Need advice on used 1862 Police I bought

T

TruthTellers

New member
I saw a used 1862 Pocket Police online last week and since I'd had my eye on them for so long, I grabbed it for $250. It has the 6.5 inch barrel that I wanted and while I kind of know there's always the chance you could wind up with a rusted/pitted cylinder and bore, I took the chance figuring if I like the revolver, I can buy a spare barrel.

Well, the cylinder looks fine, some surface discoloration from rust, but it's not objectionable as I have that in one of my '58 NMA's because my first time shooting, I didn't know I had to clean it within a few days.

Apart from some minor scratches and dents on the frame and grips, the issue is the bore of the barrel; it's pitted pretty well in several spots and the seller said the barrel "looked good." There's also some play in the cylinder when locked up, which I don't have in my 1851 Pietta, so I'm not sure if the Uberti Pockets are supposed to have some play in the cylinder.

The thing is, I like the revolver, it has an excellent feel and with the 6.5 inch barrel, it's not top heavy or anything. Like I said, I could buy another barrel for it, maybe the 5.5 or 3.5 inch and keep the 6.5 inch as a spare.

My concern is if I go to re-sell it, I have to tell the buyer that the bore is pitted and I'm wondering how that's going to affect the resale price. If I can't get at least $200 for it, should I send this back and get a refund?
 
I would get a refund.
I would invest that $250.00 in a brand new one , or at least one in better condition.
The barrel didn't "look good"...it was pitted and pitted doesn't look good in my book.
Better deals are out there for $250.00.
Gary
 
rodwhaincamo said:
I’d want my money back as well. It’s for this very reason I’m skeptical of buying used.
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It's the first black powder revolver I've ever bought used and the reason why I always avoided them was that I'd likely have this issue, but the description said the "bore is in good condition" and pitting is not in "good condition" in my book because if I sold something under that language and saw what I'm seeing, they'd say the same thing.

Bottom line: if I tried to sell this revolver in its current condition, I'd be lucky to get half what I paid for it.
 
I emailed the seller and he said that he had his "gunsmith" look it over and he did not see any major pitting and that the bore is not "badly pitted."

I went into this with the description that the bore is in "good condition" and nowhere in the description, nor any pictures showed that there was any pitting. At what point do I leave a negative review here guys and file a fraud report?
 
Here's one picture of the bore:

DX5O7kLUMAAU1ov.jpg


IDK, would you guys list this on gunbroker as in "good condition"?
 
No way I’d call that “good condition.” It’s not. It’s been neglected. Granted maybe the damage isn’t very bad and it may shoot well still it is not in good condition whatsoever and I wouldn’t be inclinded to be happy having spent my money, especially top dollar, on that. It would be another story were it’s condition known and priced accordingly.

Is the bore pitted just in the center of the barrel as it appears?

Is the seller refusing to refund you?
 
The bore is pitted sporadically from about 1 inch into the chamber end to basically the muzzle. Just shining a light down the muzzle you can see brown rust and pitting a quarter inch in and it goes down for an inch or two.

Seller has stated "all sales are final" even with black powder guns, so as of his only response to me since I contacted him, he is refusing to refund me.

If I don't get a response from him by tomorrow night, I'm going to file a fraud claim through gunbroker and then on Monday I'll be calling the BBB. This bore is in terrible condition.
 
Thanks, but you don't have to be, I have faith that this is going to be resolved after I get gunbroker involved. I've already reached out to the credit card company to ask them what can be done to reclaim the funds from the seller.

The sad thing is that this is the this exact reason why I never bothered to buy a used black powder muzzleloader on gunbroker. I always thought I'd get something that was jacked up. I've bought stuff on gunbroker before that was advertised and had pics of bores with pitting in them and that particular gun turned out to be just fine. To buy something that's said to be good only to not be is unacceptable and I will leave scathing feedback if this isn't resolved.

Heck, at best he's going to get a D just for refusing to refund me the first time. Nowhere on the listing page does it even say "all sales are final."
 
Alright, he's refusing refund and is hiding behind the NRA's definition of "good condition" which includes light pitting.

Negative feedback and a fraud report will get this taken care of.
 
INDEED!

That bore looks like a sewer pipe, cylinder is not much better.

I went with the Pietta 1858 NMA target model in stainless. I'm not a traditionalist and stainless makes sense for BP, Still have to keep it clean, but not near as critical as steel.

My issue was the cylinder bores were of differing sizes, to the point the revolver was dangerous. The oversize bores, 2 of them would allow the ball to come off the powder under recoil. Not good.

Customer service for Traditions the importer was downright surly. When I told him in very exact dimensions the cylinder bores they agreed to "have a look at it." I had to send the gun to them on my nickel, I may have paid the shipping back too, I don't remember.

They did the right thing and sent a replacement revolver and it is excellent. Was not a good experience at all with Surly service tho. They were not in the least interested in helping me until I dug my heels in and told him the measurements of the bores three digits right of the decimal.
 
^Ricklin, based on the picture above, if you were grading the bore off the NRA's standard of antiques, would you say it is in good condition or fair condition?

IMO, the cylinder is in good condition, but the bore is in fair condition as the bore is lightly pitted all over and rust is present. The seller described the bore in good condition.

GOOD: Some minor replacement parts; metal smoothly rusted or lightly pitted in places, cleaned or re-blued; principal letters, numerals and design on metal legible; wood refinished, scratched bruised or minor cracks repaired; in good working order.

FAIR: Some major parts replaced; minor replacement parts may be required; metal rusted, may be lightly pitted all over, vigorously cleaned or re-blued; rounded edges of metal and wood; principal lettering, numerals and design on metal partly obliterated; wood scratched, bruised, cracked or repaired where broken; in fair working order or can be easily repaired and placed in working order.
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If reproduction revolvers like the Uberti are graded as a modern guns then he's totally fraudulent here.

Either way, I think that the bore fails to meet the good condition classification for either modern or antique.
 
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A bit of hyperbole

Yes, I do agree Truthtellers.

I sell for a living and i don't ever overstate the condition of an item. I'm always conservative when stating condition.

From the pic the cylinder will clean up, the bore however is another story, I would not call it "good"
 
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