Worst firearms deal you ever made?

I bought a 4" nickel Python from a guy, as that model happened to be my "grail gun" at the time. Not knowing enough about revolver finishes, it turned out the revolver, which was blue to start with, had been nickeled to cover up some finish issues. A little later, I sent the revolver to Colt, and had it restored to its original Royal Blue finish, and had the stocks refurbished.

I still didn't have my "grail gun", but the refinish back to the original was worth it.

Last summer, I found a 4" nickel, which happened to be 450+ numbers apart in serial sequence. So, I guess things turned out all right.

This image is of the revolver as I bought it. You can see how the roll marks are very thin at the bottom, and the stocks have some issues.


This image is of the revolver after sixteen weeks with Colt, and a stock refurbish by Hugh Clark, in Texas.


This image is of the two revolvers together.

Worst gun deals I've ever made were in selling or trading off the 2 nickel Colt SAA's in 44 spl, the couple Buntline 45's, the several original Winchester 86's (a restored and rebored 45-70 with extra fancy wood, and a very nice full mag, shotgun butt 33), the couple Smith 27's I've had (a 5" and a 6 1/2"), the National Match Colt 45 auto with Colt Ace 22 kit, the 1917 made Colt 1911, and the first Smith 29 I had, a 6 1/2" nickel gun. Sort of miss the couple 3 screw Ruger 44's I've had also.

I've been pretty lucky in that I've only had one 'bad' deal. I overpaid for my Mav 88. But considering it was my first gun, I'll never sell it so it doesn't matter too much. The good deals I have scored more than make up for that one.

Just last week I bought a Walther P22 because I became fond of shooting my little Bersa .380. Well, two days later I found a Bersa in .22 so I immediately bought it.

I didn't pay a bad price at all for the Walther but I no longer had a use for it so I sold it for a quick $330. I lost money on it but I like to think of it in terms of me being glad to pay that much extra towards the Bersa .22.

15-20 years ago I traded a modern Colt 1911 for a .45 LC Ruger Vaquero revolver. I had buyer's remorse for a little while, but the trade was pretty much fair market value at the time. I've come to really like my stainless revolver that can shoot .44 mag level rounds and I can leave it in my tractor for 6 months between cleanings and not worry that it will rust.

I don't have a really bad trade story to tell.

I bought a 2006 Beretta Stampede Marshals model (3 1/2" bbl with the birdshead grip) in 357 mag about 2 years ago. I paid on the high side of a reasonable price. It shoots okay, but only with 38 special and once the hammer is cocked, it can't be lowered other than by firing the gun, not to cool when the RO calls a cease fire. That's when I found out that Beretta only warrants for one year and wanted $75 to "check it out" and give me an estimate on repairs. Now it collects dust and I'll never have another Beretta of any kind.

I have overpaid for a handgun a time or two, but easily the worst deal was a S&W Model 10-8 4" police trade in I bought from Bud's Gun Shop in March 2012. It cost $280 delivered to my local FFL dealer. It was my first ever revolver and after spending hours cleaning, lubing, refinishing the stocks, and test firing with snap-caps I finally got a chance to shoot it at a family get together over the 4th of July. After firing about 40 rounds of Remington 158 grain LRN the cylinder locked up.
When my local gunsmith got it open we could see that the frame and barrel were split open at the bottom of the forcing cone. The smith explained it had to have had a hairline crack when I received it. After two weeks of trying to get someone from Bud's customer service to respond to my request for some consideration towards a replacement revolver I was told over the phone (after waiting on hold more than 55 minutes that call) that there was "nothing they could do" and that "I was on my own".

Charles Daly ES (sometime in 2003) -- NIB.

The lightest touch would cause the factory blue to wipe away from the slide. =/

Unreliable.. etc..

Well if you want to count every Ruger Speed, Service, and Security Six that I sold or traded away, then I have quite a few really dumb gun deals that come to mind. The worst gun buy I did was on one of those budget finished Colt Agents that were around back in the mid to late '80's. Besides being as good looking as a mud fence the cylinder couldn't even make one full cycle without coming to a complete stop into the forcing cone of the barrel due to the whole crane assembly being poorly fited and slightly off center.

I hate to even type this, but I once traded a 4" GP100 for a Winchester 1400 20-gauge.

:banghead:

Im that guy you guys made your worst firearm deal with.

Was new to guns, knew nothing about brands and models, and had spent the whole day running around looking for a Bolt Action .22. At the last stop of the day, there was a Marlin .22 bolt action up on the rack. It looked decent, and was $120, so I bought it.

It was a Glenfield 20 from the '60's, with a sanded and then painted stock, some finish issues, a very loose front sight, rattly magazine, about a 15% FTFire rate, little rifling, 3" group at 35 yards benched, and worst, has this weird problem where whenever it has been dry fired to decock the gun, the firing pin sticks out, making it impossible to chamber the first round. So at the start of a shooting session, you have to load the first round into the chamber yourself, which is very difficult. To top it off, I've had the bolt come out twice when cycling it while shooting.

Took it in to try and sell it once, the shop owner said the most he could offer was $40. So I just gave it to my little brother.


Have to share this one though. At the beginning of December, my Uncle had a friend who was moving and had to sell all his guns fast. I got a single stack WASR-10 for $250. Add $100+ of furniture, magazines, a muzzle brake, a few hours in my grandpa's workshop with a dremel, and many days anxiously awaiting the postman, I had a 7.62 AK with 4 30 round mags, nice poly furniture, an effective muzzle brake, and a case of ammo by the first week of December. Now all I can think is how insanely lucky I was.

