NO warranty on Winchester Firearms?

[Milkmaster]

I was just on the Winchester website and wanted to know what the warranty was on my new 1300 shotgun. I was surprised to read that Winchester does not express a written warranty on any of their firearms! Either I am not reading this correctly or I am blown away by that read! However they say that they will repair as needed any firearm. Reading further finds out that most any solution to an information problem has advice for you to find out the answer somewhere other than Winchester! I am disappointed to see this happening. It seems that Winchester is in transition down to a second teer manufacturer.

I have two American made Winchesters. I found the year of manufacture via my S/N information for my Model 94.

However I have not been able to find any manufacture year information on my model 1300 via the S/N.

Any ideas folks?

 

[Kharn]

Most firearm companies will not provide a written warranty, but they'll fix it regardless. Ruger's probably the most famous for it.

Kharn

 

[gezzer]

Ah hate to break the news but ther is no Winchester Company

 

[Ala Dan]

This is called the Magnuson-Moss Act, where a company (or corporation)
acts in good faith to repair of replace the said product in question. It
supercedes all other warranties, expressed or implied~!

This is why no warranty information is provided in many new firearms
sales.

 

[220_Swift]

Ah hate to break the news but ther is no Winchester Company

Uhh, hate to break the news, but their IS a Winchester company. They only closed their manufacturing plant here in the states. They are still importing their semi-auto rifle, and their shotguns as well as their ammunition.

 

[Milkmaster]

ackknowledged

I acknowledge that Winchester is only a brand and owned by the American Repeating Arms Co. I also understand about the implied warranty. However, folks like Thompson Center do state a lifetime warranty as do Traditions and a few others. One of my pistols even has the lifetime warrany imprinted on the barrel. I simply thought it was not something that put a warm feeling on anyone reading the Winchester website information by the way they put it.

 

[brentwal]

IIRC Browning is doing the Warranty work on some Winchester models now.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Uhh, hate to break the news, but their IS a Winchester company. They only closed their manufacturing plant here in the states. They are still importing their semi-auto rifle, and their shotguns as well as their ammunition.

Not quite, the ammo division was not part of the sale and they are still manufacturing the ammo as before. They are the only real leftover from Winchester. (I think that's right lol)

 

[Creeping Incrementalism]

ArchAngel, from what I know you have it right. Only the ammunition side has any continuity and heritage.

Winchester rifles remained the most popular in the US through WWI and the interwar period. However, European advances in the development of bolt action rifles threw a long shadow...


After the company was bought out by the Olin-Matheson Chemical Corporation in 1963, Winchester saw a management change which led to an extensive and extremely controversial redesign of their firearms in 1964. This is regarded by many as the year the "real" Winchester ceased to be, and consequently "pre '64" rifles command higher prices than those made afterwards. Winchester itself went on to have a troubled future as competition from both the US and abroad began to decrease its sales. In the 1970s, the company was split into parts and sold off. The name "Winchester" remained with the ammunition making side of the company, and this branch at least continues to be profitable. The arms making side and New Haven facilities went to U.S. Repeating Arms, which struggled to keep the company going under a variety of owners and management teams. It finally announced plans to close the New Haven facility in 2006.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_rifle

So it seems as if Winchester hit it off with a repeating lever action, then after Eurotrash bolt-action guys beat the crap out of 'em, Win. decided that they coudn't beat 'em and so joined 'em. After 60s-70s U.S. corporate rimagerole, only the ammo guys can trace a direct descent. The firearm makers are a bunch of poseurs.

Maybe I'm jaded by Springfield, but I think warranties for firearms are a joke, or at least random. Either you get a good piece or you get a lemon.

 

[gezzer]

USRA only holds the rights to make certain winchesters. There gone FN closed them FN owned them not Winchester. Good luck getting warranty work even with FN owning Browning.

 

[jetman]

I had a brand new WInchester 9422 that had the front site canted off about 10 degrees or so off to the left. I called them up and they were great about the whole repair. I shipped it to them, and it was repaired and shipped back to me in less that a weeks turn-around time. That was a couple years ago, but the paperwork all read "Winchester" at that time anyway.