Went food shopping today and stopped at a nearby pawn shop on the way home to see if I could find a 1/2" breaker bar to replace the one that broke this weekend. Wandered around the shop and found an unpriced breaker bar and began looking around some more. They had about 15 sets of reloading dies behind the counter, so I scanned them over to see what was available. There was a set of RCBS dies with the old pink/flesh-colored labels marked "FORM DIE 221 REM" and a price sticker of $30 dollars. Asked if I could look these over and sure enough the box contained the 221 form die, a 221-file die, the No. 10 shell holder head and a set of 221 full length sizing/seater dies with a (19)70 date stamp. I put the breaker bar on the counter beside the RCBS dies and said "How about a package deal". The clerk asked if I had a 221 Fireball and I said the I do. He the excused himself and went into the back room and returned with a steel cookie type tin that contained five 20 count boxes of 221 Fireball Remington brass, a partial box of Sierra 50 grain spitzers and about 25-30 partially formed 223 brass. Asking if I was interested in the brass as well, I said sure how much? He replied how about $35 dollars. A $20 and three $5's appeared in my hand as if by magic as I said thank you. Being I have a Remington XP-100 in 221 Remington as well as a CZ 527 converted from 17 Hornet to the 17 Remington Fireball and another Remington XP-100 redone as a 17 Mach IV these will come in handy. I already have the 221 to 17 Fireball/MK IV from dies but have been using a steel plate with a chamfered hole as a 221-forming set up when redoing 223/5.56 brass. Nothing like a bit of good luck to make the day a bit brighter.
A bit of good luck.
- Thread starter david s
- Start date
fiver
Well-Known Member
good deal for just the form set.
reminds me of the time i was messing around in a little gun store over in Wyoming.
the kid working the counter was the little brother to a guy i worked with and we were just shooting the breeze when i spied a giant bag full of waxed discs for making shot shells before they used plastic wads.
i was like hey what you want for those?
he was like these? pointing at the bag,, kind of shocked.
yep...
give me 2 bucks.
you got it.
after taking my 2 bucks, he was like: what are they for? nobody here has a clue, and dad was just gonna throw them away.
reminds me of the time i was messing around in a little gun store over in Wyoming.
the kid working the counter was the little brother to a guy i worked with and we were just shooting the breeze when i spied a giant bag full of waxed discs for making shot shells before they used plastic wads.
i was like hey what you want for those?
he was like these? pointing at the bag,, kind of shocked.
yep...
give me 2 bucks.
you got it.
after taking my 2 bucks, he was like: what are they for? nobody here has a clue, and dad was just gonna throw them away.
CZ93X62
Official forum enigma
Luck beats skill & planning all hollow once in a while.
C. October 1993, I went on a road trip with a lady of my acquaintance to Indianapolis for 3-4 days. I had a real talent for picking quarter horses to run the Kentucky Derby with in those days, but that is an aside. We we returning west and driving through Kansas along I-70 when we saw a sign outside a small town advertising a 'GUN SHOW' being held that weekend at a county fairgrounds.
We exited and found the show--my companion had never been to a gun show. She had a good time, though it was a small show and thinly attended. We perused table contents as we went along, and I spotted a spare magazine to fit my recently-acquired CZ-52 pistol. Back then, spare mags were somewhere between unobtainium and $60 each in 1993 dollars, so the sticker reading '$15' was welcome news.
I lapsed into my patented 'Joe Hicks From The Sticks' mode that I adopt at gun shows, bachelor parties, and other predator-filled environs. I asked if I could pick up the magazine; "Sure, knock yourself out. I have no idea what it might fit." I did.
"$15, eh?" I asked.
"Ya know what? I haven't sold JACK today. Gimme ten bucks, and you can take it home" he said.
I still have it 31 years later, my third magazine for my ray-gun-looking 30 caliber eardrum drill.
