We've had a total of 3 barrels in the last 2000+ that didn't shoot sub 1/2 MOA, including the prefits that folks drop into a Ruger American ($350 base rifle) without any further input from me. All 3 of those exhibited issues of a bad barrel blank. We replaced all 3 of them at no additional cost to the customer and I handled it on the back end with the blank maker.
I have about 1 phone call a month from someone that tells me I cut them a bad blank.
I pay for the rifle to come back, I throw 20 rounds in a bag and take it to the range with one of my scopes on top that is proven to work properly.
Sit down, bore sight it. Fire 3-5 to get on target and then promptly cut a sub 1/2MOA group, usually several in a row.
Rifle shoots fine. It's either a scope or a user error.
Now comes the fun part.
I've just sunk half a day and about 175 bucks in out of pocket costs to prove to the person that they either own a POS scope or they don't know how to shoot. How do you think it goes over if I hand them a bill for the time and costs involved to prove that to them?
The Hancock does not have margin built into the price point to absorb those costs, especially because it's a very high end product for the new user market. This is also the market that has the highest rate of "your rifle is fine but you need to take a class" phone calls.
The alternative is to roll the dice by putting cheaper parts into the gun so that I sell it for the same price and when the inevitable happens I have cost built into the price point where I can absorb those costs.
