What you learned after the gun purchase...

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sirgilligan

sirgilligan

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Is there something you learned about a particular gun after the purchase that you wish you would have known before?

This could be something good about the gun. If I had known ______ about this gun before I would have bought it sooner.

This could be something bad about the gun. If I had known _______ about this gun I would not have bought it.

The endless threads on which gun is the best can not be answered. With real experiences of people with a gun can help one decide. You may read something and go, "Wow, I never thought about that, and for me that is important."

Please, no "I heard" type statements. You and your gun, not you and your friends gun. If it is your gun then you have "skin" in the game, you dropped some money on the gun, you have an investment and therefore an expectation.
 
Hmmmm, yes!

If I had known that there was no factory or aftermarket solution for the trigger pull of the "Omega" version of the CZ-75B, I'd have bought a standard one instead.
 
Had a Super Blackhawk that I ended up deciding had an out-of-spec cylinder throat diameter and/or a slight constriction in the bore by the forcing cone. Slugging the bore revealed that the bore diameter was significantly smaller than the chamber throats. Drop-testing some bullets in the cylinder comparing results with a known-to-be good SBH indicated that throats were too large. After months of headache experimenting with lead loads to make it happy (softer bullet, harder bullet, larger bullet, faster/slower powder, etc etc), as well as attempts at fire lapping - I gave up and sold it. I probably could have engaged Ruger about it, but I wanted to move on to .45 Colt anyway.

Great gun otherwise. Fired jacketed ammunition very accurately, but with lead, the bore leaded up like a beast after only a handful of rounds to the point that accuracy diminished horrendously.

So, had I known the cylinder throats and/or bore were out of spec when I bought it, I would have walked away.

Unless you're buying from someone you know, chances are that you won't have the opportunity to slug a bore before you buy a gun. Just bad luck, I guess.
 
Ok, I'll play. :)

Saiga 12: If I had known that price would rise and how much fun could be had with this gun before I would have bought it sooner.

Turkish Mauser: If I had known the extent of the pitting in the outside of the barrel under the handguards on this gun I would not have bought it.

Mosin Nagant M44: If I had known the breathtaking difference between it and the 91/30 before I would have bought it sooner.

Enfield Revolver: If I had known the average price about this gun I would not have bought it.
 
I bought a RIA 1911 Tactical and had never heard of RIA. I was in the gun store looking around with some cash burning a whole in my pocket. I looked at the gun and loved the way it felt so I laid the $425 down for it.

When I got home and started reading about them on-line I was even happier than I was when i left the store.
 
My old man gave me a BHP. I went and had it appraised for insurance purposes (I have a separate firearm rider and I need to know if it would put me over the limit of the rider). It was identified as a pre war HP in 90-95%. It appraised at between 750 and 1k. Called my dad and told him as I know he didn't spend that much on it. His reply... sell it now... I have about 250 into that gun. Go buy yourself and the family something nice.
 
If I had known Ruger was going to quit making the .45 Colt Redhawk w/ a 5.5 inch barrel I would have bought one. Hopefully they'll start again, there was a stainless .45 Colt w/ 5.5 inch barrel mentioned on their webpage for awhile, it just never showed up in the stores. I like my 4 inch version "OK", but really think I'd like the 5.5 even better.

If I had known S&W was going to ink "the deal" I would have never bought the S&W revolvers I bought back in the day. Luckily for me, their quality seemed to dive at about the same time they inked "the deal", so I'm not missing much by going with Ruger since that time.
 
I have two, both hard lessons learned in my early days of gun collecting/accumulating

had I known century FAL's feature a unibrow feed ramp and wont feed at all from the right side of the mag, I would not have bought it

had I known you can not shot modern 30-06 thought a 1953 INT Harvester m1 garand I would not have bought it (blew the gas cylinder lock clean off and bent the op rod all on the first shot)
 
Very first rifle I bought and was rather naive. A del-ton AR that the gun shop said was entirely mil-spec. Me not knowing anything about guns at this point thought GREAT! Bought a magpul mil-spec stock and turns out the buffer tube was commercial. That mixed with the warranty card that dropped out that stated shooting steel cased ammo voided the warranty would of kept me from buying it.
 
Wish I had known about Taurus CS. Gun was sooo bad after a trip to Miami the gunstore took it back, now thats! customer service.
 
H&R single shot shotgun: If I had known that I wouldn't need a "Car Gun"..... well, I probably would have still bought it, on impulse. Or I would have gone with a coachgun...

Ruger SR9: If I had been able to try carrying it earlier, I might have gotten a Glock 26, but I'm not unhappy with the gun, I just don't carry it as much as I would like to.

Remington 870 - If I had known that would be a halfdecent shotgunner, I would have gone with the wingmaster - I only didn't get it because I didn't want fixed chokes.

Saiga 7.62 - If I had known what was going to happen to Saiga 12 prices, I would have bought one of those instead.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with my guns. Just wish I could shoot them more, and get some affordable training.

Chris "the Kayak-Man" Johnson
 
Mosin Nagant M44: If I had known the breathtaking difference between it and the 91/30 before I would have bought it sooner.
Click to expand...

I would be interested in more detail there. I have a 91/30, and thought I wanted the M44 until I found out it was heavier than my 91/30.

