The Worst Abuse Of A Gun You have Experienced

[Mistered]

Of the forums I am a member of I think this is the only one I have NOT posted this question on. It's gotten some really interesting (and tragic) responses from some so lets hear yours - and I'll start with ONE I have:
A few years ago a pawnbroker friend of mine called me and told me to stop by his shop as he wanted to show me something he bought 'Mostly as a joke' he said.
I thought oh yea, he is going to show me some valuable classic found in grandpas closet he bought from a family member but instead he pulls out a Smith & Wesson Mod 25 .45 ACP (and an early one) except someone had cut the barrel to roughly 3" and crudely welded the front sight back on but the best part (or worst) - it had been equally as crudely 'home' parkerized! This was really sad to see......

[Mags]

Two. One not so bad the other a bit gruesome.

The first, hand-me down guns in fine mechanical shape, but hadn't been used in decades. Dust had accumulated in the lubricant and the whole mess turned to a dirty gum varnish like substance.

The second, the rusty metal remains of a side by side shotgun my grandfather plowed up. And the human remains (bones) that came with it. My grandfather's farm had once been a part of a wetland/shallow lake and accumulation of natural ponds in the Klamath Lake basin. The authorities speculated the person was likely a hunter of fowl from the late 19th or early 20th century. I got the remains of the gun after my grandfather passed. Have no idea who got the bones. Probably the police.

[BrokenolMarine]

My wife's cousin is one of those Sad Sack guys that nothing ever seems to go right for. Jobs fall thru, his life is one drama after another and it's always something. Every now and then, we'll try and give him a hand, but we don't do handouts, or he would be at the door every day. I like the guy for the most part, but he can be a pain sometimes.

Last year, the wife said he had called and was offering to sell the guns he had inherited from his dad as he was short on cash and really hard up. He didn't need the guns, and knew I was always on the lookout. I asked what Miss T wanted to do. "Eh, check them out, we can always give him a little something and he might have something you can use."

I called him and he said he had a couple shotguns, a scoped 22, and a very old BB gun. I told him that what I would do is come by and pick up the guns, and have a third party do an independent evaluation, then base my offer on that. If that was good with him. My guy was a Former Police Sergeant, Master Class Shooter, Gunsmith, Firearms Instructor and collector. "That will work." Said the cousin, whatever you wanna do. His honey had left and he didn't care much about anything these days. He needed to take his old dog to the vet and needed a few bucks he said.

We drove over to pick up the guns and the Cuz had them laying on the table on the back porch.
"What the heck happened," I asked? All the guns were heavily rusted. Even the scope body on the .22 was rusted.
"Well," he said, "My honey didn't like guns, and insisted I keep them in the basement out of sight, and you know...the basement stays damp in this old house. I really didn't go down there much cause it's nasty."

"Condition is everything Bro, and this sucks. I'll take them over, but don't expect much."

I took them over to my Rabbi, (Advisor, Mentor, Confidant, not actual Rabbi,) and he wrinkled his nose... "Really?" he asked. But, he started stripping them down and did his full eval. After about an hour, he had torn them all down, and put them all back together, finishing with the 12 gauge shotgun. "$100," he said.

"Wow," I said, shock apparent in my voice, "That's a lot more than I thought that lump of rust was worth."

"What? No. For all of them, for parts." He said, laughing. "If you clean up the two shotguns, they are probably okay to shoot with light loads, no 3" magnums or anything, but they will still be butt ugly." The 22 and the BB gun are parts only. I could use either or, but I wouldn't give you much for them."

I told my guy I'd let him know, and off I went. We stopped by, and I gave the Cousin $200 for the four, telling him what my guy had said, and letting him know we were helping him out, and it wasn't a loan. I stopped back by the Rabbi's and dropped off the .22 and the BB gun as payment for his help. He tried to pay me, but I wouldn't take it.

The shotguns are in the corner of my safe room, teasing me. I still don't know what I will do with them. Seriously. they might become a garage gun or something, but even after parkerizing... they will still be butt ugly.

[Mistered]

Another 'good' one for me.
Had a garage sale many years ago and I had a few low end guns out for sale and a guy came up and asked me if I was interested in an 'Army .45'.
I said yea and I would come over later after the sale and look at it but he said he would go get it and bring it back as he was close by.
He returned a wile later and handed me a zipper pouch and I opened it and pulled out and checked it.
Well, it was obviously an older Colt .45 and I could ALMOST make out 'Colt's model of 1911 U.S. Army' on the slide. I say almost because somebody had taken probably wetordry sandpaper to it!!!
Yep it was nearly shiny from the finish being removed (and some of the surface metal) from the slide and frame! It was obviously a pre A1 but this was heartbreaking. I offered him $400 for it as a 'shooter' but he declined.

[Mags]

... because somebody had taken probably wetordry sandpaper to it!!!
Yep it was nearly shiny from the finish being removed ...

So sad, so heart breaking

[clovishound]

The worst I have had to deal with wasn't that bad, and had a happy ending. I ended up with my Dad's Colt Challenger years ago. He wasn't a gun guy, lived in Florida, and of course the gun was rusty. He had probably cleaned the surface rust off a couple times over the years, and the bluing was just about completely gone from the barrel, and there was some heavy surface rust in numerous places. Mechanically it was fine, and shot well, but looked terrible.

Earlier this year I decided it was worth trying some cold blue on it. I stripped the oil off and tried a little judicious cold bluing. It turned out well and I ended up just going ahead and steel wooling and applying cold blue to the entire exterior of the little Colt.

colt.JPG (381.15 KiB) Viewed 1561 times

Night and day difference in how it looks. Now I'm not ashamed to have someone at the range try out the old Colt. I'm tempted to do something about those ugly plastic grips. They are, however, original.

BTW this is the first gun I ever shot, and by my design, the first one that Clovispup ever shot.