Your most 'interesting' muzzleloader transaction ?

[alcessapiens]

my oddest one was buying a stevens 416 and “a bucket of muzzleloader parts” He shipped them cheaply ( the entire sale was $265 shipping inc) and it took awhile to get here. there were 2 packages, one was the parts the other was a beautiful haenel target rifle with a very nice fecker scope ( very much like an unertl targetspot) and bot original front and rear sights ( worth twice tho total i paid. it was inside a nice aluminum case too. i called him up and told him of his errors and he got mad and swore up and down he sent the right gun. i explained the what he sent was woth a whole lot more than the 416 i paid for and he started yelling about inheriting this damned old gun shop and didn’t want any part of all this stupid crud. so i said well, i’ll just keep it and he agreed and slammed down the phone. oh, and the bucket ‘o parts? a mostly complete .52 aston pistol and half dozen locks, triggers 5-6 double set, 3-4 single, 10 rear and a dozen front sights all new and a couple old cva .45 in parts. not a bad days work. sometimes the gods of gun dealing smile on you

 

[alcessapiens]

another funny one: at a yard sale i bought a spanish made .45 flintlock for $5. They thought it was a toy gun and when i told them it was a real and shootable rifle they were horrified and so happy to have it gone. .437 rb and .010 patch and it shot pretty well. squirrels didn’t seem to like it as much as i did.

 

[martyorlow]

Well, it never turned out to be a transaction, but a SCAM.
I advertised on Craigslist, "Wanted Muzzleloader". I got an email saying he had exactly what I wanted. He stated he was an 85 yo who can't shoot anymore and wanted to sell it. He sent me a description. It stated that it was a Lehigh Co. built by the Hess family. And he wanted $400 firm. As they say, " if it's too good to be true...". But after many emails, he sounded legit. He sent me pictures of the rifle, beautiful gun. I did my research and it looked like it could be a "sister" gun that was sold at auction for $7K. Now, I started to be concerned. I live about 500 miles away, but my son lives very close. We started to make arrangements for my son to pick up the gun. I got the address and it looked like a very nice neighborhood. My son could not pick it up for a week so I asked him for his email to send a deposit. The email I got started with "homie..." Now I'm really getting concerned. An 85 yo with a email "homie.." I then asked him for a picture of him with the gun and an explanation about "homie..". He then explained that was his son's email and sent me a picture of was suppose to have been taken that morning with the gun. It was a picture of an elderly man sitting in front of a log cabin (not the nice house he supposedly lived in) and the gun he was holding was NOT the gun of the pictures of the Lehigh gun he had sent me. I then knew it was a scam and messed with him for a while saying the money was on its way and then it must have gotten lost or something..... And the I sent it to the wrong email.
And, of course, my wife said in the beginning,..."If it's too good to be true..." How come they're always right !!!

 

[Salt River Johnny]

When your shooting revolvers with percussion caps. The procedure was after discharging a round and cocking the pistol raise it up 45 degrees and tilt it slightly to the right as you cock the pistol. This should aid in the used cap falling off so the chamber can cycle.
Salt River Johnny

 

[Bad Karma]

I posted this story in the pistol forum previously, so here goes.
Just a note: You don't get a damn thing in Australia for $150.

$150 for this navy arms revolver.
The guy I was shooting with on the weekend was spittin and cursing at this revolver when he had yet another cap jam. He is a very impatient, short tempered bloke. As a joke I said "I'll give you $150 for it" he said "done deal". He really was ****** off. I let him calm down and called him this morning and he want's to go ahead with it, so I'm in.
Now I will have to get on top of the cap jam problem. I searched this forum and got a lot of information so I reckon I should be able sort it out.
Aside from the jamming problem the gun looks to be pretty good. For $150 bucks what the hell???

start with caps that fit snugly on the cones. If the caps you have don’t fit eit find some that do, fit the cones ro the caps or buy new cones that will. I am very partial to Remington #10’s on revolvers and have all of my revolvers set up for them. Some folks like to install cap rakes of one sort or another and they do work but if the relief cut (in the recoil shield just to the right of the hammer slo) is deep enough to allow the caps to rotate with the cylinder and fall free as it runs past the cap groove all will be well.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

"You know what this is?" Yeah I say, a civil war pistol.
:"What do you think of them I was asked."
I said they suck.
"So you dont want this one?"
Id not pay a penny for it.
"Dont want a penny, just want to get rid of it."
Ok, Ill take it home and see why its never been fired in 22 years.

And that is how I got my fine Pietta 1860.

 

[Newtire]

I'm still shaking my head over this one. Last night I found a nice and early M1861 revolver online at a purveyors site which I decided I couldn't live without. I called the place and spoke to the owner, we had a very pleasant and lengthy chat and I told him that as we were just sitting down to dinner that i'd call him after dinner to arrange payment, shipping etc. We negotiated a price a little less than what he had it listed for and all was well. He said no problem and I called him after dinner as promised. No answer. Oh well I thought, no problem, people are busy. I left a nice phone message, thanked him again and asked him to cal me back at his convenience.

This morning I was mildly surprised to have gotten no reply either to my VM or email. No problem I said to myself, folks are busy, I'll call him early this afternoon. And so I did so and that's where this story turns south.

