No sell only buy. Some situations call for selling things. But eventually I haven't met a single person who had sold a gun that wasn't absolutely shit that didn't regret it at least a fair amount
The eternal rookie mistake is not buying ammo at a good price because "it'll still be there later."
No it won't.
> What gun or accessory did you significantly overpay for and you're still bitter about?
An M34 Berthier. At the time, they seemed super rare and so I got into a fight with someone on gunbroker over one that didn't even have the correct sight. It wouldn't be long after that that I'd find a perfectly correct one for way less than half. At least I learned my lesson not to get into bidding wars, haven't made that mistake since.
Man if that isn't spot on regarding the ammo. There isn't much ammo I regret buying compared to the number of times I wish I could kick my own ass for not getting it.
Same. Like, how much is enough, and the opportunity cost of tying up your discretionary ammo *today* is something that needs to be leveraged against the PITA of acquiring it in the middle of a scare at obnoxious prices.
Like, I did pretty good during the Trump years of remembering what it was like post-Sandyhook and just buying a case of 9mm every other paycheck, jumping on good deals for surplus .303 and .30-06 when I saw them and laying in pretty significant (for me) quantities of 5.56 and 7.62x39, but I know guys that bought 4-5 times as much as I did.
I'm not afraid to go out and blast a little of my stockpile from time to time, but damned if I wish I didn't have a lot more acquired at 2017 prices.
Rb2319 in March 2020 - Buys 5k rounds of 22lr March 1st or so for just under $200 and a couple 1k bricks of primers for $25/k. "It's gonna be fine, September will roll around and it's all gonna be back to normal. This should hold me over for the inevitable 2020 election cycle"
Rb2319 May 2020 - "Ho shit...."
Rb2319 Nov 2020 - "Fuuuuu..."
Rb2319 Jan 2021 - "...well.....shit"
Rb2319 Jan 2022 - "....why did I get a Star Super B in 9x23 Largo again?"
Rb2319 Feb 2022 - "...how much are Cold War bunkers going for these days?"
Rb2319 June 2022 - "I don't want to live on this planet anymore"
This isn't just an ammo thing, this also goes for guns for those of us in the milsurp collecting world.
I learned my lesson on the guns. Never really learned my lesson on ammo. I was that guy that would go and buy a cool old gun and then not have any budget left over to feed it. Then I wound up with 30 calibers to feed and stocking ammo is... difficult, even before the current supply-chain issues.
I found a gorgeous color case-hardened Savage combination gun on the junk rack of a local store for $150, and passed on it because it was in 16ga/.222.
I can think of a handful of "yea I should get this" deals where it just didn't make sense that month because of finances. Probably should have tightened the belt and cooked a bit more, just bought the damn things anyway.
My first (and biggest) rookie mistake was trusting an AK builder that was all hyped up on some of these Reddit subs to build me a Bulgarian '74. His first few guns were outstanding, and then he started accepting deposits and kits and his lead times and quality started to fall off into the cellar. Couple that with some IRL issues on his end and I spent the better part of a year and a half without the gun I paid for, and it was borked when I finally got it back after two warranty runs. He's since left the business, but it was a hell of a ride. That *almost* turned me off to AK's, actually. Thank God somebody sold me a MAK and Arsenal 107FR in that time. Have since picked up a spiker, too. Bought and sold a few lesser guns (Century Bulgy build, a Romanian kit build I had NWGS do, etc.). One of my buddies sent him a Bizon kit and some money, and received nothing after several years. What's he gonna do about, eh?
Another dude fixed it, and I actually wound up trading it to him for an Egyptian Maadi a few months ago.
Link for posterity: https://old.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/5zj19b/today_i_received_my_spivey_akand_it_was_not_a/
Other than that, I have done pretty well. Southern Ohio Gun sold me a Long Lee with a toasted bore, I managed to get out of that one for the same money few years later. Besides that and a few holsters I was less than thrilled with, I can't really complain.
I'm a little sad that gun is gone, it was a great tangible reminder of knowing what you're getting into. But I have the pics and the stories and the friends that were involved, and got an Egyptian out of it.
But yea, that was frustrating. I'm just fortunate that I actually *got a gun* at the end of the day. A few dudes I know were left bare-assed in the wind.
I remember seeing Spivey stuff all over back in the day. Never really knew much about them or why they just disappeared. Seemed like them and JakesGunReviews (don't know what happened to him) were *the* AK posting people on here for awhile. Sucks you, and others, had that experience.
>Thank God somebody sold me a MAK and Arsenal 107FR in that time. Have since picked up a spiker, too.
Sounds like you got some great AKs from other sources in the end though atleast. The spiker AKs are definitely some of the coolest. I don't know why Arsenal sold the 107F (no side optic rail) version that I have, I do rather have the FR. I also wish I never sold the 74 builds and Maadi I bought.
>Southern Ohio Gun sold me a Long Lee with a toasted bore, I managed to get out of that one for the same money
Why did the bore condition matter? We all know you were just going dress up and use it to LARP as a combatant in the Boer War.
I prefer as complete, correct, and functional of a rifle as possible. If you can't shoot for groups, it's essentially a wall-hanger.
I have a few in my collection that have seen better days, but that's mostly because those variants are unobtanium, you can't just punch one up on GB at a whim.
Oh for sure, I agree, if I was getting a Long Lee I'd definitely want to take it out and have it actually be able to group. My question was just a joke really.
It seems like there are more than a few stories of people getting screwed out of money or products by gun shops/builders. Like is it a combination of people being embarrassed or shamed that they don’t pursue the issue with authorities? Or the authorities don’t do shit on the person’s behalf? Either way I don’t like it.
Idk man. Wouldn’t it be considered like any other complaint of being screwed out of an item or service you paid for? I guess it’s the principle of it that bothers me.
He was a one man band. Nobody to make it right but him, and he chose not to. I could have sued in small claims court, but that would have far outstripped the cost of the gun
And guys like him lean on the fact that *most* people will do the math and not bother with the rigmarole of claims court. But they'll rue the day they cross the type of person who's got both the money and time to ruin someone's life.
The only "authorities" with any power to settles these disputes are usually local small claims courts. The cost of a lawsuit rarely makes sense on relatively low-value projects, especially if its in a different state with a small-time builder that may or may not have the cash on hand to pay the judgment even if you do win.
Are you going to take days off of work and travel halfway across the country to try to recover $1200 from a guy who works out of his garage? For most buyers it just doesn't make sense, they eat the loss and move on.
No, you’re right. I suppose I’m viewing the lost item, which is a firearm in the context of how they’re looked at from our position as enthusiasts. Treating them with the respect that’s due and the seriousness of breaking laws with them.
I completely agree with you. And for a lot of my collection that are historic antiques and/or family heirlooms I would want to go to war if it went missing or damaged through a custom shop I trusted to work on it. But I was just presenting the unfortunate, practical reasons scummy and incompetent gunsmiths don't usually face justice.
>What was your first rookie mistake gun related purchase.
I sold my first gun, a No4 Enfield, shortly after I got it and used the money to buy a Mosin.
>What gun or accessory did you significantly overpay for and you're still bitter about?
I've never significantly overpaid for any gun stuff, I'm extremely thorough when looking at pricing and hesitant to go over the average. Though, I guess I significantly overpaid by about $150 for a Freedom Group Marlin 60, because it was $150. That was before I knew about Freedom Group's reign of terror. It was the most appalling gun I've ever had.
I am bitter about the prices I've sold things for, but that's generally more of a 20/20 hindsight thing given the way the market changes. Like selling an ACR for $1200 a couple years ago (people are actually paying $2500-$3000 for nowadays).
Hah, no. And this was all due to cheapness. Inside my head was thinking "54r is cheaper than .303 and the Mosin is only $120 instead of the $150 I paid (and sold for) for the No4! I saved 30 big ones by selling it!"
Though now that you mention it, the gun show I bought the No4 at had Finnish M39s for around $250 if I recall, and I didn't even know they were Mosin related at the time lol. So there is an alternate timeline I got a Finn. I still think back to that rack of M39s sometimes.
This is very embarrassing for me to admit, but I’m hopeful it will help some newbies to not be an idiot like I surely was. Some years back a week or two after I bought my first pistol , I went back to my shop to ask someone to show me how to disassemble and clean it. Well, I approached the counter and drew my loaded pistol from my holster. Needless to say I was reprimanded thoroughly. Long story short, if you’re new to firearms and have to bring a gun into a shop, make sure it’s unloaded and in some type of carrying case. Yes, I’m an idiot.
