The best deal you have gotten.

[No_1]

Ladies and Gents,

Curious minds want to know what the best deal you have gotten on gun related stuff. This could be garage sales, estate auctions, online stuff.

The best deal that has happened to me is an almost endless supply of foundry certified 3% antimony lead in 50lb ingots.

Robert

[madcaster]

A estate sale,I told the lady what the stuff was worth and she still almost gave it to me.A Lyman 55 pot,various molds,,2 presses,reloading dies,Muzzle Blasts magazines,powder,lead,less than $150.00

[Bret4207]

A primo Winchester 52 and a Remington 511 for $5.00 each. Honest to God. I used up my lifes supply of luck right there.

[400cor-bon]

got a Dan Wesson Mdl 15, police turn in with a 4" bbl
4 digit serial number, included the police swivel holster
$125 including several boxes of shells, brass, dies, etc.
shoots great!

[AnthonyB]

I've had a couple of good days. LNIB Lyman 20 lb bottom pour pot and a LNIB Saeco 10 lb bottom pour pot for $15 each. They had been left behind by a renter and the landlord wanted to get rid of them. Also found a Leupold 1.5-4X European NIB for $150 from Craigslist. A few years ago BD and I got a great deal on a Master Caster, 90 lb Magma bottom pour, Star sizer with spare parts and several dies, about thirty molds, and several hundred pounds of boolits. I got the Magma pot, sizer, and boolits; BD got the Master Caster and moulds. My share was $300. Tony

[cabezaverde]

I once picked up an "all or nothing" deal at a garage sale.

Included dies, bullets, primers, doodads, etc, as well as a complete bluing setup and 6 22 Jet inserts for the SW revolver to shoot 22 rimfire for $100.

Sold the bluing stuff and 22 jet inserts on ebay for over $350. Kept all the other stuff and traded or sold it later.

[xr650]

Hollywood single stage press for $25.00 at an auction. The 10' bench it was setting on including contents $40.00.
The bench had used rifle barrels, vickerman dies, CH shell holders and a miriad of other useful schtuff.

[DLCTEX]

I bought a box for $5 at an auction with 12 boxes of 243 brass, 9 of 22-250 brass, a box of 30 Rem. ammo, a box of 240 Wby. ammo, 6 boxes of 5mm Rem. ammo, a Bushnell bore sighter in it's case, and a few other odds and ends. Gave a preacher freind a deal on the 5mm ammo for $100, he was tickled to get it as at that time it would have brought $240. At another auction I bought 12,000 shotgun wads(mostly Rem. 1 1/8 ounce) and 150 # shot for $32. I let my brother (trap shooter) have 10,00 wads and half the shot for the $32. My best auction buy wasn't shooting related, but was a room full of odds and ends for $10 that netted me over $2,000. DALE

[exile]

Pre-1964 Winchester Model 70 in 30-06 for $ 200.00 at an estate sale. Actually my sister found it, called me, and bought it for me. When I say 'pre-64" I mean with a serial # in the 66,000 range. I took it to a gunshop to have the cosmoline removed and the guy said he did not think it had ever been fired.

I am not particularly a hunter nor a collecter. So, after five years I sold it to a friend who will shoot a deer with it occassionally and give it the respect it deserves. It was nice to see someone else beg their wife for a "new" gun for a change.

I wish I could find the same kind of deal on a Smith and Wesson 460 or a single-shot rolling block rifle. That I would keep and shoot, a lot.

exile

[missionary5155]

I have a Felow Church member who saves me a 5 gallon bucket of WW (truck) so when I return it is waiting to get processed. He gets all the .44 boolits he can shoot.. about 20 per year. All I do is call him a week or two in advance when I am running low.

[txbirdman]

Got a "like new" Colt SAA 4 3/4" in .44 Spcl for $450 but I know someone who got a better deal than that --- my son. I gave it to him when he graduated college.

[ktw]

I hit up one of the local tire shops for wheelweights once. They didn't have any wheelweights for me, but in the course of discussing it the manager mentioned that he had a bunch of once fired brass he wanted to get rid of (~1000, 30-06 and 30-30), no charge, and he pointed me to a metal fabricator down the street who used to do radiators. That guy had two 5 gallon buckets of solder sweepings kicking around in the back of his shop that he wanted to get rid of, no charge.

I helped an old friend do some shingling on a new house he was building. While up on the roof the conversation got around to guns. He had a couple of old family guns he had no use for and was tired of moving around from place to place. Sent me home with an old Remington 81 Woodsmaster in 300 Savage and an old square bolt Marlin 36 in 32 Special.

-ktw

[mtnman31]

Just recently picked up a nearly new Dillon 550 with complete tool heads for .45ACP, 9mm, and .357(new). Included with the sale was a box of spare parts for the Dillon, a Forster case trimmer, and around 10,000 primers, around 10,000 factory cast lead .45 and 9mm bullets, a few hundred new cases, and a few other odds and ends. All for the price of 550 bucks. The classified ad I replied to was just for the Dillon stuff. When I got there my jaw hit the floor as he showed me the pile of bullets, brass, primers, and powder he was throwing in. Needless to say, I did not try to talk him down on price. Really nice older gent who was getting out of relaoding. He even called me up a few days later to have me come by and pick up a few more items he had uncovered.

