Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Verifying a gun seller

Found a gun I've been looking for on Guns America. Not a too good to be true deal, but a fair deal. Problem is the guy is 4 states away and has no feedback. He's selling 3 different guns on there, but hasn't sold one yet. Payment by money order or check. Thought about just calling him and talking to him, but I guess somebody could bluff there way through that. Any way to verify the guy, or pay in a way that somewhat protects me? I used to be more trusting and haven't been burned, but there is so many scams out there right now.

No to your question. Trust you gut.

Maybe you pick a dealer on the sellers end and run the deal through him. You pay the transfer fee on both ends.

So call him anyway

Stop being timid and staring at the floor, have some confidence in your ability recognize inflection and tone in his voice, see if the guy is sounding shady, stutters, etc. if the seller sucks at communication, skip it. I don’t screw with people that give me a ‘vibe’

Call the guy up and chat a little. Casually let him know you work at “Whatever” county Sheriffs dept....gauge the reaction.

If you insist on moving forward with this. Have him send you pictures of the gun with today’s newspaper - something a random person couldn’t replicate. I would insist on a phone conversation and ask a few basic gun-related questions. This will usually flush out the fakes pretty quickly as they won’t be able to answer correctly. How does it shoot with x grain bullets when x isn’t available in that caliber. 600 grain partitions in a 17 Rem for example.

Good luck!

Jeez Louise. I had a guy just a couple weeks ago call and have a "little chat" with me. He was buying a set of .223 dies from me off Gunbroker. Was almost apologetic, but got across that he was new at all this shooting stuff, and buying online, and the only reason he was doing GB was because a friend of his at work recommended it. But, he told me, he just wanted to talk to me before sending me money. $70. I respected that. Respected it a great deal and did all I could to comfort him about the business, gun people in general, and me in particular. His buddy was getting him into shooting, specifically shooting ARs. And he was helping his friend and new shooter build the gun. So I respect them both. But it doesn't end there. You never know when you will have the opportunity to encourage; the opportunity to help when a little help might go a long way. You see, after we'd talked a while he opened up a little more and told me how his friend had talked to him about guns for quite a bit but he just never had been around them, never had a chance to just go out and shoot. And he hadn't understood how important firearms ownership is particularly today in America. I know this because as we talked the told me his buddy had told him all these things and that after listening and learning and seeing what is happening to America he decided "to begin to exercise my 2nd Amendment rights". Wow. Now, he's going to be limited on how much of an AR he can really build but that's so much less important than the decision he made and his pursuit of that ideal. You see, when I got his payment and shipping address I saw he's from Simi Valley, Komifornia. But even Komifornia can't stop it all. He decided. There's hope.

This isn't a Ruger Charger without a bipod, per chance, is it? Guy also have a Yellow Avalanche and maybe throw in some nekkid pics of his 'ol lady?

You sure worry a lot.