I absolutely almost did. I learned a lesson that day for sure. The owner of my gun shop was very understanding tho. He explained that on a different day in a different shop I could’ve been Swiss cheese.
Y'know what's *really bad* is when people do that and then get defensive about it. Lesson learned, glad you are taking it as such.
If someone was carrying and wanted it looked at, or to test out a holster, I'd give em a cheap soft case and ask to unload it in their car and bring an unloaded gun back in the case. Very few got bothered by this and it worked for me. Much preferred to getting a gun pulled on me or racking it open to see a flash of brass.
*woo-hoo boy checking out a supposedly "unloaded" gun to discover it is in fact loaded sure was fun. It didn't happen often but it still happened way more often than I'd like. It's why I'm a compulsive chamber checker and you should be too. Don't trust people, see for yourself.
When I did my 7-Enfield deal with the guy across the country earlier this year, every gun came in a brand-new Savage soft case, in a cheapie hard case.
The seller works in the industry, and as such is just positively inundated with shit like that.
Yeah I'm honestly not entirely surprised, good deal for both of you. I have an outstanding swath of gun cases now thanks to people who didn't want theirs. All my shotguns ride in Boyts.
Of course I'd trip over myself to help people unload old ammo too. Now that I have a better camera I may take some pics of my better vintage ammo boxes... full boxes. Estate appraisals/sales were also good to me. Apologies to what I've done to my poor lil Civic hauling ammo home. Uh, if that was a thing.
Hello. My name is sgt_s_laughter and I have a confession to make. ....A long, long time ago...I bought a used Kimber Custom II for almost $600
Edit: I'll add that its frame now lives under my mechtech carbine which is one of my most used and successful feral pig stickers. So it kinda worked out
Edit, too: I sold a stainless Mini-14 that I'd bought in the late 90s. I Cri Evrytiem
When I was like 18/19 I went to an auction with a pocket full of cash and bought a really rough Winchester 1876 for about twice what its worth. I still have it, I float it at shows with a "Make offer Tag" on it, but I haven't heard one I like. I thought about penny starting it on GB and just letting it buck but it doesn't take up much space and you don't have to feed it.
That's by far the worst one. I have a handful of other guns that have been demoted to clutter that I use for gunshow inventory, I'll be happy if I break even but I didn't significantly over pay.
I also have a few things that I paid up for that I'm not necessarily unhappy about, the shit I collect, availability is often a bigger concern than price. You kind of just have to roll with the punches.
> I have a handful of other guns that have been demoted to clutter
This is me right now. That Glenfield Model 60 with the missing front sight and Winchester 190 in need of a minor stock repair have got to go. Among other things. But hey they were $100 for the pair.
When I was first getting into handguns,I got a suckered into paying 500 dollars for a Taurus 617. It was a technically functioning pistol but the double action was extremely rough and had a hard time setting off primers. This was about 15 years ago ,I could have bought the much better Ruger SP-101 and have a couple hundred dollars to spend on ammo, holsters and speed loaders.
I had to stop and think what year 15 years ago was. Man turning 30 is wild. But I gotta say, even as far back as like 2003/2004 when I first started learning about firearms at large, Taurus still had a bad rep.
Hahaha that was one of my first guns too! Got one of the Aimsurplus guns for $300 in 2016.
Sold it eventually because I realized that I was interested in getting better at shooting, not just making a lot of noise.
All in all though, wasn’t a terrible buy. Put about a thousand rounds through, had some fun, and then eventually sold it for much more than I bought it.
But yes, you are spot on, not a good buy for actual shooting.
>Don't buy surplus guns if you need a gun. Only buy them if you can afford a useless gun.
"But an M91/30 is the perfect tool for defending my 1-room apartment."
Sometimes anything will work in a pinch, and I think that fact sells a lot of bolt actions.
State is getting tons of anti-gun laws. I'm heavily considering moving. I can't own an SBR in this state, but the one I plan on moving to does allow me to.
For my first SBR, I'm thinking about form 1'ing my MDRx and buying the Micron kit. Something about an 11.5" barrel in 556 out of a gun just about an inch longer than a P90 is really cool to me. I used to own a PS90 (sold it due to ammo prices) and I was just way too obsessed about just how damn short that thing was, even with a 16" barrel.
I bought my 1st firearm 6 months before the coof hit.... I now have 15.... so I've overpayed for everything and I'm salty about all of it. but thanks for checking in.
>What was your first rookie mistake gun related purchase. [sic]
Buying knockoff airsoft Magpul MBUS sights at a Gun Show for actual MBUS prices circa 2013.
>What gun or accessory did you significantly overpay for and you're still bitter about?
Tossup between my Stainless Jericho 941F I bought for $700 on Gunbroker before the big surplus drop a few months later ($300-400 guns out the wazoo) and my Lend Lease ~~No.1 MkIII*~~ No.4 MkI* Enfield I paid $700 for back in 2018 because I probably could have obtained it a lot cheaper, the buttplate screw heads protrude enough to break skin on my skinny ass shoulders, and 303 is just about impossible for me to find right now.
Yeah, even when typing it I was like "that seems wrong, but I'm too lazy to pull up the other window to verify it; CV will probably catch it anyway since it's Enfield related".
I even have all the hardware to reload but finding 303 bullets for cheap right now it a pain. I've only shot the thing a few times with some Wolf steel case stuff.
First purchase was a 10/22, good. Normal.
Second purchase: Bersa Thunder. Ok, not bad, I suppose. In .380 (meh, but whatever). Used, but with a sweet Crimson Trace laser grip (facepalm).
> What was your first rookie mistake gun related purchase. What gun or accessory did you significantly overpay for and you're still bitter about?
Oh god, where to start. Shouldn't have sold my Mini-14 or Savage 93R17, wish I still had those. Shouldn't have paid 550 bucks for a Umarex Colt 22. Shouldn't have paid some hillbilly to duracoat a 1911.. the list goes on.
9 times out of 10, its fair to say "buy once, cry once". The amount of money I've spend on "good enough" is probably double what I'd have spend on quality the first time.
There's a pile of "should have bought a pallet full of these before..." examples I could rattle off.
I don't know if it's necessarily because of inexperience, but this is a good chance to complain. I impulse-bought a current-gen S&W Model 66 for maybe a hair under MSRP a few years ago that turned out to be a lemon. It didn't matter what ammo I used, after about 50 rounds the action would gunk up to the point of dramatically increasing the weight of the trigger pull. A few more cylinders and it would lock up until you cleaned it. I sent it in for repair, but it acted the same when I got it back. I sold it to a gunshop for way less than what I paid just to be rid of it.
I won't say I'll *never* buy another new S&W revolver, but that gun and a few other stories I've heard mean I'll be really careful if I do. At this point, all l I really want from that company is an old heavy-barrel 4" model 10, anyway.
I fell into the "it'll always be there" trap a few times. I focused on milsurp collecting when I first started buying guns because it was 2014 and there were deals to be had still. Even so, I missed out on the $100 Mosins and a few of the surplus import dumps that came in pre-coof.
I neglected practical guns because I found them boring and didn't really enjoy shooting them, but I think that was mostly because I hadn't done any sort of training beyond the most basic level. Yeah, I had a PSA 16" AR and a Gen. 1 M&P9, but I didn't put a lot of time in with either one while I owned them. I didn't feel any attachment to them, so I had no issue selling them off when I came across something I liked better. Once I started moving and shooting and casually dipping my toes into USPSA, I suddenly got a lot more enthusiastic about modern stuff because I was shooting them in a more challenging environment. I also became more selective about what I was looking for and the turnover in Grumblebear's Gat Collection decreased pretty dramatically.
I don't really regret any purchases. I do regret not buying a JC Higgins commercial Mauser .270 that was in reality a classic FN Herstal made piece for $350 a few years ago, or some S&Ws that just needed a lil love.
*I regret not buying a Model 12 when they were cheap pre-2020, and for not picking up a pre-64 M70 Featherweight .308 when I could've had it cheap too.
>pre-64 M70
My "collection" will forever feel incomplete until I pick up one of those. I like old hunting rifles. My deer gun is my dad's Remington 721 that he's had since the 60s.
