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Hello
A fellow club member supposedly had a scope for sale in very good condition, and sent me a picture that indeed looked the part, not wishing to doubt him, as I usually don`t buy my firearms without inspection, I thought that I would travel and have a look see without parting with the readies and saving postage. I could not believe that a fellow shooter would try to fob off a damaged and useless scope that had obviously been stripped down and reassembled by a complete incompetent, we did not part on friendly terms.

There are many rotters out there...........even among "the most law-abiding" people in the country, as many shooters would describe themselves............

Pete

What a scoundrell!

Sadly it happens.

One thing that annoys me is people in the trade selling used guns without checking them, equally people who trade in broken/damaged guns without mentioning defects are very wrong in my opinion and I do see it quite often. This is why I always tell people that guns are in auctions for a reason.

I went to a local gun store here (no names no pack drill) and he offered for sale a Ruger American rifle in .223. He claimed it only had about 50 rounds through it. I pulled the bolt back and it came right out of the action. The guy may not have fired it much but from the wear marks in the action it looks to me like he spent a lot of time cycling the bolt trying to smooth it out. So much so that he wore the bolt-stop down to the point where it didn't work any more. Hinted that of he repaired/replaced the bolt stop I might be interested, but he never even offered to do that. I left that on the shelf and bought a Howa Mini action instead.

We had a rifle come in over Christmas through the trade that has had a twist drill stuffed in at both ends of the barrel. I was told there was a problem so knew to expect something. Sadly he was not made aware when he picked it up originally.

When buying second hand rifles, (or even new.....), a borescope could save you untold grief..........

Pete

Pete wrote:When buying second hand rifles, (or even new.....), a borescope could save you untold grief..........

Pete

Yep, I bought a cheap LED borescope camera off Amazon for 20 quid, found one that was only 4.5mm diameter so goes down the bore of most of the old milsurps stuff I have an interest in. Works off an app on my phone by bluetooth. Picture is certainly good enough to spot any horror stories.

A bore-scope is very useful, however at what point would you accept or indeed reject a 100 year old rifle based on the state of the bore. As examples, the Lee-Metford, or indeed the Lee Speed came out of the factory with not a lot of rifling and 125 years later things are going to be looking very grim bore wise. Would this stop you buying an example of these rifles? I shoot a Lee Speed and it holds around 3" at 100 yards rested, I have never used a bore-scope on it.

A bore scope is a good tool when used with caution, it will often magnify problems that aren't really problems at all.

Even a `mint` bore can show up blemishes when viewed through a bore scope, that are invisible to the naked eye.

ukrifleman