Thompson Center Arms Thompson Center Arms poor customer service on Venture 5452 in 6.5x55 Swiss Springfield Massachusetts

 The Thompson Venture from xxxxxxx.xxxx shipped quickly and upon initial inspection looked great.  The first sign of trouble was the need to use a rubber mallet to close the bolt on any of 8 different manufactures ammo I had in 6.5x55 Swiss.  I even tried Norma unfired brass and had no luck.  The extractor seemed to be almost impossible to move.  Plastic magazine blew apart when I inserted the 3rd round.  I glued the magazine back together and contact Smith & Wesson about hard to close bolt.  Customer service was polite and requested gun to be sent in for repair.

Gun was returned quickly from repair in a plain cardboard box without any internal packing material around gun or notification is was shipping back.  The paperwork included indicated the front sight was changed (? for some reason) and the extractor was replaced.  It was immediately apparent gun was indeed serviced from the deep scratches on the stock, barrel, scope mounts and bolt.  Bolt is still very hard to close, chamber looks like it was bored with a ba*tard file, iron sights are now unusable for 100 yards, accuracy is pitiful and new replacement magazine flies apart when inserting 3rd round again.

A follow up call to Thompson Center/Smith & Wesson customer service confirmed damage/wear on gun finish and surfaces is normal for service.  I can always return for service again if I feel gun is not working properly but scratches, dings and dents even if caused by service are not their problem.  I assume another trip for service will result in a completely unusable gun.  I will avoid any future Thompson Center firearms.