Bwana,

You would expect this could happen on a gun bought from an indivual, not someone like Westleys.

I won't buy a gun from anyone, even the most "reputable" dealer, without requiring an inspection by JJ including firing the gun. There are too many junkers out there among the diamonds!

I've had 8 Doubles Rifles sent to JJ so far, 5 passed inspection, 2 didn't, on one I was able to negotiate 8k less in price due to issues he pointed out.

Reading this in a prior string makes me believe even stronger in a pre-purchase inspection.

"I am not worried about my ethics at all. Everything was on the up and up. I wasn't about to try to sell something by pointing out all the bad points. Who does? But neither did I misrepresent what I had. I sold it "as is" and Cabelas had it for "examination" in a back room for over half an hour. Nothing wrong with the firearm was hidden, rather everything was in plain sight or available upon opening the action. I figured their "experts" were too eager to buy the maker's product to care enough to look closely. But, for all I know, they may have discussed all the shortcomings and decided it was worth what they paid me for it anyway.

I bought the firearm from what I had considered a reliable source using reputation and photos as a guide. He had a return policy (reputable) and said he would take it back but I decided to keep it anyway. The price was low and I thought I could live with some of the shoddy workmanship and have the stock altered by the maker (REQUIRED for proper functioning of the action). It was later when I found out just how much it would cost that I decided to get rid of the gun. I wasn't willing to pay extra to have the stock fixed and still be left with a rifle that had other things that weren't as they should be. It was far from a good example of work from the maker and a real disappointment. It was built shortly after WWII and maybe that was a bad time for them but I don't know.

Regarding the ethics of gun dealers who unload on Cabelas, perhaps they just see it as good business. If they take a poor firearm in on a trade and they don't want to offer junk to their customers what are they to do with it? The only recourse is to sell it to a company that can move junk. That is how a "reputable" and "respectable" car dealer does it. The car dealer takes your junker in on trade towards the new model and then sells it at auction. The low end dealer that buys the car at auction sometimes gets a good deal and recovers his money and sometimes he makes a bad deal and loses some on the resale. The consumer who eventually buys the low end used car takes his chances and his car comes with an "AS IS, NO WARRANTY" sticker on it.

If Cabelas chooses to become the discount king of used gun retailers then they know they will win on some and loose on others. A 30% markup on used guns recovers a lot of purchasing mistakes and thus Cabelas' high prices."

Scary comments.....

I'd say your inspection $ was the best you'll spend in a while.