I held this off for a bit to avoid describing the innocent:
So I went to a smallish gunnie swap meet. It was not a formal gun show. Some things were reasonable, but really, nothing much that I wanted. A few Enfields, but my general rule now is that if I don't have a gun in that caliber already, I'm not buying the gun.
There was a guy with a few revolvers. One was a Smith 28. It had more surface rust than bluing. I asked him if I could check the timing and he said sure. At least three cylinders were out of time. I asked him what he wanted for it and he said $400.
I put it down. I might have gone $250 on it, but that's all. It'd cost over $100 with shipping to have a good gunsmith fix the timing and that's assuming that there were no other mechanical issues. And while it's one thing to have a gun with lot of worn bluing and holster wear, rust is another matter, at least for me.
He had a nicer K-frame, but I didn't bother asking what he wanted for that. I'd probably miss the left leg that he'd have wanted for it.
Cat Pawtector!
3 hours ago
3 comments:
Probably the better move... I just won't buy a rusty gun, it tells me the owner never cared for it...
For a reasonable price, I'd have rescued it. I could always have sent it off to be parkerized or ceracoated or something like that. But not at four bills for a gun that clearly needed work on the internals.
I've seen the same with 1911's. Picked one up at a table a few weeks back (forget what brand), the holster wear was down to the bare metal and it failed a disconnector check. I asked what they wanted for it and was told they wanted $450. I glanced down the barrel, no rifling left to speak of, the slide was loose enough to almost rattle on the frame and the safety detent spring was worn out. I pointed all of this out and tried to negotiate a price and got nowhere. Didn't even want to talk to me.
When I can buy a new Rock Island for about the same price, I'll walk away from a project gun. I just feel sorry for the uninformed slob who will eventually buy that POS and have nothing but trouble with it.
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