Common knowledge for most, hopefully this is helpful for others. The purpose of this thread is to share a recent experience that hopefully saves someone else from a hazard. I'm a rifle junky like a lot of us, and have bought and sold used guns for +20 years never being content until I tried one more..... I recently made a Gunbroker purchase on a Winchester Model 70 New Haven Classic. The gun was advertised as 99% condition with absolutely no mechanical issues, original owner. I spoke with the seller who verified this verbally. I received the rifle and it was flawless cosmetically just as described. Upon shipment pickup in the presence of the receiving FFL I installed the bolt and upon closing the bolt it cocked and "fired" on its own. When the bolt would cock, moving the 3 position safety from position 2 to the fire position would cause the gun to go off on its own. Luckily the issue presented itself very obviously and before I ever loaded a round in it. I called the seller 15 minutes after pickup to alert them to the issue. The seller was a real ass to me but admitted he did a home trigger job on the rifle and told me to call Winchester or take it to a gunsmith, it is now as-is.... The fingernail paint marks on the trigger screw/nuts to indicate movement were still fully intact, indicating there had been no movement since the trigger job was done.
To be clear this WAS NOT a transaction off of this forum and I do not intend to publicly name anyone to bash. I have had flawless transactions with everyone here on this forum.
The fact is when buying used guns we do not always know who has worked on them before or what has been done to them. Please keep this in mind and fully function test your trigger AND safeties before ever loading live rounds. There was a time in my youth when I would have loaded rounds right into the mag to function test feeding, stupid I know. Had I been my younger self today I would have been in for a surprise.
To be clear this WAS NOT a transaction off of this forum and I do not intend to publicly name anyone to bash. I have had flawless transactions with everyone here on this forum.
The fact is when buying used guns we do not always know who has worked on them before or what has been done to them. Please keep this in mind and fully function test your trigger AND safeties before ever loading live rounds. There was a time in my youth when I would have loaded rounds right into the mag to function test feeding, stupid I know. Had I been my younger self today I would have been in for a surprise.