Maybe a dumb question.
I have a Ruger rimfire rifle in .22 mag, a 77/22 that is marked 77/17. Are rifles that have the wrong markings on them worth anything more than a correctly marked rifle? I was wondering if it made a difference in its resale value since it has never been fired? Should I send it back to Ruger for correct model marking?
Thanks for your responses in advance.
Thanks for your responses in advance.
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Are you sure the rifle is chambered in .22 mag.?
If you haven't fired it and haven't tried chambering a round in it you might have a .17HMR and not a .22 mag. and they may have put it in the wrong box.
Check the serial number against the number on the box and then make sure it is chambered for .22 magnum. If it is indeed the way you say then I would keep it as it is, but it is your rifle so do what you feel comfortable doing.
Bode0 -
Did you buy it nib or could have someone re-barreled it to 17? 0 -
quote:Originally posted by dano
About five years ago, I bought a Ruger K77/22 VMB, NIB.
I was showing it to a friend, and he said....."I thought you bought a .22LR caliber"? I said that I did. He then said...."It's stamped .22WMR here on the barrel".
He gave it back to me and sure enough, he was right. I called Ruger the next day and told them about the discrepancy. They couldn't get it back fast enough. They arranged for UPS to pick it up the next day at my home, RED Label delivery no less.
Before sending it back to them, I removed the stock so that they wouldn't damage or lose it somehow.
About 10 days later, they called to let me know that they were done with it and had shipped it back to me.
It arrived with a new barrel, correctly stamped .22LR.
Oh yeah....it also had a replacement stock on it. [:D]
Interesting story.
A gun factory-mislabelled as to caliber is potentially a liability nightmare. Any injury caused by the wrong caliber round in the chamber, the gun failing to go off, etc, and the manufacturer would be indefensibly liable (as in bend-over-get-the-vaseline liable).
Of course a mislabeled gun also reflects poorly on the manufacturer, so there is a reputation issue there as well.
So that explains why Ruger (which is hyper-sensitive about such things) couldn't wait to get that issue fixed. The $100 (or whatever) it spent to ship the gun both ways and swap out the barrel is peanuts compared to the potential legal liability involved.
To answer the original question, in general mislabelled guns aren't worth a significant amount more than similar condition ones that have been properly labelled.
In some cases a diehard collector might pay a small premium for a mislabelled gun as a novelty, but that's going to depend on the manufacturer and general collectability of the gun in question. For a common Ruger model? Not only would a mislabelled gun probably NOT be worth much a lot more than a normal one, I could imagine it being worth LESS.
So, if you think you're going to sell one of these and collect a $250,000 premium. . .forget it!
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Well I was thinking about maybe $200 more, oh well that appears not to be the case when model numbers are incorrect. 0 -
I would consider the liability to you if you or someone in your family should sell it and something bad happens to the new owner. A shifty lawyer+a known inconsistence=big bucks possible for someone. 0
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