Used vs New handguns.

illinoisburt said:

An awful lot of 357 and 44 magnums show up for sale with the original box of ammo minus 6 to 12 rounds.

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I was friends with the owner of a LGS and he related a story about a customer who wanted to buy a .44 Mag derringer. He tried to talk the guy out of the purchase but he insisted that owner order one. When it came in he called the customer to let him know the gun had arrived and he could pick it up. The LGS had an indoor range with a camera so the shooters could be observed by the shop employees. The owner gave the customer 2 rounds of .44 Mag and he went to the range. They watched him load the double barrel derringer and then he shot one round. Unloaded the fired and unfired round and walked back to the desk and asked if he could have a couple rounds of .44 Special which the gave him. He went back to the range and fired one of the two .44 special rounds, unloaded it and walked back up to the desk and asked if he could trade it in.

I have bought used pistols/revolvers and rifles and so far have been very pleased. Two were bought on-line but were as the seller described.

Fatdaddy said:

The best advise I can give is to never buy a 1911 used unless you can shoot it first or know for certain you can get your money back if it's a POS.

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Really? Why is that?
Not arguing, just curious.
Heck, for that matter I have absolutely zero experience with buying used 1911s, so I don't know enough about it to argue.

I would say that 75-80% of my gun collection was bought used. Milsurps and C&Rs are a given, but I buy used with modern guns as well. With the exception of one handgun, I've been happy with those purchases. If I have to do some minor gunsmithing I don't mind due to the money I've saved in the long run. This includes 1911s.

If you aren't educated on the particular used gun you are inspecting, and know what to look for- you are potentially playing russian roulete. Unless its a Glock- if there is something wrong with it, the factory will rebuild it if need be.

My experience has been, with what they want for it used, buy it new,
if it's still in production. I've been lucky with used guns, but I learned
the hard way to carefully check the bore, after buying a Garand that
was rode hard and put away wet. Apparently some folks think barrel
cleaning is a waste of time, or somebody else's problem.

At least half of my collection was purchased used. Only once did a seller tell me AFTER we traded that the Mark I he traded to me only liked CCI mini mags and hated all Remington ammo. I was a little annoyed at that, but after spraying out the action with solvent I never had an issue with it shooting Golden Bullets, so thus far I have a 100% success rate purchasing used arms.

I love S&W revolvers, but I despise their lock.

That means that if I buy an S&W revolver, it HAS to be used.

I've got a safe full of S&Ws. Not one of them has the lock, and not one of of them was made after about 1984.

You just have to know what to look for. Buying from people you know is a big help.

I have a C&R license so many of my firearms, mostly military rifles, meet that criteria. I'm also interested in post war S&W and Colt revolvers and always have an eye open for those although real quality examples of those are getting harder to come by and asking prices by some are sometimes borderline ridiculous but that is the climate for many used firearms nowadays. I have a mental list of other firearms I may like and will always give them the once over if I come across one.
That is not to say I don't like modern firearms. I have bought several over the past few years and buy, sell and trade as the mood strikes or as my interest in a particular firearm wanes. Three modern firearms that are currently in my thumb's up column are my CZ Scorpion EVO carbine, Springfield 3" 1911 EMP
9 mm and FN 5.7. Those are just obscenely fun to shoot.
I try and keep up with the used firearm market so when I sell or trade I am up front about any condition issues and estimate a round count with the firearm priced accordingly. I'm not out to rip anyone off and am fully aware that most used firearms don't fetch new prices. I expect the same treatment in return but as some of you know that's not possible 25% of the time. There's always the person that will get upset when you don't accept their low ball offer or when you refuse to pay a premium for a firearm that was a pitiful example of something advertised as like new or in very good condition. On the other side of that coin I've met some great folks when buying, selling or trading a firearm.

Not counting military surplus guns, I think I have purchased over 75% of my stuff used. Many on GB, others on consignment at my favorite LGS, and a couple more purchased from friends over the years.

Only a few of these used guns were less than I expected. I bought a ppk/s from a friend that doubled on me, another was a project shotgun that was ho-hum, the last was a Ruger Mk III with a loose frame that Ruger fixed for free. My latest two, a spotless CZ 550 American in 6.5x55 w/ Leupold 3x9 and a really clean Redhawk .41 mag were absolute steals.

If the deal is there, buying used isn't too much of a concern for me.

I can pretty well check out a revolver in just a few moments and I've NEVER been burned. I did, however, get burned on a Davis P-32 that was new when a buddy of mine got it. My first gun was a Ruger Security-Six stainless 4-inch .357 that had been reviewed by gun hack Claire Reese, out in Utah. He threw in a set of very nice Herrett grips and I paid $169, which is what the gun sold for new at the time.