C. October 1993, I went on a road trip with a lady of my acquaintance to Indianapolis for 3-4 days. I had a real talent for picking quarter horses to run the Kentucky Derby with in those days, but that is an aside. We we returning west and driving through Kansas along I-70 when we saw a sign outside a small town advertising a 'GUN SHOW' being held that weekend at a county fairgrounds.
We exited and found the show--my companion had never been to a gun show. She had a good time, though it was a small show and thinly attended. We perused table contents as we went along, and I spotted a spare magazine to fit my recently-acquired CZ-52 pistol. Back then, spare mags were somewhere between unobtainium and $60 each in 1993 dollars, so the sticker reading '$15' was welcome news.
I lapsed into my patented 'Joe Hicks From The Sticks' mode that I adopt at gun shows, bachelor parties, and other predator-filled environs. I asked if I could pick up the magazine; "Sure, knock yourself out. I have no idea what it might fit." I did.
"$15, eh?" I asked.
"Ya know what? I haven't sold JACK today. Gimme ten bucks, and you can take it home" he said.
I still have it 31 years later, my third magazine for my ray-gun-looking 30 caliber eardrum drill.
CWLONGSHOT
Well-Known Member
Just Awesome!!
Dusty Bannister
Well-Known Member
Well it was my lucky day at a gun show where I was wondering the tables just before the supplies fell apart. I came across a gallon bag of filthy 30 cal carbine brass. It really looked like it had spent most of it's life in an open box under a reloading bench in an out building. Nasty dirty, but no corrosion. And it appeared to be only once fired. A friend in VA was using one for small youth to transition from 22 RF to Center fire, before moving on to the AR platform. The bag was priced to be about .05 each. No way I could pass up a deal like that. I found a second bag at the same show as I was nearing the last of the tables, similar condition and price. It came home with me too. Not before that show nor after have I ever come across any quantity of 30 cal carbine brass let alone at such reasonable prices. While it was not something for me, I will take any kind of luck like this that comes my way. And I still do not have a 30 carbine of my own to feed.
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Thumbcocker
Active Member
Experiences like these can carry you through the lean years.
Yep, my personal best find was good enough to do me forever, and I've not found such a deal since and don't even feel badly about it.
Back when the VZ-24s were flooding in and cheap, I drug a non-gun-guy friend to the show in Medina, Ohio. Never cared much to drive that far only to be insulted by anyone who bother to talk to you, but I had a feeling.
We paid our money and stepped into the "arena," I took a deep breath, made a wide scan and told my friend "I smell MAUSERS!" Actually, from half way across the room I'd spotted a huge pile of rifles covering two tables, all jumbled up like a scrap heap and assumed they were the current glut of Czech wonders, of which I already had several.
We made a bee-line to those two tables and I groped and pawed a bit when a little, teeny-tiny stocking cap emblem peeked out at me from down inside the pile. As I dug (quickly), I handed crusty Czech rifles to my friend to hold until he had a double-armful, probably SIX. I fished out a sweet little 09 Argentine Engineer's Carbine!
Playing the Joe Hick from the Sticks card, I whined about the $97 price-tag out of habit - "the bolt doesn't match..." It was a VZ bolt but a very nice one. I'd planned on making it a sporter anyway, so it didn't matter. The seller tells me "No, you can't have that bolt with that gun, I know it had the right bolt." He dug around the last few rifles he'd seen the other Joe's coon-pawing and found it - "HERE, you have to give me that VZ bolt back, I'm not letting it go with that old dog." NOW, it was all matching.
Best luck of all, it had been Bubba'd, but the action itself was untouched. The bore looked to be about 22 caliber because of the amount of crud built up, was shortened with a hacksaw (unevenly) the action was bedded with Elmer's glue - in other words, it was well beyond "collectible." I turned that action into a 6.5x55, about as lightweight as you can get a 98 and it shot marvelously. My brother is still killing deer with the Sierra and Hornady 160s, putzing along at 2300 or 2400 fps, which I loaded long ago.
