doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Barrel Bulge - How much is unsafe?

Best you don't deal with 'smiths either Salopian - you run the risk of a shoddy job, or never seeing your gun again.
When a gun of mine goes on the blink, I get rid of it.
I learned my lesson with a 'smith chasing a barrel dent - looked like a sewer-pipe when he was done.

I would like to thank everyone for their time and comments (and please continue to do so if so inclined).

I think we all pretty much agree that Beretta USA is trying to dodge their responsibility in this matter. If a safety issue does exist, it exists because of a barrel failure, not because of normal usage by the customer.

Thanks Again,

Hack

I have an update on this issue which is really dissapointing. My customer received the waiver letter from Beretta. In it he was advised that he had six months in which to sign the waiver, and they would keep the gun until the waiver was signed or until the six month period had passed. At the end of six months if he had not signed the waiver, the firearm would be destroyed. (Surely they mean just the barrel, but at this point who knows).

Hack

That's the main reason this Board is so good.
I'm tired of reading books and magazine articles with expressions like, this shotgun is, 'Second to none' or 'better then most', which tells you absolutely nothing.
We had a high grade Rizzini up not to long ago with a point of impact problem with it's barrels now a high grade Beretta with bulge and a loose rib.
Now that's information we can use!!

Richard,
I appologize if I've offended you. I've re-read my post several times and while I can't see an attack on you in there, I can see where you might be offended by my use of the word "...outlandish'.

Still, I am very surprised by the Beretta assessment of 'unsafe' for .001". That's only .0005" per wall of the tube. That might be undetectable by eye when sighting down the barrel's o.d.. It's possible that the decimal place may have been transposed. Then I'd be more inclined to agree or be sympathetic to Beretta's assessment even with only a .010" bulge. But such an assessment by Beretta on a .001" bulge is still off the scale in conservatism to me. Structual parts are cold formed from similar condition materials all the time. I would defy Beretta to find tensile data for such a small amount of plastic deformation to support their decision or even get adverse tensile data that reliably shows up after such a small deformation. Furthermore, I would defy Beretta to sign such a waiver and if they failed to return my gun and destroyed it, they would find themselves in court. To force anyone to sign away rights in a waiver or anything else before returning their own property shouldn't be tolerated. At this point, I'd contact the attorney general for the state in which the gun was sent and seek their assistance in resolving this.

It is amazing - some of the stories that we are told by manufacturers. Several years ago I sold a beautiful Fabio Zanotti
double model 625 (Aberchrombie and Fitch) to a friend of time who was moving to London for a couple of years.
He took it to Purdey for some reason to have it checked out. They
removed the Silver name plate in the bottom of the stock and put one in crossways , then told him the gun was not safe to shoot because the barrels were "Riveled" and they needed to rebarrel it.
I told him to bring it back please and I would refund his money.
When I took it to a knowledgeable double gunsmith, he examined it and laughed and said the only problem with the gun was that
it had not been made in England.
.

They start to threatening you with destroying your gun? I believe it is time for an attorney to be involved.

This really sounds outlandish!

If the owner doesn't sign the waiver they destroy HIS gun? Come on, they must be joking. An attorney should be able to bring Beretta back to their senses.

JC

I once used the NY AG online site to file a complaint against a Brooklyn camera dealer that was unscrupulous. They seemed to take it seriously. If Beretta is in NY, I'll bet they'll jump on going after a biz for a big ticket item like a high end shotgun.

I have had Ford and GM both threaten to destroy cars they made, that I bought from them and took back, for service under warranty. Happens all the time.

If Beretta thinks that they can both destroy the gun and not replace it they will find out what a decent lawyer can do to them. Even a half baked lawyer would love to get that case. I would tell them that they have two choices either return the gun, exactly as is and right now, or replace the barrels at their expense. Failure to do one or the other will result in immediate legal action. We are not talking about a $30.00 item here. You buy a high dollar gun you expect high dollar service.