Quality of Traditions Rifles

[insurrection1517]

Hey,

At the beginning of the summer I purchased my first blackpowder rifle - a Traditions Kentucky Flintlock. After shooting it about 10 times, the front piece of stock began to crack in several places. I ended up sending it back and they replaced the front piece of stock saying it was defective and too tight a fit. Traditions returned it too me. One thing that bothered me a little was the piece that they replaced it with had been hit with a hammer, so there was a large indent in it, but I figured you get what you pay for. Since Traditions is about the most inexpensive black powder rifle you can find what should I expect.

Anyway, I've shot it several times since then, and I now see that the front piece of stock is cracking again, and the rear piece of stock has cracked starting from the two screws that hold the lock on. I have never shot more than 75 grains in the rifle.

Have any of you had a similar experience with Traditions rifles?

 

[LRB]

It is a shame that such companys continue to thrive, but I am sure someone will post in their defense. Here is one of my favorite quotes "It's unwise to pay to much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money, that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do." John Ruskin. I hope you are able to salvage the gun and get some use from it. A good gunsmith could probably fix it to a usable state, but the cost may be prohibitive. I wish you good luck with it.

 

i would call them or e-mail tell them the problem and send it back again

 

[insurrection1517]

I hope you are able to salvage the gun and get some use from it. A good gunsmith could probably fix it to a usable state, but the cost may be prohibitive. I wish you good luck with it.

Well, the gun still functions fine, it just has long crack lines spreading throughout the stock. I suppose it could get so bad that the whole stock begins to break apart.

 

[Birddog6]

I woud not hesitate to call them again & tell them the problems with it & ask them if you can send the entire rifle back & them warranty replace the wood on it to insure it fits proper & etc. this time. Just tell them you really like the rifle & have no complaints about it in general, but the stock is splitting/breaking everywhere.

 

[swquiro]

Expensive aint expensive. Cheap aint cheap.

 

[leadball]

I have a traditions kentucky that is doing the same thing and i called the company and I am sending it back to get a new one. I will wear out the tradions then no more. I will get a lymans or something. The butt has a crack and i only load with 80 grains of 3fg. Tradition is cheap and you get what you pay for :cry:

 

[leadball]

However, in defense of traditions, the warranty is good and I know someone who had the shenandoa that did the same thing and they replaced the stock and he has had no cracking problems for years

 

[leadball]

I woud not hesitate to call them again & tell them the problems with it & ask them if you can send the entire rifle back & them warranty replace the wood on it to insure it fits proper & etc. this time. Just tell them you really like the rifle & have no complaints about it in general, but the stock is splitting/breaking everywhere.

Thats an idea, I was going to just ship the stock but maybe I will spare myself return visits and ship the whole gun and have them size up a whole new wood. It is 2 years old but the company said it was still covered under warranty.

 

[Zonie]

Send it back to them and be sure to point out the cracks by the lock screws. They should not be selling defective stocks.

Now, when you get that issue resolved, check a few things on the new parts.
1. The fit of the barrel to the stock wood should be somewhere between loose and just a tiny bit snug. It should not be a tight fit. If it is, use some sandpaper and sand out the barrel channel to get to the fit I mentioned above.
IMO it is better to be just slightly loose with the barrel to allow the wood to expand and contract as the humidity changes.
While your looking at the barrel fit with the wood, look to see if there are any little places which would keep the barrel from laying in the barrel channel. If there are places that looked crushed sand these down a little too.

2. The back of the barrel should be seated against stock wood. The Barrel Tang should not be seated at the back end but should have a little (1/64 inch) gap which is just noticable if your looking for it.

3. The screws which hold the lock in place should be snug but not tightened down like they were holding up a Buick. They only have to be tight enough to hold the lock in it's mortice and not come loose from vibration or handling the gun.

4. The tang screw should tighter than the lock screws but here again, it doesn't need to be Really TIGHT. It isn't holding up a Buick either. Just a good "firm" tightness (if you know what I mean).

If the stock was inletted correctly, and meets the above conditions, the wood should not crack.

As an editorial comment: it is little things like these that the factory will miss but if you were building a KIT from the factory (like a GPR) you would notice and correct before they caused problems.
Most people would think that after spending their good cash for a product the factory would discover these things and fix them before selling the product.
Such is not the case where making money is envolved unless you buy the higher priced things, and even then, it pays to look closely at what you've bought.

 

[Ohio Joe]

I couldn't agree more with you, Zonie... I would add just one thing... You can use the slots in your screw heads to align the tightness of the tang and lock bolt's each time you remove, loosen, and retighten them... This way you know your tension is always the same...

 

[bejohnson]

Dont get me wrong here, but I have 2 tradition flinters and have aboslutely no problem with either of them. Its like buying a car, some people will not buy a dodge or a ford because they had one and had problems with it. You get good and bad from every manufacture out there.

 

[insurrection1517]

Okay, I emailed Traditions concerning the problem and also mentioned how they had hit the front piece of stock with somthing leaving the large indent. The reply came from the customer service manager and was very unhelpful and unkind. He said that no indent was in the stock when it left his company and he inspects the rifles himself. I know this is untrue since the boxes coming from UPS were in perfect shape and had not been touched at all. I had asked if I could simply receive pieces of stock and fit them myself, and he said I could not and would have to return the rifle. I replied and said, okay, but if I payed to have it returned a second time I expected that they fit the stock properly. He replied and was rather harsh saying that he has tons of satisfied customers, they put no dent in my rifle, and that the stocks had been fitted properly.

After all this, I decided to simply return the rifle to where I purchased it. Even though it has been a couple months they said they would still take it back. I wont buy from traditions again.

 

I would now write a quick and to the point letter to the head of the customer complaint dept for traditions.
Tell him what you went through and whom you talked to and that you have now took the rifle back to where you bought it for your money back.
I would also state that you purchased a competitors rifle as the place only carried two lines and you had no choice.

Be nice and you might be surprised with the reply. Never be afraid to take a problem over someone

 

[leadball]

OK, I had the stock crack and I sent it back to traditions and they just sent me a new gun, free of charge. I see they corrected the problems with the first. I have shot the new one several times and it seems to be ok :thumbsup: