What's your best yard or garage sale find that's gun related?

The latest was 2lbs of IMR 4895 and 1 lb of 4530 for $8.

One that I still laugh about to this day but it involves a gun store.

Turner's Outdoorsman is a big chain store out here on the left coast. There's one in Reseda CA, has to be the worst!

Being that I had to go by a friend's house and he lives a mile from there... I told my dad I would stop by there and see if they had a fiberforce stock for our AK.

My friend wanted to stop in also and look around, so we stopped there first. Walked to mr. Friendly at the counter, who was looking at a parts manual. I know he knew we were standing there and after a couple minutes I said excuse me.

Mr. Friendly has a Kevin (male Karen) moment and yells, "can't you see I'm busy"! All he had to say was, "be right with you" and all would've been good.

Let's just say that he got both barrels from me and my friend. We then proceeded to MF the place as we walked out!

Dad calls later and asks about the stock, told him the story. He got a laugh out of it and said he would go by the next day and pick it up.

Call him the next day, said he got it and installed the stock. I asked how much and he said the stock was $5!!! My mind was spinning and I said the stock was about $100.

He said yes, it was but the girl at the register rang it up at $5 + tax. He gave her a $100, got his change and walked out! Karma, it's a B%@#h!

Picked up a early, excellent condition Rem 552 Speedmaster for $50 bucks about 15 years ago. You don't find guns for sale at garage, yard, ect sales anymore in this state. I'ts illegal. since 2013 SAFE Act. Occasionally you may find a estate auction where a FFL has been brought in if there are guns involved. The few I went to turned into crazy bid fests so I don,t bother anymore.

Mosin Nagant model #44 carbine in mint condition for 75 bucks

For $75.00 - garage sale score: Lyman All American Turret Press (wooden handle) Lyman A-A Dies 45 acp , 30-06 & 357 magnum w/ shell holders . Lyman 55 Powder Measure and a big box of misc. 45 , 38 and 30 cal jacketed bullets in various weights and designs from Hornady and Speer. Also some other reloading odds and ends , primer pocket military crimp reamer reamer , de-burring tools , primer pocket uniformer , brass cases and about 500 primers ... no powder but considering all the garage sales and flea markets I have been to ...
This was the only reloading stuff I've found for sale ... $50.00 was tagged on the Turret Press ... So I offered 75 for all the reloading stuff on the table and the deal was done !
I have the Turret set up as my dedicated 357 Magnum loading press ... stay's set up and adjusted with the powder measure set for my pet load !... SWEET !!!
Gary

Gun show. Estate-type sale table. I struck up a conversation with the guy. His late father-in-law had just a ton of random chit. I walked away with several pounds of powder, bullets for my 270 (Nosler, Speer, Sierra) and 44 Mag (XTPs and Nosler), spent less than $100.

Amazed me that folks were buying up all the primers (which he had marked up considerably), but most passed up quality jacketed handgun and rifle bullets, casting equipment, tons of dies, books, etc. Oh well. He did have close to 1000 300RUM cases, which I doubt he ever sold.

And this is how I got my 39A. Me and a bud were at a garage sale cuz my friend was looking for a Coleman lantern[found two], when the guy having the garage sale is talking to said friend. 5 minutes later, he come back out with THREE 39A's and said "get the laterns, let's go." Those three 39A's and two working lantern cost my firend $200!!!! And he gave me one of 'em!
Don't think I'll ever see that again. We both have and shoot those 39A's.
BTW, I believe this was in 1988 or '89.

I check Hibid.com weekly. I regularly find shooting, fishing, cool old tools type stuff. I bid around $40 on a box of “muzzleloading stuff” in an estate sale in Crossett, Ar. I won. I drove an hour and a half and got 3 lbs of 2f black, 1200 #11caps, 800 musket caps, 5lbs #4 shot and other stuff. Go me!
I didn’t have a need for musket caps at the time but I do now. That is another estate sale story.

I bought a 12ga Ponsness Warren Duomatic 375, and 40# of ancillary giblets, for something like $20. . . eBay'd it for $200.

The best yard sales are run by the idiot grandchildren of someone with excellent taste in tools, and lousy parenting skills.

Mosin Nagant $50 .... Had been "sporterized"
Bought a M38 stock for it to give it a little dignity. Was my deer rifle for lots of years in PA

My buddy scored a like-new FEG Hipower at a yard sale from elderly lady whose husband had passed. She was asking $100 and thats all she would take despite him offering her twice that.
Upon inspection, it had an empty pipe- but a fully loaded magazine. She had put it on a table out in the open with no real supervision. Luckily he came along before a thief or little kid picked it up.......

I supposedly (slacked off lately) check 'casual' sales for 'stuff'. I will always ask for 'gun related stuff' (and often have to clarify). Best was a copy of Sixguns by Elmer Keith and a revised copy Phillip Sharpe's book Compete Guide to Handloading. Cost me $5.00 each.
Most of the guns (I live in Nebraska now) are gone to heirs, auctions or 'middle men' but all sorts of old books, bullets, holsters and cleaning equipment shows up. Some reloading odds and ends. A lot of it is just old junk, but there are some prizes, too.

Without a doubt the $35 estate sale Remington 510.

It’s one of two 510’s I keep in the shop for a little friendly backyard competition.

The metal is a nice coat of surface rust (“patina” if I were trying to sell it. ) but the stock cleaned up with some sanding and stain I had in the cabinet.

Butt stock to an old Winchester shotgun, wrapped in newspaper from 1946. New, never put on a gun. Paid $5 for it and got $400 for it a few weeks later.

