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Old November 13, 2014, 08:28 PM   #1
Barnacle Brad
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Where to find project guns for cheep.

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!
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Old November 13, 2014, 08:33 PM   #2
Buzzard Bait
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Pawn shops?

Well don't know about where your at but pawn shops are a good source in Texas
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Old November 13, 2014, 08:49 PM   #3
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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.
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Old November 13, 2014, 11:14 PM   #4
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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.
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Old November 13, 2014, 11:56 PM   #5
James K
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Since most pawn shops have shelled out only about 10-15 percent of what they have on the tag, they have a lot of room to dicker. The guy who pawned that $65 gun probably got $10 for it.

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Old November 14, 2014, 01:50 AM   #6
FrankenMauser
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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.



Quote:
Since most pawn shops have shelled out only about 10-15 percent of what they have on the tag, they have a lot of room to dicker. The guy who pawned that $65 gun probably got $10 for it.
...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 )....
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Old November 14, 2014, 11:14 PM   #7
swissfist
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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.
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Old November 15, 2014, 11:24 PM   #8
Barnacle Brad
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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!
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Old November 17, 2014, 08:48 PM   #9
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What is a "project" to you?

Taking a rusty Mauser action to a precision rifle?

Or?

Everyone's range of skills (and access to machinery) is different.
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