Tell me about the craziest issue you've seen with a USED gun...

I bought a Yugo SKS (The kind with the gas shut off valve). He said nothing was wrong with it....

Got it home and could tell the gun had never been cleaned, cosmoline was everywhere not accessible from the "Outside".... I disassembled it and soaked it in a parts washer and paid special attention to the gas valve.....

Works 100%.

I now suspect he sold it cheap, because he thought it didn't work / semi auto.

 

Buddy of mine briefly owned a Bryco 9mm pistol.

It was an impressively bad pistol. Light strikes, failures to eject, failures to extract, double feeds, stovepipes, everything. I think the record was 3 rounds in a row without malfunctioning?

The most impressive malfunction was that the recoil impulse would often activate the takedown button, and the slide would half unhook itself from the frame upon firing.

 

Thankfully I haven't been burned as yet on a used gun. I did see a really bad issue once though. Young guy had a new to him Mosin nagant from cabelas. His savings grace was being left handed as he fired a couple rounds through the gun and each time had a bunch of crap flying off to the side of the gun and was very difficult to open the action and extract the fired cartridge. Turns out the rifle was demilled. Had two holes drilled into the chamber on the left side of the receiver. If he had fire that right handed would have sent shrapnel from the case and hot gasses right into his face. Cabelas issued a recall on those rifles.

 

That reminds me of a story. A friend of mine owned a Chinese AK knock off, likely a NHM-91. We took it to the range and it would misfire every third of forth round. This was confusing given AKs "ironclad reliability." I offered to take it back to my place and try to find the problem. Turns out this friend was under the impression that Vaseline was the only thing ever needed to clean a firearm. The firing pin was clogged with Vaseline so much that the pin was slowed.

 

I bought an “as new” Stainless Colt XS commander from a local shop. The thing looked absolutely beautiful. And I paid more for that thing than I have ever paid for a gun before or since. I get it home, give it a cleaning and lube job so I can try it out.

I notice that someone removed the series 80 parts. I figure no big deal. I can always put it back to right. Series 80 parts were cheep enough.

This is where I should have taken it back and got my money back, but it was just so pretty.

The gun runs pretty good, not great, so I start to figure it out and I realize that someone tried to do a ramp and throat polish job on it. It looked good but the angles were all wrong. Also, when they throated the barrel they went further than I felt good about. Evolution Gun Works did a great job welding up the frame and machining to it stock specs. A colt barrel from Flee Bay.

Still not running great. Machined the ramp angle, just a little. Less than five degrees I believe. It has been quite a few years.

Running like a Colt should. This thing is so pretty. Running great right up until the front sight flies off.

Send the slide to Vegas to get the front sight fixed. Under warranty. Thank you, PT night sights.

Ok, its running like a Colt should again. This thing is just so dam pretty. Until the front sight flies off again.

Back to Vegas. Thanks again PT night sights.

I put a thousand rounds through the gun without a bobble and sold it for what I paid for it. Good riddance. The shop I bought it from is now out of business. Good riddance!

 

Friend of mine at the gun club bought a used gun off gunbroker.

A few weeks later the sheriff showed up and took it. Turns out the thing was stolen. The owner scanned posts on gunbroker and found his gun (serial # was visible in the picture). Contacted the authorities who tracked the transaction down to the FFL, then to my friend's house.

He handed over the gun. Was out the $300+ he paid for it though. Never got reimbursed for it.

At least the owner got his gun back.

 

Now that's gotta suck!

 

One time a guy tried to sell me a "SS S&W Model 15" at a gunshow. Looked SS except it was soaked in oil. Down to the "white" probably with steel wool, such a deal at $350. Somebody else got that treasure. Joe

 

A now deceased hunting buddy and gun collector bought a S&W M29-1 from a pawn shop for a very reasonable price. It looked like the long barrel and appeared to be in very good condition. Upon getting home he compared it to another 29-1 with the 6.5" barrel. The finish was slightly different, and he determined the length was 8" (vs the 8 3/8" factory). Taking it to the range he couldn't get groups worth a darn with proven target loads, most rounds not even hitting the target at 25 yards. One of the few things he did not have was a bore scope. After getting one he checked many of his guns and when he got to his "new" 29-1, discovered that an extra 4" of barrel had been welded on, and that the rifling was in the Opposite direction to the original length!!