Of all the 200 hundred guns I'v owned this early on off beat purchase stuck: 15 Bucks
Its 1974 and I have this huge full console big screen ( for the day ) color TV I gifted myself a couple years earlier to watch Football. Big Cowboy's fan. It was acting up, called the TV Repairman for a housecall. Was no big deal back in the day. He comes out about 9PM in the evening, which was kinda late, but like I said no big deal back in the day. OK, I'm making this to long , fixes the TV and charges me 20 bucks. PS he could have charged much more, heck, he was working on my baby. Starts to leave and asks "Would I be interested in buying a .22 Rifle?" He had refinished the stock and had even included details like the white spacer line at the butt stock and black end cap. It was a Revelation Western Auto Model 100 Single Shot .22LR. He asked for 15 Bucks, and I thought hmmm a single shot huh...
Moved to Arizona in 1977 and discovered the true worth of the Single Shot. Put my full sized sling for my Mule Deer rifle on it and a Bushnell Banner .22 Scope. In the fall in preparation for the upcoming slug in the Kaibab I would pursue the countless Jack Rabbits that were afield along the Colorado River near Needles Ca. Its a fairly heavy gun simulating a full size hunting arm, having a mouthful of .22's to reload single shot made sure that every shot counted. Its still my go to gun here in my Rural Mississippi abode, leaning next to the slappin' backporch screen door. Groups Thunderbolts about 3" at a hundred yards still. Same Bushnell Scope almost 50 years on.

I picked up a "universal" cleaning kit and a few pounds of pure lead ingots for $10 at a garage sale years ago. I missed picking up a black powder kit gun by about 10 minutes at the same garage sale.

Jeff62 said:

That is another estate sale story.

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This is pretty much the thread for it. Let us hear it.

I found a $500 Winchester M1 Carbine in amazing shape about a year ago. I was broke, so I called up a buddy and he got it. I get visitation, so that's nice.

I was about to buy a S&W .38 Special off of the gentleman, but his wife cut that off claiming that it was hers. Old hag.

Got a call from my son in law, saying that the sale across the street has some reloading stuff in a box, and the wife and I made the 35 minute trip to check it out. Low and behold, in the boxes were a Hornady LNL with 2 powder drops and extra springs and misc parts, 3 shellplate holders, dies for 30/30, 357, and 44 mag, Hornady brass trimmer, 2 hand primers, various little items, and a Speer and Hornady reloading manuals. Also had a couple hundred pieces of brass, 200 357 158 grain SWC bullets and 92 240 grain 44 bullets. Good little haul, for, I think I recall, $150. This was during the Obama scare, so no trying to talk anyone down and when I got there, another guy had just picked up one of the boxes, and his wife told him he didn't need that stuff. Thank you very much.

1975 garage sale after a divorce; $20 for Lyman Junior Target Spot 10X in original box. I sold it for $550 within a year.

My buddy knows I was looking for lead for molding duck decoy weights. He calls me says they have a bunch of lead at the garage sale. turns out the Dad that had died was a reloader,I bought all the lead 50+lbs in ammo cans all ready cast into ingots, a RCBS rock chucker that was rusted frozen, was given to me, a bunch of 30.06,308, brass, a bunch of plastic ammo boxes for rifle and pistol, lots of bullets for reloading, bunch of primers, several hammers, ,a new square , a level and a bunch of rusty but servicable tools. I dont think i paid over a $100 for all of it. A mechanic friend got the rock chucker freed up but it had a bent slot in ram for the shell holder. I bought a new ram for $60 bucks from RCBS (the press had been under saltwater in Hurricane Katrina!)
Best deal i ever made at a garage sale haven't been to a garage sale since!!
Bull

Scout21 said:

This is pretty much the thread for it. Let us hear it.

Click to expand...

Ok. I don’t like to be the chatty one in the room and I didn’t want to make y’all sick with jealousy, what had happened was.....
Another estate find. I bid $350 on a Parker-Hale reproduction of a 2band 1858 Enfield. I got it. The right person just wasn’t looking that time. It was spotted with rust and looked like it had stood in a closet some years. I spent part of an afternoon with fine steel wool and rubbed the mildewed stock with Fabuloso and it came out looking very nice. The bore was not pitted. I shot two days ago with my home brewed 520gr minies and its a shooter. I plan to deer hunt with it come October.

I must live vicariously through these stories. All I find are clothes and moths. Broken tools for cars obsolete, and cook wear that even I couldn’t use.
(Or even a chef couldn’t use. I don’t know, the bad stuff.)

Invariably, “the men’s stuff went yesterday”.
“But you started today…?”

Bull Nutria said:

My buddy knows I was looking for lead for molding duck decoy weights. He calls me says they have a bunch of lead at the garage sale. turns out the Dad that had died was a reloader,I bought all the lead 50+lbs in ammo cans all ready cast into ingots, a RCBS rock chucker that was rusted frozen, was given to me, a bunch of 30.06,308, brass, a bunch of plastic ammo boxes for rifle and pistol, lots of bullets for reloading, bunch of primers, several hammers, ,a new square , a level and a bunch of rusty but servicable tools. I dont think i paid over a $100 for all of it. A mechanic friend got the rock chucker freed up but it had a bent slot in ram for the shell holder. I bought a new ram for $60 bucks from RCBS (the press had been under saltwater in Hurricane Katrina!)
Best deal i ever made at a garage sale haven't been to a garage sale since!!
Bull

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I'd kill for a Rock Chucker. Nice find!!!