EDM,
To answer your questions.
I buy guns because they are beautiful. I also buy guns to shoot them. I think the combination of beauty and function is unsurpassed in certain guns.
I bought the gun as a package, the gun with the scope. If the scope is not functional it serves nothing of what it is supposed to do. To have a new scope fitted to the fast release mounts is not quite cheap. I think Champlin Arms quotes somewhere in the $800 and up for the job. I even ordered rifle ammo to try the accuracy of the rifle barrel, but did not try it as it was clear from the start that it wouldn't work.
As of traveling to see the gun, that would be ideal but impractical for obvious reasons. As I said, it is not that I had to pay shipping, that's a small detail.
I asked once a DG Forum listed dealer to e-mail me pictures of a gun he has on his site and he said that if I am ready to buy a 5K gun I should be ready to pay shipping both ways if I did not like it, because he wasn't the kind that works with pictures. If we are to do this with all guns that we see listed, we would end up spending a lot more before we'd like what is sent to us. Obviously, I did not deal with him. If I happen to be in his store one day I would certainly enjoy looking at his guns. Sending pictures is standard procedure these days and it would only help selling an item as long as there is nothing to hide. I think that the internet is a great tool to buy and sell as long as we can count on each other's honesty and common sense.
To me, the definition of a functional scope is one that can be mounted solidly on a gun and be adjusted for POI in a repetitive way. I am certain that my definition is not far from yours. My mistake was that I took this for granted and did not ask Mr. Barnett about his own definition of a functional scope.
