with real problems do and the latter group is rightfully heard from loud and clear--maybe even more so outside of brand focused forums like this one, where lot of folks almost glow with happiness about S&W guns. I think by and large, we feel we're onto a good thing and we express that.
Magazines tend to give glowing reviews, mixed in with a few minor (if any) criticisms, of pretty much every new gun they 'review'. If you want an objective overview of a gun, there's not any better place to get a good cross sampling than there is by doing research on-line. The number of people posting pro and con reports--including 'complaints' about quality--people who have bought a gun from it's initial introduction and afterwards, is just too great for a wise consumer to ignore.
Re the BG380, I noted some of the problems reported early on, and made sure my gun was a ways down the pike in terms of serial number. Most guns receive a number of tweaks and modifications after they are introduced--very few are 'perfect' with the first few production sequence issues. Many guns receive improvements even years later.
I remember seeing gussied up "First Edition Boxed Sets" of the BG380 and the BG Revolver together and thinking "It's probably a good idea that the people paying all that extra money for those guns probably will never shoot them".
Case in point about new guns for me--there's a lot of good buzz (and some bad coming in) about the Beretta Nano, a gun I 'might' buy eventually, unless a new, small M&P 9mm single stack puts me on hold, waiting another year for initial production tweaks and of course, Beretta has released humble statements like:
>>The Beretta Nano is the ultimate evolution of the micro compact carry pistol.<<
Beretta after 500 years of making guns, ought to know better. I think that the words "ultimate evolution" should be reserved for a select few, well seasoned things and the Nano, nor the Generation Four Glocks aren't two of those things!
Anyways, I do think my post was a bit much in part and I thought I'd explain where I'm coming from. I scour the internet for good and bad info on particular guns and I'd hate to see objective reports discouraged, good OR bad!
