1712 FWT PROBLEM

[matador]

Dad bought a 1712 FWT in a McMillan stock from Champion's Choice in LaVergne, TN. last summer for me.  Dad had to do a little work on the barrel channel because it was not free floating in one spot but now it works great.  So Dad ordered another identical 1712 FWT for himself last week from Homer Pearson at Champion's Choice expecting the same quality.  Dad's rifle had many problems.  Two globs of epoxy sticking up from the front sling swivel housing contacting the barrel(fixed that with a die grinder),  whoever "freefloated" the barrel channel let his tool "walk" and put six nicks in the forearm down to the white(touched that up with a black sharpie felt tip), scratch on the muzzle(not too deep) and scrape on butt of pistol grip.  Those were the little problems.  Now here are the big ones.  The cartridge stop tab on the bolt guide(part# 1420-26) is broken.  There is only a little bit of the tab sticking up in the front.  We noticed this before we put the bolt in.  The rifle will load the first four cartridges perfectly out of all six Anschutz magazines that work perfectly in my rifle but Dad's new rifle will not load the fifth cartridge because the fifth cartridge will not pop up into the rim slot on the bolt face.  The fifth cartridge is so low on the bolt face that you can see the firing pin hole.  The fifth cartridge will not go up into the chamber unless you jiggle the bolt several times so that the rim of the cartridge will wiggle up into the bolt face recess.  Now here is the real kicker.  Dad puts the rifle on the bench yesterday(zero wind conditions 5:30 PM Central MS. Cool Temp) grabs the first box of Eley Standard and shoot groups of less than 3/4 inch at 100 meters.  He also liked the fact that his T24 was on zero on windage(he did not make a single click) and was only 3 inches low without bore-sighting for the 40 meter zero setting.  Dad does not want to ship this rifle anywhere to be worked on because of this accuracy.  He is afraid the shipping people  or someone trying to fix it will mess up the rifle worse.  He only wants the fifth round to hit the bolt slot correctly and chamber correctly.  He is going to try to get Homer to send him a new bolt guide next week.  Do you guys think this new part will fix the fifth round problem?  What would you do?  Sorry for the long post.

[powding]

Send it to Steve Moore at 10-Ring Service in Jacksonville, FL.  He is the nearest authorized Anschütz service center.  (904) 724-7419  Why mess with what may or may not fix it.  I would be surprised if Homer ships repair parts.

powding

[Bilrus61]

I can't seen to find out. Have you weighed just the bare rifle without any sights? Does it come with sling swivels? Thank! Bilrus

[matador]

Powding, I showed my parents your post.  Warranty Card and information was not included with this rifle like the one we bought last year.  Thanks for reminding us of warranty.  Excellent advice.  My Dad will be calling Steve Moore tomorrow to check for his preferred shipping method and other details.  When cleaning the bolt we noticed a deep gouge or crack near one of the bottom locking lugs even though we put good grease on it.  Guess we got the only not perfect Anschutz out there.  Bilrus, we weighed rifle for you without magazine or any lube anywhere 6 and 1/2 pounds exactly.  This rifle seems a little lighter than the 1712 FWT that we bought last summer.  I think Mcmillan still hand lays their fiberglass so there can be variations in FWT weights.  Even with CNC machining the metal parts never turn out to be the same weight either.  There are sling swivel studs on the Mcmillan FWT stock.  We will post what was repaired under warranty since this is such a rare event with Anschutz.

[drover]

Are you absolutely sure this is a new rifle?  There are a lot of things not adding up here.
1. damage to the stock
2. broken cartridge tab
3. no warranty card
4. gouge or crack on the locking lug

In all reality this sounds more like an abused used rifle.  Irregardless of how well it shoots I would contact Champions Choice and discuss the problems with them.  You purchased what you thought was a new rifle but it certainly doesn't sound like it is.  I would get a confirmation from them that it is new and if not I would expect them to adjust the price accordingly.  Anschutz should stand behind this 100%.  I understand not wanting to give up a rifle that groups that well but the whole thing just doesn't add up to a new rifle.

[fwt1712]

Some things here don't seem quite right too - well from an Aussie perspective. Here FWTs don't come with swivel studs at all - well at least the last two I've bought (one is an early one and one is a 2003 model). It may be that our weight limit is pretty tight 3.5Kg all up (about 7lb 10oz in your measure) and Anschutz send us without. However the quality you describe doesn't seem to match what I've found. Although they all seem to shoot well!