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.
The Price For Working There Has Gone Up, Too
58 minutes 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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