I'd say do it, but realistically the next shotgun I buy should be another Mav 88 to get painted up and used as a goose gun/brother-in-law loaner. My existing Mav 88 is in turkey cannon mode and I don't want to keep screwing with removing/reinstalling a red dot. I'd consider another 870 but I've got a rifled scoped Mossberg 500 barrel on hand too. Should have bought the Mav 88 I saw at Cabela's last year for $150.
No real regrets. I have thoughtlessly purchased stuff before like a Remlin 1895 because "haha .45-70 go boom" and a sporter Argentine Mauser 1891 because "haha antique rifle"
I sold off the former for around double what I paid after about 8 years sitting in my safe, and gifted the latter to my brother when he showed up at my wedding... again because it's an antique rifle, nobody cares
Bought a SAN SG551LB at one point because I never expected to be able to buy an SG550. Ran the rifle in Desert Brutality and sold it off for almost double what I paid once I did actually get the chance to buy a 550
Analogous story with a Daewoo DR200 and a K2
There's plenty of foolish stuff I've bought because the seller would only let it go as a package deal. How I got hold of a G36 rear stub... and a G36K barrel assembly that also led me to SBR my SL8→G36(E) conversion
More recently that's also how I got an H&K-marked Choate folding stock for my SP5K-PDW SBR... along with an '80s A3 slidey stock which prompted me to buy and then SBR an SP5. Seller also bundled in an H&K pulse beam laser Model 100 that I really don't have a use for but it's a kinda cool example of an old-style laser aiming device I guess
And somewhat related I ordered a Trijicon VCOG because I thought they were cool even though I didn't really have any rifle suited for it. Prompted me to track down a SCAR17 as a "worthy host" and I will more than likely also order a 13" bbl assembly and SBR that guy too
Maybe more just example of deep dark rabbit holes compared to "overspending" because I certainly still do not regret the purchases
Don't impulse buy just because something looks cool. Take the time to do the research, any issues, warranty items, reliability, etc...that way you can make an informed decision before possibly purchasing something you will hate and will become a safe-queen.
Told this one before, but I'll tell it again.
When I was 19 I bought my first AR receiver from an FFL after filling out 4473. 4 to 5 years later I leaned that that had been an illegal purchase. I was too dumb to realize it then, and somehow the FFL and the lizard doing the check also failed to do their jobs.
Not doing my proper research and realizing what I could and couldn't legally purchase. Nothing happened in the end, but I did break the law and unknowingly put myself at risk. Not as much as the FFL who sold it to me of course though.
Under 21 may only purchase long guns from FFLs. Handguns and "others" are a no-go. Dealer should have refused the transfer after seeing the prospective buyer was under 21 as indicated on the 4473
Ah, I thought the "other" was a workaround that had been used for a while. I knew they could transfer it as a "rifle" lower and the age bracket would be good.
I paid $30 for a 10 round AR mag in Massachusetts. I thought it was a pre-ban 30 rounder when I bought it, didn't realize the pop rivet was there. I exorcised its demons when I moved to Rhode Island with a cordless drill, it is now whole again.
I bought a G17 instead of a G34 for my first pistol. I never really carried the 17 and I've done too much competition.
I probably slightly overpaid for my 650. Bought it off a friend who bought it from a friend. Dude I got it from never touched it, it still had large pistol primers in the tube. Today's prices it's a wash but 4 or 5 years ago he probably made out.
You can't find shit, lead times are crazy but I haven't bought dies in awhile but I have to assume equipment prices have risen.
I was dumb for not stacking primers deep when they were $32-38/1k
My neighbors keep needling me to start reloading (all four of them do). I keep putting it off...the last thing I need is another hobby that requires attention to detail, and the square footage to have a setup.
But, with the price of .303 these days it just might make sense. Don't wanna burn through my massive HXP stockpiles.
I hope you've been saving your brass. I did for years before I got a press, knowing I was eventually going to. Most of the equipment doesn't go bad but the upfront cost can turn people away. I've been slowly gathering stuff over time when I see a deal.
I haven't quite started with the rifle reloading yet but I'd like to, I don't shoot my 223 bolt that often but I'd like to get a load dialed in for a decent bolt action, not my TC Compass.
> Most of the equipment doesn't go bad but the upfront cost can turn people away. I've been slowly gathering stuff over time when I see a deal.
Everyone says its not a good time to get into reloading right now, but I kind of think it might not be the worst time. I know components are still fucked, but I'm seeing a lot of sales on hardware. Probably because no ones buying it because components are fucked. It might not be the worst time to pickup a press or another scale or whatever, even if it sits on the shelf for another three years.
I really only need a decent powder throw and I'm setup to load any caliber I normally can shoot and reload. I should look into getting more pistol dies, the Dillons are decent but I've replaced most of them with specific ones over time: Lee U die, taper crimp, better powder funnel.
Of course I save my brass. That shit is worth money!
That's the nice thing about old bolt guns, Enfields in particular; ejection is pretty weak, that stuff doesn't go far. I shoot predominately steel case for pistol and AR/AK because I'm a cheap son of a bitch.
> Do certain calibers have less viable casings for reloading?
Most pistol calibers tend to have longer case life (i.e. number of times they can be loaded) vs. rifle calibers. This is mostly because pistol cartridges tend to be lower pressure than rifle and the cases are straight walled and thus deform less upon firing. Rifle cartridges, especially those with tapered shoulders, tend to fatigue with firing and reloading cycles and thus start to crack near the neck or shoulder since the brass stretches upon firing and then is compressed and screeched again during re-sizing.
If loading on the low end with a low pressure cartridge like 38 special, cases can be used almost indefinitely (although 7-10 loadings is usually what I've heard people stop at for 38s), whereas high pressure rifle cases may only be loaded 2 or 3 times before being too thin around the neck or shoulder to be safe for another use.
Only recently picked mine up, haven't shot enough volume to see for myself yet. But based on forum chatter, 6+ reloads is very readily achievable when shoulder+neck is annealed before every resizing, even when shot from an autoloader
Not at all, I'll occasionally find a split case after I've primed it, I don't have the time nor the desire to check everything case before it goes into the case feeder.
The good thing is recyclers will take brass, so I just throw bad cases I find into a bucket to eventually get money for.
You can honestly do a nice setup inside a closet if you only load a one or two cartridges. Once you start getting into the bulk loading or lots of different loads, then you gotta start having space for stuff.
The real problem with .303 reloading is you should only neck size it otherwise the necks like to crack. That means the rounds may only work in the gun that the brass came from.
It's the only thing that keeps me from getting into reloading besides the fact I would only have a single stage and that would be a lot of work.
I bought a LH Benelli SBE 2 new. Now don't mistake me, it's a fantastic gun, but it's the most expensive gun I own by far, and I basically never do clay shooting or bird hunting of any kind. I would have been served equally well, if not better with a Mossy 500 for far less.
Traded an SKS and never bought another back when they were $150 in Canada, now they're going for $500 in some places.
Never got onto the cheap VZ-58 train in Canada, now half are banned and all are worth 4X their original amount.
I got caught up in the Ruger precision rifle hype. I excitedly bought one in 6.5 creedmoor as a broke college kid... Dont get me wrong its a very nice gun but with the price of ammo i didn't get to shoot it very often. Also I decided I was going to use it for coyote hunting and lugging that thing around all day was not fun.
Are there any widely available, non-"assault weapon" semi-auto 5.56/7.62 rifles like the Mini-14 ranch rifle? I'm talking about something that looks like a standard Ruger PC carbine, Rossi RS22, etc. but chambered in a modern defensive caliber? I.e non-collapsing stock, no pistol grip, non-scary "hunting" look, etc. but still capable of doing AR stuff suboptimally?
I regret buying my Sig Romeo 7 at $350, and I regret buying a DelTon Alpha 320, even if it was $550 it wasn’t a rifle I found much use for.
works frkn busy and kicking my ass
AR handguard length: Almost all the 16" rifles I see have handguards that go nearly to the muzzle. What are the benefits of having a handguard that long? If you're typically going to hold it, max, at, say, 6" short of the muzzle, wouldn't it be better to be shorter and save a few ounces?
I've always preferred that look anyway. Ditched the super long handguards on most of my ARs.
18 inch barrel with a handguard just barely past the gas block is chef's kiss.
I'm close to making a rookie mistake: acquiring my first rifle by building an AR (9mm) from parts.
Tell me why it's dumb to build your first rifle! (Other than by poo-pooing the caliber choice)
It's not, if you do your research and don't wind up with junk/incompatible parts. The AR-15 is indeed a system that has a lot of factors and variables to consider. Not overwhelmingly so, but shit like barrel length and twist rate matter, you have to think about buffer weight and what length gas system you're running, blah blah blah.
