Who are the goofs who don't clean up their trade-ins?

Drail said:

Over the years I have met LOTS of people who shoot guns and never clean them. They also never change their mower blades or change the oil in their car or check the air in their tires or clean out their gutters or change their furnace filters. I can't even imagine living like that. I suppose not every guy had a Drill Sgt.

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Hey! I RESE...mble that statement

I once went to clean a $1000 AK I had sold off and wouldn't you know, the CLP spray cleaner took the finish right off the receiver! After that I just leave them alone.

I've bought 2 from Sheriff's sales that looked like this. Criminals don't clean their guns!

S&W Model 15-3



S&W Model 59 - filthiest gun I've ever seen. This cleaned up and is my nightstand gun.

I bought a rifle at a gun show. It was what I wanted, a Remington 788 bolt action .223, and the price was good, I didn't mind dirty. Wrong.

When I cleaned it, I could feel the patch jump. Yup, a bulge. Fortunately it was more than 18" out so I thought a cut and crown would give me a handy carbine. But it still wouldn't shoot and it wouldn't clean smooth. Yup, pitted from AH to Appetite, concealed by the fouling I had dismissed. I didn't know there was corrosive .223 or 5.56 to be neglected.

Remington quoted $135 for a new barrel, so I sent the barrelled action in, keeping the refinished and checkered stock that had seduced me at home.
When it came back, it would not fit the stock. Guard screws farther apart. Serial number different. They had not rebarrelled it, they had replaced it. Years after the model was discontinued they still had complete barreled actions. Refitting the stock got it shooting.

There was a time when I was a pretty serious handgun competitor. It got to the point where I was shooting so much that I was too tired to clean my gun every day. The gun didn't seem to care, at any rate. I did note that the few men who could beat me had dirty guns too, and for the same reason.

So you folks who take pride in your pristine guns are welcome to it. For myself, when I see a sparkling gun on the line I assume the owner simply doesn't shoot it very much.

Never buy a clean used Glock, it probably has issues.

Probably more guns damaged by improper or over cleaning than use. I will wipe down the exterior before putting them away, but they only get broken down and thoroughly cleaned as needed. And the barrels need cleaning a lot less than most think. Several hundred rounds in most cases. When I decide to sell or trade a gun it gets cleaned if it needs it. And most of the time it doesn't. Never got a dime more or less for it regardless of whether it was cleaned prior to selling. It isn't hard to tell the difference in a gun that has been fired and not cleaned and one that has been abused for years. I often to the former, not the latter.

And I shoot my guns a LOT. I also return shopping carts and pick up the trash others leave behind. If I broke down and thoroughly cleaned every gun I take to the range after any given trip when I get home I'd spend more time cleaning than shooting. I sometimes take as many as a dozen rifles and handguns. Almost never fewer than 6. I go to the range at least once/week. Usually about 6 or 7 times a month.

Nope, Sgt Oliver taught me, "you shoot a gun you clean that gun "

I worked p/t in a LGS, bring in a dirty gun for consignment, boss told them, go home and clean it or pay $25 for us to do it. We didn't do trades.
As to what kind of person does this, there isn't a single description or label, but I wouldn't drink beer with them.

I read this thread a couple of times and thought, “ You need to just stay out of it Albert “, but, I never could understand why someone thought that a firearm need disassembled and cleaned every time it went to the range. When I get done shooting I take a look at the bore and the action if they aren’t dirty they get a wipe down and get put up. And yes I have several fire arms that are 30+ years old and a few that are 50 years old, all have been treated this way and are still in fine shape. The few times that they were tore down and cleaned a gunsmith done it for a price. Seems to me you are just wearing out the screws and things when you tear’ em down to often. But to “each his own” as my dad used to say. It’s your property treat it like you want to, I do mine.

Mark1964 said:

Now, cleaning an LCP is pretty simple work, but I couldn't help but think, "Why would someone leave a gun in this condition?"
Don't know ... guess I've been shooting so long it's never occurred to me to do anything but give a gun at least a routine cleaning after each use and certainly a thorough cleaning before offering one for sale or trade.

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In today's gun market, it's probably a waste of time. Folks are so desperate to get a gun, any gun, being dirty is not a concern,. nor does it depreciate the value. You bought it, and if you examined it, the dirt didn't concern you, correct? With the amount of first time gun buyers, would they even know it was dirty? Used to be when you bought a new/used car, it always came with a full tank of gas....not so much anymore. Could be that $40 worth of fuel is all the profit left with the way cars are sold nowadays. Same with a dirty gun. Don't affect the sale price or the demand....why bother?

