To those T97NSR owners with a barrel "gouge"

[theSHARK]

I plan on owning my T97 for a long time, and its a good thing because if I were to want to sell it I couldn't see anybody wanting to buy it for the same price as another used one without a gouge. This barrel gouge has in my opinion lessened the resale value of my brand new rifle.

Things I have learned from the T97NSR:
Don't buy a first off the line firearm because manufacturers tooling inefficiencies will not be warrantied.
Don't buy a new firearm sight unseen from an online vendor or accept is as being received in as is condition.
North Sylva's warranty only covers function and safety, not manufacturers defects in workmanship.

[daniel_250r]

it seems most of the t97's do have the gouge

[Duff350]

I plan on owning my T97 for a long time, and its a good thing because if I were to want to sell it I couldn't see anybody wanting to buy it for the same price as another used one without a gouge. This barrel gouge has in my opinion lessened the resale value of my brand new rifle.

Things I have learned from the T97NSR:
Don't buy a first off the line firearm because manufacturers tooling inefficiencies will not be warrantied.
Don't buy a new firearm sight unseen from an online vendor or accept is as being received in as is condition.
North Sylva's warranty only covers function and safety, not manufacturers defects in workmanship.

it seems most of the t97's do have the gouge

+1.... so true !

[theSHARK]

it seems most of the t97's do have the gouge

I agree. I think if I was 1 of 10 with the barrel gouge I would be getting my rifle replaced.

But according to NS "• A small percentage of rifles are affected by this issue."

[Tactical_Plink]

I wasn't expecting a match-rifle for $1000, but I have to admit this is pretty sad. Here is a pic of my brand-new unfired gouge. I was actually able to see a small protrusion when looking down the barrel before I removed the gas-system. The pic here is through the gas port. The gouge isn't all that bad. However, If you look real closely you can see the gouge is right on the edge of the land, its really hard to see in this photo but the gouge actually cracked the chrome lining along the land. Its really hard to see, even with just the eye, but a hair-line crack travels up the land towards the muzzle for as far as I can see through the gas-port. (Top of the gouge in the photo, extending to the left.)

Very disappointed, if this company was Canadian I'd tare them a new gas-port. In the meantime it seems we're SOL. I'm still itching to fire this thing, so I'll probably go ahead and put some shots through it anyways this weekend. In all-fairness, I think if replacement barrels, or 7.62 conversion assemblies ever hit the CDN market, us beta-testers should be privy to some discounted replacements.

[Tactical_Plink]

Distributor told me, every rifle has the gouge.

[docscoutjr]

I plan on owning my T97 for a long time, and its a good thing because if I were to want to sell it I couldn't see anybody wanting to buy it for the same price as another used one without a gouge. This barrel gouge has in my opinion lessened the resale value of my brand new rifle.

Things I have learned from the T97NSR:
Don't buy a first off the line firearm because manufacturers tooling inefficiencies will not be warrantied.
Don't buy a new firearm sight unseen from an online vendor or accept is as being received in as is condition.
North Sylva's warranty only covers function and safety, not manufacturers defects in workmanship.

Yup pretty much sums it up. We were Guineapigged and get to eat the #!$@ sandwich. I have owned many a Norc, and never dreamt of complaining about poor fit/finnish or the odd breaking part because the initial cost offset that. This however is a completely different matter. If as NS says "there isn't anything functionally wrong" so then why not take 'em back. In my case I do feel like I bought a brand new car, discovered a scratch in the parking lot and being told, sorry too bad you just lost $$$ because someone at the dealership messed up. Even worse is that without fully stripping the gun there was no way to tell the defect was there. Did my once over, fit and finnish seemed ok, so we get burned because Q/C failed someplace. This isn't how it should be.

[daniel_250r]

RIP to the 2000 drill bits that broke to make our t97's my heart goes out to them

[docscoutjr]

thats just adding insult to injury the chinese make some pretty awesome titanium nitride bits…obviously not used here

[airtruck63chev]

thats just adding insult to injury the chinese make some pretty awesome titanium nitride bits…obviously not used here

any small drill will break if you go thru a barrel on a angle and hit the chrome on the inside, seriously a machinist needs to chime in here.
even my cheapy craftsman drill press has a drill stop..