tinkerfive Posted April 24, 2011 Report Share Posted April 24, 2011 Being a hobby gunsmith, when I find a gun that I'm interested in 9 times out of 10 I'm considering re-barreling anyway. Most of this comes Via Gunbroker where I can't inspect the gun. When it gets delivered I'll pull it apart clean and inspect it to see what I have to work with. It's rare to get a barrel that is clean and lightly oiled. More often that not they look like they haven't been cleaned in years and you can't tell if you have a 'tomato stake' or a 'one hole'r'. This puzzles the hell out of me. If I'm 'Joe-Blow' looking for a hunting rifle and I pick a gun up off of the rack and see all kinds of crud in the barrel, I'm going to put it right back into the rack. I got this gun the other day and after 3 patches soaked with Hopes#9 the barrel started to look like it hadn't seen very many bullets. The photo on Gunbroker had the price tag with what he was asking for when it was in the shop. I paid less than 1/2 of that. My point being that had this guy taken the time to clean the thing maybe he'd have gotten what he wanted for it and it wouldn't have sat around his shop so long that he got tired of looking at it and put it on Gunbroker. More often than not the bores look at least like they are worth a trip to the range after a good cleaning. I's rare to find one that looks worse cleaned than dirty. Are these shop owners just stupid and lazy or, do they really think that 'Joe Blow' is more likely to buy a dirty gun than a clean one? Happy with my purchase but puzzled Tinker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karlunity Posted April 24, 2011 Report Share Posted April 24, 2011 I think a lot of gunshop owners buy as an investment. I have met some who don't know a mosin from a mauser. karl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemski4 Posted April 24, 2011 Report Share Posted April 24, 2011 On a whim, I took a gun to the gun show to see if I could trade it off and get something different. The first few people who looked at it right off the bat were commenting how dirty the bore was, and were asking if it shot OK, so after about 30 minutes I left went home and brushed out the bore, gave it a good wiping down and went back. After returning several people wanted to buy it out right very quickly, and I told them I just got their and was wanting to trade it for something different, and needed to look around first. I ended up finding what I was looking for, and walked away with the new to me gun, 210.00, a new set of dies and a shell holder. Never again will I try to sell or trade a gun with out cleaning it first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Hess Posted April 25, 2011 Report Share Posted April 25, 2011 I bought a Mauser like that once. Bore looked like crap and I negotiated the price down accordingly. Once it cleaned up, it was actually a very nice bore. I think it was mostly cosmoline in there. My MN, I saw at the pawn shop and looked down the barrel. It looked like new. I was very impressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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