Had almost the same thing happen to me when a good friend wanted me to check out some rifles he was looking at. The first was a .303 Mk.III that had parts missing and a very poor bore. The second was a Remington bolt with a bad trigger and sear in it. The owner said don’t play with the guns unless your taking it home with you. I asked if he planed on having a gunsmith fix them if I wanted one of them. We were asked to get the f-— out of his shop and never come back.
I was in a gun shop in the foothills of Yuma no longer in business and the owner and his Dad were discussing a luger pistol.
It had some broken part and the owner said instead of fixing it just put back together and we well sell it at the next gun show.
Not the type of people I would do business with.