"It just seems that the later in production stages the gun made it, the more problems it had, or is it just me?"
Walmpus
Hey Walmpus,
Here's my story and I'm sticking to it:
I got into muzzleloading in 2005 after many years of trying to talk my Dad into doing it together, up til then we had been die hard centerfire hunters. We did our research and agreed the sidekick was the best flash bang for the buck so to speak. We ordered them together, me the blued wood as I am of the same spoprtsman mind as you, my Dad the Black Stainless, and my Uncle, who we hooked into it with us the next year, the Camo Stainless as ironically, they have gotten a bit more progressive in their older age.
To make a long story longer, my least expensive of the three sidekicks, shot the best out of the box. My Dad's, bought the same year as mine, did just fine. However, my Uncle's most expensive model, purchased a year after ours, was the only one of the three to give us any trouble, we almost ran out of windage adjustment before it finally dialed in. For what it's worth, maybe you have something there...
