Busted BFR!

[crowbardog]

Man, I've been having bad luck with firearms as of late.  I took my beloved BFR in 500 S&W out yesterday, to go shoot some stuff.  Around the 8th round that day (maybe 60 in its entire life) the ejector rod, ejector rod spring, and the housing around the two flew off the gun.  

After looking at it for a bit I found what happened.  The rear part of the above mentioned housing, which holds the ejector push rod and its spring in place, is held to the gun at two points.  One point is on the frame.  It is held to the frame by an indent that the housing fits into.  No problem there.  

The front of the housing, OTOH, used to be held on by some cheap screw attached to the bootom front portion of the barrel.  This screw snapped (halfway into its hole, I might add), allowing the whole housing to fly off the gun.

I was shooting magtech 400grain JSP ammo.  That, and Corbon are all that have been fired out of this handgun.  I was pissed.  

I wrote MR about the problem today so I hope to get a response Mon or Tues.  

What a friggin bummer.

On a good note, my four CZs ran flawlessly with about 250 through each of them (75 compact, 97, 40B, and good ol'  numero 52).

[crowbardog]

Here is the BFR after it broke under pressure.  You can figure out which hole the housing went in.  See the nasty glue-like line running along the barrel.  What is that stuff?


See the cheap, broken screw stuck in the barrel.  Sucks for me.  


Here is what it should look like.  


Man, I've heard people call these guns beefed up Super Black Hawks.  That's not my experience.  Don't get me wrong, everything about this gun seemed solid as a rock.  Everything, that is, except the part that flew off!

[crowbardog]

I contacted Magnum Research and they said to send it in with shipping receipt and they would fix it for free.  Their email made it sound as though this has happened before.  They addressed the fact that I wanted to fix it at home, but said it was a real bitch to get the broken screw out, and that they should do it.  

They also said that If I remove the cylinder before shipping I could send it as a gun part, not an entire firearm.  I learn something new everyday.

I don't think anyone cares about this thread, but I thought that I'd post an update anyway.

[weemsf]

I am always interested in how customer service is at various manufacturers.  Also, good news about shipping sans cylinder.  It will make it much cheaper.

[Walt-Sherrill]

You cannot send it as a gun part.  They're telling you wrong.  

Hope  you don't get caught.   (The part of the gun that has the serial number -- the frame -- is the firearm.  Taking the cylinder out won't make it legal.)

Do what you want, but I sure as crap wouldn't do what they said.  That's arguably breaking ATF laws and the shipper's tariff.  If it gets lost, you'll play hell trying to get the carrier to pay the insurance.

ATF regs also require that you declare that the package contains a firearm.

(If it were that easy, all of us would disassemble guns when we ship them -- slides and barrels in one package and frame/receiver in the other. It doesn't work that way... you can send the slide and barrel of a semi-auto without problems, but not the frame.)

[crowbardog]

Thanks Walt.  That is why I posted.

I had read one thing in the email response, got on here, and typed something else.  They said NOTHING regarding firearm classification.  Once I saw Walt's response I said to myself, "I had to have read that wrong."
-----------------------------------------------------
Here's the response:
We would highly recommend sending the revolver in for service.  If you
remove the cylinder you can send it regular ground and save on
shipping.

There is no easy way to remove the broken screws also the housing is
glued on.  You can send the receipt for shipping an we will also repair
it as quickly as possible for you.  
----------------------------------------------------

I am not sure why my brain doesn't work some of the time, but it doesn't.

Thanks Walt, I really do appreciate the info.  I didn't give it much thought since I have never had to ship a firearm.  I am sure...rather, I'd like to think that I would have caught this error of mine when I went to retrieve the shipping address from the bottom of the email.  

This gave me an even earlier heads up that I was wrong.

Mike

[Walt-Sherrill]

If you tell the shipper it is a firearm, even without the cylinder, the shipper -- unless the person at the counter is a complete dolt -- will require that you ship it overnight, which is quite expensive.

The  UPS and FedEx tariffs require that HANDGUNS go by overnight priority Air services.  Federal regulations require that you declare it as a firearm.  The fact that its not a complete weapon, or not functional doesn't change a thing.

A Federal Firearms Licensee can ship it to another licensee for you by regular mail (insured, etc.) and save you a lot.  If you bought it from a local dealer, ask the dealer to ship it back to the maker for you, and reimburse them for the shipping.  That should be quite a bit cheaper.  (I'd take it to the dealer packed but not sealed, but ready to go, labels, etc.)

[Otto N Sure]

A little off the shipping, etc. topic.  I've experienced the same phenomena on my Main Match Ruger Vaquero .45 Long Colt. Busted the ejector housing attaching screw right in half--and this is with cowboy loads!

It could have been a maintenance thing as I never remember ever tightening that screw as a matter of course.  So it could have been a little loose, and BOOM, recoil got the ejector housing moving and broke off the screw.

Fortunately, for me, a local smith extracted the old broken screw and replaced it with a NOS Ruger screw.  I now check that screw and every other screw in all of my cowboy match revolvers.

Otto N. Sure