"Only ten rounds through it..."

C

Carmike

New member
Hello all,

Not sure where to put this question....but here goes.

I'm a relative newbie when it comes to firearms, but I've gotten the bug, and my wife (thankfully) loves shooting, too, so I/we are looking to add a few to the collection.

I search online for used guns, and I frequently see posts with "I've only put 10/20/100 rounds through this gun. It shoots great!" I've seen these for both rifles and handguns.

These put me on my guard....why would someone buy a gun, shoot it a dozen times, find it to be a great-shooting gun, and then sell it? I'm not talking about large calibers, either. I see it on .22, .38/.357, 9mm, .243, etc. Even AR's. I'm new to this hobby, and I don't trust my ability to know which used guns are in good working shape and which have some structural problem. I find myself avoiding these guns, just because it seems fishy. Though I do see it quite often, so I'm not sure if I'm just being too suspicious, or if it truly is a little fishy.

So I'm asking you all here, who aren't trying to sell me a gun. I realize people might sell guns for lots of reasons (money trouble, divorce, changing interests, not what they expected, etc.), but...why does it appear so many people buy a gun, take it to the range, shoot it a few times, find it accurate and fun to shoot, and then sell it?


Carl
 
It happens a lot. Easy for a new gun owner to be intimidated.

I just bought a used but never fired Beretta 85. The slide is very hard to work and the takedown and reassembly would scare off a newbie.

Dad had a Taurus 357 for 22 years and I'm the only one who ever shot it. Less than 50 rounds!
 
"only driven to church and back on Sunday's by a little old lady from Pasadena"....

SOMETIMES, that IS true. Other times, not so much...

On the other hand, saying "I've shot the crap out of this gun, and can't hit the broad side of a barn with it..." probably won't help the sale...;)

In the old pre-internet days, After the movie Dirty Harry came out, it was almost common to find a S&W M29 .44 Mag on the gunshop shelf, used, with a box of ammo (50) containing 44 live rounds.

For a lot of people, guns are not high priority items, things bought, checked out, used a little, and sold for a variety of reasons.

One of my Dad's hunting buddies always had a different deer rifle every season. (Never a NEW deer rifle). He would sell his deer rifle after deer season (carried a bit, shot very little), and hopefully buy, but if not, borrow a rifle for the next deer season. Lower income blue collar worker, a deadly shot with anything, and saw more deer than the rest of us put together, he couldn't always afford even a used rifle.

Those people are still out there, today, their gun winds up on the internet.

other people, more well off, simply buy something, find they aren't fully happy with it, for some reason or other, and then sell it.

and then of course, there are the scammers, too.

I don't buy guns I cannot personally examine prior to the sale being final, and I know what to look for. Find a seller who is ok with that, allows for a return, and they are probably on the up and up. 3 days inspection (from the time YOU get it, NOT the date they ship it to your FFL) is customary with high end pieces.
 
Many people want to have the firearm more than they actually want to shoot it.
Or, they think they want said firearm, but put a few magazines through it and realize that it beats the crap out of the web of their hand.
Or, they find out after the first range trip that normal price for the ammunition that they like is $40 / box.
Or, they were never serious to begin with. They bought it for a 'wishful' purpose, and the plan never came to fruition.
Or... they just couldn't handle it.



With online ads/auctions, I have to doubt statements about such things.

But in person, when I'm able to inspect the firearm as I'm being told its history, I may choose to believe the story.

I picked up a very nice Marlin Model 444 a little while back that had been fired once. ...And it showed it. It was pristine.
The story:
Gifted to 'Person A' by his brother for hunting Elk. (Both of retirement age.)
Person A buys a case (ten boxes) of ammo, fires one shot, and screams in terror and pain.
He puts the rifle in his safe and ammo under the bed for 9 years, until he decides that it's time to hand his guns down to his kids.
Person A's son receives said rifle, ammo, and story, takes one look at a loaded cartridge, and says, "Um... no way am I firing that thing!" ...And puts it up for sale. (His "big gun" was a .308 Win.)

I got that rifle for a song, plus 6 boxes of ammo. ...But I was able to inspect it in person before finalizing the deal.
 
I will give you some examples that are from my perspective because I am the one who did it.

I bought a .308 bolt action last year. Didn't like the factory stock. Spent $200 on a new hardwood stock. Didn't like the cheapo scope that came with it. Bought a new Vortex for it. Over the course of a year I put less than 120 rounds down range getting it sighted, zeroed and then just some fun plinking.

I sold it a couple months ago because I really didn't like the price of .308 ammo for plinking. I don't hunt and I am not a sniper. I bought a gun I thought I wanted but really didn't need.

This year I put together a brand new AR-15 platform in 6.8SPC. I already had a very nice AR in 5.56mm, but, I thought I needed a different caliber, you know, just 'cause.

I have put just over 100 rounds through it so far. Love the rifle. Just don't need it and can't really afford to shoot it much.

I have been trying to sell it for the past two or three months because 6.8SPC is expensive and not easily found just anywhere.
 
Number 1 Answer: Because it doesn't shoot or feel as good as they expected or were led to believe.
 
I've actually sold/traded at least one gun that I never shot at all. I got a good deal on one and ordered it through a local FFL. Wasn't as impressed as I thought I was going to be and before I got it to the range, I found something else I liked more and used the gun as part of a trade.
 
JohnSKA reminded me...

I have sold several firearms that I put very few (if any) rounds through.
Some were new. Some were used.
For the new ones, I simply hated the quality and they were from companies that don't stand behind their product. I dumped that garbage like it was going out of style.
The used ones, as much as I hate to admit it, I never fired while in my possession. They were "oh, yea, that would be cool..." purchases. But I never got around to actually using them. So, I sold them (because I didn't use them).

