See " I stripped a hole..." for the beginning of this saga. The trick is on me.

I took the box from T/C down to the shop when I got home from work today. My first impression was that T/C doesn’t package their barrels with much care. The packaging consisted of a piece of plastic foam around the front sight and single layer of bubble wrap around the breech, covering the trigger assembly. All of this bouncing around in a box with some more blocks of plastic foam and cardboard wedges, not much to it at all.

I remove the plastic foam from around the front sight and inspect, it looks OK. I remove the bubble wrap and my first thought is disbelief. How could someone package a barrel with a missing trigger? There is no trigger in the trigger guard. A closer look reveals that the trigger is broken off at the point it enters the trigger guard. The T/C repair shop promptly sent me a replacement barrel, yeah, a defective replace barrel, a barrel with a broken trigger. I put the barrel down, I pick it up and look again, yep… T/C shipped me a replacement barrel with a broken trigger. I look though the bubble wrap and the box for the broken off trigger, not there. I take out the packing slip and hand written on it is “Replaced bbl. Laser Sighted. 10-24-03” it’s signed only “Brian”.

What I also find interesting is the serial number of the replacement barrel is 3354 less than the serial of my original barrel. I’d think a replacement barrel would have a serial number higher than the original barrel (newer manufacture?).

How can the T/C repair shop ship a replacement barrel with a broken trigger? It’s their job to fix broken barrels, not to ship obviously broken barrels; there’s no trigger in the trigger guard for crying out loud. How can a gunsmith or shipping clerk miss that. Right? I don’t get it, I just don’t get it. Talk about a let down.

Now I have the pleasure of writing another letter to T/C asking for another hopefully non-defective replacement barrel. And I get to make a trip to the local UPS office tomorrow morning to ship back the package I received today. Oh, I get to spend another 10-15 $ in shipping and insurance.

My only mistake… buying a T/C Omega. I’m out the $450+ for a gun I haven’t shot, the $200 for the scope I haven’t mounted, the $80 for the Maxima base and scope rings, $50 for the powder and bullets I haven’t shot, and the 2 weeks plus waiting for T/C to get their act together and send me useable replacement barrel.

Maybe I’ll ask them to send me my original barrel, at least it had a trigger. I could always just use the open sights.