 

About 12 years ago, I picked up a trapdoor Springfield for $475. The seller disclosed it had some issues, and priced accordingly - at least he advised it was not safe to fire as-is and needed some work - barrel was stopped up with some paper. I negotiated the price down a bit thinking it would be a good wall hanger over the fireplace - the stock was absolutely mint, and the rifle was otherwise in very fine appearance.

Yeah, the breechblock turned out to have been was pretty buggered - ended up replacing the whole breechblock. But the "paper" stuck up the barrel was the real surprise. Turned out to have been a tight roll of US large banknotes: 1891, 1896 and 1917 notes. As a numismatic hobbyist, I totally forgot about the rifle at that point ... the "barrel plug" had more than paid for the rifle!

That was my best "good" surprise.

 

Dupe.

 

A couple of years ago a non gun enthusiast friend of mine decided that he needed a pistol to keep in the nightstand. After I let him fire several of my guns he decided to look for a .38 special. After a week or so I got a phone call from him asking what the best grips where for a S&W model 10. He said that the recoil with the factory wood grips was 'horrendous'.
Long story short, he had bought the gun and several hundred rounds of ammo from a guy on armslist. Problem was, the ammunition that was included was 38 super instead of.38 special.

 

Almost 30 years ago I traded a 10 ga Ithica Roadblocker for a AMC .44 Auto Mag because, you know, it was the baddest boy on the block and I just had to have it. Besides an old girlfriend I had one time it was one of the worst decisions in my long life. First magazine ran fine but after that the fun began. Stovepipes, failure to fire and feed, magazine spring broke and non existent. ammo. This was years before the internet so customer support was snail mail (never responded) or the telephone that was never answered. Still kick myself in the ax on that one.

 

I got a good deal on a Raven .25. Never had a .25 before and thought it would be fun. Took it home and stripped it for cleaning. The frame had a huge crack in the web at the spot that's even with the top of the magazine. As I fiddled with it, a piece of that web fell off. I have it disassembled and in a baggie. Anyone ever heard of this?

 

Yes, I've seen severeal brought into shops to 'get fixed'. They usually ended up as parts in bins.

 

My real bad one is similar to Morcey's. I bought a beater Arisaka from a buddy. He wasn't sure of the model Type 38 or 99, or caliber 6.5 or 7.7.
I get it home, the muzzle measures out to fit 6.5, markings and details match type 38. OK. fine, but bolt won't close on resized case. Shine a really bright flashlight down chamber -- yep, the remains of a case are stuck in there. It was very thin and flattened against the walls of the chamber. It took some work with brass wedges to get it out. But, the chamber is obviously oversize/loose and I still think there's a piece of the neck in there. I tried cerrosafe, but I had a heck of a time getting out. I have to go back to the drawing board on it, try the cerrosafe again and then see if it's salvageable at all.

The other one I'm working on now is a Colt 1903 that went burp fire on me. I have a replacement sear and need to get it changed.

 

1903 is a fantastic gun.....and the japanese rifles are super strong.

 

Oh, that Colt is a beauty, but having it go auto at times is not my cup of tea. The Japanese actions are strong, but that chamber is buggered, it does a number on brass.

 

I got screwed on a deal with a Raven .25 once. I had won a S&W Model 15, and the seller threw in the Raven with no magazine, as a "bonus". My FFL of course insisted I take it, charged me transfer. Found a mag on Ebay for like $20 or something and was finally able to dump it for $40. So with transfer and magazine I only lost $10-$15 or so...

 

i once bought a kimber pro from armslist and when it arrive i put 10 rounds through it and it totally went crazy. it was jamming more than 80's music.

 

I traded an XD45 to a fella on another local web forum.
He had a mint two tone S&W 99 in 40 caliber that I had the hots for so we worked out a meet, couldn't quite figure out why he was willing to drive an hour and a half for a meet but didn't think much of it. It was after work and just before dark so at a glance everything looked great.
The gun was like new as described. When I got it home I cleaned it and put it away for the weekend.
When I got to looking a little closer I noticed an anomaly in the bbl. It looked like during machining the rifling machine had a hiccup. The rifling had what I can only describe as a "chatter mark".
...long story short, sent it to Smith an Wesson who sounded suspicious over the phone that it was ammo/reload induced.
They replaced the bbl free of charge and payed the freight both ways. They also admitted it looked like a manufacturing defect and apologized that it made it past QC. (Kudos to Smith&Wesson service)