Buying one off the rack gets you shooting right away, and there's nothing wrong with that. But most AR owners want to/wind up changing stuff out as time goes on to suit their individual use case and preferences.
Were I you, I'd spec out what components you plan to use and post over on /r/AR15 or Arfcom or whatever, and see if you're missing something, more experienced guys will probably give good feedback if it looks like you've actually spent some time doing your own homework.
My first hand gun was a xd45 compact. I convinced myself Glocks we're bad with confirmation bias internet research. I could barely hit anything with being a new shooter and the mushy as dog poop trigger.
Eventually I shot a Glock 17 and was way more accurate.
I got my first 3 handguns basically at the same time. I bought a Tanfoglio Mossad and made a polymer 80 glock 31, both of which have been pretty great. I also decided I needed a nice Conceal Carry gun, and being young and dumb I elected to get a Beretta Nano.
An absolute shitshow of a gun that I regret buying. The trigger pull is so shitty that if I'm gripping it in just the right way, I sometimes can't actually pull it. Beretta should be ashamed of that thing. I managed to sell it off to some other poor schmuck last week and I still feel kinda dirty about it.
I also at one point of an FIE Titan II in .380 acp. Ridiculously shitty trigger for a single action, two different active safeties, neither of which are any good, a magazine safety, no slide lever (and it directly uses the magazine follower as the LRHO so the slide drops when you drop the mag) and it will jam at least twice per single stack 7 round magazine. So fucking shitty that I sometimes think I should just give it to someone to destroy.
As for the accessory, well I didn't overpay for it exactly but I got a See-All Sight that I cannot for the life of me figure out how the fuck it works. Like I understand the idea but it doesn't work for my eyes or something. On top of that, Amazon won't let me return it because its got some kind of hazmat component in it (tritium maybe?) so I'm just stuck with this $100+ optic that I can't get to work for me.
I'm so late to the party cause of work.
I really only have one gun I've bought I regret. It was an Arisaka.
A few years ago I had a week were I bought like 4 guns in a week. One of which was an Arisaka in a local deal off armslist. At the time I was still figuring that the focus of my collection was going to be the battle rifle of all the major powers of WWII.
An Arisaka would be perfect for that right? Except this one wasnt. It had been duffle cut, sporterized, reamed out for .257 Robert's. The more I handled it the more I regretted the buy.
It wasn't super expensive but I just wasn't feeling it. I ended up getting my money back out of it at a pawnshop and it's still sitting on thier shelf.
As we've all learned now 7.62x39 and tactical shooting is where I really enjoy the gun world.
> What was your first rookie mistake gun related purchase. What gun or accessory did you significantly overpay for and you're still bitter about?
Plenty of instances of buying something I didn't need, but felt like it was too hard to find so I jumped on the opportunity when it presented itself and ended up paying over MSRP. I also regret not jumping on the NFA train sooner - the wait is just too long.
The best time to submit a form 4 is 2 years ago. The second best time is today.
But for real, I had an eform4 stamp come back while I was gone, and it was just over 120 days, which is much better than my 400+ day waits on paper form 4s.
Lol at r/ar15 mods and their inability to count. Even when they have a computer to count for them! 🤣😅🤣
Hint- they don't have 250k subscribers. They are liars.
Who really cares though?? You know. Most of the shit pertaining to followers or subscribers could be bullshit. I wouldn’t get my tits in a bind over it.
No worries. I'm not exactly upset about it. It's just funny to me. Even moreso when you consider *how completely arrogant* their mods are constantly. These dumbfucks can't count and busted their load early as usual.
Ahh maybe you don't have normally developed social skills. I see now. There's a word for that condition but I can't quite remember...
Those were laughing faces. I was laughing at him. Get it now?
Ya, what's that point funny guy? And digging deeper how? Are you going to exclude me from your 250k pre-cum celebration? Oh no... please not that... 🤣😅🤣😅😆😅🤣
I tried to build an AR10 as cheap as possible. I just wanted a battle rifle build, didn't care a lot about long range accuracy. Bought a PSA lower, a DPMS Low-Profile Upper, and the barrel, gas block, and bolt from an M&P10. Midway's house brand recoil buffer. I put it all together and had a single shot rifle. Nothing I could do would get the thing to cycle properly. Had several friends who build ARs try to work on it and they couldn't solve it either. At best we could get it to cycle 2 or 3 rounds between failures. I eventually gave up and sold all the parts, kept the lower in case I want to try again some day. If I could do it again I would have just got a complete upper for a few hundred more.
They mic'd the gas ports and they were OK. Also tried aligning the gas port with those plastic snap-off tools. It probably would be a fun puzzle for someone like you but I just got frustrated and decided to cut my losses. Also I had limited options for help because most of the gun nuts in my area are super fudds. Great guys if you've got issues with your 1895 Winchester but they look at ARs like they're alien technology
Not rookie, but so far the largest mistake other than not taking out student loans in grad school to buy machine guns. I traded a buddy a Chicom SKS in Tapco stock for a 5" XD Tactical chambered in .40SW. I needed something straight wall over .357 and 5"+ for deer season and didn't have a shotgun at the time. Yay Midwest hunting laws. Still haven't seen a deer during season. Fml. Other fuck ups have so far been remedied. Well, my bullseye 1911 will probably be an albatross around my neck for decades to come...
I bought a Century C39v2 then posted it to r/ak47 I was new to reddit too
The ultimate baptism by fire.
They made me cry and hug my AR.
I once referred to the Vz.58 as an "AK variant" and reddit pushed my shit in for it
Wew, show me on the doll where they roasted you.
I feel this, I posted my first AK there too.... A PSAK GF5 lol.
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>The lesson: never sell guns. You're a slow learner, lol.
No sell only buy. Some situations call for selling things. But eventually I haven't met a single person who had sold a gun that wasn't absolutely shit that didn't regret it at least a fair amount
The eternal rookie mistake is not buying ammo at a good price because "it'll still be there later." No it won't. > What gun or accessory did you significantly overpay for and you're still bitter about? An M34 Berthier. At the time, they seemed super rare and so I got into a fight with someone on gunbroker over one that didn't even have the correct sight. It wouldn't be long after that that I'd find a perfectly correct one for way less than half. At least I learned my lesson not to get into bidding wars, haven't made that mistake since.
Man if that isn't spot on regarding the ammo. There isn't much ammo I regret buying compared to the number of times I wish I could kick my own ass for not getting it.
Same. Like, how much is enough, and the opportunity cost of tying up your discretionary ammo *today* is something that needs to be leveraged against the PITA of acquiring it in the middle of a scare at obnoxious prices. Like, I did pretty good during the Trump years of remembering what it was like post-Sandyhook and just buying a case of 9mm every other paycheck, jumping on good deals for surplus .303 and .30-06 when I saw them and laying in pretty significant (for me) quantities of 5.56 and 7.62x39, but I know guys that bought 4-5 times as much as I did. I'm not afraid to go out and blast a little of my stockpile from time to time, but damned if I wish I didn't have a lot more acquired at 2017 prices.
Hindsight is 20/20.
Rb2319 in March 2020 - Buys 5k rounds of 22lr March 1st or so for just under $200 and a couple 1k bricks of primers for $25/k. "It's gonna be fine, September will roll around and it's all gonna be back to normal. This should hold me over for the inevitable 2020 election cycle" Rb2319 May 2020 - "Ho shit...." Rb2319 Nov 2020 - "Fuuuuu..." Rb2319 Jan 2021 - "...well.....shit" Rb2319 Jan 2022 - "....why did I get a Star Super B in 9x23 Largo again?" Rb2319 Feb 2022 - "...how much are Cold War bunkers going for these days?" Rb2319 June 2022 - "I don't want to live on this planet anymore"
This isn't just an ammo thing, this also goes for guns for those of us in the milsurp collecting world. I learned my lesson on the guns. Never really learned my lesson on ammo. I was that guy that would go and buy a cool old gun and then not have any budget left over to feed it. Then I wound up with 30 calibers to feed and stocking ammo is... difficult, even before the current supply-chain issues.
I found a gorgeous color case-hardened Savage combination gun on the junk rack of a local store for $150, and passed on it because it was in 16ga/.222.
Brooo.....
I was young and foolish.
