This has really been bothering me. A few months ago I bought a shotgun from my brother. An old Smith and Wesson model 1000 semi auto. When I bought it he said there seemed to be some play in the barrel going back and forth, I tightened up the end cap on the magazine tube and all seemed well. His reply was " oh I must not have had it all the way down". The day before yesterday we went out shooting and the trigger kept sticking, he said " loosen up the end cap and it won’t do that". This tells me he didn’t forget to screw it down, he left it loose so it wouldn’t stick the trigger. I can’t figure anyway in hell that this was not just blatant deception on his part, I paid him full market value for the gun because I wanted it.
I hate the thought of destroying a relationship over a $200.00 gun that I am sure I can fix anyway but the thought of him doing this really caused me to loose all respect for him. Several other issues over the years have come up where I was 90% sure he was hiding something but on ths one it is 100% and I can't find any way of giving him a benefit of a doubt. Not really asking advice as much as just venting but opinions are welcome.
Because he hates the thought of destroying the relationship over something so relatively small? My guess from that is that the brother would get all huffy (from guilt) and blow up any questions into a full-blown war.
You didn’t ask for advice, but I guess if you want to maintain a relationship with your brother, you can’t give him any more opportunities to cheat you. Don’t buy anything from him, don’t lend him money, don’t borrow from him, and if you sell him anything give him something in writing that accurately describes the condition of the item at the time, and have him sign it. When he asks why you’re doing this, just smile and say that you want to make sure everything is clear and above-board. Then make sure your parents (if still alive) appoint a disinterested third party as executor of their wills.
. Then make sure your parents (if still alive) appoint a disinterested third party as executor of their wills.
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Allready been through that nightmare, 6 of us and he was the only one fighting. None of us spoke to him for a few years after that. We decided to bury the hatchet, I guess every family has one.
I do think that there’s a way to see this as far less malicious than it appears to you (and not something to destroy a relationship over). It sounds like your brother saw the issue with the gun as no big deal, something that could be managed by loosening the end cap, and something that wouldn’t really matter in a sale to a brother. I’m not saying that’s right, just that he may not have been thinking that he was cheating you, only selling you something that needed adjustment. People often see siblings as more understanding of (what they perceive as) minor issues than a stranger or even a friend might be.
But you know your brother best, and whether it’s worth bringing up to him that you are disappointed that the gun he sold you is defective.
I don’t get it. He sold you a gun that he told you was broken, and you tried to fix it but found out he already tried that, but you can fix it anyway sometime in the future. He sold you a gun you wanted, and told you its flaw. And you’re pissed…why, exactly?
Thats not what happened, he said it had play in the barrel and didn’t know why, when I tightened the end cap he simply said, oh I guess I didn’t have it all the way down. At the shooting range it had become obvious that he had played with it extensively and concluded that leaving it loose allowed it to operate, thats what he should have told me. I would have still bought the gun knowing it was an easy fix. It just pisses me off that he lied about it.
Well, I did come up with something to make it a little more forgivable. When he found out I was planning a grouse hunting trip out of state in the fall he pressured me to take the gun to the range knowing I would discover the problem before ruining an expensive trip. He flet simply lossening the grip was a good enough fix, I don’t consider that fixed and was able to locate and fix the problem this eveing anyway. The old rubber shock absorber in the gas chamber had melted and cooked some of the liquid onto the sliding mechanism that was hidden under a guide, I cleaned it up and all is fine and brother is 70% forgiven and the other 30% just accepted as is.
Maybe he thought that there was some acceptable middle ground where it was tight enough that the barrel didn’t have too much play, but loose enough that the trigger wouldn’t stick. He tried to keep it adjusted in that acceptable middle ground, but it slipped a bit on the loose side before you took possession of it. You can disagree with his cavalier attitude towards maintenance of his tools, but it’s not necessarily deceptive.
Dude, I know I was somewhat snarky in trying to point you to a gun smith with the unspoken message that you should let it go. I should have said something like,
“Look. Get it fixed & let it go. You can always make more money, but you can’t make any more brothers.*”
*…And if you could? Ewwww.
Now you’ve stripped it down, cleaned it out, replaced the seal, oiled & wadded the parts clean, reassembled it snuggly, and put it away… all with parts that were probably on your tool-bench anyway.
You are probably a better gun smith than your brother. Are you going to hold a grudge against him for having more talent than him? Really??
Best Possible Advice: Take a deep breath and let it go! You have bigger [del]fish to fry[/del] grouse to hunt. Next trip, tell him to bring bricks for the both of you and be grateful he’s still around. Someday he might not be.