I gave the man a hundred bucks and had the gall and presence of mind to stand there and wait for my $3 change. Had I not, he'd have been suspicious that I might have just gotten one over on him. Better to leave him satisfied that he'd finally ridded himself of that ugly oddball in his heap of VZs.
Best deal I ever stumbled into, period.
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462
California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
There is a local gunsmith who is supposedly a highly sought after 1911 specialist (whatever that means), his store is only open to customers three days a week and then not till noon, and he is more than a little on the unfriendly side (no acknowledgement when entering or leaving his business, etc.). I visit the place, no more than once or twice a year, for no other reason than it's there and to peruse any used reloading items.
For several years the selection was always the same abused and rusty RCBS and Lee dies and jacketed bullets in calibers I didn't reload for or didn't need. One day I spied an unpriced box I'd never seen before. Inside was a pristine (unused?) Forster .30-06 Ultra Micrometer Bench Rest seating die complete with Forster's cheap aluminum lock ring and instructions. Hmmm . . . wonder how much he wants for this . . .
I took the box to the counter, waited for the guy to finally come over and give me that questioning and can't-you-see-I'm-busy look, I asked him how much, he glanced at it and said $10. SOLD!!
This happened when Midway had the die priced at $80, maybe five or six years ago.
For several years the selection was always the same abused and rusty RCBS and Lee dies and jacketed bullets in calibers I didn't reload for or didn't need. One day I spied an unpriced box I'd never seen before. Inside was a pristine (unused?) Forster .30-06 Ultra Micrometer Bench Rest seating die complete with Forster's cheap aluminum lock ring and instructions. Hmmm . . . wonder how much he wants for this . . .
I took the box to the counter, waited for the guy to finally come over and give me that questioning and can't-you-see-I'm-busy look, I asked him how much, he glanced at it and said $10. SOLD!!
This happened when Midway had the die priced at $80, maybe five or six years ago.
richhodg66
Well-Known Member
Probably the Salina gun show. To me, that one is usually a good show as I go to gun shows looking for eclectic boxes of odds and ends. To me, a gun show with only dealer tables of black rifles and the latest semi auto SD pistols is like watching paint dry.
FWIW, that is basically the same show Abilene and Herrington do, I try to make it to all of them, but it's about the same vendor list for all of them. I like it best in Herrington just because it's more of a community event there.
RBHarter
West Central AR
There was a guy on FB when I was looking for 6.5 Japanese tools that had a bunch of miscellaneous 6.5mm tools not knowing what the Arisaka actually was I bought the x50SR and the 6.5-257 sets at $15 each then I had him throw in the Benchrest Forester Neck die and Micrometer inline seater for 264 WM . $45 shipped. Turns out the 6.5-257 dies I didn't need at all are AIs .
About 5 yr ago a guy gave me a milk crate full of 16ga over powder , shot , and assorted other stack wads .
Both felt like a deal at the time .
About 5 yr ago a guy gave me a milk crate full of 16ga over powder , shot , and assorted other stack wads .
Both felt like a deal at the time .
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Petrol & Powder
Well-Known Member
We’ve all had that deal or two that we remember because we were lucky. They don’t happen every day and that’s what makes them special.
Sometimes it’s a good price.
Occasionally it’s something rare at a decent price.
Sometimes it’s a really good example of that thing you’ve been searching for, and the price isn’t low but it’s still a great deal for the quality.
I’ve had a few deals that were better than average (and a lot more that were very average). One that was pure luck was a deal on a S&W Model 681 in pawn shop. I stopped by midday for no other reason than I happened to be close by and wasn’t busy that day. The gun was in the display case with a price about $250 under what I anticipated at that time. I asked to handle it, fully expecting to find some obvious flaw. It was perfect in every regard, ….I grew even more suspicious, so I looked closer. I finally found the frame lug (that little stud on the left side that prevents the cylinder from falling off the crane) was loose. Not missing, just loose enough to spin around.
OK, that’s fixable!
