Ever buy a gun that was dangerous because of modifications by BUBBA?

[FROGO207]

I just bought a used SS Ruger Vaquero in 45 Colt. Got a great deal It looks sharp and as NIB---BUT has a trigger guard and hammer from a Super Blackhawk transplanted on it. I tried it out after being warned by the previous owner that it had a hair trigger. The first thing that I did was to reattach the spring that was unhooked to lighten up the trigger pull. Now it has a 1# pull that will go off if the revolver is jarred slightly when cocked. Some more work to do before it is usable I am afraid.:banghead: Now that "deal" is not so good, might even need to send it back to Ruger to be put back to original. This is not the first used firearm that I have had to fix to make safe before I could use it. I have bought 4 or 5 others. At least this guy warned me that it had a light trigger when I purchased it.

Have you ever purchased a used firearm that was found to be unsafe due to someone previously modifying it to make it "better"?

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Not me, but my dad bought a 700 someone had done some home trigger tuning on. Sometimes it would go off when you closed the bolt. Sometimes it would go off when you flicked the safety to fire.

 

[Drail]

Never bought one but I have "fixed" a lot of them.

 

[alsaqr]

Bought a Mosin the seller had scoped. First time i fired that gun the case had a nice round hole in the side. The idiot drilled into the chamber. Was surprised the mount screw was not blown out. The guy did take the gun back: He probably sold it another unsuspecting sucker.

 

[longhair75]

This is what keeps me from buying a used 1911.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

Except under very narrow circumstances, I won't buy a gun that has been modified.

This is what keeps me from buying a used 1911.

This gun suffers disproportionately from Bubba.

 

[Paris]

So far all my firearms have been purchased new with the exception of a hand me down shotgun, which as far as I can tell, is factory original.

I don't think I would feel comfortable buying a modified gun but to speak honestly, I may not know off hand if a gun has been modified by simply inspecting it visually. It's hard to tell if parts have been changed unless you have specific, detailed experience with that particular make and model.

For those reasons I think for the time being I will stick to NIB firearms.

 

[WardenWolf]

Not me, but my dad bought a 700 someone had done some home trigger tuning on. Sometimes it would go off when you closed the bolt. Sometimes it would go off when you flicked the safety to fire.

The problem with the safety is a fairly well-known Remington defect. Remington has denied it over the years, and has only recently begun acknowledging it. You should never trust a 700's safety.

 

[montanaoffroader]

Had a couple of handguns that were messed up by a guy who thought he was a gunsmith. Made a deal for the guns he had left when he was shipped out overseas. Wound up with a .45 Government model that had a trigger that was so unreliable the original owner had accidentally shot himself in the foot with it, and another guy tore the sole off of his boot when it went off while he was drawing it. No wonder he had trouble getting rid of them! It turned out he had messed with the safeties as well as the trigger system. He also had a S&W model 39 that he tried to turn into an ASP by throwing a handful of parts at it, didn't turn out so well.

The Mossberg 500 shotgun included in the deal was salvageable, but the handguns were pretty much write offs, sold them off as parts guns. Lucky for me I picked them up cheap enough, so I didn't really lose any money on the deal.

 

[Warp]

I have never actually purchased a used gun. Sold 4, but never bought. I think I am missing out.

Some of the above stories are scary.

 

[montanaoffroader]

I knew going in that there were problems with these guns. I checked them out very thoroughly before making a decision whether or not to keep them. I had a gunsmith check the .45, it would have cost more than the gun was worth to set it right. Didn't have the money at the time to rebuild it, so down the road it went. The S&W 39 just wasn't worth spending much money on at the time.

 

[FROGO207]

Took the thing apart last night. There are file marks on the hammer where it was modified to fit the pistol and where it engages. I will start with a factory new hammer and plunger first off and fit it as needed.

 

[searcher451]

Certainly not knowingly, but I did once end up with a Bubba'd Walther PP from a private party in an online deal. It took a local gunsmith's magic and some parts purchases to return the doggone thing to its natural state. The seller, bless his hide, was heading south with two sailors when last we spoke.

 

[Sheepdog1968]

I tend to be on the cautious side of things when it comes to safety in general. As such, I am not a fan of buying used guns for the exact reasons you mention (what did bubba or the person bubba bought it from do to it). I'd rather pay more and get a new gun and not worry about this. My approach if buying used would likely to be to send it back to the factory for an overhaul of springs and to have the trigger parts examined to make sure nothing unsafe has been done to them. Typically given the costs invovled in doing this, I often just opt to buy new. It costs more and I end up owning less becuase of this.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

The problem with the safety is a fairly well-known Remington defect. Remington has denied it over the years, and has only recently begun acknowledging it. You should never trust a 700's safety.

Yes, I've seen the "news story".

My dad's gun had been improperly adjusted. A qualified gunsmith with 50 years of experience corrected the problems. He said he saw two things that cause malfunctions with the Rem 700 trigger/safety. 1.) Improper adjustment 2.) Lack of maintenance.

 

[oldgold]

Bought a M-1 carbine off my father-in-law. When I took it apart to clean it, I noticed a hole drilled through the trigger group for 'the switch'. I ordered a new trigger group and torched the modified part. I'm not a fan of full auto ,,,,or prison.

 

[Strykervet]

I haven't, but I've heard a story. I try real hard to buy new or very slightly used, and I only will buy used if I can strip it down first.

