call P.E.T.A. for python abuse?

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geronimotwo

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so i'm standing in a local shop, and in walks this old man with a small gym bag. from this bag he removes: a small o2 container (that he is receiving supplemental oxygen from), about three dozen loose rifle shell (that he procedes to trade in on a caliber he needs), a .32 auto (which he claims he can't find ammo for), and a scoped colt python (which had a beautiful blue sheen, no visible holster wear, but many many scratches and dings likely from surviving it's current mode of transport.)

i don't think this would be the worst case of firearm negligence i have seen, but it was one of the nicest firearms that i have seen abused.

i'm curious as to the worst case of firearm abuse anyone here has seen.
 
I've seen some real winners at a large local flea market. One particularly bad one I remember from this past September was an old Arisaka.

It was bubba'd, and apparently Bubba was out of Hoppes and #0000. Terrible rust and pitting on all visible metal. The bore looked like the proverbial sewer pipe and the wood was scratched and dinged with little finish remaining. If the 'mum was intact I might have considered it but it was a mess. It looked like it sat in someones basement since the Japanese surrender. I asked the guy selling it what he wanted, just out of curiousity. He told me $300 because it was a WWII collector's item. I mentioned that it really wasn't with the shortened barrel and sporter sights. He insisted that they were the original sights that the Japs used. I just laughed and continued on to the next table.
 
my uncles 870. I've seen it go down a flight of concrete steps. Seeing any gun do that sucks, let me tell you.
 
I remember this one old fellow with a table at the local gun shows. He had mostly bottom end wheel guns and autos; what made this unusual is that he had all of his guns tied together with long strands of string through the trigger guards. So when someone wanted to look at one gun, the old man would drag a couple of guns into each other so he could untie the one that you wanted to look at. The worse part was that at the end of the show, you kind of got the feeling that they went into some box or container the same way they were displayed; all tied together without any protection from the ensuing dents and dings.
 
I'm going to have to go with the guy at a gun show that told me that since I was under 21 I could not own a handgun in Mississippi. It was funny because my S&W was on my hip (I always open carry at the gun show even though it can't be loaded) when I was talking to him.
 
Like a new car... the new gets banged off'n it sooner or later...

Oh, I dunno. My favoritest carry gun is pretty beat up.

It's been in pockets, packs, bike saddlebags, in the rain, dropped on pavement twice, completely submerged, lost by the airlines for a month (and recovered), under the seat of various vehicles, in gloveboxes, buried in a snowbank for an hour, etc. etc. etc.

But it's forty years old.

And many decades ago I named it "My W'il Fwend."

Not that I don't take care of my guns, it's just that my little Llama .380 goes just about everywhere I do, and over the decades, has picked up a bit of... "maturity," and had some of the new banged off'n it.

Well, a lot of the new banged off'n it.

Just like me, at 68 years old.

It's probably had as many rounds through it as there've been gallons of pee through me.

Still shoots pretty good, though...

And I still p.... oh, I'm sure you can complete that thought...
 
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The worse part was that at the end of the show, you kind of got the feeling that they went into some box or container the same way they were displayed; all tied together without any protection from the ensuing dents and dings.
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At the Crossroads show I go to there's always a large commercial pawn shop there with the same setup. They usually have alot of young gun-ignorant idiots working the table. Well, I once saw them cleaning up at the end of the day and wouldn't you know it... these guys are just unlocking the ends of the cables from the table, locking them together, and picking up all the guns are once to drop into a lock box. Pfff. Like a string of fish.

These guys are rude, unknowledgable, and way overpriced anyway. But still... :scrutiny:


-T.
 