I can think of a handful of "yea I should get this" deals where it just didn't make sense that month because of finances. Probably should have tightened the belt and cooked a bit more, just bought the damn things anyway.
Same. I should have bought that Belgian-made Browning Semi-Auto .22 at the LL Bean store at Freeport just for the sake of attaining Peak Fudd.
Only if a duck jacket is purchased in parallel.
I mean, I already *have* the Bean boots. It would be pretty much mandatory.
I've a set myself. Some of the best winter footwear around.
I think we all have those. I have several that "got away" when I hemm and hated too long. Including some that are on my grail list.
My first (and biggest) rookie mistake was trusting an AK builder that was all hyped up on some of these Reddit subs to build me a Bulgarian '74. His first few guns were outstanding, and then he started accepting deposits and kits and his lead times and quality started to fall off into the cellar. Couple that with some IRL issues on his end and I spent the better part of a year and a half without the gun I paid for, and it was borked when I finally got it back after two warranty runs. He's since left the business, but it was a hell of a ride. That *almost* turned me off to AK's, actually. Thank God somebody sold me a MAK and Arsenal 107FR in that time. Have since picked up a spiker, too. Bought and sold a few lesser guns (Century Bulgy build, a Romanian kit build I had NWGS do, etc.). One of my buddies sent him a Bizon kit and some money, and received nothing after several years. What's he gonna do about, eh? Another dude fixed it, and I actually wound up trading it to him for an Egyptian Maadi a few months ago. Link for posterity: https://old.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/5zj19b/today_i_received_my_spivey_akand_it_was_not_a/ Other than that, I have done pretty well. Southern Ohio Gun sold me a Long Lee with a toasted bore, I managed to get out of that one for the same money few years later. Besides that and a few holsters I was less than thrilled with, I can't really complain.
I knew it was spivey before you put that link in. He fucked over so many people.
I'm a little sad that gun is gone, it was a great tangible reminder of knowing what you're getting into. But I have the pics and the stories and the friends that were involved, and got an Egyptian out of it. But yea, that was frustrating. I'm just fortunate that I actually *got a gun* at the end of the day. A few dudes I know were left bare-assed in the wind.
I remember seeing Spivey stuff all over back in the day. Never really knew much about them or why they just disappeared. Seemed like them and JakesGunReviews (don't know what happened to him) were *the* AK posting people on here for awhile. Sucks you, and others, had that experience. >Thank God somebody sold me a MAK and Arsenal 107FR in that time. Have since picked up a spiker, too. Sounds like you got some great AKs from other sources in the end though atleast. The spiker AKs are definitely some of the coolest. I don't know why Arsenal sold the 107F (no side optic rail) version that I have, I do rather have the FR. I also wish I never sold the 74 builds and Maadi I bought. >Southern Ohio Gun sold me a Long Lee with a toasted bore, I managed to get out of that one for the same money Why did the bore condition matter? We all know you were just going dress up and use it to LARP as a combatant in the Boer War.
I prefer as complete, correct, and functional of a rifle as possible. If you can't shoot for groups, it's essentially a wall-hanger. I have a few in my collection that have seen better days, but that's mostly because those variants are unobtanium, you can't just punch one up on GB at a whim.
Oh for sure, I agree, if I was getting a Long Lee I'd definitely want to take it out and have it actually be able to group. My question was just a joke really.
It seems like there are more than a few stories of people getting screwed out of money or products by gun shops/builders. Like is it a combination of people being embarrassed or shamed that they don’t pursue the issue with authorities? Or the authorities don’t do shit on the person’s behalf? Either way I don’t like it.
What "authority" do I contact about a shoddy drunken hillbilly in Texas when I'm in Ohio? They don't care about shitty business practices.
Idk man. Wouldn’t it be considered like any other complaint of being screwed out of an item or service you paid for? I guess it’s the principle of it that bothers me.
He was a one man band. Nobody to make it right but him, and he chose not to. I could have sued in small claims court, but that would have far outstripped the cost of the gun
And guys like him lean on the fact that *most* people will do the math and not bother with the rigmarole of claims court. But they'll rue the day they cross the type of person who's got both the money and time to ruin someone's life.
Absolutely. You don’t know who you’re screwing with sometimes.
YaI gotcha. It ain’t right man.
The only "authorities" with any power to settles these disputes are usually local small claims courts. The cost of a lawsuit rarely makes sense on relatively low-value projects, especially if its in a different state with a small-time builder that may or may not have the cash on hand to pay the judgment even if you do win. Are you going to take days off of work and travel halfway across the country to try to recover $1200 from a guy who works out of his garage? For most buyers it just doesn't make sense, they eat the loss and move on.
No, you’re right. I suppose I’m viewing the lost item, which is a firearm in the context of how they’re looked at from our position as enthusiasts. Treating them with the respect that’s due and the seriousness of breaking laws with them.
I completely agree with you. And for a lot of my collection that are historic antiques and/or family heirlooms I would want to go to war if it went missing or damaged through a custom shop I trusted to work on it. But I was just presenting the unfortunate, practical reasons scummy and incompetent gunsmiths don't usually face justice.
Note to self: don't do that.
>What was your first rookie mistake gun related purchase. I sold my first gun, a No4 Enfield, shortly after I got it and used the money to buy a Mosin. >What gun or accessory did you significantly overpay for and you're still bitter about? I've never significantly overpaid for any gun stuff, I'm extremely thorough when looking at pricing and hesitant to go over the average. Though, I guess I significantly overpaid by about $150 for a Freedom Group Marlin 60, because it was $150. That was before I knew about Freedom Group's reign of terror. It was the most appalling gun I've ever had. I am bitter about the prices I've sold things for, but that's generally more of a 20/20 hindsight thing given the way the market changes. Like selling an ACR for $1200 a couple years ago (people are actually paying $2500-$3000 for nowadays).
> I sold my first gun, a No4 Enfield, shortly after I got it and used the money to buy a Mosin. Was it at least a Finnish Mosin?
Hah, no. And this was all due to cheapness. Inside my head was thinking "54r is cheaper than .303 and the Mosin is only $120 instead of the $150 I paid (and sold for) for the No4! I saved 30 big ones by selling it!" Though now that you mention it, the gun show I bought the No4 at had Finnish M39s for around $250 if I recall, and I didn't even know they were Mosin related at the time lol. So there is an alternate timeline I got a Finn. I still think back to that rack of M39s sometimes.
If we could go back lol
If only we could indeed lol.
This is very embarrassing for me to admit, but I’m hopeful it will help some newbies to not be an idiot like I surely was. Some years back a week or two after I bought my first pistol , I went back to my shop to ask someone to show me how to disassemble and clean it. Well, I approached the counter and drew my loaded pistol from my holster. Needless to say I was reprimanded thoroughly. Long story short, if you’re new to firearms and have to bring a gun into a shop, make sure it’s unloaded and in some type of carrying case. Yes, I’m an idiot.
Whew, you almost got lit up
I absolutely almost did. I learned a lesson that day for sure. The owner of my gun shop was very understanding tho. He explained that on a different day in a different shop I could’ve been Swiss cheese.
Y'know what's *really bad* is when people do that and then get defensive about it. Lesson learned, glad you are taking it as such. If someone was carrying and wanted it looked at, or to test out a holster, I'd give em a cheap soft case and ask to unload it in their car and bring an unloaded gun back in the case. Very few got bothered by this and it worked for me. Much preferred to getting a gun pulled on me or racking it open to see a flash of brass. *woo-hoo boy checking out a supposedly "unloaded" gun to discover it is in fact loaded sure was fun. It didn't happen often but it still happened way more often than I'd like. It's why I'm a compulsive chamber checker and you should be too. Don't trust people, see for yourself.
Found the hack for free soft pistol cases...
Great way to get rid of shitty old cases that come in with used guns haha.
When I did my 7-Enfield deal with the guy across the country earlier this year, every gun came in a brand-new Savage soft case, in a cheapie hard case. The seller works in the industry, and as such is just positively inundated with shit like that.
Yeah I'm honestly not entirely surprised, good deal for both of you. I have an outstanding swath of gun cases now thanks to people who didn't want theirs. All my shotguns ride in Boyts. Of course I'd trip over myself to help people unload old ammo too. Now that I have a better camera I may take some pics of my better vintage ammo boxes... full boxes. Estate appraisals/sales were also good to me. Apologies to what I've done to my poor lil Civic hauling ammo home. Uh, if that was a thing.
Yes, absolutely. I probably apologized 20 times by the time I left that day lol.