I traded a single shot breach loading 20 gauge youth shotgun, worth maybe $100, for a Tanfoglio .380. I had to add $150 in cash... the Tanfoglio was worth maybe $175, and it had function issues with one of the safeties. Ended up selling the Tanfoglio for $100 because I didn't want to deal with it or look at it. So, I basically paid someone $50 to take the shotgun off my hands. DOH!!!

Other "bad" deals I've made were buying a DPMS AR-15 for 2x retail at the height of the craze. I ended up dressing it up, getting some extra mags and ammo, and selling it as a package deal. I made $100 on the deal, which is good, but more importantly I got someone to take my purchase mistake off my hands.

I also bought a used CX4 Storm in 9mm off a guy. It was fully dressed in all of the beretta accessories and included some extra magazines, but if I would have bought one new from Academy, I could have saved $200. However, it came set up to take 92FS magazines, which is a really tough configuration to find. I should have bought this gun 2-3 years ago when the prices were low and the guns were plentiful.

Lessons learned:
1) Have an idea of the value of what you are buying or trading into... don't do it spur of the moment.
2) Thoroughly check function on any and every gun BEFORE you buy it.
3) Don't be afraid to walk away from a deal, whether it be a purchase or a trade. Chances are you will have an opportunity to buy what you want at a later date.
4) In opposition to #3, if you know you want something that you have carefully considered and pondered for some time, and you have the opportunity and funds to buy it at a reasonable price, then do so with little hesitation.

I found a pair of kimber royals at a pawn shop that had never been fired, for 450 each. I didn't know how good of a deal it was and ended up only buying 1. After 6 months, a fried offered me 550 for it and I took him up on it.

Yeah, stupid. It was my second actual gun, so I had alot of learning to do.

Selling a BPS 20ga youth model for $275

In 2010 I bought a refurbed 1954 Russian SKS, one of the ones with the rough baked-on finishes and a laminated stock. Paid $450 OTD. Oh well, I still like it.

Bought a Remington 870 with Magpul furniture and a second barrel with rifle night sights for $500......kind of regret that one, but I always wanted an 870 and that one came across my path.

Been a collector for over 20 yrs now. Here are some of the best "deals" I've made:

S&W Mdl. 27-2 (.357 Mag 6" P&R'd) 98% condition: $75.00
(2) Delta Elite Stainless first edition (10mm) both in original cases:

follow up to earlier:

Got both Delta Elites for $175/ea.

Marlin Mdl. 57M (lever action .22 mag ): $75.00
Winchester Mdl. 12, 16 ga. from 1940 : $100.00
S&W mdl. 15 P&R'd, 95%: $75.00

Colt SAA, early 2nd Gen.(1962), 7.5" bbl., .357mag: Traded to a guy for a new SA Loaded 1911 that cost me $500 back then. He said he "didn't like cowboy guns"....oh and it came in a nice Bianchi holster rig too.

Springfield Armory M1A Super Match from 1978: $1,200. Didn't know it was a Super Match at first. Emailed SA with the S/N and asked about out bolt because I couldn't ID the bolt by the numbers on it. They emailed back that 1) it's an early Super Match and, 2) I needed to send the barelled action in to them so they could replace the bolt since it was under an old recall. A month after I sent it in, the guy who runs the custom shop calls me to to tell me that they are replacing the bolt with a USGI (Winchester) bolt (YEA!) but that they couldn't get it to head space with the original barrel. So I ask "how much is that going to cost?" and he says 'nothing, it's covered under warranty". He also said that they needed to re-parkerize the whole gun (again, under warranty and no charge to me). So essentially, I end up with a "new" Super Match for $1,200!

These are just a few of my "good deals". Of course, my wife NEVER beleives me when I tell her I got a "dood deal".

I posted in the wrong thread

I meant to put the aove in "The Best Deals" thread. Sorry!

My PSL. I paid something like $850 to $900 for it when I got it several years ago. A few months later they could be had for like $650 as supply opened up.

I usually get good deals on firearms. I'm rather notorious for finding deals to be envied of, and hitting up auction sellers after failed auctions and negotiating for a lower price (I once negotiated a $350 reserve down to $250). The PSL was the first rifle I bought myself, though. I'm glad I have it, but I paid too much.

Second on the list might be my Golani. I don't consider it a bad deal for a rifle. The $550 spent definitely got first-class build quality. The problem, though, is it's just too heavy and can't accept a scope. I'm now faced with having a gunsmith work it over to lighten it and attach an AK scope rail. So while the initial deal wasn't bad, and I don't want to sell it because it's so nice, I'm still faced with a lot of money to make it the way I want it. I wish I'd bought a VEPR.

I traded a really good cond. Savage 111 in .243 with a 3-9-40 scope on it for a Hoppes Ethan Allen pepperbox. Before I could fire the pepperbox once the mainspring and the trigger spring broke, and I can not find parts for it anywhere. I'm wishing I would have kept the .243.

My worst one was buying an EAA Witness in 40S&W for $115, gun looked in great, near new condition, but has persistent failure to feed issues, have spent over $150 having a well known pistol smith that specialized in CZ platform work on it, he was able to improve trigger pull (felt like course sand paper originally), but he was only able to partly solve the feed issue. I would never trust it for self defense use.

Worst gun deal I've ever done?

I sold 25 stripped Rock River AR receivers in August.

For $115 each.