I can't even count the total amount of people who have asked me about some off-brand guns and how I feel that they stack up to some of the more popular brands that they are based off of. Well, the quick and dirty answer is that knock off brand guns are not the issue necessarily, but the integrity of the companies that are bound to support their product. Let me give you some examples.
When I first met my wife, we enjoyed shooting her Bersa Thunder. It is an obvious choice for a shooter that wants to feel like james bond without paying a ridiculous sum of cash. They are inexpensive and generally simple to use. I enjoyed the pistol for the most part except for the fact that it recoiled more than a 9mm due to the blowback design. But one day, when shooting, I went to decock the pistol after shooting the entire magazine, and the decocker lever broke right off at the pivot point. I had never seen this before, but I chalked it up to bad metallurgy on a sample of one. My significant other was very upset that I was the one using the gun when it broke, but I tried to reassure here that I could get it fixed witht the warranty that comes with the gun. Upon researching in the owners manual, and on the internet, we found only a list of gunsmiths that we could send the gun to for evaluation and possible warranty fullfilment. They of course had a number for the central hub for service, and upon calling and describing what happened, they decided that standard policy is that I would have to pay for EVERYTHING because it happened after the 200-300 round break in period. I immediately smelled an issue. I think the reason is that they don't think enough people will shoot or use their guns enough to break anything. Therefore they can charge you for repair because obviously you can pay to shoot more, so you can face the consequences. For that reason, I am always going to be very skeptical of any brand that doesn't offer full warranty, and has records for breaking or wearing early. For this reason, manufacturers like Bersa, Taurus, and even Century arms are off the list as far as serious guns for me. Century Arms lost my respect when they refused to service my AK and told me that there is no way that it broke because they are almost invincible because of the mil-spec parts they use to LEGO the rifles together from random parts. Same goes for the C308 that they are not really experienced in making properly, which is demonstrated nicely by all the issues that people have that shows issues with headspace, using the wrong locking piece, and incomplete seating of the trunnion and barrel into the receiver. Granted, with any gun, people have good experiences, but I still don't trust a company that mishmashes parts to save money and capitalize on cheap consumers. My shooting style is very intense, and unless I am just reviewing the pistol, I will not take the risk of running a pistol with terrible to no warranty service covered by the manufacturer. i don't really have much more to say about that. I hope you will also take a minute to think about this before pulling the trigger on a purchase, no pun intended. If you don't shoot more than 2 rounds a year and are not a serious shooter, the likelihood of you encountering an issue is extremely low, and therefore you shouldn't disregard the guns they sell. But serious shooters should beware.
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