I thought I would share this experience for a couple of reasons:
1) Information for others that have or are thinking of purchasing this or similar suppressors.
2) To see if others have had this happen and what the resolution was.
For background, I have 353 rounds total through this suppressor. All of the rounds are on my Seekins Element 6.5 PRC. I am not running hot loads.
A few weeks ago I took the first shot of the day and noticed that the recoil felt stiffer than normal and also notice that the shot was louder (I was still wearing ear plugs). When I came out of the scope I noticed that my Armageddon mirage cover was blown apart. Upon further inspection, I was missing the end of the suppressor. It took me some time with a metal detector, but I located the end about 25 yards downrange.
Prior to shooting I confirmed as always that the suppressor was threaded on tightly. I use the Area419 hellfire adapter system. The bullet went through the chronograph at expected velocity and impacted the target at the expected point. There was no bullet strike to the suppressor.
I filled out a warranty request, got an automated shipping label, and shipped it out to Dead Air. To my surprise, it was shipping to Georgia instead of Utah, where Dead Air is based. Apparently their factory is in Georgia. After having no contact with anyone for most of a week after they received it, I decided to contact Dead Air. I called them multiple times, but only got a recording basically saying that you have to email them as they will not answer the phone. I emailed and did get a response back within a few hours, but really haven't been able to get any satisfactory information.
My initial email basically asked why it was sent to Georgia, what I could expect to happen, what the timeline would be, and if they would also give me a credit of some type for the mirage cover that was ruined by the suppressor failure. The response back was just a few lines that confirmed the factory was in Georgia and said they would determine if it was repairable (did not answer the questions on timeline or mirage cover). I asked what would happen if it was not repairable and the response was that they would do a destruction letter and replace it, but there would be a long tax stamp wait (nothing they can do about that). I responded asking that they make sure the e-brake and Area419 adapter were returned to me if they could not repair it. I left them installed when I shipped it to them thinking they may want to examine it in the condition it was in. I got no response so I resent an email the following day asking again for the timeline to figure out if they could repair it and asking again that they return the e-brake and adapter to me if it couldn't be repaired. I got a response that they would have a tech inspect it when they received it and determine everything from there and that he asked the techs to hold on to my other parts to return to me. This response confused me since they had already had the suppressor for several days. It seemed odd that he wouldn't know that as I included the RMA number in my first email. I responded that they had received it about a week ago and asked how long the wait would be to get it looked at. I received no response for 3 days. I emailed again with the same email yesterday and still haven't received a response.
So far I am sorry to say that I am pretty disappointed with the customer service at Dead Air. I haven't been able to actually talk to a person and have to email multiple times to get questions answered. I still don't have any timeline on when I will even find out if it is something they can fix or if they will have to do a replacement. There seems to be a disconnect between customer service and the factory since the customer service rep didn't even know they already had the suppressor back.
I use this suppressor on my hunting rifle and am really anxious for information with hunting season approaching.
I really hope Dead Air turns this situation around and that I have a positive experience to share in the end, but I am getting less hopeful of this by the day.