Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What's your biggest pet peev when buying a used rifle???

Everyone thinks their used rifle should sell at near retail price.

Adam

Guns with extra holes, aftermarket pads or refinished wood and/or metal. I just don't even consider buying them....

My biggest pet peev is the condition of the barrel internally. I have always gotten the barrel scoped by a gun smith or replaced.

Replaced?

Yes. I look at it this way, a new barrel is the biggest bang for you buck to breath new life into an older rifle. YMMV

For my Mauser, I go a new barrel. Rifle shoots lights out. For my 270, (from the 1970's 80'ish) I got the barrel scoped. The GS said for being as old as it was, that barrel was in good condition. I guessing it was hardly used. With the proper load, that rifle now shoots lights out.

So condition of the barrel.

Mine?

Staff at the gun counter that are uninformed jackwagons telling unsuspecting buyers lies or half-truths about the rifle, scope, cartridge, or all of the above.

I HATE idiots behind the counter.

Guns that look like they came straight out of grand dad's garage. I spent about 45 minutes doing in store cleaning before leaving with my last two used purchases. Both are great shooters, and the sellers might have scored another 50 to $75 if they'd bothered to clean them up.

Farmer-tight scope mount bases drive me nuts. Did you really have to weld the mounting screws into that Winchester 52? I'm sure it would have held! Argh.

Pet peeve (aside from unannounced defects): sellers who don't or won't take the time to run a couple patches through the bore, and then won't (or can't) accurately describe bore condition.

"Bore looks pretty dirty- it should clean up fine."

Loc-tite.....

Yeah, that's a classic. It should but it probably won't!

Almost as bad as someone selling a house. The roofs a little beat up, but it should hold out for another 5 years.

Geno

People who refuse to separate thier scope and rings thinking they are so brilliant that thier choice is obviously what you need as well.

When bubba puts a recoil pad on a 30-30

I don't care for cold blue, swivels mounted 4 inches from the toe of the stock, recoil pads mounted so that it doesn't match the lines of the stock, and several others. But what really is a deal killer is when I find out that the owner had to "hone" the trigger or tune the action.

Chingered up action screws. Everyone slips now and then but its not THAT hard to put a gun somewhere where it will hold still, and get the right damn tool for the job.

This is my gun buying pet peeve. I realize that some of these guys are willing to be worked down, but some are not. Personally, I just want to see a fair price, and I'll buy it. Not interested in haggling.

I m an old timer and have gotten used bolt action rifles over the years. Most were not sold without some problems. I give then a tuneup which may include some or all of the following. Clean the action , barrel and stock, glass bed the action and free float the barrel, adjust the trigger pull, lapp the bolt locking lugs, and recrown the muzzle , remove wood under the bolt handle. I dont purchase a firearm without first inspecting it and the price is right.

Folks that are convinced their cookie cutter Rem-Chester is worth twice what they paid for it five years ago. After all. We all know guns are an investment and never depreciate.

truth in advertising or the lack there of is what gets me. if i buy a turd and you told me it was a turd i would say the deal went well. but if i buy a turd and it was advertised as a tootsie roll, well i would not be happy. whenever i try to sell i try to under promise and over deliver whenever possible. if not then i try to make sure i'm very accurate in my descriptions and i always tell my buyers that the deal isn't done until they tell me it is. sometimes even when the best effort was put forth there can always be a discrepancy in two peoples honest opinions. but an outright lie no matter how small, i can't tolerate.