Barnacle Brad
New member
Any ideas on where a guy can find cheap project guns? Suddenly it is winter and too cold to play in the shop...
Thanks for the help!
Thanks for the help!
Where to find project guns for cheep.
- Thread starter Barnacle Brad
- Start date
Buzzard Bait
New member
Pawn shops?
Well don't know about where your at but pawn shops are a good source in Texas
bb
Well don't know about where your at but pawn shops are a good source in Texas
bb
Blindstitch
New member
I second the pawn shops. They might have some stuff categorized by others as junk when they might have suffered from having a crazy owner. I've seen a couple rifles with nice wood underneath but painted with whatever paint was around. Rattle can, latex or whatever.
In 1995 to 1997 I had a job that was making my bank account go up by my spirits go down.
At lunch I would visit pawn shops and buy guns
By making enough offers on enough guns, I could figure out the rules at each pawn shop.
If I made an offer to an employee, and he checked with the boss, the answer was no.
If I made an offer that was within the employee's purview, then we had a deal.
It turned out that all the employees, for a given pawn shop, have the same latitude.
I remember one place that if it was a 22 rifle, and I could point out something wrong with it, they would take a 50% offer.
They had a 10/22 for $65 with a broken rear sight and a stock with leprosy.
I offered them $32.50 and the young employee with a mullet hair cut took it.
Another pawn shop would only let me dicker them down 15% on anything.
Every night I would take apart the guns I bought.
I would inspect, clean, lubricate, and order parts from Numrich as required.
There was a pawn shop that would sell on consignment. That is where I unloaded guns I fixed that I did not want any more. I was making $2/hour repairing guns, so I did not quit my day job.
I started buying gunsmithing books and gunsmithing tools.
The big leap was buying a big lathe and mill in 2002.
I started out with a big lathe I got at an auction for cheap.
I got tools from Boeing surplus. Now all that type of old junk is on Ebay.
At lunch I would visit pawn shops and buy guns
By making enough offers on enough guns, I could figure out the rules at each pawn shop.
If I made an offer to an employee, and he checked with the boss, the answer was no.
If I made an offer that was within the employee's purview, then we had a deal.
It turned out that all the employees, for a given pawn shop, have the same latitude.
I remember one place that if it was a 22 rifle, and I could point out something wrong with it, they would take a 50% offer.
They had a 10/22 for $65 with a broken rear sight and a stock with leprosy.
I offered them $32.50 and the young employee with a mullet hair cut took it.
Another pawn shop would only let me dicker them down 15% on anything.
Every night I would take apart the guns I bought.
I would inspect, clean, lubricate, and order parts from Numrich as required.
There was a pawn shop that would sell on consignment. That is where I unloaded guns I fixed that I did not want any more. I was making $2/hour repairing guns, so I did not quit my day job.
I started buying gunsmithing books and gunsmithing tools.
The big leap was buying a big lathe and mill in 2002.
I started out with a big lathe I got at an auction for cheap.
I got tools from Boeing surplus. Now all that type of old junk is on Ebay.
FrankenMauser
New member
The best deals I've gotten were from friends of friends, friends of family, or auctions.
Basically, snagging at auction what other people see as a "piece of crap" parts gun, or having a friend or family member tell me about something that they heard was for sale ... but it had some issues.
And that is exactly what the problem was with most of the pawn shops that I visited for a while (trying to find that 'pawn shop gem'). They were all places that hated buying stuff out-right, and almost everything they had for sale was from defaulted loans. So, since they had more money in the firearm to begin with, they wanted a lot more out of them to make the sale.
Most of those shops had the same firearms in there for YEARS, but still wouldn't come down on their ridiculous prices (some prices being higher than new retail, on pawn shop-quality firearms
)....
Basically, snagging at auction what other people see as a "piece of crap" parts gun, or having a friend or family member tell me about something that they heard was for sale ... but it had some issues.
...Unless it was collateral for a loan. Then the pawn shop's 'cost' can be a bit higher.
And that is exactly what the problem was with most of the pawn shops that I visited for a while (trying to find that 'pawn shop gem'). They were all places that hated buying stuff out-right, and almost everything they had for sale was from defaulted loans. So, since they had more money in the firearm to begin with, they wanted a lot more out of them to make the sale.
Most of those shops had the same firearms in there for YEARS, but still wouldn't come down on their ridiculous prices (some prices being higher than new retail, on pawn shop-quality firearms
)....Your local firearms dealer should have a selection of used pieces for sale, no? One can usually a good bargain that allows you to do your project right. I picked up an older Stevens s×s 16 gauge for a coach gun project that worked out perfectly, with the gun running me around 200 and change. Also check Armslist in your state, just yo see what's out there. Good luck.
Barnacle Brad
New member
Thanks for the replies. I found that the search term "project" used on gun broker yields some nice results. That is not to say, by any stretch, those guns listed are nice!