The first time I shot the gun, I loved the looks with the regular grips. But the first time I shot hot 125-grain JHP .357s out of the gun, I thought I was going to throw the pistol across the room! So the Herretts stayed on after that.

The fellow I got the Davis for owned my favorite Chinese restaurant. He bought it under my FFL, but brought it back to me when it began jamming. I took it to the range and it did the same jamming for me, but when I took it back to him, his restaurant had in explicitly gone out of business. Never did get it working right. It was born bad to the bone. I still have it.

Guns have always had excellent resale value if they're halfway decent. Security-Sixes particularly so. The trouble for me is, they're such good deals that it's still hard for me to pass them, and I've got too many of them as it is. Why would anyone...anyone...drop $700 on a frickin' Ruger GP-100 when they could go to a web auction site and buy a beautiful Security-Six for $400-$500?? If I could buy a mint Security-Six for that much, you couldn't give me a GP-100.


Ruger Security-Six, stainless (above) and blued.




Beretta 70S .22LR (hard chromed) has less than 300 rounds through it.

Gun deals can be had all over the Internet, and used gun prices are right up there with new gun prices and I, for one, would pay the price if I had to. (One of these days I'm going to get a Smith 66 no-dash mint, and I'll pay the price for it!) I've made too many mistakes not getting guns in the past because I thought they'd be available in the future. But the Smith 686s one gets today are not those of the past. Case in point, this beautiful S&W 6-inch 686, which has never been fired. Yep, it's a no-dash!


Note the stamped side plate, the hard chromed hammer/trigger and the
gorgeous wood grips!

..

Where can you get a NEW

Colt M1849 Pocket revolver
Colt Woodsman
Colt New Service
Colt Officer's Model Match
Colt Detective Special
Colt M357 (or Python)?

Vern Humphrey said:

Where can you get a NEW

Colt M1849 Pocket revolver
Colt Woodsman
Colt New Service
Colt Officer's Model Match
Colt Detective Special
Colt M357 (or Python)?

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I will get back to you on that as soon as I finish work on my time machine. The time machine is coming along fine and right behind my matter transfer device I plan to use to beam an ex wife into the center of a brick wall. When I go back in time I plan to buy all of those fine guns in quantity and return to today and sell them. I figure it's a great plan.

I almost had a minty like new in box 6" Python but my brother came up with the money he owed me. On the bright side I am still holding his Colt SP1.

Ron

^ don't forget period correct currency.

Reloadron said:

I will get back to you on that as soon as I finish work on my time machine. The time machine is coming along fine and right behind my matter transfer device I plan to use to beam an ex wife into the center of a brick wall. When I go back in time I plan to buy all of those fine guns in quantity and return to today and sell them. I figure it's a great plan.

I almost had a minty like new in box 6" Python but my brother came up with the money he owed me. On the bright side I am still holding his Colt SP1.

Ron

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Let me know what you want for First Generation SAAs.

huntsman said:

^ don't forget period correct currency.

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I actually thought about that when I typed the post but figured nobody would come up with that. Guess I figured wrong and a good catch.

Ron

I guess I've never bought a used gun besides my pre64 winchester M70, all my others are new.....
- Its been fantastic btw.

Vern Humphrey said:

Where can you get a NEW:
Colt M1849 Pocket revolver
Colt Woodsman
Colt New Service
Colt Officer's Model Match
Colt Detective Special
Colt M357 (or Python)?

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Ah...the maddening thing is, these guns do exist, and I mean brand new, in their boxes. We just don't know where they are, who has them and how much, if anything, or what they'd take for any one of them. But the fact is, they do exist somewhere...hidden in the dark recesses of some safe or closet. And it's also true that they may exist in some drawer in a widow's chest someplace, with her in complete ignorance over what she has. Perhaps, as far as she's concerned, they'd be better off in some dump. She'd truly love to know how to dispose of them; she just doesn't know how. And she'd gladly trade them for a nice dress or a pair of shoes. She knows that Harry treasured them, but what use are they to her now that he's gone? They may as well be a bunch of hammers (who'd name a gun after a snake?).

In some states, I don't know that there would be anything wrong with printing pieces of paper (six per page width, one across the center and one dividing each half) soliciting unused firearms from people who wish to sell them, then distributing them in neighborhoods. Tell people who wish to dispose of unwanted firearms legally to contact you at a certain phone number or, if you own and operate a gun store, that you're willing to purchase handguns or rifles and shotguns (whatever you're after). In many states this would be legal and, if you have an FFL, I don't think there would be any restrictions. Don't promise to pay top dollar if you want good deals because top dollar is sometimes obscene. If you want to be cagey, call it a gun buy back program and tell idiots in New Jersey, Maryland, New York and other restrictive states you're doing it "for the children."

I like them both, new and used. New, because well, they're new as in the latest technology or design features. Used guns mainly for the "they don't build them like that anymore" quality.