My father carried a series of S&W revolvers on his person and in his vehicle from the time I was big enough to notice. Then, after his retirement in 1968, he bought a Browning Hi Power for his carry/vehicle weapon. It was okay. However, he took his last S&W .38 Special down and put it aboard his sport fishing boat that was kept on the Gulf Coast of Texas. I honestly believe that he never again took it out of the rug. When he died several years later, I went down to see about selling the boat (I live in the desert, I don't really need a deep-water fishing boat). When I found the S&W in the cubby of the flying bridge, the nylon/fleece rug had irremovably bonded to the rusty revolver. It took me about 30 minutes just to get the revolver out of the rug. The cylinder was frozen, the hammer was frozen. After finally getting the cylinder to swing out, I discovered the bore was solidly plugged with what I guess was rust. Sad. I would have like to have given my father's S&W to one of my sons, but that one was toast (the rest of his firearms were all fine, clean and lightly oiled, I think that one just got forgotten). I turned it in to the Brazoria County Sheriff's Office to be destroyed.
 
The worst cases of abuse I've seen have been the hack saw jobs. One that sticks in my mind was a Greek Mannlicher-Schoenauer with rare navy markings and a two digit SN that had been cut and sliced six ways from sunday. Barrel cut, new front sight welded on, bolt handle bent and relocated, receiver cut to allow for new bolt handle location, weird rear sight welded to bolt body that wiggled around. Second rear sights, a cheap sheet metal job, again welded to the barrel but off-center. Stock cut up in every way possible. I believe the thing had been partially rechambered as well and was no longer safe to shoot.
 
Chuhunniban wrote:

It took me about 30 minutes just to get the revolver out of the rug. The cylinder was frozen, the hammer was frozen. After finally getting the cylinder to swing out, I discovered the bore was solidly plugged with what I guess was rust. Sad. I would have like to have given my father's S&W to one of my sons, but that one was toast (the rest of his firearms were all fine, clean and lightly oiled, I think that one just got forgotten). I turned it in to the Brazoria County Sheriff's Office to be destroyed.
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Wasn't there a thread recently about a gun that had been buried in dirt for a couple of years/months and was restored to attractive serviceability?

I'd search for it, but my old hand-cranked computer is too slow to deal with searches.

I wonder if the bore was just full of bugs n' spiderwebs n' such.
 
The worst "Python abuse" I have ever seen happened at a range. I guy had just bought a brand new 6" blued Pyton. He also bought some reloading equipment because he wanted "hotter loads than the stuff off the shelf". He apparently exhausted his funds before he could buy a reloading manual. He took a bunch of primed .357 mag cases, filled them to the case mouth with Unique and then seated a 158 gr JHP on top of it (can you say compressed load).:what:

When he cranked off the first round, he blew the top strap off, and blew out the cylinder walls of the adjoining cylinders.:banghead: He was lucky he kept his hand.
 
bubbapd1.jpg


1920-something Finnish Tula 91/30. Hacked off just above the sling swivel, Dremel-dovetailed and a handcrafted front sight knocked in by Bubba.
 
230RN wrote:
I wonder if the bore was just full of bugs n' spiderwebs n' such.
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Nah, I actually took it to a gunsmith before I surrendered it to the tender mercies of the Sheriff's office. He said that by the time he could get the rust out of the bore, it was going to be .47 caliber revolver (and the walls of the barrel might be a little thin). Salt water and salt air are viscious, we even had stainless steel fittings corrode enough to need to be replaced in just two or three years. I worked in the Dow Chemical plant at Freeport, Texas, for a while and corrosion was the major maintenance problem (and the boat was two miles from Dow's plant).
 
How about a 20 something year old kid walking into a pawn shop with a shadow box display case containing a Colt Diamondback, Python and Anaconda. All pristine, the cylinders looked as if they had never been turned. In his other arm were all the original boxes and papers, also pristine. "Can you give me $500 for these? My Grandpa left 'em to me and I don't want no old man guns (meaning revolvers)." The man behind the counter obviously jumped on it. As the kid was leaving he said "I got some Smith and Wessons done up like that too, you want me to bring them in?"

I had to leave before I cried. :cuss: Worst case of guna abuse I've ever heard tell of.
 
As the kid was leaving he said "I got some Smith and Wessons done up like that too, you want me to bring them in?"

I would like to adopt this child. Do you have his contact information! ;)
 
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