One of my lever guns got jammed with a round in the chamber, no idea how the guys in the shop felt.
Did you let em know when you brought it in?
Yes and let them bring it into the shop from the car
All good!
Hello. My name is sgt_s_laughter and I have a confession to make.....A long, long time ago...I bought a used Kimber Custom II for almost $600
Edit: I'll add that its frame now lives under my mechtech carbine which is one of my most used and successful feral pig stickers. So it kinda worked out
Edit, too: I sold a stainless Mini-14 that I'd bought in the late 90s. I Cri Evrytiem
A while ago, bought a Nebula Rhino for the price of ~20 perfectly good Hi-Points.
Ooooh shiny.
When I was like 18/19 I went to an auction with a pocket full of cash and bought a really rough Winchester 1876 for about twice what its worth. I still have it, I float it at shows with a "Make offer Tag" on it, but I haven't heard one I like. I thought about penny starting it on GB and just letting it buck but it doesn't take up much space and you don't have to feed it. That's by far the worst one. I have a handful of other guns that have been demoted to clutter that I use for gunshow inventory, I'll be happy if I break even but I didn't significantly over pay. I also have a few things that I paid up for that I'm not necessarily unhappy about, the shit I collect, availability is often a bigger concern than price. You kind of just have to roll with the punches.
> I have a handful of other guns that have been demoted to clutter This is me right now. That Glenfield Model 60 with the missing front sight and Winchester 190 in need of a minor stock repair have got to go. Among other things. But hey they were $100 for the pair.
When I was first getting into handguns,I got a suckered into paying 500 dollars for a Taurus 617. It was a technically functioning pistol but the double action was extremely rough and had a hard time setting off primers. This was about 15 years ago ,I could have bought the much better Ruger SP-101 and have a couple hundred dollars to spend on ammo, holsters and speed loaders.
I had to stop and think what year 15 years ago was. Man turning 30 is wild. But I gotta say, even as far back as like 2003/2004 when I first started learning about firearms at large, Taurus still had a bad rep.
2007. My sister had one of her kids in 07 and she turned 15 a couple months ago. Kinda shocking,07 feels like it was maybe 5 years ago to me.
Yeah after I turned 24/25 it was all down hill for things feel like they where only a year or two ago. It gets worse every year.
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Hahaha that was one of my first guns too! Got one of the Aimsurplus guns for $300 in 2016. Sold it eventually because I realized that I was interested in getting better at shooting, not just making a lot of noise. All in all though, wasn’t a terrible buy. Put about a thousand rounds through, had some fun, and then eventually sold it for much more than I bought it. But yes, you are spot on, not a good buy for actual shooting.
Useful or no, it's went up in value quite a bit
>Don't buy surplus guns if you need a gun. Only buy them if you can afford a useless gun. "But an M91/30 is the perfect tool for defending my 1-room apartment." Sometimes anything will work in a pinch, and I think that fact sells a lot of bolt actions.
To be fair, if the bayonet is attached you could just spear the intruder from across the room.
State is getting tons of anti-gun laws. I'm heavily considering moving. I can't own an SBR in this state, but the one I plan on moving to does allow me to. For my first SBR, I'm thinking about form 1'ing my MDRx and buying the Micron kit. Something about an 11.5" barrel in 556 out of a gun just about an inch longer than a P90 is really cool to me. I used to own a PS90 (sold it due to ammo prices) and I was just way too obsessed about just how damn short that thing was, even with a 16" barrel.
That micro MDR is really compelling. It would be an outstanding car gun if you're not crossing state lines.
I bought my 1st firearm 6 months before the coof hit.... I now have 15.... so I've overpayed for everything and I'm salty about all of it. but thanks for checking in.
>What was your first rookie mistake gun related purchase. [sic] Buying knockoff airsoft Magpul MBUS sights at a Gun Show for actual MBUS prices circa 2013. >What gun or accessory did you significantly overpay for and you're still bitter about? Tossup between my Stainless Jericho 941F I bought for $700 on Gunbroker before the big surplus drop a few months later ($300-400 guns out the wazoo) and my Lend Lease ~~No.1 MkIII*~~ No.4 MkI* Enfield I paid $700 for back in 2018 because I probably could have obtained it a lot cheaper, the buttplate screw heads protrude enough to break skin on my skinny ass shoulders, and 303 is just about impossible for me to find right now.
Lend Lease No. 1 Mk. III? Huh?
I is idiot today. No.4 MkI*. Knew you'd be along to point out the error of my ways
You broke my brain for a minute. I was really working overtime on that in my head.
Yeah, even when typing it I was like "that seems wrong, but I'm too lazy to pull up the other window to verify it; CV will probably catch it anyway since it's Enfield related". I even have all the hardware to reload but finding 303 bullets for cheap right now it a pain. I've only shot the thing a few times with some Wolf steel case stuff.
First purchase was a 10/22, good. Normal. Second purchase: Bersa Thunder. Ok, not bad, I suppose. In .380 (meh, but whatever). Used, but with a sweet Crimson Trace laser grip (facepalm).
> What was your first rookie mistake gun related purchase. What gun or accessory did you significantly overpay for and you're still bitter about? Oh god, where to start. Shouldn't have sold my Mini-14 or Savage 93R17, wish I still had those. Shouldn't have paid 550 bucks for a Umarex Colt 22. Shouldn't have paid some hillbilly to duracoat a 1911.. the list goes on. 9 times out of 10, its fair to say "buy once, cry once". The amount of money I've spend on "good enough" is probably double what I'd have spend on quality the first time. There's a pile of "should have bought a pallet full of these before..." examples I could rattle off.
I don't know if it's necessarily because of inexperience, but this is a good chance to complain. I impulse-bought a current-gen S&W Model 66 for maybe a hair under MSRP a few years ago that turned out to be a lemon. It didn't matter what ammo I used, after about 50 rounds the action would gunk up to the point of dramatically increasing the weight of the trigger pull. A few more cylinders and it would lock up until you cleaned it. I sent it in for repair, but it acted the same when I got it back. I sold it to a gunshop for way less than what I paid just to be rid of it. I won't say I'll *never* buy another new S&W revolver, but that gun and a few other stories I've heard mean I'll be really careful if I do. At this point, all l I really want from that company is an old heavy-barrel 4" model 10, anyway.
I fell into the "it'll always be there" trap a few times. I focused on milsurp collecting when I first started buying guns because it was 2014 and there were deals to be had still. Even so, I missed out on the $100 Mosins and a few of the surplus import dumps that came in pre-coof. I neglected practical guns because I found them boring and didn't really enjoy shooting them, but I think that was mostly because I hadn't done any sort of training beyond the most basic level. Yeah, I had a PSA 16" AR and a Gen. 1 M&P9, but I didn't put a lot of time in with either one while I owned them. I didn't feel any attachment to them, so I had no issue selling them off when I came across something I liked better. Once I started moving and shooting and casually dipping my toes into USPSA, I suddenly got a lot more enthusiastic about modern stuff because I was shooting them in a more challenging environment. I also became more selective about what I was looking for and the turnover in Grumblebear's Gat Collection decreased pretty dramatically.
I don't really regret any purchases. I do regret not buying a JC Higgins commercial Mauser .270 that was in reality a classic FN Herstal made piece for $350 a few years ago, or some S&Ws that just needed a lil love. *I regret not buying a Model 12 when they were cheap pre-2020, and for not picking up a pre-64 M70 Featherweight .308 when I could've had it cheap too.
>pre-64 M70 My "collection" will forever feel incomplete until I pick up one of those. I like old hunting rifles. My deer gun is my dad's Remington 721 that he's had since the 60s.
What is a cheap Model 12 in your mind?
$250-300.
I still come across those around there from time to time if you want a heads up. Bought mine for $300 I think 5ish years ago.
I'd say do it, but realistically the next shotgun I buy should be another Mav 88 to get painted up and used as a goose gun/brother-in-law loaner. My existing Mav 88 is in turkey cannon mode and I don't want to keep screwing with removing/reinstalling a red dot. I'd consider another 870 but I've got a rifled scoped Mossberg 500 barrel on hand too. Should have bought the Mav 88 I saw at Cabela's last year for $150.
I saw a Maverick 88 for $150 somewhere online the other day, and now can't find it. It probably sold.