This guy was shooting at a gravel pit, and he ran into another guy selling an MP5 (this was awhile back, pretty sure it was an MP5, pretty sure it was HK too). It was a 9mm but had a .45 conversion?

Now maybe the ATF was watching the guy selling it, I don't know. But they approached the buyer, the new owner, and they were real interested in it. They got the seller down the road and were holding him. They thought it was full auto. They wanted to try it out. Try as they might, they couldn't get it to fire auto. They let both of them go.

The guy gets it home and finds out that it was converted, would fire full auto if the 9mm parts were put in. I don't know the rest of the story, as in what he did with it, I heard it from someone else.

I don't know much about HK's other than I don't like the G3 for a list of reasons, so I don't know the validity of the story, but the moral is to be very cautious when buying used firearms.

I also remember seeing LOTS of OBVIOUSLY modified stuff during the ban. Like no stock pistol grip post ban AK's. I even pointed out one to a shop owner, one he had for sale back in '96 or '97, who seemed very uninterested. Yes sir, buyer beware.

 

[Sheepdog1968]

Thanks Strykervet for pointing this out. I hadn't even though of illegal conversions like you mentioned. In all honesty, I wouldn't even be able to spot the difference. More reasons for me to just buy new.

 

[Dnaltrop]

Nope, till a few years ago had a family member with 50+ years of gunsmithing under his belt exchanging oxygen. Short of guns needing a good stay in a crucible and a nap in an ingot mold, he could fix nearly anything.

Sadly, now with my great uncle gone, I find myself less willing to buy non-C&R guns used, and even have that tiny twinge at the back of my head even looking at fresh-from-the-arsenal/cache-old-guns... now that the onus is on me to fix them.

 

[longdayjake]

 

[Onward Allusion]

FROGO207
Ever buy a gun that was dangerous because of modifications by BUBBA?

Dunno if Bubba was to blame, but I picked up a Marlin Model 81DL a while back and the trigger was so light that it was at something just shy of 1 lb!!! Pretty accurate though. It hasn't been shot since its first trip to the club.

 

[WardenWolf]

I haven't, but I've heard a story. I try real hard to buy new or very slightly used, and I only will buy used if I can strip it down first.

This guy was shooting at a gravel pit, and he ran into another guy selling an MP5 (this was awhile back, pretty sure it was an MP5, pretty sure it was HK too). It was a 9mm but had a .45 conversion?

Now maybe the ATF was watching the guy selling it, I don't know. But they approached the buyer, the new owner, and they were real interested in it. They got the seller down the road and were holding him. They thought it was full auto. They wanted to try it out. Try as they might, they couldn't get it to fire auto. They let both of them go.

The guy gets it home and finds out that it was converted, would fire full auto if the 9mm parts were put in. I don't know the rest of the story, as in what he did with it, I heard it from someone else.

I don't know much about HK's other than I don't like the G3 for a list of reasons, so I don't know the validity of the story, but the moral is to be very cautious when buying used firearms.

I also remember seeing LOTS of OBVIOUSLY modified stuff during the ban. Like no stock pistol grip post ban AK's. I even pointed out one to a shop owner, one he had for sale back in '96 or '97, who seemed very uninterested. Yes sir, buyer beware.

Well, that's not that uncommon. Almost any semi-auto can go full-auto if the wrong parts are put in. Most likely the conversion opened up some of the parts spacing, resulting in the 9mm sear not catching. So while it wasn't unsafe or illegal with the right parts, if you put the wrong parts in it could be. You could say the same about a lot of guns.

 

[centurion94]

Yup. Bought my first 1911, a '70 Series Colt Gov't a number of years back and carried it on-duty under a suit coat. After a while I was shooting a qualification course and to my dismay, it started doing double-taps all by itself. After each one, the hammer would follow. Re-cocking and firing resulted in another double-tap. The fun wore off pretty quick and the weapon removed from the line.

I have the good fortune to live about an hour from Fremont, NE and took Mr. Colt to a little gunshop called, what was the name? Oh yeah, "Cylinder and Slide". The gentleman who took care of me, the owner, put aside everything he was doing to take care of me. They really like law enforcement! He let me watch while he disassembled it and replaced the Bubbified "custom" trigger and replace it with something more appropriate. He also installed a Wilson beavertail grip safety, three-dot Wilson sights, an ambidextrous safety and extended slide release. I don't remember the cost as this occurred back in the late 80's, but I remember having the impression that he charged me a lot less than he could have.

I don't remember the owner's name, but if he frequents this site, I hope he reads about how I value the memory of that encounter. If I ever had to grab one weapon and leave everything else behind forever, it would be that 1911. Here's to Cylinder and Slide!

 

[Oxide]

The stuff about a Remington 700's safety is mostly hype.

 

[bgr2014]

Gun from Bubba

I had forgoten about the 300wm that a friend (who worked at a sporting goods store) bought the rifle from some guy that came into the store. He took it to the range to check it out, called me and wanted me to check it out for him because the case was hard to extract and had a pimple on the side. After seeing his case I pulled the scope and found a bunch of little round pieces of brass in the base screw hole, somebody had drilled the screw hole through and into the chamber. I advised him to re-barrel, just wonder if possible for the base screw to have eventually been blown out. Re- barreled and no more problems. Other mention of the same thing above made me rembember that one.