If I had known that my son's .223/20g Rossi matched pair would be an almost useless rifle with rude, ineffective customer support, I definitely wouldn't have bought it. The sights had no elevation adjustment, it won't reliably ignite most primers in inexpensive ammo (even after a warranty trip to the importer), and when the LGS put the scope on there wasn't enough adjustment available to get it bore-sighted.

Anybody wanna buy a matched pair?:evil:

If I had known (yeah, I was new) that you can shoot .38 spl in a .357 magnum I wouldn't have bought a .38 snubby for me and my wife.
 
About a decade & half ago I sold a Taurus PT-22 because it wouldn't reliably feed cheap-o big-box .22LR ammo. Back then I didn't know how finicky .22LR guns can be. I wish I had it back to try some CCI though it. Live & learn.

Also, I wish I'd have bought that entire crate of "some junk chicom sks's" (Norincos) that guy was trying to unload for $89/ea. :banghead:
 
Wish I would have known there was such a thing as a single stack AK before I bought it and the 40 rd magazine that for some reason didn't fit.
 
This isn't exactly in the same vein of the rest of these comments, but I feel it's at least somewhat appropriate...

I wish I'd known that some people (and FFLs) don't clean their used guns before selling them. I bought a FAL from a gun shop and an AK from someone on another forum and when I took them down for an initial look around/oiling, I found that neither had been cleaned. Its not a big deal because I was able to clean them and didn't find anything wrong with the guns, but I always make sure any gun I have (and especially sell) is put away looking spotless.

I wish I'd been able to take them down prior to purchasing them so I could have gotten a better deal. (In my experience, someone who wouldn't even clean the gun to sell it probably didn't take good care of the gun in the first place.)
 
Several years ago I bought an old (1948) Colt 1911 38 super that had been converted to .38 spl wadcutter. To the seller it was just an old Colt that wasn't original. To me it was a base for a beautiful classic carry gun. $450 and out the door, took it home and into the safe.
I figured a couple hundred more to have it rebarreled back to 38 super and replace the chunky old style adjustable sights with original style fixed. I discovered about a week before I was to have the work done that this particular pistol was the work of Alton Dinan.
I'm sure I'll find another nice old Colt in my price range eventually, but this one stays as is.
 
Being brand new to 1911-A1's, had I known how much money I would end up spending trying to get my SA 1911 Loaded to work right I would have bought a custom. Well, maybe I would have just sent it back to Springfield but no one told me I could do that and instead told me to take it to a gunsmith. Lesson learned and I do love the gun all these years later even after it being a money pit. ;)
 
If I'd known Marlin was going to cancel production of the Camp45 right after they got the second edition running, I would have bought one (maybe two).

Was offered a Suomi built on semi-auto parts, with a round and a "coffin" magazine for $350 (even had the spare cash on me--idjit), and turned it down for trying to buy less 7.62x25. If I had known the only other one I'd ever see would have a $700 msrp, and the company would stop making them . . . well, back to being an idjit.

Ditto when a dealer was trying to do me a favor for having sat on his gun show tables helping out for an entire day, and he offered me a SIG 210 in 9mm for $300, I should have taken him up on it. And, to this day, I'm not sure whether I'd kept the 210 or the 220 when poverty made me sell most of my collection.

But, if I'd known there would never be a rebound from this recession, I would have bought the rent house down the street with all my savings and retirement money, and still own my own house, too--broke but breaking even. If-only's will kill you, eat you up from the inside, best to just live and not regret.
 
My first gun purchase was in October '07 (age '52).
After about 150 rds., the brand-new Auto Ordnance "M-1 Carbine" seemed to have some friction along the bolt. Trying to loosen it, it became jammed solid.

The factory performed the free repair.
The lesson was to always read about forty or fifty random comments about a gun before making the decision.

After that first lesson, my reading might require two or three hours. I've never seen an SKS (my Norinco: 2,000 rds.) or AK clone have a similar type of malfunction.

This just might explain why so many Americans prefer so-called "Commie junk" over certain varieties of "US-made junk", and for about $300/$400 less. Imagine that.
 
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A few things.... (1) I should have purchased the 7.5" Super Redhawk (480 Ruger) instead of the 9.5" or purchased both.

(2) I learned that I really don't care much for the Ruger Redhawk in 41 mag in comparion to my Smiths even though many really like them as did the gunwriters of the day. But I am still not ready to sell it. Trying to learn to like it...

(3) I learned that the Ruger 10/22 did not come close to my Weatherby Mark XXII (semi-auto) in terms of accuracy and I learned that I do not particularly like loading the Ruger rotary magazine. I ordered this gun sight unseen in the 1980's. But I still like the rifle even though I had higher expectations. It is really stupid in hindsight, but I intended to make the Weatherby a safe queen when it was discontinued. Not an informed decision as they are two completely different animals.
 
If I had known how much money I could save (or how much more I could shoot), and how much fun reloading is, I would have bought the press sooner. --Stork
 
Bought a Sig Dark Elite before I knew there was no holster made to fit it, hind sight sure is 20/20. Traded it in on a Colt, I am now very happy.
If I had known how much I like the .32 H&R mag I would have bought consecutive numbers.
 
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