[Terry G]

The used gun market has bitten me several times, so much so that I'm leery of any firearm's that are "Too Good To Be True". They usually are. When I was a young man, just out of the Army, I was looking for a good deer rifle. At a local gun show, I bought a Savage 99E, .300 Savage. It was beautiful. I took it to the local 100 yard rifle range and couldn't hit paper. A gunsmith told me the barrel "was crooked than a lawyer." I'm ashamed to say I dumped at the next gun show. I also once bought a Ruger standard .22 auto that looked perfect. It shot like crap. I (stupidly) had not inspected the barrel on buying it, or I would have discovered that the last inch or so of rifling was gone. My worst was the famed .22 S&W Jet. What a gun! You could fire those .22 Jet's for varmint's and use the .22 LR inserts for small game. It had one tiny fault, it wouldn't work. The .22 Jet's tied up the cylinder after two or three shots, and you would have to wait for a few minutes for the cylinder to cool down, and then force it open to try to pry the empties out. The .22 inserts would sometimes fire 4 or 5 rounds, sometimes none. Smith & Wesson pulled them from the market. I have never gotten burned with military surplus, because a basic check of the bore and action, usually means the old warhorses are going to deliver. On civilian arms, if I see something I like, I ask the shop owner (if there is a range available) to fire a magazine or a cylinder or two before I buy. If he say's no, I leave it on the counter. If no range is available, I ask to tear it down, if it's a semiautomatic, and do the pencil and slide tests on it. If it's a revolver, I do the usual check for barrel bulges, worn firing pins, and at least pull the grips off. I would like to hear if other in the forum have bought a "White Elephant". :headbang:

 

[Hard Ball]

I know how it is Terry. I've picked up some good ones and some bad ones and had fun doing it,

 

[RIKA]

I've purchased a few used guns; haven't been bitten yet. Dumb luck I guess. Sure my time is coming.

RIKA

 

[Rich Z]

Heck, I always look at the screws to see if they are boogered up. If they are it means SOMEONE took the gun apart and they weren't a gunsmith. I came real close to buying a Belgian FAL one time, but when I noticed the boogered up screws, I asked the seller if he would guarantee that it shot OK. He got all defensive and kind of loud mouthed about it. Well I was pulling that $1800 out of my pocket when I asked him, and as soon as he started spouting off, the money went back into my pocket and I let him keep his gun.

You can have just as much bad luck with new guns, I am afraid. I bought a Remington fixed sights bolt action rifle (don't remember the model number) in 22.250 that really caught my eye. When I took it out and shot it, the danged thing was shooting about 6 inches low and 6 inches to the right. Doesn't sound all that bad if it were at 200 yards, but that was at around 30 FEET. I had to send it back to Remington and they replaced the barrel on it.

In another case, again a Remington rifle, I bought a 597 in 17HMR that had ALL of the screws holding down the scope mount stripped out. It came that way from the factory, as far as I know, or else the dealer I got it from (a Gunbroker deal), screwed it up and just passed it along. But he sold it as "new".

I bought a Steyr AUG that literally would spit out the firing pin upon firing. One of the wierdest things I have ever seen. They fixed it for free even though I had that gun for quite a few years prior to seeing this problem. Then one of the guide rods broke off. They fixed that one free of charge as well.

Generally speaking, I try to buy guns I REALLY want. So if there is something wrong with them, I usually send them to the factory to be fixed. In most cases, even with used guns, the big boys like Colt and S&W will fix them for free, no matter what. All you have to do is to ask them nicely.

 

[andy]

Out of 100+ buys, I've never had one I could'nt

fix, but some of them took some real work to make them saleable enough to pay me back what they cost in $ and time spent.

 

[Magnum88C]

I almost bought one proverbial "white Elephant". It was an old 70-series Colt. This thing would not feed, no matter what. Wouldn't feed FMJ, HP, nothing. Wouldn't feed from Mil-surp magazines, COlt magazines, McCormack magazines, Wilson magazines, wolf magazines. . .

Gunsmith looked it over said there was nothing mechanically wrong with it. No one else could get it to feed. At least I didn't lose any money but what I paid the 'smith (shot the gun and had the 'smith check it before I bought it).

However, Like Rich, I've never had a milsurp fail me.

 

[41mag]

The only odd thing I've ever seen with used guns has to do w/the sights.On two seperate occasions I've bought a used revolver w/the sights so out of whack that I've been hard pressed to stay on paper from seven yards.A few turns of a screwdriver fixed 'em.Wierd though.

 

[Rich Z]

Speaking of new guns bought that turned out to be a POS, I bought a Charter Arms Bulldog in .44 Special a long while back. Light as a feather, so it kicked pretty hard with those specials. Anyway, I took it out to shoot and it seemed to group OK for, what it was, but the group gradually was moving clockwise on the target. That really through me for a loop for a little bit!

Then I looked the gun over closely and saw the reason why. The front sight sat on a sleeve that fit over the actual barrel. It was held in place by a single set screw. Well it was loose, so during recoil, the sleeve was turning to the left on the barrel, making the groups move to the right on the target.

Well I found the right sized allen wrench (why in the HECK does it always take you three tries to find the right size?) and tightened down that screw as much as I could. Well, imagine my surprise when I checked the barrel after cleaning it and found that the barrel was so thin walled that my tightening that screw had actually put a dent in it! I took that damned thing to a gun show and sold it to the first dealer who offered me ANYTHING for it. At the next show, HE had it on his table for sale.

 

[Garand]

I've had some unbelieveable buys and some unbelievable nightmares. I figure by the time I head to the great demo range in the sky, I'll have broken even!