Used Guns - Hidden Gold Mines

[rking453]

Seems like I'm always finding myself on the hunt for some firearm that isn't necessarily "rare" but hard to find. Other than the obvious gunbroker, gunsinternational, guns dot com, gunsamerica, where do you folks look when you can't find what you're looking for?

Gun shops near me are few and far between, and typically their inventory looks a lot like whatever walmart was selling 10-20 years ago.

 

[IrkedCitizen]

Forum classified section

 

[kaboku68]

Use the Walmart selection to your advantage. Buy several "working man" rifles generally 7s, Ruger 77s, Winchester Model 70s, and Remington 700s for cheap. Low ball like a boss. Get them for 250-450 dollars per pop. Concentrate on 300 Win, 7 Rems and 338s. People tend to shoot those ones less. 270s, 243s, 308s, even 30/06s get shot more. A 270 shot for 50 years and used hard for 50 years is generally in more used condition than the 338 that was shot four times and put in a dry closet. So you get 10-15 of these fodder - Working Man's rifles and when something good comes in you trade 3-5 of these for something worth 1.5K to 2K. You fluff up the trade value of the working man's rifles and you barter down the price of the item that you seek. You go to all of the shops around you and you take inventory from one shop and take the used rifles to the shops that haven't seen them. Clean those rifles up nicely between when you buy them and trade them.

 

[letrbuck]

proxibid

 

[kaboku68]

I have about four gunshops that I work with. The key thing is that I try to trade guns from other shops to other shops. I just put three rifles up. The top is a 71 Deluxe that I got for 2200 trade value. The Second is a Steyr MS that I got for 1500 trade value and the 3rd is a custom Hal Hartley 270 Winchester done on a FN Commercial Mauser for 600.

 

[ozyclint]

Abused guns

 

[rking453]

proxibid

Ah, good idea on proxibid, I hadn't thought of that

 

[jolemons]

I always enjoy the offerings on Africa Hunting and 24hr Campfire forums

Sent from my SM-S936U using Tapatalk

 

[Remington1]

24 hour campfire forum
NW Firearms forum

 

[Unclecroc]

We have a local online classified site where I live that I deal on a lot.
I’ve done some dealings on optics on forum classifieds too.
I know guys who volunteer as dd at bars and I’ve heard of several tabs being settled by being traded a gun.

 

[Steve300xcw]

I like to search gunbroker. Search just the state I'm in, and then save everybody that is selling within driving distance. There are more out there than I would have guessed.

I'll window shop in the morning while having my coffee. Every once in a while something will pop up that I have to have.

Local pawn shop I had never heard of had this 586-3 listed last year. Misspelled everything in the title and had some shitty potato phone pics. No bids and the auction ended that day. Figured for $450 I couldnt get hurt on it......

 

[TaperPin]

I cruise the same old used gun racks that never seem to have anything. These are the places kids who don’t know anything take deceased parents’ guns, so a couple good guns always pop up from time to time. My best deals came from pawn shops or gun stores that normally don’t have anything good. The key is often knowing what things are worth so you don’t have to hesitate. Less common guns are the most likely to be over or under priced. Truck guns or guns with surface rust from bad storage often look beat up, but clean up well. An ace hardware in a small rural town had a total of three used rifles, two of which went home with me, a Ruger number 1 in 375 H&H and a heavy barrel #1 in 22-250.

With any rifle if you buy it at market rate or below you can always get your money out of it, so it’s like exchanging money for a different kind of money.

Even organized gun shops with knowledgeable guys buying and selling often have certain types of rifles that they don’t like the hassle of selling online and they clearance them locally so they don’t compete with new rifle sales. A certain major retailer charges top dollar for guns in new condition or are somewhat desirable, but secondary guns like common hunting rifles get clearanced if the racks are full.

One batch from an estate sale all had the exact same aftermarket stocks which would be worth the asking price of the entire rifle. Another time someone must have been a Howa collector from 10 years ago and every shape and caliber seemed to show up all at once. If it’s obvious an estate sale came in I ask if there are other rifles in the back that are waiting for rack space.mmOnce a bunch of the same old savage rifles in new condition with the crazy ugly birch stocks showed up at the same time for $200/ea. These look horrible and shoot great. I hesitated to clear my head since I’m not a Savage guy, went back to buy them all to give out as Christmas presents, but someone else picked them up.

Estate sales and kids that don’t shoot will always be a constant supply of interesting older guns.

 

[ethanbillingsley]

I live in S.C. and so finding used firearms at yard sales is always a honey hole. Most often its people who don't want their dad's guns near their kids so they are willing to part and don't know the value. Often start with I like old ammo boxes with cool designs and kinda work my way in from there.