[FN in MT]

Had a neighbor give me 120 pounds of assorted powder and several thousand primers, ten years back.

Found a shooter grade S&W M-66 4" at a shop for a very fair price. It had a horrible pair of LARGE wood grips but bought it as a shooter for $240. Took the grips off and discovered it was an ex- MT Fish & Wildlife Wardens gun. The gigantic grips had hidden the FWP logo on the frame. Only 130 had been produced and most of them had sold at auction for double or more...than I paid.

Way back when I first started the cop job in 1974 a neighbor gave me her ww2 Veteran husbands old 1911A1 that was in 98% shape with a tanker holster and a dozen lanyard loop GI mags.

But THE best deal I probably EVER had was when shot on the NJ Natl Guard pistol team, 1972 to 1975. We met to practice at an indoor range at the Prison in Trenton each Friday. The Coach wheeled in a cart with several full cans of .45 Match ball, .45 WW 185 gr wadcutter. A can or two of WW .38 wadcutter and dozens of bricks of .22 match pistol ammo for each session. He refused to cart anything but EMPTY cans back to the Armory. So we all split the loaded ammo up each week. Brass was a "throw-away" too so I had thousands of rds of Match .45 brass for years and years. Gotta love those "tax dollars at work".

FN in MT

[buckndee]

Lugged off with 3200lb new unused clip on WW and 100lb stick on WW, for FREE other than the back ache.

Widowed women gave 4500 loaded 45ACP's, 80k primers, 5lbs powder. 7000 30 carbine brass (same LC 52 lot), 15k 38sp cases, 1000 357 cases, 15 boxes factory 32ACP, 8k cast bullets, 10 bags of shot, and a bunch of odds and ends.

Think I have used up my good luck karma.

Maybe I can give some back. Anyone have a use for 6000 #57 shotgun primers?

[Springfield]

I answered and ad that said he had about 300 lbs of lead ingots, and a Dillon Square deal, for 150.00. When I got there after a 100 mile drive, he said he also had a few more things he didn't need any more. Like a case trimmer, 3 -44 mag moulds, and a bunch of small stuff like primer pocket cleaners, etc. After we got it all loaded up, he said "you may as well have this too", and he gave me an old 32 ACP Ruby semi auto pistol. It didn't look like much, but it cleaned up real well and works fine, after I bought a mag for it. And the lead ended up being almost 500 lbs. People always underestimate the weight of lead.

[felix]

The best deal is materialized by the friendship we obtain from folks on the board. We can tell who the better friends are by their generosity without regard to their possessions and station in life. For example, the tire guy I do business with gave Corky and me his 1500+ pound accumulation of WW for free on several occasions. I payed the business beer bust fund 50 bucks each time to make it look like we weren't going to just rob the joint. Corky spent 50 bucks in transportation of same to the local of smelting, plus the time and energy to do the work of making 10 pound ingots. Total cost per pound? Well, in terms of dollars and cents, way too much for the monetary value returned. The fun part is that we emotionally made BIG MONEY together. ... felix

[madcaster]

Good point Felix!

[EMC45]

Called my local pawnshop on the hunt for any goodies and the kind lady says "I was just looking for your number. A guy came in and tried to sell us a bunch of reloading gear. We told him we didn't want it and we told him we would send someone to him" (me!). I went to meet the guy and he had 2 large totes on the ground in his car port slap full of reloading gear and gunsmithing stuff. 1010 RCBS scale, Lee Challenger, 9 sets of dies, bullets out the wazoo, files, 1911 parts, sights, grips, Uniflow, Universal Lyman Case trimmer, holsters, 4 reloading manuals, and a bunch of other "stuff". I talked to the guy (really great guy) for a while and I asked him "how much?" He asked "how much is it worth to you?"(I then realized this could go on all afternoon) I thought to offer him 150 bucks for everything, but I just told him I didn't want to insult him with my offer so I told him shoot me a price. "How's 50 bucks sound young fella?" I had to hide the excitement! He told me to take all the stuff home and unload it and bring the totes back and then pay him. All I had were 3 20 dollar bills. He said "I only told you 50" I told him it was worth 60 to me! I have since sold almost all the stuff from that day. A lot of it here. I gave some away as well to a buddy wanting to get into reloading. Also got an FR8 from the same aforementioned pawnshop for 77 bucks!!! I looked it up on line that night and found another for sale for 450!!! Mine looked unfired with a perfect bore with no brass marks on bolt or follower. Absolutely pristine!

[SpaceGlocker]

Sometimes you just get lucky...was scrounging for lead when an asst. manager at one of the tire shops said his dad died a few years ago and was a gunsmith. Went to look at what he had to offer....it was a full shop of stuff! Thousands of Bullets, Brass....hundreds of reloading dies, sizing dies, moulds, lube etc. A lubrisizer, cases of Hoppes bore cleaner, 500lbs of lead and alloys, tons of cast bullets.....bought it all for $500. A big thank you to all who bought most of this stuff on this and other boards....made close to $5,000 and gave away at least $2,000 in stuff to my friends. Wish I could find another deal like that again!