Editor’s Note: The following is a syndicated article by author Tamara Keel that first appeared in USCCA’s Concealed Carry Magazine Volume 16, Issue 2, February/March 2019 under the title, “The Second-Hand Budget Gun: Browsing the Used Counter.”
In a perfect world, I’d be able to afford any carry gun I wanted. In a similarly perfect world, I’d have a gold house and a rocket car and a swimming pool full of beer.
Alas, this is not a perfect world, and in addition to a conspicuous lack of rocket cars and gold houses, the life of a freelance writer condemns me to shopping for my carry guns on the cheap. That usually means the used counter, because why not let someone else take the big depreciation hit?
Having learned a few lessons from this practice, and this being the Ballistic Basics column, I figured I’d pass those lessons along to you.
Don’t Judge a Gun by its Wear
Fundamentally, don’t be scared of buying used in the first place. The average handgun sold in the U.S. sees shockingly few rounds fired before it gets slid to the back of a safe or traded in for something newer and sexier that the shooter spotted on the cover of a magazine or in a YouTube video.
Second, don’t be afraid of a little cosmetic wear, especially when it comes to law enforcement trade-ins. Keep in mind that such guns have been carried in the gun buckets on duty belts — rain or shine — for several years, banging on desks and door jambs and rubbing up against chairs and railings and the doors of squad cars.
Thing is, this treatment may scuff up the looks of a firearm but has little to no effect on its function. Feel free to frown and use the gun’s mussed appearance as a bargaining tool though.
What to Look For
Regardless of cosmetic wear, check the muzzle and barrel crown. Actual dings there may affect accuracy or, worse, demonstrate wear and tear beyond just getting banged around in a holster. Dropping a firearm on concrete hard enough to do noticeable damage to a muzzle crown or hammer spur can do hidden damage to the lock work or other internals and may rate inspection from an armorer or gunsmith to ensure that it hasn’t.
In fact, if you look at a surplus SIG Sauer P6 police pistol from the former West Germany, the hammer spur has a little curlicue of metal on it that is intended to deform if the pistol is dropped on the hammer spur. This tells an armorer at a glance that the pistol needs to be disassembled to ensure it remains drop-safe.
With used guns, examine the sights; odds are good that the rear is cranked all the way right and elevated because the previous owner thought the gun was shooting “low left.”
Be suspect of “trigger jobs” — unless there’s thorough provenance that the work was done by a reputable shop like Langdon Tactical, Grayguns or the Smith & Wesson Performance Center. The super-light trigger job done by Cletus Jones in his basement with a Dremel may feel wonderful when you’re dry-firing the gun at the sales counter, but it may not reliably bust caps when you get it to the range. It may not stay cocked between shots or, even worse, it could “double” — fire multiple rounds with a single press.
At an outdoor range near me, a guy finished a home trigger job on a 1911 and brought it out to test. He hauled it to the line, set it up in a Ransom Rest (a mechanical shooting bench fixture) and fired — and the gun doubled. The first one went through the target, and the second flew over the berm and across an interstate, landing in a fast-food parking lot. It’s only pure luck that nobody was seriously hurt or killed. Don’t be that guy.
Kick the Tires on That Wheelgun
If the used gun is a revolver, well, I could write a whole column on a thorough checkout of a used revolver, but I’ll offer a couple easy tells for abuse or a gun that’s getting close to needing major work.
One sign of abuse is found by examining the crane or yoke, the swinging arm to which the cylinder is mounted. Examine the way it fits into the frame. The minimal crack visible between the crane and frame should be evenly sized for its entire length. If it appears warped or uneven, it means that someone who watched too many ’50s movies on late-night television has been snapping the cylinder closed with a wrist flick like a film noir detective. This gun will require professional work.
The other sign is extensive peening up of the metal on the flats of the cylinder stop-notches, the tiny half-moon cutouts on the rear of the cylinder. This is a gun that has seen a lot of fast double-action work, and there’s likely a similar level of wear internally. Again, this is probably going to require some expensive work from a specialist, which sort of defeats the purchase of a budget gun in the first place.
With a little savvy shopping though, don’t be afraid to save a buck at the used counter.
Discover how you can join nearly 300,000 responsibly armed Americans who already rely on the USCCA to protect their families, futures and freedoms: USCCA.com/gunsamerica.
9mm gun
when buying a used gun at a gun shop ,how do you know you aint buying a gun used in a crime.
Unless you used it in a crime, what doers it matter?
Good question Gerard. When buying a used gun make sure you take the grips off first. Used guns that were used in crimes will have notches and a small date of the incident carved in the inside of the grips.
Wow!! I didn’t know that. I’ll go check all my handguns right now. Where do they hide them on rifles and shotguns. Is this true for knives too? You can learn a lot on GunsAmerica so keep on reading.