Ok I went and had wings and a beer with my buddy today to get a better idea on what the deal was. This was the 35 Whelen in question. It is too late to save it, but I got more information on the frustration. It was not the caliber, it was the company who made the 35 Whelen barrel. He sent them the Tikka action to have a prefit 35 Whelen barrel installed. They forgot to thread the end for the suppressor, he had to send it back (on his dime). He also got dinged by them for the shipping coming back for fixing their mistake. He got it back and was having issues with groupings. Discovered they had pushed the lans farther ahead than what he could makeup in OAL with the Tikka magazine, even after buying an aftermarket one that doesn’t have that plastic block inside of it.
He then contacted them and sent them a letter asking them to fix the barrel to shorten the jump to the lans. Long story short they made it even farther. I believe he said it was .15 inch when he got it back this time, and they charged him for (smith work and shipping). This was again an insult after they sent it wrong from the beginning. After sending it back for a 4th time, they still had not fixed it (over 18 months into the whole process at this point) so he emailed and asked them to just send his f*cking action back as he was done dealing with them at this point. They ignored that for some time, but finally acknowledged that they would indeed return his action.
So that is the more detailed information in regards to the frustration with his Whelen. It ended up being a Smith issue. I will not put that smith on blast here since it is not my personal issue, but if you want to know who he will never do any business with again I can share it for sure…
