What to do with "Junk" pistol

[tt4617]

Ok everybody, here goes. I am almost afraid to admit this, but I have a Bryco Jennings compact 9mm. Here is the story. All of my adult life, I have owned weapon, but always long guns. Back in the early 90's, I had some interest in purchasing a pistol. i had never owned one and decided that I wanted to try it out. So, I told my girlfriend at the time and next thing I know, she takes me to a gun show and buys me the aforementioned gun. Very nice gesture on her part and I still appreciate it, but it was just not a quality weapon. Like I said, I wanted a pistol and did not research before buying. So, now I have this Jennings 9mm that has had about 20 rounds through it and have no idea what to do with it. I NEVER shoot it and i know that no one will even take it on a trade.

So, now I com to you guys to tell me HONESTLY what you would do with it. I know I am going to hear, "Paper Weight", Boat Anchor", etc. But I really do want it gone and if possible, would like to get something for it. I just don't know how to go about it.

Thanks for all your help. This is a great community.

Tom

[coyotejoe]

 You can do anything you like with it. I'd put it in the GBO classified section with full disclosure of any problems. If you price it pretty cheap, say like 75 bucks I'd bet it will sell right quick.

[Catfish]

There are people who will buy those guns and for that reason there are alot of dealers that will take them on trade. It is worth something, just not much.

[Autorim]

Not trying to be funny here, but a friend of mine has two non shooters that he had chrome plated and uses as toilet paper holders with the paper tube over the barrel - pretty cool really.

[williamlayton]

Heck--it would make a good paperweight.
Blessings

[Land_Owner]

You just HAD to go there william...    LOL

[His lordship.]

Back in the early 80's I bought a Raven P-25, similar to your gun, but in .25 ACP.  I shot it for 14 years, putting 600 rounds through it, then sold it to a friend who still has it.  He is a barber and I got a bunch of haircuts for it and he used it to protect his shop.  He now has a Beretta pistol as it is easier to conceal being lighter.

I once bought an old "nickel nightmare" cheap revolver from a fellow gun club member for $1.00.  It was about 100 years old and broken.  Kept it for awhile as a conversation piece, then took it to the range and shot it with my Beretta 92, and then my Remington in .243.  This was very interesting as I could see the difference in balistic effect on a soft steel revolver.  Be careful of any ricochets if you do that. 

So you could just use it for plinking, fire a 30-06 round into it, sell it, or see if a relative/friend/co-worker might want it as a backup or shooter. 

[P.A. Myers]

Your local Gunne Shoppe may consign it for you. They may buy it or offer stuff in trade.  You can de-mill it with a mig-welder.

[jlwilliams]

  I'd consign it at a local shop if you really want to be rid of it.

  A better plan is to just oil it up and leave it sitting in your gun safe with a box of ammo.  It doesn't take up much space and a hand gun with ammo is always worth something to someone.  Someday, you may find you or someone you love may really need a pistol.  Should that day come, you have a pistol.  Should that day never come, it's small enough to not dominate your gun safe.

  Just grease 'er up and forget 'er.

[Dee]

Well it would make a damn fine "boat anchor" for a damn small boat. Leave it and a hundred rounds of ammo on the street corner curb of a Mexican gang infested neighborhood. SOMEBODY will get some use out of it.

[Bigeasy]

This is a joke, right?

Larry

[Dee]

You don't know?

[SHOOTALL]

Sounds like a good gun for the glove box !

[Dee]

I don't have a glove box. I keep my gloves in the floor next to the drivers seat, or in the tool box. I guess I could carry mine in the drawer with the 1/4" drive sockets.

[krod47nw]

Take it to one of those Gun buy backs.  They'll give you between $50-$100 for it depending on the program.  They usually only have a certain amount of money to give out, so the more junk people bring the faster they run out of money and they fewer good guns they are able to destroy.

Kevin 

[Bigeasy]

You don't know?

Dee, I meant the original post...  I do like the idea of turning it in in a gun buy back program.  Shop around for the best price, turn it in, and buy something nice...

Larry

[Dee]

Ok Bigeasy, and the gun buy back would be a good idea for the stated reasons.

[mcwoodduck]

I would call up a place like Jack First or Gun parts and ask them if they want it as a parts gun.
if not you may want ot head to the local gun smith and ask if he wants it as a parts gun.

Option 2 as others said gun trade in.

I once traded in a bunch (10) of $35  brand new .25 autos in a gun buy back when I was in college they were giving $50 a gun.
Later the buy back was deemed illegal and a state trooper showed up at my door with the 10 guns in a lunch sack made me sign for them.
I sold them back to the pawn shop I bought them from.  I think they were Davis Arms.  All said and done I think I cleared 250 bucks on the things.

