TC Icon

[7mmSendaro]

Went rifle shopping with my Dad today to avoid Christmas decorating. Our Gander Mountain store had a TC Icon in .243 on the shelf. Since neither of us has had our hands on an Icon and Dad was looking for a .243, it was exciting at first. The rifle looked great except for th bolt handle which already showed some flash rust from handling. They pulled another identical rifle out of the back room and it showed the same rust!

Seems like TC has a big problem.....think what it would look like after a typical day hunting.

Dad was prepared to buy the rifle until we found the rust. He ended up ordering a CZ550.

Very dissapointing.

 

[James Jones]

I have heard that TC was going through some "merging" or has been bought out , not sure but I sure hope that their QC improves , all of the new Encore pro Hunter's I have delt with had some bad quality controle issues and when TC was contacted about it "its within our specs" was the answer I got!!

Its sad I realy wnated to get hold of one of the new Icon's and look it over but the few folks I have talked to have all said the same thing , "it looked like it wasen't finished when the finished it" had tooling marks , bad blueing and like you mentioned rust.

Granted you can make a good one piece bolt (economicaly) out of stainless steel so their is gonna be the chance of rust but their are other steps that can be taken to help prevent this.

 

[Ian M]

7mmSendaro
So happens I have the email address of the former president of TC and have sent this link to him, will get back to you with his response.

I do not dispute your info, matter of fact it might result in improvements to the rifle in the long run.
ian

 

[Dead Beat]

my son and myself were at gander mountain about a month age i been wanting to look at the icon because i'm interested in getting one in 308
barrel was not centered in the barrel channel not by a little but by quite
a bit of the 3 on the shelf 2 were touching on one side the other was touching the opposite side with a big gap on all 3 i was rather disappointed ii was the gander in colorado springs

JIM

 

[7mmSendaro]

Thanks Ian. I hope they get things straightened out because I really like the looks of the rifle. If it would help, I can put him in touch with the gun manager of the store.

Thanks,

Brian

 

[Ian M]

Brian,
I know they want to do things right, will let you know when I get a note back.

Jim,
Keeping the barrel centered in a wood stock is a challenge since the wood shifts a teeny bit from moisture change and this can be ongoing. For your info the bedding block-receiver fit has lattitude so you can correct the gap fit very easily, saw it being done last week. All they did was back off the three screws a bit until the barrelled action could be moved. Then the guy centered the barrel in the channel and tightened the three stock bolts. I had this happen to my rifles also but no contact was being made to wood, just cosmetic, easy to move the barrel back a tich and it is done.

I think the bedding system is one of the slickest, we switched barreled actions and stocks with no problems during a shoot a short while ago.

 

[Dead Beat]

thanks Ian that's funny because when my son and myself looked at the Icon he said maybe if you loosen the the screw then retighten it it will be centered

does the icon lend itself to glass bedding the forend that would also top the stock from shifting

JIM

 

[Ian M]

Deadbeat,
I would wait a while, there are some new stocks coming where barrel channel gap will not be a problem anymore. Including an incredible wood-type one. The moisture problem is inherent in wooden stocks, some are worse than others. A friend who bought an Icon sanded and sealed his barrel channel a smidge to open up it up, then centered it and it has stayed perfect for some time now. If mine appear to move I check that there is no contact with the barrel, if none I just shoot it. Have noticed it with the .30TC but not enough to worry about, unless a guy is quite particular.

The bedding can be tightened-up with a skimbed of Marinetex or something similar, but I have never heard of anyone doing that yet. When the barrels get heavier this might become a reality.