The prices can't be beat, either. New or used.
The prices can't be beat, either. New or used.
As an avid gun show follower, I agree totally with you. However, I would like to raise a note of caution. And that is the buyer of used firearms needs to beware and understand what he or she is buying.
At the shows I go to I have seen more 38 S&W pistols offered for sale at great prices to people who have no idea how hard it is to get ammo for that anemic cartridge. At the gun range last weekend, a guy bought some 38 Special ammo and then came back saying it wouldn't fit in his revolver. The Rangemaster gave him his money back on the ammo.
I consider myself knowledgable about firearms, but I have actually purchased a used handgun with a safety that didn't totally work right, only to discover much later that I needed to buy some expensive and hard to find parts to make it work as it should. When I examined it at the show and tried the safety everything seemed to work OK.
Some firearms I would have no hesitation in buying used, after I have sat down and carefully examined them looking at all the moving pieces and carefully working the action, safety, etc. Somethings, it is hard to tell until you actually get a handgun to the range, like if the magazine tends to do a bad job of feeding bullets in a semi-automatic and needs to have the feedramp or "lips" adjusted. The gun shows I go to forbid live ammo from being worked in an action and I don't have a handfull of inert rounds.
That is why once you make that purchase you need to really practice with your firearm of choice. At the range I am a member at, the Rangemaster said last weekend that one should fire at least 200 rounds of the same kind of ammo one would use for defence purposes in a semi-automatic to get an "idea" of if there are any reliability problems. Part of why I go to gun shows is so that I can buy my ammo at a discount to allow me to practice at the range.
Any word on that little project in the woods?
That should be cryptic enough to confuse the others on this thread.