Should I ask the police to check a serial against stolen.

[vontar]

Question.

       Back story, I have been helping a lady that lost her Husband a years ago clean and sell some of their guns.  She is no dummy concerning guns as her and her late husband jointly owned them and both entered and won some contests.  Before he died, they had sold most of them.  She had a few left and she ask me to help her clean them and prepare them for sale.  She and her late husband had already priced them and i felt for the most part the prices were fair.   I cleaned several guns for her and i did it more to help and maybe to have a first look at them.  I did not charge her 1 penny.  I picked them up at her house 1 by 1 took them home cleaned and returned them to her.

All that is good.  She has sold a few, I purchased 2.  Still all very good.   She for now is keeping some and she is going to give me first dibs when she is ready to pass any others on.  I admit there is one rifle i have my eye on and probably going to give her top dollar on, not going to low ball her.

 

She got to the point she decided she doesn't want to go though all the other non gun related items.  She boxed up some holsters, cases parts and ask me to just come get them she wanted them out of her house.

 

Here is the where i am, In the parts, I found sturm ruger & co southport conn Old Army barrel, Rec with serial number and cylinder.

I showed it to her and she has no interest in it.  I feel it is mine, given to me.

I am considering tracking down the parts and fixing it up to a complete gun.  

Anyone every ask the police to check a serial number?

However I have no reason to suspect it may be stolen or anything, but wondering if I should ask to have the serial number checked before i put any time and money into it.  If nothing more then peace of mind.   Would police check it and if it turned out to be stolen not try to get me for it, but just consider i found it. 

[dralarms]

Just for piece of mind I'd get it checked. It's probably fine but if it does turn out stolen you can tell the cops it was in a box of donated items and no idea where it came from. 

[gregintenn]

 Seeing that it is a black powder arm, there probably isn't any record on it. I'd bet the old man decided he didn't like cleaning it and robbed parts from it for a  Blackhawk.

Edited November 10, 2017 by gregintenn

[vontar]

kind of what I was thinking,  this is the only gun in my control that I don't know any real back ground on. I have a good connection with our Community our reach police office though neighborhood watch.  I can ask him easy enough.

[gregintenn]

How rusty is the barrel and cylinder?

[nightrunner]

Ruger Old Army is a black powder revolver. Not classified as a “firearm”. I doubt anyone would have a record of a serial number for it except Ruger.

[vontar]

1 minute ago, gregintenn said:

 Seeing that it is a black powder arm, there probably isn't any record on it. I'd bet the old man decided he didn't like cleaning it and robbed parts from it for a  Blackhawk.

The old man loved black powder pistols.  The 2 I brought from her were 2 other much nicer Old Army.  This one may have been his first, there is a bit of pitting under the trigger.  I already know if I rebuild it the trigger is getting replaced.  I am already getting ideas.

 

[vontar]

Just now, nightrunner said:

Ruger Old Army is a black powder revolver. Not classified as a “firearm”. I doubt anyone would have a record of a serial number for it except Ruger.

unless it was actually reported stolen.

[vontar]

1 minute ago, gregintenn said:

How rusty is the barrel and cylinder?

they appear pretty good.  not prefect.

[nightrunner]

Just now, vontar said:

unless it was actually reported stolen.

I don’t know but since it’s not a “firearm” could it even be reported as a stolen firearm? In which case it would just be the serial number of a “item” on a police report somewhere. Not in a database, same as a serial number on a computer or anything else.

[MacGyver]

Unless you've got doubts about the provenance of the rest of the collection, I don't know why finding an old parts gun in a box would cause reason for concern.

Once upon a time I paid $15 for a box of non-working pistols.  I put a couple hundred dollars of parts into them and got several of them working - it was more of a fun project than anything.  There was nothing of note that anyone would really want.  I'm sure I've gotten rid of most of them over the years, but it wouldn't surprise me to find one or two still in the bottom of a box of parts somewhere.

[dralarms]

15 hours ago, gregintenn said:

 Seeing that it is a black powder arm, there probably isn't any record on it. I'd bet the old man decided he didn't like cleaning it and robbed parts from it for a  Blackhawk.

 

 

Didn't realise it was a BP revolver.  Sorry