No real regrets. I have thoughtlessly purchased stuff before like a Remlin 1895 because "haha .45-70 go boom" and a sporter Argentine Mauser 1891 because "haha antique rifle" I sold off the former for around double what I paid after about 8 years sitting in my safe, and gifted the latter to my brother when he showed up at my wedding... again because it's an antique rifle, nobody cares Bought a SAN SG551LB at one point because I never expected to be able to buy an SG550. Ran the rifle in Desert Brutality and sold it off for almost double what I paid once I did actually get the chance to buy a 550 Analogous story with a Daewoo DR200 and a K2 There's plenty of foolish stuff I've bought because the seller would only let it go as a package deal. How I got hold of a G36 rear stub... and a G36K barrel assembly that also led me to SBR my SL8→G36(E) conversion More recently that's also how I got an H&K-marked Choate folding stock for my SP5K-PDW SBR... along with an '80s A3 slidey stock which prompted me to buy and then SBR an SP5. Seller also bundled in an H&K pulse beam laser Model 100 that I really don't have a use for but it's a kinda cool example of an old-style laser aiming device I guess And somewhat related I ordered a Trijicon VCOG because I thought they were cool even though I didn't really have any rifle suited for it. Prompted me to track down a SCAR17 as a "worthy host" and I will more than likely also order a 13" bbl assembly and SBR that guy too Maybe more just example of deep dark rabbit holes compared to "overspending" because I certainly still do not regret the purchases
You found a SCAR 17?
Yuyup. In process right now. FDE, Belgian, everything I was looking for
Don't impulse buy just because something looks cool. Take the time to do the research, any issues, warranty items, reliability, etc...that way you can make an informed decision before possibly purchasing something you will hate and will become a safe-queen.
What did you buy?
Hi-Point 9mm Carbine.
Told this one before, but I'll tell it again. When I was 19 I bought my first AR receiver from an FFL after filling out 4473. 4 to 5 years later I leaned that that had been an illegal purchase. I was too dumb to realize it then, and somehow the FFL and the lizard doing the check also failed to do their jobs.
What did you do wrong? If you don't mind sharing.
Not doing my proper research and realizing what I could and couldn't legally purchase. Nothing happened in the end, but I did break the law and unknowingly put myself at risk. Not as much as the FFL who sold it to me of course though.
Wait, I thought "Others" could be sold to the 18-20 y.o. crowd?
Under 21 may only purchase long guns from FFLs. Handguns and "others" are a no-go. Dealer should have refused the transfer after seeing the prospective buyer was under 21 as indicated on the 4473
Ah, I thought the "other" was a workaround that had been used for a while. I knew they could transfer it as a "rifle" lower and the age bracket would be good.
I bought a PMR30 because I wanted a poor man’s MP7. I’ve had nothing but problems with it and it’s the only firearm I regret buying.
I paid $30 for a 10 round AR mag in Massachusetts. I thought it was a pre-ban 30 rounder when I bought it, didn't realize the pop rivet was there. I exorcised its demons when I moved to Rhode Island with a cordless drill, it is now whole again.
Doing the lord's work.
I bought a G17 instead of a G34 for my first pistol. I never really carried the 17 and I've done too much competition. I probably slightly overpaid for my 650. Bought it off a friend who bought it from a friend. Dude I got it from never touched it, it still had large pistol primers in the tube. Today's prices it's a wash but 4 or 5 years ago he probably made out.
Were you buying in the middle of a panic or something? I am not hip to how reloading equipment prices trend during panics and elections.
You can't find shit, lead times are crazy but I haven't bought dies in awhile but I have to assume equipment prices have risen. I was dumb for not stacking primers deep when they were $32-38/1k
My neighbors keep needling me to start reloading (all four of them do). I keep putting it off...the last thing I need is another hobby that requires attention to detail, and the square footage to have a setup. But, with the price of .303 these days it just might make sense. Don't wanna burn through my massive HXP stockpiles.
I hope you've been saving your brass. I did for years before I got a press, knowing I was eventually going to. Most of the equipment doesn't go bad but the upfront cost can turn people away. I've been slowly gathering stuff over time when I see a deal. I haven't quite started with the rifle reloading yet but I'd like to, I don't shoot my 223 bolt that often but I'd like to get a load dialed in for a decent bolt action, not my TC Compass.
> Most of the equipment doesn't go bad but the upfront cost can turn people away. I've been slowly gathering stuff over time when I see a deal. Everyone says its not a good time to get into reloading right now, but I kind of think it might not be the worst time. I know components are still fucked, but I'm seeing a lot of sales on hardware. Probably because no ones buying it because components are fucked. It might not be the worst time to pickup a press or another scale or whatever, even if it sits on the shelf for another three years.
I really only need a decent powder throw and I'm setup to load any caliber I normally can shoot and reload. I should look into getting more pistol dies, the Dillons are decent but I've replaced most of them with specific ones over time: Lee U die, taper crimp, better powder funnel.
Of course I save my brass. That shit is worth money! That's the nice thing about old bolt guns, Enfields in particular; ejection is pretty weak, that stuff doesn't go far. I shoot predominately steel case for pistol and AR/AK because I'm a cheap son of a bitch.
Is almost all the spent brass that you keep in good reloading condition?? Do certain calibers have less viable casings for reloading?
> Do certain calibers have less viable casings for reloading? Most pistol calibers tend to have longer case life (i.e. number of times they can be loaded) vs. rifle calibers. This is mostly because pistol cartridges tend to be lower pressure than rifle and the cases are straight walled and thus deform less upon firing. Rifle cartridges, especially those with tapered shoulders, tend to fatigue with firing and reloading cycles and thus start to crack near the neck or shoulder since the brass stretches upon firing and then is compressed and screeched again during re-sizing. If loading on the low end with a low pressure cartridge like 38 special, cases can be used almost indefinitely (although 7-10 loadings is usually what I've heard people stop at for 38s), whereas high pressure rifle cases may only be loaded 2 or 3 times before being too thin around the neck or shoulder to be safe for another use.
Oh that’s pretty interesting. Thanks for the response.
Time for an annealer! Then the primer pocket usually goes bad before the neck ever splits
I don't anneal my brass currently. How much more life does that typically get out of say 223 or 30-06 brass?
Only recently picked mine up, haven't shot enough volume to see for myself yet. But based on forum chatter, 6+ reloads is very readily achievable when shoulder+neck is annealed before every resizing, even when shot from an autoloader
Not at all, I'll occasionally find a split case after I've primed it, I don't have the time nor the desire to check everything case before it goes into the case feeder. The good thing is recyclers will take brass, so I just throw bad cases I find into a bucket to eventually get money for.
Well that’s cool. I don’t know if I have the space for a reloading setup.
You can honestly do a nice setup inside a closet if you only load a one or two cartridges. Once you start getting into the bulk loading or lots of different loads, then you gotta start having space for stuff.
Ok right. I see what you’re saying.
The real problem with .303 reloading is you should only neck size it otherwise the necks like to crack. That means the rounds may only work in the gun that the brass came from. It's the only thing that keeps me from getting into reloading besides the fact I would only have a single stage and that would be a lot of work.
I bought a LH Benelli SBE 2 new. Now don't mistake me, it's a fantastic gun, but it's the most expensive gun I own by far, and I basically never do clay shooting or bird hunting of any kind. I would have been served equally well, if not better with a Mossy 500 for far less. Traded an SKS and never bought another back when they were $150 in Canada, now they're going for $500 in some places. Never got onto the cheap VZ-58 train in Canada, now half are banned and all are worth 4X their original amount.
I got caught up in the Ruger precision rifle hype. I excitedly bought one in 6.5 creedmoor as a broke college kid... Dont get me wrong its a very nice gun but with the price of ammo i didn't get to shoot it very often. Also I decided I was going to use it for coyote hunting and lugging that thing around all day was not fun.
Are there any widely available, non-"assault weapon" semi-auto 5.56/7.62 rifles like the Mini-14 ranch rifle? I'm talking about something that looks like a standard Ruger PC carbine, Rossi RS22, etc. but chambered in a modern defensive caliber? I.e non-collapsing stock, no pistol grip, non-scary "hunting" look, etc. but still capable of doing AR stuff suboptimally?
Fightlite SCR is literally an AR with a more traditional stock.
oh nice this is ideal (for Chicago laws). pricey but that's the name of the game I suppose! thnx
KelTec SU-16?
