Reading about that horrible accident with a 50 BMG upper, I was reminded that Zel Custom Manufacturing recently had to recall some of the 50 BMG uppers they make. I emailed Michael Brendzel about them because I was curious to know more about the issue they were having. Michael was kind enough to respond
We discovered that ours, too, could bind when (1) the bolt handle is threaded longer than nominal, (2) the bolt is narrower than nominal and (3) the operator overtightens the bolt handle past a shoulder. That forced us to recall all the units that were manufactured from those lots (essentially, all the Gen-3s). I've been hammering the phones for the past week, but have tracked down all but three of the uppers. I was pleasantly surprised by the earnest support that I got from my distributors and dealers in tracking down end purchasers. Making the calls sucked, the blow to my company's reputation sucks, the impact on production (cash flow) sucks, and the fact that we probably won't even find any problems is salt in the wound. I'm still glad I did it, because the peace of mind will be great.
We discovered that ours, too, could bind when (1) the bolt handle is threaded longer than nominal, (2) the bolt is narrower than nominal and (3) the operator overtightens the bolt handle past a shoulder. That forced us to recall all the units that were manufactured from those lots (essentially, all the Gen-3s).
I've been hammering the phones for the past week, but have tracked down all but three of the uppers. I was pleasantly surprised by the earnest support that I got from my distributors and dealers in tracking down end purchasers.
Making the calls sucked, the blow to my company's reputation sucks, the impact on production (cash flow) sucks, and the fact that we probably won't even find any problems is salt in the wound. I'm still glad I did it, because the peace of mind will be great.
They could have just waited it out and hoped no problems would arise, but they didn't. Instead they went out of their way to make sure their customers were safe. That's good business and I'm sure it's greatly appreciated by his customers and hopefully will encourage new customers knowing they stand behind their product.