Option 3
Super glue it closed paint it a flat gold and use it as a paper weight.  Will look like a brass gun.  ith all the parts glued together will act like one too.  You can then glue it to a plaque and make your own shooting trophy.
Option 4
Since it is pretty much a pot metal frame.  Stick it in a bucket with a gator aide / epsom salts/ table salt/ coke/ or other solution and a couple new 9V batteries, wait a week or two and pour the steel parts out, and the sludge that was the Zinc frame and a couple dead 9 V battereis.

[NickSS]

A Jennings 9mm is not the best pistol in the world but if it goes bang with reasonable regularity someone will buy it.  My local dealer has a number of junk guns in his case and they seam to disappear as fast as he gets them.  I have seen him sell Jennings 22s and Raven 25s so someone wants them.  I would take it to a dealer and pick out something you want and trade it in on it.  He will probably give you something on it.  I had a dealler one time who saved all the cheap break open revolvers for me and I ended up buying a milk crate full of them (about 75 pistols as I recall for $100.  Some were broke but I got about 70 whole ones out of it.  I shot them and fooled around with them for years then found out that people were actually collecting them.  So I sold them all off and and made about $600 to the good.  Someones junk is another mans treasure.  Oh I did not sell all of them I kept five S&W ones that I still have.

[mrussel]

A Jennings 9mm is not the best pistol in the world but if it goes bang with reasonable regularity someone will buy it.  My local dealer has a number of junk guns in his case and they seam to disappear as fast as he gets them.  I have seen him sell Jennings 22s and Raven 25s so someone wants them.  I would take it to a dealer and pick out something you want and trade it in on it.  He will probably give you something on it.  I had a dealler one time who saved all the cheap break open revolvers for me and I ended up buying a milk crate full of them (about 75 pistols as I recall for $100.  Some were broke but I got about 70 whole ones out of it.  I shot them and fooled around with them for years then found out that people were actually collecting them.  So I sold them all off and and made about $600 to the good.  Someones junk is another mans treasure.  Oh I did not sell all of them I kept five S&W ones that I still have.

 If its made out of Zamak I bet you could disolve it in phosphoric acid,and use it to put a grey parkerized coating on a gun you like.

 Seriously though,I would take it to a gun shop or a gun show and sell it. Think about it this way,its not much of a gun,but as you said its almost new,and if there is nothing wrong with it there is probably some out there that can use it. There might be some poor woman out there being stalked by her ex who can only come up with 50 bucks for something to protect herself. Would a good gun from a reputable manufacturer be better for her? Of course,but thats not going to happen,its a fifty dollar low end gun from you that's at least is in good shape (assuming it is) or a 50 dollar junk gun from someone else,that might not be in good shape or nothing at all. If all I had was fifty or a hundred dollars I would rather have the gun that will probably go bang when I pull the trigger than nothing at all. (Ok,I paid less than 100 dollars for my MAB model D,even after replacing the broken safety and making a pair of wooden grips to replace to broken plastic ones. It may only be a 32,but it was good enough for French customs to carry. I have reservations about what would happen if it were dropped when loaded,but it WAS in use for quite a while.)

 Still,that gun is probably exactly what someone needs.

[MGMorden]

I say sell it.  Everything's worth something to somebody.  Some people buy guns and literally never shoot it.  I heard a story once (may have even been on here) about a guy working in a gunshop who sold a revolver, and the lady he was selling it to asked if he would load it for her.  Apparently she "just wanted it for defense" and she didn't want to learn how to load it - she literally never planned on shooting the gun or even verifying that it worked until the hypothetical break-in occured.

Personally though, I'd NEVER take it to a gun buyback.  I don't want to inflate their statistics a bit so that they can claim how much of a "success" those programs are.  I'd sell it for cheap (buy-backs are usually $50 - almost anyone would pay that for it), or even chop it up before giving it to them.

[Savage]

Personally though, I'd NEVER take it to a gun buyback.  I don't want to inflate their statistics a bit so that they can claim how much of a "success" those programs are.  

I agree 100%. I'd consider putting it away somewhere for a time when you may REALLY need a gun. Any gun.

Savage

[krod47nw]

Personally though, I'd NEVER take it to a gun buyback.  I don't want to inflate their statistics a bit so that they can claim how much of a "success" those programs are.  I'd sell it for cheap (buy-backs are usually $50 - almost anyone would pay that for it), or even chop it up before giving it to them.

This was my original thought, until I found out that all gun buybacks run out of their alotted money before they buy all of the guns people want to sell.  I would rather sell them a junk gun and keep someone from selling them Grandpa's old 1911 or SAA.  They are going to buy X number of guns one way or the other, so the success statistics remain the same.

Kevin