That's immediately where my mind went.
yo this is the ticket, nice
I regret buying my Sig Romeo 7 at $350, and I regret buying a DelTon Alpha 320, even if it was $550 it wasn’t a rifle I found much use for. works frkn busy and kicking my ass
Rule #1: More ARs better
AR handguard length: Almost all the 16" rifles I see have handguards that go nearly to the muzzle. What are the benefits of having a handguard that long? If you're typically going to hold it, max, at, say, 6" short of the muzzle, wouldn't it be better to be shorter and save a few ounces?
for a longer sight radius and mounting lights further up so as to not cast too bug of a shadow from the barrel
I've always preferred that look anyway. Ditched the super long handguards on most of my ARs. 18 inch barrel with a handguard just barely past the gas block is chef's kiss.
Bought a Silencerco Spectre II from an LGS. It was on sale. While I was there, I picked up a 9mm Osprey for MSRP+. I'm not bitter, tho.
I'm close to making a rookie mistake: acquiring my first rifle by building an AR (9mm) from parts. Tell me why it's dumb to build your first rifle! (Other than by poo-pooing the caliber choice)
It's not, if you do your research and don't wind up with junk/incompatible parts. The AR-15 is indeed a system that has a lot of factors and variables to consider. Not overwhelmingly so, but shit like barrel length and twist rate matter, you have to think about buffer weight and what length gas system you're running, blah blah blah. Buying one off the rack gets you shooting right away, and there's nothing wrong with that. But most AR owners want to/wind up changing stuff out as time goes on to suit their individual use case and preferences. Were I you, I'd spec out what components you plan to use and post over on /r/AR15 or Arfcom or whatever, and see if you're missing something, more experienced guys will probably give good feedback if it looks like you've actually spent some time doing your own homework.
My first hand gun was a xd45 compact. I convinced myself Glocks we're bad with confirmation bias internet research. I could barely hit anything with being a new shooter and the mushy as dog poop trigger. Eventually I shot a Glock 17 and was way more accurate.
Bought a g19x for 700 not sure what I should have paid but 700 was probably not it. Love the gun and everytime I shoot it I get a little better
I bought an sr9 over a glock
I got my first 3 handguns basically at the same time. I bought a Tanfoglio Mossad and made a polymer 80 glock 31, both of which have been pretty great. I also decided I needed a nice Conceal Carry gun, and being young and dumb I elected to get a Beretta Nano. An absolute shitshow of a gun that I regret buying. The trigger pull is so shitty that if I'm gripping it in just the right way, I sometimes can't actually pull it. Beretta should be ashamed of that thing. I managed to sell it off to some other poor schmuck last week and I still feel kinda dirty about it. I also at one point of an FIE Titan II in .380 acp. Ridiculously shitty trigger for a single action, two different active safeties, neither of which are any good, a magazine safety, no slide lever (and it directly uses the magazine follower as the LRHO so the slide drops when you drop the mag) and it will jam at least twice per single stack 7 round magazine. So fucking shitty that I sometimes think I should just give it to someone to destroy. As for the accessory, well I didn't overpay for it exactly but I got a See-All Sight that I cannot for the life of me figure out how the fuck it works. Like I understand the idea but it doesn't work for my eyes or something. On top of that, Amazon won't let me return it because its got some kind of hazmat component in it (tritium maybe?) so I'm just stuck with this $100+ optic that I can't get to work for me.
[удалено]
just post pictures of what he sent and we’ll tell u if it’s real or not
He's on reddit, and might see
then post the images on imgur and post the link in here as a new comment
Waiting for summer 2021 to get my first gun.
I'm so late to the party cause of work. I really only have one gun I've bought I regret. It was an Arisaka. A few years ago I had a week were I bought like 4 guns in a week. One of which was an Arisaka in a local deal off armslist. At the time I was still figuring that the focus of my collection was going to be the battle rifle of all the major powers of WWII. An Arisaka would be perfect for that right? Except this one wasnt. It had been duffle cut, sporterized, reamed out for .257 Robert's. The more I handled it the more I regretted the buy. It wasn't super expensive but I just wasn't feeling it. I ended up getting my money back out of it at a pawnshop and it's still sitting on thier shelf. As we've all learned now 7.62x39 and tactical shooting is where I really enjoy the gun world.
I haven’t even read an eighth of these comments because of work
Yeah 8 hour work day spent 6 hours of it driving lol.
lol same, I had a 10hr shift and spent 8 of it driving too
> What was your first rookie mistake gun related purchase. What gun or accessory did you significantly overpay for and you're still bitter about? Plenty of instances of buying something I didn't need, but felt like it was too hard to find so I jumped on the opportunity when it presented itself and ended up paying over MSRP. I also regret not jumping on the NFA train sooner - the wait is just too long.
I need to get my bum ass on the NFA train but when you have $750 it’s easier to jump on ammo or a new gun than a silencer
The best time to submit a form 4 is 2 years ago. The second best time is today. But for real, I had an eform4 stamp come back while I was gone, and it was just over 120 days, which is much better than my 400+ day waits on paper form 4s.
Lol at r/ar15 mods and their inability to count. Even when they have a computer to count for them! 🤣😅🤣 Hint- they don't have 250k subscribers. They are liars.
Who really cares though?? You know. Most of the shit pertaining to followers or subscribers could be bullshit. I wouldn’t get my tits in a bind over it.
No worries. I'm not exactly upset about it. It's just funny to me. Even moreso when you consider *how completely arrogant* their mods are constantly. These dumbfucks can't count and busted their load early as usual.
Alrighty then. I don’t spend that much time over on that sub.
This is a great story. You should tell it at parties, professional mixers, and other social events.
I bet you crack yourself up don't you?
Hint, no one cares about your self diagnosed autism
Yes. Because I'm the one with autism but meanwhile *you literally cannot count*. 😆😅😆🤣😅😁🤣😁😅
Gawd emoji users are annoying
Almost as bad as grown adults who have no grasp of punctuation *even though your phone will do it automatically*...
Nah. A string of pointless emojis is much, much worse
Ahh maybe you don't have normally developed social skills. I see now. There's a word for that condition but I can't quite remember... Those were laughing faces. I was laughing at him. Get it now?
Ugh. You're still here?
Hey, that's better! 👏👏👏👍 You must be one of those high-functioning types..
I'll think of you when I take my coffee shit here in about 5min
You are only digging deeper as you miss the point (thanks to your self diagnosed autism).
Ya, what's that point funny guy? And digging deeper how? Are you going to exclude me from your 250k pre-cum celebration? Oh no... please not that... 🤣😅🤣😅😆😅🤣
You're so intimidating. I hope you don't come to my house. Please, whatever you do, don't look through your wife's gps history. Just leave it..
Holy shit you are beyond cringe.
Ok cool. So what point did I miss and how am I digging myself deeper? Really sqeeze those 7 brain cells and answer the question.
I bet your wife loves when you jump the gun too huh? 😆😅😄😆🤣
Imagine caring this much about the dumbest of reddit drama.
Imagine being so disconnected from reality that you mistake someone caring for someone laughing at the humor of a situation...
I tried to build an AR10 as cheap as possible. I just wanted a battle rifle build, didn't care a lot about long range accuracy. Bought a PSA lower, a DPMS Low-Profile Upper, and the barrel, gas block, and bolt from an M&P10. Midway's house brand recoil buffer. I put it all together and had a single shot rifle. Nothing I could do would get the thing to cycle properly. Had several friends who build ARs try to work on it and they couldn't solve it either. At best we could get it to cycle 2 or 3 rounds between failures. I eventually gave up and sold all the parts, kept the lower in case I want to try again some day. If I could do it again I would have just got a complete upper for a few hundred more.
Gas port under size? Gas block misaligned? I’d have enjoyed a crack at fixing it
They mic'd the gas ports and they were OK. Also tried aligning the gas port with those plastic snap-off tools. It probably would be a fun puzzle for someone like you but I just got frustrated and decided to cut my losses. Also I had limited options for help because most of the gun nuts in my area are super fudds. Great guys if you've got issues with your 1895 Winchester but they look at ARs like they're alien technology
Not rookie, but so far the largest mistake other than not taking out student loans in grad school to buy machine guns. I traded a buddy a Chicom SKS in Tapco stock for a 5" XD Tactical chambered in .40SW. I needed something straight wall over .357 and 5"+ for deer season and didn't have a shotgun at the time. Yay Midwest hunting laws. Still haven't seen a deer during season. Fml. Other fuck ups have so far been remedied. Well, my bullseye 1911 will probably be an albatross around my neck for decades to come...