doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Buying Online- Ins and Outs

When looking at a vintage hammer gun on the Internet a few years back that was listed by a reputable dealer that was supposed to be an 'English gun expert' (with the gun in his hand).....I asked "What condition is the breech face in ?" his answer "great condition"....."Are the firing pin holes corroded ?"..."they look fine". Everything else sounded okay so I ordered the gun.

When I opened the box the gun looked beautiful...first thing I looked at the was the breech face and firing pin holes. The right one looked like it had two holes. When you pushed the hammer forward the firing pin drooped to the point that I wondered if it would even hit the primer.

I immediately called him up and called him out on the lie he had told me.....his reply was "What do you expect for $3000 dollars ?"

I told him I expected him to refund my money along with the shipping both ways or I would take pictures and expose him on the Internet for the bull $%&^ artist he was.

Needless to say he used what little brain power he had and refunded the total amount.

Ouch! I am starting to get real nervous- I guess I will get on the phone to talk to the seller of the gun that I am interested in. Good advice from lots of folks here, thanks.

It's the so called reputable gun dealers that I've had the most trouble with....they just won't tell and hope that you won't see it....Then they come up with some lame reply or offer to cut the price alittle more.

My advise is ask lots of questions and if you don't know what you are looking at....find someone who does and has the tools to measure the bores....and that is easier said than done.

Some of the guys at my gun club are gun shy of me...they don't want me going over their purchases. Then others ask me to help them look one over...I looked over a vintage English hammer gun last week with a buddy it was priced about 4 grande it had some glitter but was over priced by at least $2500 bucks in my oppinion. As a shooter I'm not sure I'd be interested at $1500 bucks.

Cleaned action.....steel barrels with scatered blued over pitting on the outside of the barrels some bad some not so bad.....a couple of spots of deep pitts in both barrels that were really hard to see (had to get outdoors and look at the sky to see them)....One barrel grew in the middle by 4 thousands ?........a couple of serial numbers didn't match....in my oppinion it was over proofed for the barrel weight and chamber thickness (blown out to 3" and re-proofed for 1 & 1/2 oz). blued hammers....the feel of the locks wasn't the greatest....long firing pin on one side short on the other....plastic butt plate.

What do you expect for 4 grande ?

I think most reputable dealers are . . . well, reputable. If you have questions about a particular dealer, this is a great place to ask. You will get "references" from people who've bought from that dealer and had good experiences, and you'll likely hear the not so good stuff too.

My two bad experiences have both been with well-known/reputable dealers (one a national retailer with a "fine gun" room and the other a maker with a large used gun collection). In both cases, I asked specific questions about the gun condition, including action tightness. In both cases, the guns arrived with loose actions, despite assurances to the contrary. The "good" news in both cases was that the dealers made good on their misrepresentations, but there was still a fair amount of unnecessary effort and aggravation. In fact, with one gun, I sent it back for the needed repairs, and it came back 3 weeks later untouched, so I had to send it back again.

It led me to conclude some dealers will say what is needed to sell the gun and hope the buyer doesn't have the gun inspected and/or is not savvy enough to notice. And apparently they get away with it enough to continue doing it.