I called; 'Hello Mr _____, it's me Jon from last night!' I reminded him of our agreement and asked if he'd received my info that I emailed. He replied, ' I don't know, I'm too busy!' I reminded him of our nice chat. He told me he never spoke to me before and frankly sounded very annoyed. Completely nonplussed I stammered, ' but Mr _____, don't you remember our chat and talk about the gun??' He told me he never spoke to me before, if I wanted the gun it would be at the listed price. And then hung up on me!

I was driving during this exchange and was so unnerved I had to pull over and collect my thoughts. Had I called the wrong place ? Had I spoken to an entirely different person ? After cross checking the contact numbers and online listing I confirmed that this was the number I called and the outfit which was in fact selling the gun. A couple of deep breaths later I called him back, very politely told him I still wanted it and would he be able to ship today or tomorrow.

Still sounding annoyed he mumbled something about maybe next TUES and I left it at that. I considered calling the whole thing off as I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. But as the gun was a sort of one of a kind I decided to move forward. But I'll never call this guy for a purchase again.This was absolutely the strangest exchange i've ever had in making a purchase of anything.
How about you- what's your strangest muzzleloader purchase, online or otherwise ?

I bought my first muzzleloader for $5.00 from a friend who got it off of a guy his parents bought a house from. It was a smoothbore with a missing mainspring. It got given away to one of my Dad's friends while I was away in the Navy.

 

[Blitz]

Then what is the sense of even contributing a comment due to an unsatisfactory experience? Sit back in silence? Its not a rifle builder but a vendor.

I guess they think that a lie , avarice and theft should be rewarded and let to be done again to another.
Common get your act togther , this behaviour should not be tolerated.
It should most certainly be called out , lest this and other forums become fertile ground for thievery by such means as mentioned.
we all know it is buyer beware but purporting to run a safe , reliable, and fair andequitable site does not mean turning a blind eye to unscrupulouse behaviour.

Blitz

 

[Newtire]

I'm still shaking my head over this one. Last night I found a nice and early M1861 revolver online at a purveyors site which I decided I couldn't live without. I called the place and spoke to the owner, we had a very pleasant and lengthy chat and I told him that as we were just sitting down to dinner that i'd call him after dinner to arrange payment, shipping etc. We negotiated a price a little less than what he had it listed for and all was well. He said no problem and I called him after dinner as promised. No answer. Oh well I thought, no problem, people are busy. I left a nice phone message, thanked him again and asked him to cal me back at his convenience.

This morning I was mildly surprised to have gotten no reply either to my VM or email. No problem I said to myself, folks are busy, I'll call him early this afternoon. And so I did so and that's where this story turns south.

I called; 'Hello Mr _____, it's me Jon from last night!' I reminded him of our agreement and asked if he'd received my info that I emailed. He replied, ' I don't know, I'm too busy!' I reminded him of our nice chat. He told me he never spoke to me before and frankly sounded very annoyed. Completely nonplussed I stammered, ' but Mr _____, don't you remember our chat and talk about the gun??' He told me he never spoke to me before, if I wanted the gun it would be at the listed price. And then hung up on me!

I was driving during this exchange and was so unnerved I had to pull over and collect my thoughts. Had I called the wrong place ? Had I spoken to an entirely different person ? After cross checking the contact numbers and online listing I confirmed that this was the number I called and the outfit which was in fact selling the gun. A couple of deep breaths later I called him back, very politely told him I still wanted it and would he be able to ship today or tomorrow.

Still sounding annoyed he mumbled something about maybe next TUES and I left it at that. I considered calling the whole thing off as I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. But as the gun was a sort of one of a kind I decided to move forward. But I'll never call this guy for a purchase again.This was absolutely the strangest exchange i've ever had in making a purchase of anything.
How about you- what's your strangest muzzleloader purchase, online or otherwise ?

I bought a target style contemporary muzzleloader from a guy on a well known online auction house (not GunBroker). It arrived in a box that appeared immaculate on the outside but inside was a gun that had a shattered buttstock and false muzzle pins that were severely bent as if someone who was very angry took his anger out on this gun on purpose and then packaged it up and sent it. I called the guy and he strayed from the subject at hand almost immediately. He told me this cock-and-bull story about how some people in Idaho (where I live) once rescued him and his friends when they ran out of gas and helped them get going and had them stay the night at their farm. They even got breakfast the next morning (I'm surprised that there were no farmer's daughters included in the story!) and that he always remembered how friendly the people in Idaho were. I told him that maybe all that is true but, on the other hand, they're not so friendly to someone who crosses them. The postmaster told me that people do this sort of thing all the time to scam the USPS but gave me a full refund and told me to just keep the rifle. There were some nice sights, a barrel, action, set triggers and the works. I checked for any other sales on that site by this guy and found he was selling a beautiful looking ranch and numerous other things. I suspect he was leaving and just trying to scam as much money out of people as he could before he left. Reported him to the site's complaint department and noticed that his items disappeared. One of these days, I'm going to put that thing together and see how it shoots. Just never ran into anyone that crooked (barring a few politicians) ever.