---

And, back on the subject of low round count sales...
Right now, I have an AR pistol in my safe. I built it. I love it. But, even before I put it together, I acknowledge that it was more of a 'toy' than something actually useful to me. As of now, it hasn't been fired in over two years and has fewer than 200 rounds through it (probably fewer than 125, but I haven't kept track). If someone made me a good offer, I'd sell it with few, if any regrets.

It's not that I don't like it. It's just that I don't use it.

Not far away, you'll find a Ruger 77 tang safety (77 V/T action) chambered for a 6mm wildcat. I built it for a reason. I still want the rifle. I still believe in the reason. But I put a good barrel on the wrong action. I should have used a Ruger 77 Mk II instead of a tang safety (I hate the tang safety snap-over extractor).
It has fewer than 80 rounds through it, has only fired maybe 10 rounds in the last 6 years, and every time I look at it, it makes me regret spending the money on it. It shoots great; I just hate the action.

For the right price, I'd sell it in an instant. (But I'd keep the 'vintage' 6.5-20 Vari-X III for myself!)
 
I've bought a few guns that didn't feel or shoot nearly as good as I'd expected. The really distasteful guns got sold/traded right away with only a few rounds fired.
When car shopping, you get to test drive 1/2 dozen before you buy. This year my older Son got a hankering for a different CCW pistol and did something I've never had the opportunity to do. He went to a well equipped shooting range and shot 6 of their "rental" pistols. Great idea as he found which ones felt best, worst, and sort of OK.
 
Lots of reasons people don't use what they bought.
We have a 2 1/2 year old van with 2k miles on it.
It was acquired for one particular purpose and rarely needed.
There's plenty of guns out there in similar condition.
I have an old military rifle bought eight years ago.
I've only fired five rounds out of it the day I got it.
The best approach for someone who is not comfortable with assessing the condition of something used is to find a trustworthy gun shop to buy from.
 
I have sold at least a dozen firearms that I put 20 to 200 rounds through. Some I did not like, some were a great deal that I made some money on, some I changed my mind.

I bought brass dies and bullets for a 7mm-08. Put all of 30 rounds through it and then sold it. Bought a .308 bolt gun, put about 50 rounds through it and sold it. Bought a Ruger .41Magnum, put 24 rounds through it and sold it. In all of those cases, I was comparing them to something else, they were good deals and I lost no money on them.

I have a .30 Carbine that I have put 200 rounds through, tried to sell it twice and did not even get offers, so I kept it. But I would sell it, and all the ammo if one of my friends asked me if I wanted to sell it. That, like some others, was more of an experiment to compare and contract with a 9mm Carbine and a .300 Blackout. The .300 Blackouts, 3 of them with brass bullets and dies, have been sold, two of them had less than 200 rounds through them.
 
It's fairly rare that you are able to try before you buy with guns. No test drives per say. Unless it's a fairly popular model READ GLOCK then renting a version may not be possible either. So sometimes it's a matter of you pays your monies and you takes your chances.

I bought a P2000 LEM in the way back time and loved the feel of it in the store. Loved the trigger in the store. Took it to the range HATED THE LEM TRIGGER IN PRACTICE. I mean I hated it in real use. So I sold that gun fairly quickly. As an aside many years later I bought a P2000 again but in v3 da/SA and love it.
 
Think of all the guns, probably bought new, sitting around in nightstands and closets that were maybe fired a few rounds on the first day acquired.
Some might even have been used at a genuine day of instruction for maybe 50 rounds worth.
There must be millions of them out there.
 
Exactly, g. I'd bet at least half of all first (and only) gun purchases end up that way.

It takes a commitment to be a shooter. You spend more time cleaning, driving to the range, finding ammo than actually shooting. You have to really enjoy it to put in the effort.
 
:D True.

If I had to guess, I would say I spend about 5 to 6 hours a year actually shooting. But hundreds of hours on the road, cleaning, prepping and reloading.
 
Sometimes it's a phase that passes.

I bought a Mosin because they were cool, kicked like a mule, and blew the heck out of pumpkins (when you were only 10 yards away and could actually hit them with it). I got rid of it after probably 5 pumpkins because I wasn't shooting it and it wasn't accurate and it's a pretty crude tool in general. And I didn't care about the bayonet and it stuck me while I slept with it.

I went through a phase of wanting one of most calibers so that I'd have something to shoot with any ammo I could scrounge up at the end of civilization. Decided I'm unlikely to be left standing at the end and anyway if the ammo was still around, the guns would be too.

I bought a Savage Mark II because it came with a threaded barrel and was supposed to be very accurate. It wasn't very accurate. I'm considering selling it today to someone who wants one.
 
I know for me personally I've done this twice and there were no ulterior motives. I purchased a used Beretta 92 I didn't want simply because it was such a great deal. I put one box of shells through it to function check it, cleaned it and it sat in the safe for a year til I saw a shotgun I wanted where the seller specifically said he was seeking a Beretta 92 in trade.

Last year I bought a Savage in .17 WSM. I had just gotten a big overtime check and it was a total impulse buy. I put exactly 17 rounds through it, cleaned it and it sits in the safe. Does nothing my .22 Win mag or .223 or .22-250 don't already do. I put it up for sale, got a bunch of super low ball annoying craigslist replies so it just lives in the safe til I find somebody looking for one.
 
A lot of us are accumulators as well. Over 20 years you build up quite a collection and don't really get to put a lot of rounds through the majority of it. There are people who buy guns as tools and weapons and may put thousands and thousands of rounds to become a proficient gunfighter. then there are the toy buyers which I fall more into. I don't want to be a fighter of any kind. I am more of a let me buy you a drink and talk about God and the superfriends and history kind of guy. :)
 
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