George Dickel said:

I was friends with the owner of a LGS and he related a story about a customer who wanted to buy a .44 Mag derringer. He tried to talk the guy out of the purchase but he insisted that owner order one. When it came in he called the customer to let him know the gun had arrived and he could pick it up. The LGS had an indoor range with a camera so the shooters could be observed by the shop employees. The owner gave the customer 2 rounds of .44 Mag and he went to the range. They watched him load the double barrel derringer and then he shot one round. Unloaded the fired and unfired round and walked back to the desk and asked if he could have a couple rounds of .44 Special which the gave him. He went back to the range and fired one of the two .44 special rounds, unloaded it and walked back up to the desk and asked if he could trade it in.

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That used to be a great way to get a 4" S&W Model 29.

Some guy would see "Dirty Harry", decide he needs a ..44 Magnum.

He goes to the local gunstore and finds out that there are no 6" guns available. He settles for a 4".

He buys the gun and a box of the hottest .44 Magnum loads he can find.

A few days later the gun is back in the display case of that or another gunstore.

That's probably partially how I got mine (pictured in my avatar), albeit with an added twist.

I saw "48 Hours" and liked Nick Nolte's 4" Model 29.

The local gunstore up the road from Ft. Knox had a gun in the box with all of the accessories.

I mostly shot Specials in it and had no problems, however there was a factory defect in the forcing cone which produced terrible "spitting" with Magnums and hotter Specials.

I can only imagine what some noob thought the first time he fired a hot Magnum load out of a 4" gun that reliably spit out pieces of jacket material due to a defective barrel.

I eventually sold the gun to a friend when I was out of work. I eventually got it back five or so years later.

My adventures trying to get it fixed at S&W have been related elsewhere here.

Confederate said:

they'd be better off in some dump.

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Some of them actually WOULD be better off in some dump. I got a BNIB 22 revolver which sat in the back
of a damp closet for 60 years. By the time I got to it, the action had literally frozen shut. The original factory
lube had dried out, and was acting as a low grade adhesive.

Deanimator said:

That used to be a great way to get a 4" S&W Model 29.

Some guy would see "Dirty Harry", decide he needs a ..44 Magnum.

He goes to the local gunstore and finds out that there are no 6" guns available. He settles for a 4".

He buys the gun and a box of the hottest .44 Magnum loads he can find.

A few days later the gun is back in the display case of that or another gunstore.

That's probably partially how I got mine (pictured in my avatar), albeit with an added twist.

I saw "48 Hours" and liked Nick Nolte's 4" Model 29.

The local gunstore up the road from Ft. Knox had a gun in the box with all of the accessories.

I mostly shot Specials in it and had no problems, however there was a factory defect in the forcing cone which produced terrible "spitting" with Magnums and hotter Specials.

I can only imagine what some noob thought the first time he fired a hot Magnum load out of a 4" gun that reliably spit out pieces of jacket material due to a defective barrel.

I eventually sold the gun to a friend when I was out of work. I eventually got it back five or so years later.

My adventures trying to get it fixed at S&W have been related elsewhere here.

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Worked for me about 30 years ago with my S&W 29-5. I liked the gun when I saw this one since there ore no flutes on the cylinder.

The grips are original S&W Hogue which I added as with the original weed the gun does have some bite to it. I have the original grips around here somewhere. Never cared to shoot a 44 Magnum derringer or for that matter the derringers and similar chambered for the .410 shot shells.

The below Model 15 is a gun I helped my daughter buy for her husband, Christmas of last year. A good example of a very clean used gun.


The kid loved the gun and was really surprised.

Ron

I've bought mostly new in box guns. However, if it's a collectable gun, or an older model, used is typically the way to go. New in box out of production guns are often priced too high for my liking.

It's just a matter of what you're looking for, how long you are willing to wait to get it, and what you are willing to pay to have it.

For a defensive gun, I prefer to buy new, so I know it hasn't been messed with.

I won't buy a used handgun (unless I know the original owner) because of the bubba-gunsmith factor. Don't want an unexpected discharge because of an amateur attempt to sweeten a trigger action.

beag_nut said:

I won't buy a used handgun (unless I know the original owner) because of the bubba-gunsmith factor. Don't want an unexpected discharge because of an amateur attempt to sweeten a trigger action.

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I can agree to a point. I don't tend to buy used guns online but local gun shops offer a wide variety to choose from and I can pick up a gun and know right away if the gun has been screwed with in a bad way. If the gun looks right and feels right and the action runs correctly I have no reservation with buying the gun not knowing who previously owned it. Also, while I never dragged a gun back the few local shops I deal with have no reservation with backing up what they sell. I can feel a trigger, look at a crown, feel the lock work as well as the next guy. That said I have never bought a gun online where I could not pick it up[ and inspect it.

Ron