A Question before buying

[Joe in PNG]

Regarding used guns in general- don't let that worry you. Very very few guns on the used rack have that many rounds through them.
Here's what I usually look for
-Obvious ham handed modification attempts like bad attempts at stippling, bad refinishing, obvious tool marks, and so on. Not super common, but pass anyway.
-Uneven wear on frame rails, locking blocks, breech face, and other internal parts. However, most used guns will have almost no obvious wear at all.
-Cracking on the frames or breech face.

Happily, you'll find that most used guns have hardly been used at all. Once you get it home, it's a good thing to research what the regular replacement intervals are for parts and springs, then just go ahead and replace them right away. Springs, pins, and locking blocks (Beretta 92) are fairly cheap and easy to swap out.

[Mudbug]

Regarding used guns in general- don't let that worry you. Very very few guns on the used rack have that many rounds through them.
Here's what I usually look for
-Obvious ham handed modification attempts like bad attempts at stippling, bad refinishing, obvious tool marks, and so on. Not super common, but pass anyway.
-Uneven wear on frame rails, locking blocks, breech face, and other internal parts. However, most used guns will have almost no obvious wear at all.
-Cracking on the frames or breech face.

Happily, you'll find that most used guns have hardly been used at all. Once you get it home, it's a good thing to research what the regular replacement intervals are for parts and springs, then just go ahead and replace them right away. Springs, pins, and locking blocks (Beretta 92) are fairly cheap and easy to swap out.

Tnanks, Joe. You guys have settled my mind about purchasing a used gun. I always backed away from buying a used gun sight-unseen. After reading several of these posts, I questioned some of the people that I shoot with. All of them agree that a used gun purchase is almost always a good idea.

But it needs some kind of control. Buying from a sites such as those lsited in .kingsfirearmsonline.com where the Police Trade-ins were listed have the advantage of someone other than the seller catagorizing the gun that is being sold. At least that the way I think it works there.

I have a true story to tell. I didn't want to because it' sort of long winded, but it will explain my quandry about used gun purchases.

A couple of months ago (April), I had the hots to find a Colt Woodsman. It was the favorite competition .22 for many shooters during the '60 and '70s. Colt quit making that .22 in about 1975 or so because it got too expensive to make and compete againt other guns in it's catagory. An old friend (as in age) of mine bought his Woodsman brand new in 1965. I shot it and loved it. I wanted one badly. Finally, I found one listed for $400. This gun should have listed for $800-$1200 for a decent one...not a pristine pistol. The guy posted pictures of it. It looked great! His ad said that it was in 'good' condition. As I studied the ad further, I realized that he had put it up for sale on a Swap Shop section of a local state forum back in February of 2017. $400 and no takers for over 14 months? Something was wrong, but I could not see it in the pictures. He said he fired it recently with no problems. He vouched for it's accuracy. So I called him and we spoke. We lived about 100 miles apart. I said that I would drive to his house and look it over and purchase it. He kept coming up with reasons that we could not meet. He had to work a lot. His wife was sickly, and others reasons. He wanted to send it to me through a FFL dealer. Adding to the cost ... More alarm bells going off. In the mean time other people were watching the forum as we posted back an forth. After about two or three weeks, I got a private message from another guy. He had tried to buy it a few months before I did. He lived close enough that he finally got the guy to let him come get the gun. He took pictures of the gun, saying that he wanted to talk to his wife about it. He posted those pictures of the gun. It was in terrible shape. Both sides of the grips were badly scarred. And I mean deep gouges on one side. The barrel on one side was terribley scarred from front to back. The other side also showed a lot of wear, as if dragged across a tabletop many times. The trigger guard was pretty beat up too. The front of the barrel looked like he had put it against an emery wheel to smooth it out. Most of the pictures that he posted on the sale ad were not of his gun, for a fact. One was. It was a close up of the serial number, so the buyer could check out age, generation, etc. And that one was pretty blurry, but just clear enough to make out the numbers.

The gun might have been in excellent mechanical shape, and shot accurately, but if it looked like hell, who would want it?

This is the episode that put me in the extreme caution catagory for used guns. I just never know how to buy one that was guaranteed to be as advertised.

One of the things that I do like about .kingsfirearmsonline.com is that they offer payment plans. That sort of raises my price ceiling a bit, allowing me to look at better guns too.

Well, probably time to let this thread die. Thanks all for your help, links, ideas in training, etc.

[Joe in PNG]

I'm also a bit hesitant to buy used guns sight unseen, at least not from sumdood on the internet. Most of the big sellers have some sort of return policy or ability to inspect before you go through with the transfer.
My personal preference is to browse the used shelves at gunshops and look for used major brand service pistols for under $400- there's a fair amount out there.