Without negotiating, I offered to buy it at the asking price. In fact, I nearly ripped the pocket off my pants while pulling my wallet out.
The clerk said the gun had just come in and she knew it would be sold quickly. She was right.
I assumed I would have to replace the lug. But after disassembling it, I was able to peen the stud and it’s solidly in place now.
Sometimes it’s a good price.
Occasionally it’s something rare at a decent price.
Sometimes it’s a really good example of that thing you’ve been searching for, and the price isn’t low but it’s still a great deal for the quality.
I’ve had a few deals that were better than average (and a lot more that were very average). One that was pure luck was a deal on a S&W Model 681 in pawn shop. I stopped by midday for no other reason than I happened to be close by and wasn’t busy that day. The gun was in the display case with a price about $250 under what I anticipated at that time. I asked to handle it, fully expecting to find some obvious flaw. It was perfect in every regard, ….I grew even more suspicious, so I looked closer. I finally found the frame lug (that little stud on the left side that prevents the cylinder from falling off the crane) was loose. Not missing, just loose enough to spin around.
OK, that’s fixable!
Without negotiating, I offered to buy it at the asking price. In fact, I nearly ripped the pocket off my pants while pulling my wallet out.
The clerk said the gun had just come in and she knew it would be sold quickly. She was right.
I assumed I would have to replace the lug. But after disassembling it, I was able to peen the stud and it’s solidly in place now.
About 10-15 years ago,i was at a small gunshow way northern maine.one guys table had some odds and ends,,percussion caps roundballs,,
And then i noticed a brass revolver frame,,jammed into a holster,on the bottom of a pile of stuff,i asked if it was for sale,he said yup.
I assumed it was a cheap italian blackpowder repo......
Amagine my surprise,when i pulled it out of the holster,and it was a ruger old army. 1972,first year production,in very well condition.
Never seen the brass frame before,they are quite rare.
That was the quickest i ever laid down 170 bucks,in my life!!!
Plus he threw in all the stuff that went with it!!
I felt ashamed...... .for about a day!
And then i noticed a brass revolver frame,,jammed into a holster,on the bottom of a pile of stuff,i asked if it was for sale,he said yup.
I assumed it was a cheap italian blackpowder repo......
Amagine my surprise,when i pulled it out of the holster,and it was a ruger old army. 1972,first year production,in very well condition.
Never seen the brass frame before,they are quite rare.
That was the quickest i ever laid down 170 bucks,in my life!!!
Plus he threw in all the stuff that went with it!!
I felt ashamed...... .for about a day!
Odds are the fella went home and felt ashamed (for about a day) that he got a dollar more out of you than he paid for it n 72.
Missionary
Well-Known Member
On every Thursday when were up north I rode our 71 BMW 750 to the local Police Supply outfit. I always went to the used revolver case first. Sitting there was looking new Scandium 5 shot SW .357 Airlight with a 2" barrel for $325. I asked the clerk," What is the story on this one?"
He sats , well a trooper came in this early morning to pick it up. Bought a box of .357 Mag 158 grain JHP's and went in the back to test fire it. I heard 5 shots. Soon the officer was here at the counter and told me to sell that mean little beast. Said it kicked and recoiled plain awful. Said he would never be able to qualify with it as his backup.
Clerk said, "that was about 90 minutes ago.... Ya want to see it?" Well I did and quickly bought.
My wife loves that little light weight beast loaded with our 38+P load, 165 grain WC loaded in .357 brass.
He sats , well a trooper came in this early morning to pick it up. Bought a box of .357 Mag 158 grain JHP's and went in the back to test fire it. I heard 5 shots. Soon the officer was here at the counter and told me to sell that mean little beast. Said it kicked and recoiled plain awful. Said he would never be able to qualify with it as his backup.
Clerk said, "that was about 90 minutes ago.... Ya want to see it?" Well I did and quickly bought.
My wife loves that little light weight beast loaded with our 38+P load, 165 grain WC loaded in .357 brass.