Buying a used firearm online, grrr!!!

[Readysteady_1]

Man, I sure am frustrated...I have been shopping for a 5.56 AR online for some time now because local stores have very little to offer. In particular, I have recently been dealing with a few nice Larue completes that have been up for sale on Gunbroker. Since there is usually not enough description about the firearms that I see around the net, I have to ask a few important Q's to the sellers...

Take for instance this last sale that just ended today without me purchasing. It was a used, complete, Larue lower/upper 16" with Magpul furniture, a Timney drop-in skeleton, and Troy BUIS. Seller said he bought it used a few months back, but it has been "shot little" and "shoots well". I said, "OK, so I want to trust you and everything, but could you please get a few good pictures of the BCG and chamber posted? Also, could you tell me some groups that you shot and with what ammo"? The seller wrote me back a day later and said that he didn't buy the Larue for target shooting yada yada, so he's not sure how accurate it will shoot - it just shoots fine. He also said that he only shot Black Hills 77gr and the pictures will be taken care of. By-the-way, this guy happens to be a commander at an ARMY Mountain Warfare School.

To make a long story short, he cut contact with me after I saw that the pictures weren't up a few days later and asked him about it. I told him that I would do business with him if he could just settle my worries about buying a used $2,200 AR with no warranty or return. Needless to say, the sale ended about an hour ago without a buyer and I'm again searching. Do you guys think that I'm being too cautious and should just trust people more? It's just hard for me to believe that this guy, who works on a compound with a shooting range, didn't test his SPR's accuracy...I'm sorry. I envy those of you who already own...

[Iraqgunz]

Let me ask a serious question. Why would you buy a used AR for that price when you could get something new for about the same? There are so many options on the market right now and I don't see anything really special about this deal.

Man, I sure am frustrated...I have been shopping for a 5.56 AR online for some time now because local stores have very little to offer. In particular, I have recently been dealing with a few nice Larue completes that have been up for sale on Gunbroker. Since there is usually not enough description about the firearms that I see around the net, I have to ask a few important Q's to the sellers...

Take for instance this last sale that just ended today without me purchasing. It was a used, complete, Larue lower/upper 16" with Magpul furniture, a Timney drop-in skeleton, and Troy BUIS. Seller said he bought it used a few months back, but it has been "shot little" and "shoots well". I said, "OK, so I want to trust you and everything, but could you please get a few good pictures of the BCG and chamber posted? Also, could you tell me some groups that you shot and with what ammo"? The seller wrote me back a day later and said that he didn't buy the Larue for target shooting yada yada, so he's not sure how accurate it will shoot - it just shoots fine. He also said that he only shot Black Hills 77gr and the pictures will be taken care of. By-the-way, this guy happens to be a commander at an ARMY Mountain Warfare School.

To make a long story short, he cut contact with me after I saw that the pictures weren't up a few days later and asked him about it. I told him that I would do business with him if he could just settle my worries about buying a used $2,200 AR with no warranty or return. Needless to say, the sale ended about an hour ago without a buyer and I'm again searching. Do you guys think that I'm being too cautious and should just trust people more? It's just hard for me to believe that this guy, who works on a compound with a shooting range, didn't test his SPR's accuracy...I'm sorry. I envy those of you who already own...

[larry0071]

Not sure about everyone and how they shoot, but I don't have an idea of a true group size because I don't have a way to clamp the gun down and shoot it 5 or 10 times in the same exact position. Maybe he is like me and shot it at his own property and never had a chance to get to a place that offers a way to lock it in?

I have 5 ARs, and I know that they shoot better than I allwo them...LOL!

I am the limiting factor...... Not the machine.

[jakjakman]

Get a LaRue upper straight from LaRue and get one of Grant's lowers. Then you'll have something for ~$1500-1600 with customer support to back up the major pieces.

[Thomas M-4]

Let me ask a serious question. Why would you buy a used AR for that price when you could get something new for about the same? There are so many options on the market right now and I don't see anything really special about this deal.

Iraqgunz is right for that price you should be looking at a new rifle. I can understand wanting a larue billet upper and lower but you do realize that that in a fighting carbine the billet upper and lowers are not going to give you any thing over a forged receiver? I still have not have seen any info that it will give you an advantage using it in a precision rifle either. It really depends on what you are wanting to do with the rifle.

[Readysteady_1]

I guess the reason that I was so eager about this deal was because it had the same individual parts that I had picked to do a build myself - excluding the lower, which neither made or broke the deal. I would have saved one to two hundred bucks by picking this up; however, I just couldn't get the seller to follow through with the pics (which he agreed to do) or a brief explanation of how the thing shot. I really didn't care that he couldn't give me "written in stone" results of the accuracy capability that I should be expecting. Instead, I was more so just looking for any kind of results that he would kindly share with me as I would have been shooting out to 500 yards with it....

It was just unsettling that a person would afford such a nice weapon system, made for sub MOA shots, and not be able to produce any results - especially since he has access to a range at his place of employment and obviously knows how to shoot. Call me uptight, picky, or whatever, but something didn't click with this. I guess the real reason why I was so cautious was because of the money involved and the "no warranty, no return, just trust me" terms....damn.

[Thomas M-4]

It just sounds like he didn't feel like working to get a deal to sell it he just wanted a no hassle transaction. I wouldn't worry about it the first time I tried to buy a firearm on line Almost every local dealer I went to told me you couldn't buy firearms on line that I had to take what ever there distributor gave them WTF Finally just for the heck of it I tried my shooting range they said[ sure no problem we do it all the time ] payed my $20 bucks for the transfer and at the end of the week I had my LMT lower.

[Iraqgunz]

In all honesty many people aren't obsessed with accuracy. I am sure that my Noveske shoots sub- whatever, but as long as I can drill someone out to 300M with iron sights I could care less. That's just me.

I guess the reason that I was so eager about this deal was because it had the same individual parts that I had picked to do a build myself - excluding the lower, which neither made or broke the deal. I would have saved one to two hundred bucks by picking this up; however, I just couldn't get the seller to follow through with the pics (which he agreed to do) or a brief explanation of how the thing shot. I really didn't care that he couldn't give me "written in stone" results of the accuracy capability that I should be expecting. Instead, I was more so just looking for any kind of results that he would kindly share with me as I would have been shooting out to 500 yards with it....

It was just unsettling that a person would afford such a nice weapon system, made for sub MOA shots, and not be able to produce any results - especially since he has access to a range at his place of employment and obviously knows how to shoot. Call me uptight, picky, or whatever, but something didn't click with this. I guess the real reason why I was so cautious was because of the money involved and the "no warranty, no return, just trust me" terms....damn.

[Readysteady_1]

You guys are right, thanks for the advice. I set out in the direction of SPR/ match grade for this AR, but at close to mid range. For future reference, if I did buy from someone out there trying to sell a worn or faulty AR without a warranty/return option, would I be able to reasonably afford most of the possible repairs that I would need to make (worst case scenario)?

[Rider79]

I would just buy this:

http://www.gandrtactical.com/cgi-bin...tion&key=XV-M4

And since you're a member here, I think Grant will give you an even better price than that on it. PM him to find out.