Anyone ever 'slum it' and search the various pawn shops and hole-in-the wall bait/hunting supply shops for fantastic deals?  

I'll admit it, I've done it, in search of the estate sale where Earl the bait-guy, gets ahold of a PSG1 and wants $500 for it.

If so, what was your best 'steal?'  And which one did you miss out on?

My best deal, a NIB HK P7M10 for $625 off of an estate sale.

That one that got away, a pawn shop that had a PSG1, HK91, HK93, HK94 from an estate sale.  The guy wouldn't quote me prices, but the guns sold for under $1000 each.

I slummed this off of Gunbroker.com for $1000, complete with the Leupold VariX III Tactical, 5 30 rounders, and a nice carry case:

[img]http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1513476&a=11434535&p=41031925[/img]

You guys are a lot luckier than I. All I ever find is junk. The best I can say is a Norinco 1911a1 for $225. The dealer did throw in a new recoil spring and firing pin spring. He even lubed it for me.

I have gotten two good deals from a local pawn shop. One was a Marlin 336cs in 99.9% condition for $175. When I broke it down I couldn't tell if it had ever been fired. The other one was a Winchester 1300, never been fired for $180. The one that got away was a sig pistol that they offered to me for $215. I turned it down at the time, went back the next day and apparently the guy who was standing by and heard the incredible price bought it.

The one that got away was a carbon AR-15 pistol for $500. A little short of credit at the time.
[pistol]

Beleive it or not, a lot of good deals can be found on Gunbroker.com if you're patient, and willing to do a lot of searching through pages of rifles. That's how I found that AR, and right after I bought that, I began bidding on a Johnson Automatic 30.06. I could only go to about $1100 cuz my gun budget was blown on the AR, but it sold for only about $1600. At that price, it was a great deal!

Most of what gets listed there is for sale by dealers and they aren't going to give anything away. But once in a while, someone lists something good, and doesn't set a reserve price on it, and if they don't put a bold or "In the top" listing on it, it may gone unseen by most of the bidders. That's when you have to be ready to strike.

One mistake I have made is forgetting to check back on an item I'm interested in, only to find that the auction ended, and I never did get my bid in. I usually don't bid until the last hours of the auction because I don't want to bring anyone's attention to the item if they see that it's being bid on.

Now, I must get back to browsing GB. :)

I dont find many good deals but my friend gets them all the time. He brought in a SGW preban with a Colt 16" light weight upper,case, 3 mags(30 rd gi) and scope mounted. The guy said it was his deer rifle and just wanted to get rid of it. He wanted to know if it was worth the $275 he paid for it