Buying A Used MuzzleLoader.

[FishDFly]

He is in Coffee City, TX.

He has a lot of new guns and used guns. It is an amazing place.

 

[FishDFly]

Buying used M/L.

I buy at times from the following:

I buy here. I prefer to buy from folks who have been here for some time. I have a comfortable feeling with them over some one who has just a few posts. Have never been hurt. I buy via USPS money order and send it with a tracking number so I know where it is and seller can see his money coming. I request USPS, insured, tracking number and adult signature required on delivery.

Track Of The Wolf. I trust these folks and they know how to pack. If not happy, only thing I am out is shipping. You can trust them. I request USPS, insured, tracking number and adult signature required on delivery.

The Gun Works. I trust these folks and they know how to pack. If not happy, only thing I am out is shipping. You can trust them. I request USPS, insured, tracking number and adult signature required on delivery.

The above 2 will cost you more money, but you know what you are getting.

I will not buy stuff that needs scrubbing on the barrel and may not be accurate.

I buy at state shoots and Friendship.

I will not buy from e-bay or gun broker, I have been burned.

 

[hanshi]

I've acquired a couple of used muzzleloaders in the past and they worked as well as new ones would have. I no longer have them but do still have a rifle that, while not actually sold and owned by another shooter, was like an old hound dog and had laid around the builder's shop for a good spell.

 

[Badgerfarm]

In this area you can expect about 10 to 15 cents on the dollar for modern items. Even less for muzzle loaders. I've known a couple of pawn shop owners through the years and that is their secret. I haven't been in a shop for probably 30 years now. I just don't have the stomach for it. One of them started selling cheap cigarettes quite a few years ago and was taking rare gold and silver coins at face value for packs of cigarettes. A $20 gold piece would get you a carton of rotgut cigarettes. He made more on that than he did the pawn business.

 

[feamir]

I've acquired a couple of used muzzleloaders in the past and they worked as well as new ones would have. I no longer have them but do still have a rifle that, while not actually sold and owned by another shooter, was like an old hound dog and had laid around the builder's shop for a good spell.

I have found some great deals at pawn shops in the past. Here are some examples:
#1 Pedersoli la page, percussion, excellent shape, paid $216.00 out the door after haggling down from $350.
#2 TC hawken, $108.00 out the door, excellent, after about 2 weeks of haggling.
#3 Euroarms US 1841 rifle in 54 cal, pristine, $119.00 out the door, had come out the day before.

I have a pattern of shops I check on regular intervals. The staff know me me after all these years and will actually hold stuff for me, it pays to develop personal relationships with the crew!

This being said, I have also bought some real wall hangers, just to keep up the relationships. These firearms offer me practice in reclamation and rehabilitation. The last of these is an jukar flint, horribly rusted in the bore. I'm still reworking this pig, used evaporust in the bore, hoping for the best! I might have to ream the barrel to .50 and use it as a smooth bore. At least I will have the lock etc, and the cost was only $45.00. Feamire's home for wayward guns accepts all, and loves them equally!

 

[Boston Bill]

The gun will probably still shoot just fine, the rust will come out, the pitting won't. If you keep a pitted gun clean and well oiled it won't pit anymore and shouldn't be a problem.

I cleaned up the bad bore in the above picture and got 3" groups at 50 yards with it, I scrubbed the bore with a scotch bright pad and mild abrasive and got rid of more of the corrosion but couldn't hit squat with afterwards. I sent it off to Bobby Hoyt and it came back a tack driver.

I trusted Rem Oil to protect the bore on this Rice barrel, to my horror after being in the safe for a few months I found it had pitted. I used a scotch bright pad and soft scrub to clean it up and actually removed metal, I could see it on the pad. I thought I had ruined the barrel until I shot it, it shot better than it ever did before, on a good day I can get 1 1/2" groups at 100 yards with it. You can still see the pitting which is only down close to the breech.

View attachment 7672

I won't use remoil. I had the same problem. What did they do to oil to make it not work?

 

[Eddie2002]

I've also been getting some surface rust when oiling a bore with remoil. The spray works a little better than the stuff in a squeeze bottle but I've seen rust within a week while using it. Now I swab down the bore with regular motor oil for storage which has worked a lot better.

 

[vintovka]

Much said here is true. I have .50 New Eng lander bought off the net because it looked flat NIB.. Very Beautiful rifle but pretty clear Some one took it out of the box, fired it once or twice and put it away without cleaning. It shoots fine but the bore is very pitted. It doesn't tear patches but i feel its flat ruined. Thinking of boring it out to 20 gauge as barrel is so thick.

 

[Eddie2002]

I saw one rifle at a rendezvous that had an immaculate walnut stock and furniture on it for 350.00. Took a peek down the barrel and the bore looked like a mouse had been chewing on a bar of soap. I've never seen pitting that bad. Don't think that rifle was worth more than parts. I was so shocked I walked away without making any lowball offer. Guess it was put away uncleaned.

 

[vintovka]

You would think TC patent breech stuff would be a no brainer to clean and always found with good bores. Once burned i inspect every one and find many neglected ones. If i don't sell it soon i will bore is out on my 14x40 lathe. I fell into some adjustable boring tools and will put them to use. I think TC used same barrel dimestions on New Englanders up to the .58 prototype i saw years ago.

