Pitting on slide of new Steyr L9-A1

D

Dumantepe

Regular
EE Expired
Rating - 100%
17   0   0
Hello everyone, I just purchased a new Steyr L9-A1 this weekend, took it home yesterday night, and today I noticed that the slide has many small almost golf ball like divets or "pitting" it looks like it pitted and they applied the surface treatment over it. Is this normal? Is it unreasonable to call the dealer and return/exchange the firearm? If I get a no, what is my course of action?

Does this mean the durability of the slide is compromised? I checked all my other firearms Sig, and Girsan and neither have any kind of marks like this (the Girsan costs 240 dollars less), and I checked all my father's pistols including a WW2 Colt 1911 and they don't have marks like this.

I was extremely excited for this pistol, now I am really disappointed. I will be taking pictures tomorrow morning in better light and putting them on here.
 
pitting does not show as something as precise/perfect as a round golf ball mark, what you are seeing is a drill bit mark, the drill bit used to machine/shape the slide. If you grab a SW MP, you will see that they have them too, it is just the way they are made = CHEAP machining.
Most likely this marks are in front of the ejection port, under the slide of course, correct?

Nothing to worry about but now you know the type of workmanship your guns has.
I would expect more from Steyr, too bad.
 
Last edited:
Pics would help alot. I'm a bit doubtful that a brand new gun is rusting, but you might have an uneven or over baked finish issue.
 
I love Steyr products, they are one of the best Cie out there, but it seen they dont have it right with their pistol division, being brand loyal, i wanted to add a Steyr pistol to my herd to come but i wont since there is a lot of bad reviews on FTF, FTE and this now... JP.
 
The marks are not even, but sporadic and vary in deepness and diameter.

So I took it out of the safe (the room the safe is in has bad lighting) and it looks even worse in the day light, anyways here are the photos:
AutuOFy.jpg




yagzNIt.jpg
 
For a brand new firearm that costs $600+, I find this unacceptable, there is no way this should have left the factory at all. I am going to call the dealer tonight and try talking to a manager, they are a supporting dealer I hope they make this right.


For goodness sakes, my father's 1911 from World War 2 doesn't have this stuff all over it.
 
Last edited:
Interesting, It looks like the finish is coming off.
I would send a picture of this to Steyr. According to other users on this forum they have been very helpful and willing to help.
 
I fired off an e-mail to Steyr, I will be calling the dealer anyways I am not to sure what their return policy is, as their website mentions nothing.
 
I have recently run into something like this with a pistol I bought online from a supporting dealer.
Unfortunately, it costed me 3 times the shipping since according to them, there ws nothing wrong with the pistol.

Long story short, I will not put the name of the dealer out, because they solved my problem in a good manner (although not cost effective).
The pistol I received was a P30L and it looked used, it had wear marks on the barrel and on the barrel locking lug. Everything else was pristine, including the mags. I concluded, due to insufficient proof that the firearm had been in display, hence the barrel marks or it could have been fired extensively at the factory (very very VERY RARE) or it could have been fired by them with another set of mags or who knows what?....

Long story short, I called them and say hey...I would like a different one and they did so, all this at my expense. Oh well, live and learn. At least this one does not show any wear.

I think your firearm has been previously handled and I like another user here said, I doubt that is the way Steyr ships their guns from factory....

This is such a small world that my advise to you is to be frank, honest and talk to them about this. There is always a way around it, you might have to pay shipping like I did.
I still think that I should not have paid shipping but I guess I cannot win every battle.
 
Pretty sure may my main dealers would not have take an extra cents to fixe the matter, like you say, live and learn... JP.
 
I bought it locally from a supporting dealer. I am going to go talk to them in the afternoon, and bring them the pictures. Hopefully they make it right.
 
Dumantepe said:
For goodness sakes, my father's 1911 from World War 2 doesn't have this stuff all over it.
Click to expand...

Your father's 1911 is likely better made and finished in every respect compared to a lot of modern firearms.


Dumantepe said:
I bought it locally from a supporting dealer. I am going to go talk to them in the afternoon, and bring them the pictures. Hopefully they make it right.
Click to expand...

If you have a valid ATT you can just take the gun back there for them to look at firsthand, no pictures required. That looks to me like an as-cast (or as-forged) surface that was never cleaned up with machining/buffing/polishing/etc. You will get that finish if a raw casting is simply blasted and then coated without any further finishing operations after casting.


Mark
 
The finish on the slide of the L9A1 I've had for months and put 1000 rounds through is still flawless, so no, that's not normal. Take that sucker back, and see if you can hand pick a new one.
 
Does anyone have an L9-A1 and check to see if they have this on their slides? I just went to the dealer and the display model looked like it had them as well. i might call them and ask for an exchange for another firearm because this is really bugging me. No new gun should come out like this.
 
It looks like the metal started pitting before the finish was put on. If this is the case, this is a problem straight from the factory.

Tagged for interest, let us know who this works out.
 
I sent Steyr another message, this time with pictures and in German, hopefully they reply. I am going to either call or go to Wild West Tomorrow and ask them if I could just exchange it for a CZ instead.
 
Dumantepe said:
I sent Steyr another message, this time with pictures and in German, hopefully they reply. I am going to either call or go to Wild West Tomorrow and ask them if I could just exchange it for a CZ instead.
Click to expand...

*Sigh* Steyr drops the ball again, I guess. Which is too bad, because the design itself is excellent.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom