So, just made my first online handgun purchase from Buds. My 686P (4" barrel) should be here Friday or Saturday. I ordered it new. The website actually said "Factory New", whatever that really means.

1) Is "factory new" the same as brand new???
2) If so, how can I prove it is new? I read that Smith & Wesson will always test the gun in the factory, but still, is there any way I can give myself some peace of mind by somehow knowing it really is a new gun?

Sorry, just a little skeptical about online purchases, especially of this magnumtude, sorry, magnitude. But Buds was one of the only places I could find what I wanted.

Thanks....awesome forum.

Factory new usually means its straight out of the factory new and tested by S&W.

Only way I can tell that you can see if the gun was at least pre-owned is check S&W with the serial number. They'll usually have a record of the gun if it was ever registered to them by a previous owner or was taken in for warranty service. This however, does not guarantee the gun's history. It will simply tell you if S&W knows if it's ever been registered/worked on.

I'm sure you'll be fine. Your gun might show up with some factory preservatives, but still new by gun standards. Buds is a high volume dealer thats been in the business for a while, so I don't think they'll pull a fast one on you by selling you a used gun that they market as new.

Cool, thanks. What do you mean by "factory preservatives". That is exactly what I am wondering....what kind of "things" should I be looking for. Didn't I read something about how new guns have a little grease on top of the logos or something weird like that? Was I dreaming?

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that Bud's is NOT going to jeopardize their business and risk the principals going to jail trying to pawn off a used gun for new.

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Forum consigliere

It varies from company to company. When I got my Sigs, they came with this almost rust colored gooey substance. My friend's G34 from Bud's just came extra greasy in general. All stuff that will wipe off. You should be doing a field strip cleaning to a firearm when you first get it anyways. Guns are being stored and shipped and they want to prevent corrosion as much as possible.

and this, especially seeing how Bud has a used gun section - as well as selling on Gunbroker.

I don't want to hijack the thread but while you are on the topic of preservatives, does anyone know what the stuff called cosmoline was that was used to preserve S&W's during the war.

The gun will be drop-shipped from the distributor to your FFL. Extremely little on-hand-stock. Never an issue with Bud's on the few Sigs I've purchased from them.

I agree with CAJUNLAWYER. Over a period of years, I have purchased guns online from a variety of sources and had a local FFL receive them. I have no doubt that the ones advertised as New, NIB, "Factory New", etc., were new. All had been fired/proofed at the factory. None appeared to have been cleaned after proofing. I guess I would have no worry about receiving a used gun, advertised as new, from outfits like CDNN or Buds, etc.

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NRA Life, COTEP 640

I've never had a problem with Buds, my new guns from them have been new and the used ones may as well have, they've always been in better than described condition.

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Don't kiss smiling dogs!

What Cajunlawyer said. On top of that, what's the difference? It was fired at the factory, so it's not cherry, as if that mattered. If it has never been "registered" with S&W, and it went from them to the distributor to the retail seller, you have a new-gun warranty, even if someone did fire numerous rounds from it, which DID NOT HAPPEN. The only thing you have to worry about is whether someone swapped out all the new parts and substituted used parts. [That is intended to be ironic and sarcastic. On this forum, almost everyone is more worried about the reverse.]

Once you have disassembled a few never-opened S&W revolvers, their identification will be obvious to you. Some lube, but it will probably appear to you to be overall insufficient, and perhaps a bit gummed up in spots.

Your search Fu is weak today ;-).

Cosmoline is the trade name for a generic class of rust preventatives, conforming to MIL-C-11796C Class 3, that are a brown colored wax-like mass; have a slight fluorescence; and have a petroleum-like odor and taste (as detected when working with it).

Chemically, cosmoline is a homogeneous mixture of oily and waxy long-chain, non-polar hydrocarbons. It is always brown in color, but can differ in viscosity and shear strength. Cosmoline melts at 113-125 °F (45–52 °C) and has a flash point of 365 °F (185 °C).

Cosmoline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I tend to agree with this. Reputation goes a LONG way in selling guns, especially via Gunbroker. (One reason the S&W Forum classifieds are a great place to do business!)

My guess is that "Factory new" means that not only has it not been owned by anyone else, but it hasn't been in a display case and "fondled" by dozens of customers.

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LEO since 1981.

Cheers for that we have something over here called waxoil that is used under classic cars etc.
Cheers

One very easy way to tell where the gun originated from is to look at the date on the envelope that contains the test fired casing from the factory. That will give you a close idea unless it has been sitting somewhere for a long time. I bought a new S&W last week and the test fire date was just about 1 1/2 months ago.

If it's a revolver then look for one or two areas on the cylinder face to be blackened and the rest to be clean. So on a 686 you should be able to see it very clearly on the stainless.

My ex wife was looking at her ring on our honeymoon. She took it off and handed it to me and said, can you read this on the inside of the ring? I looked and it had a couple sets of initials with a date several years earlier! So yeah, I guess it could happen! When we went back to the jewelry store she actualy got me feeling bad for the salesman!

LMAO

Thanks for clearing that up-I'll sleep a lot better tonight.

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Forum consigliere

You should not be worried about the guns you order from Bud's. My experience with them is that they are 100% straight shooters and they work hard to have this reputation.

I have heard complaints from several people that they purchased a new gun but when they called the factory to find the exact date of mfr they discovered it was made up to 3 years ago.

So, it had been in the system, somewhere, for a period of time.

Not brand new but factory new. Certainly not used.

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A real sucker for the J-frames

Isn't it still brand new if it was sold by S&W to an FFL and never sold by that FFL? Also known as "new-old-stock"?
The minute it goes to an individual and into a safe, it becomes "Mint, like new unfired" but is a considered a used gun.
Two cases in point.
I bought a M64 from Vances. It was an overrun from the last Brinks order of revolvers and had sat in the warehouse for three years. It had never been out of the box nor registered to anyone. Brand new gun. A 2007 unit sold to me as "new" in 2010.
Conversely, I bought a 5906 from Aimhi that had never been fired but was sold internally to the CCW instructor for demonstration purposes in his classroom. Never fired just handled by students to teach loading and unloading of snap caps in the magazine. This gun was sold as "used".
Kind of like a car. Once it's titled, it's used - even if it's trailered from the dealer into a museum and the odometer reads zero. If it came from Detroit to the dealer and hasn't been titled it's new.

I agree.
I bought a gun from Bud's a few months ago, factory new, and when I got it, it was as described - perfect, new.

brand-new (br nd n , -ny )
adj.
Being in a fresh and unused condition; completely new.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

brand-new
adj
absolutely new
[from BRAND (n) + NEW, likened to newly forged iron]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

brand-new - definition of brand-new by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.





For brand new, I think the key terms are "fresh", "completely new" and "absolutely new".

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A real sucker for the J-frames