 

[Boston Bill]

I use Hoppes for mostly everything now, except when I need to use soap and hot water.

 

[vintovka]

I have always used hot soapy water followed by a very hot rinse that almost drys the barrel and them liberal use of ED's Red. Never any after rust.

 

[GreenSmoke]

So, talking about rusty bores... my father has an older CVA that he hasnt shot for probably 7 or more years. He does a very bad job maintaining his firearms, unfortunately, and by the time i got into the shooting sports everything had already been hanging on the walls, untouched, in Iowa humidity and season changes, for 30 years.

Well, when he got his muzzle loader, apparently he was told he needed to shoot it a few times (using pyrodex pellets, i believe) and NOT clean the bore out before he put it away for storage. Someone actually told him that he HAD to foul the bore to protect it for storage.

Now, I'm brand new to the muzzle loading scene, but my research tells me that real blackpowder fouling should be cleaned ASAP, and pyrodex fouling needs cleaned even sooner than that! When i got his inline out and looked, i knew i had to buy my own if i wanted to shoot some muzzle loading action.

The outside, besides being caked in dust, had 4 or 5 thick rust spots that i couldnt just rub off with a ballistol soaked cloth. One of the worst being the "bolt" right where it hits the cap. But the wood looks nice, and most of the outside of the barrel is still nice and blued.

Now the bore is another story... i dont even know where to begin trying to clean it. Immediately on looking right inside the muzzle, RUST, and it is THICC rust. I dont have my range rod and cleaning kit yet (tuesday!) So i couldnt brass brush it or anything yet (should i do that?). I soaked the inside with ballistol for now, figured get some oil soaking into the metal, stop whatever further corrosion i can, maybe loosen the rust up.

What can i do for the bore of this gun? Im thinking, brass brush, and then scotch brite on a cleaning jag and pray i can get it polished.

But this is probably a fine example of the sort of damage yall are talking about... anyone wanna buy my dads gun? Haha

 

[ppg1949]

I was in a local pawn shop and I saw they had one ML. I asked to look at it. The clerk said he would take $175 for it. The barrel said it was a CVA 50 cal Hawkin. Hawkin was spelled with an “I”. The set trigger didn’t work but the screw was backed out all the way. The stock did not have a patch box and the furniture was metal. I was a little bit interested and looked at the bore. WOW! There was so much rust it had actually had reduced the bore. It had to be at least a sixteenth of an inch thick. I told the clerk thanks and as I handed it back to him he said “I’ll take $160 today and no sales tax”. I wanted to say “I bet you would” but I held my tongue.

 

[vintovka]

You know bores are bad when a cloud of red rust comes out on first pass. Worse yet is when nothing comes out and black rust is embedded in the bore, The only good news is many BP rifles. especially from kits have NEVER been shot and have pristine bores.

 

[Dale Lilly]

Being near Fort Bragg (NC), pawn shops end up getting black powder guns that were pawned and lost to the owner. I've been lucky picking up unusual or custom-made muzzleloaders from the various pawn shops around here. I leave my contact info when something comes out of pawn or is purchased outright by the pawn dealer. For him it might be a guaranteed sale.

Such was the case a couple years ago, when one pawnbroker called me to come look at a trio of custom-made Hawken-style rifles he bought. When I looked at them, I recognized the maker's names on one of them, "Ted Fellows" (BeaverLodge/Spokane, WA). The second one was unsigned but accompanying that rifle were about a dozen letters and photos between the maker, John Bergmann (of Tennessee) and the original owner. That's called provenance. After bringing them home, I found the the maker's name on the third by removing the barrel from the stock to find Joe Corley's name on the bottom flat, which is customary among known gunmakers when a maker is not supplying the parts to build it. Joe was one of the gunmakers at Art Ressel's Hawken Shop in St. Louis, in the mid-1980's)

I asked the pawnbroker for the price on all three, and he quoted about $ 2K, which would put each one at about $ 650.00. For him, he was satisfied with the sale as I was. You can't know everything in any business, so for him, seeing "Ted Fellows" on one rifle and nothing on rifles two & three, meant nothing to him. He was happy doubling his money in five days. It was a good deal for me too, I doubled my money on two of the three, and have about three or four folks standing in line to buy this little "jewel" of Joe Corley's. Its likely the finest-made custom Hawken rifle out there, complete with a Ron Long lock and a .54 caliber H & H barrel. All the steel furniture is color-case hardened.

To me, paying the price of a Lyman GPR for each of the three rifles, it was worth it. Just call it the "luck of the draw" for everybody.View attachment 9917

You sure you're not Irish??? Polecat

 

[D. Buck Stopshere]

Polecat,

Scots-Irish, so about half Irish. England offered Irish folks free land in neighboring Scotland back in 19th century, so they took the King's offer and moved in. An O'Cahan became a Buchanan.

 

[bang]

Pyrodex was the ruin of many a TC barrel and others! People kind of got the idea from marketing,that you didnt have to clean using Pyro.

Doesn't matter what you use. Cleaning asap is imperative. I've used Pyrodex for a long time and haven't had any issues.