I guess I could see a huge difference if the conversation was shooter vs. collectible. If your gun is a collectible and you're wanting top dollar, leaving it dirty is not a good idea. If your gun is a $200 beater/shooter, not such an issue. That whole lipstick on a pig thing.

What's the problem? The dealer accepted the trade-in in that condition. If he wants to turn it around, he can either clean it first or sell it as is. If you don’t want to buy a dirty gun, don’t.

My question is the opposite: what gun dealer who wants to make money will spend hours cleaning guns? It’s used. If he cleans it expect the price to go up by $50.

I used work at the LGS. We allowed customers to shoot used guns to try them out. I’ll guarantee we didn’t clean them after every customer. So, we are your “goofs”

And no,I don’t clean my guns every time I use them. I do wipe the outer surfaces religiously

I bought an old Mauser on Gunbroker recently. It was a pleasant surprise that the shop owner had disassembled, cleaned and checked it out, lubricated it, and fired 5 rounds through it, with an included test target and load data written on it. But even assuming he deals with these guns every day, that had to be at least an hour of labor. For someone who hasn’t handled a milsurp Mauser in a hot minute, it’d be more than that. That’s a lot of time ($) to be putting into a gun that I bought for $375. Unless he was into it for less than $150 it’s hard to see how he was able to make much. Even then... I didn’t pay extra for the service, so me personally, I’d rather not spend the hour. If it’s rusty or really ugly I’d spend 15 minutes making it pretty, but anything more than that is hard to justify. It always makes me shake my head when guys ask me what the markings on the trigger return spring or under the grips say. As a hobbyist they may have time to read the 700 page book someone wrote, disassemble their own gun, and note every mark, but please don’t expect every gunshop employee in the world to be up on the minutiae of your favorite platform.

The world has a relatively high percentage of ignorant, lazy, stupid, or both lazy and stupid people. Gun owners are no different.

This is hilarious. Somebody sells off a dirty gun or guns and some of y'all have then determined the whole character of the person based on a single incident or trait.

Some of my guns are pristine. Some of them are dirty. Field guns stay dirty most of the time, PARTICULARLY THE BORE. That way I don't have to worry about the POI changing between a clean barrel and dirty barrel. Everything gets lubed regularly, but 'cleaning' varies considerably.

I have a .22 rifle that only gets the bore scrubbed out when it's 1 hole, 25 yard groups look like a .45 hole instead of 9mm. So there.

I’ve gotten some of my best buys from those who never cleaned their guns. They were selling because it just didn’t work right anymore and thought they were screwing me. A couple I had to replace some parts but the majority just needed a tear down with cleaning and lube and were like brand new again.

I saw many a dirty gun at the Las Vegas pawnshops I used to look for bargains at in the later '70's, some so bad they couldn't be shot. I never understood why the guys working there, or he owner for sure, wouldn't take a few minutes to clean the thing. At least wipe down the outside!

A while back, I bought a super dirty (in the pics) S&W 28-2. I got it for a decent price and set USPS money orders to the seller and waited. He sent me an email, says, "I shipped it off today, after giving it a god cleaning!". That was nice. And clean it was, spotless inside and out, looked great, but he is a rarity, most used guns I've bought online need to be cleaned. I don't understand why they don't clean them before posting pics of them! Five minutes and they would get more for them. Worst ever was a Dan Wesson 15-2 that had so much unburned powder in it that it was almost impossible to cock it to fire it single action. The seller did wipe that one down, it looked great, but wow, was it a mess inside. Looks pretty nice these days..

Mark1964 said:

"Why would someone leave a gun in this condition?"
Don't know ... guess I've been shooting so long it's never occurred to me to do anything but give a gun at least a routine cleaning after each use and certainly a thorough cleaning before offering one for sale or trade.

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Come on over, I'll put you to work!!

DM

I have to admit that I am one of the people that don’t always clean their guns they trade in. I’ve even went so far as to fire the remainder of ammunition I have for the gun right before I leave to go to the gunshop if I don’t have anything else in the caliber.

"Who are the goofs ..."
Well , goofs can be useful. About 2 years back I came across a model 10 that had splotches of rust. I determined , with my somewhat trained eye , that the oxidization was very superficial , having been caused by a one time exposure to water. I made an offer based on the visual condition -around $230 or $240 as I recall - and it became mine. The internals were clean ; the finish yielded to Flitz with little effort. The trigger is excellent.

Bring on the goofs - I like good deals!!!