Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The Sh*t You See Working In A Gun Store...

We used to keep a single cock air pistol on the counter for shooting flies. You get right up behind them and shoot. It totally vaporizes them-doesn't even leave a skid mark. Another story from the shop. We had a customer come in with a SXS double barrel shotgun to get the barrels shortened. We had the chunk of barrels sitting on a counter behind the service desk peaking through a curtain that hid all the stuff sitting on that shelf. 'Looked for all the world like a gun deployed there to take care of business. Man, did we get some funny looks at that stub sitting there!

I'm in the art business. A lot of what is being discussed here about fire arms applies to the art business. I've had people come in with, in the business they are called, paintings by the yard done in Italy, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Indonesia. They want me to tell them what they found, inherited, bought at a yard sale, etc. is and how valuable it is. They get real upset when they are told it's worthless to $10.00 to $15.00. I've been accused of trying to buy the master piece on the cheap to sell for many thousands of bucks. I tell them I really don't want the painting as I would have to go the the effort of waking thru the business and putting it in the dumpster out back. That makes them all the more unhappy.

Jim

Working inna gun shop...


is like Christmas everyday.

SCgunut,

I hear ya. I used to work in a gun shop called Widener Arms in Aiken S.C. Guy came in and asked for for .357 bullets. I asked him if he wanted cartridges or bullets and he said bullets. So I gave him a box of Hornady's and he went on his way. Next day he came back and said they don't fit, they were too small. I asked him what he meant and he said when he put them in the cylinder they just dropped right through!!

I have heard enough BS from the customer side of the counter for me to have great pity for the poor men working there and trying to make a living listening/sifting through that kind of crap on a daily basis.

I'd have to walk to the back and beat my forehead on a brick wall.

When I had a gun smithing shop, I had a guy come in asking for a muzzle brake for his "fire breathing" 7mm Mag. I told him $165 installed. He said that he found brakes much cheaper, and would do it himself.

About 3 weeks later, he came back in with the same rifle and the threads(don't know who threaded it for him)ripped off of his barrel. He now wanted a new barrel and a brake. After 30 minutes of conversation, he said that his brother(a machinist)threaded the barrel. Then he ordered a Schrewd Precision brake, and threaded it on his rifle. Upon firing the first shot, the brake was gone! He forgot(or didn't know), that he needed to drill and ream his brake out to .020 over 7mm! Dude was lucky he didn't kill, or injure someone!

When people think a gun shop is a yard sale and offer pennies on the dollar.

Was at the mall with the wife and went into an athletic store that also carries guns/ammo and saw they had 50rd boxes of 22lr. I asked the dude behind the counter if they had full bricks for sale and he gave me the 'I don't have time for this [bleep]' look but did go back and brought me out the two that I asked for. I finished shopping and went up to the counter to pay. There was a young lady in here tight yoga shorts at the register (bonus), and when she rang up the ammo, it rang up as a single box and not brick price. I explained to her that the price was incorrect and she gave me the 'I don't have time for this [bleep]' look. I tried to explain, but it wasn't registering so I told her to get her manager. The manager came up and yep, same look. The manager finally said, 'Sir, that is the price, do you want them or not'? I thought for a minute and did the only thing I could think of....asked her "how many do you have and do I need two carts or three?"

Did the same thing with primers at one here. $3.99 per 100 so I grabbed a whole brick of 1000 and got rung up for $3.99. Told the little counter worker girl it was wrong, "nope, it says it right there." Ok, hold on while I drag the entire primer case over here.......

One morning in late 2001, I was dropping off a small repair at a local Border Town emporium.

Having a coffee with one of the hands, and looking at the used rack, the owner hollered down, "Greg, could you figure out what these fellows want ?"

....Two blinged out Sonora / Chihuahua types,dead eyes like sharks ".....buscando cargadores tambor, de alta capacidad, ciento bailes, por eme diez y seis". ( High cap drum mags, 100 rounds, for M16).

The owner and I walked into his office, where he asked me what he thought I should do,....my recommendation was simply tell him you don't have any, and wish them a nice day.

GTC

Many years ago I walked into a gun shop to get some cleaning supplies just before closing on the evening before the deer opener. There were a couple of guys leading a small Oriental in the purchase of a deer rifle. It was obvious that the guy had no knowledge of firearms. His buddies had him talked into a Weatherby Mk V in .300 Wby. Then he picked a $30 Bushnell Sportview scope to mount on it. The shop bore sighted it for him and he was going to be in the woods the next morning without having fired a shot.

Over 20 years ago at a LGS run by a friend of mine, a girl comes in with a brand new Berreta, (IIRC), 12 ga. wanting to sell it. It was only about a week old and she had the receipts from the sporting goods store it was sold at. Turns out it belongs to her boyfriend, who got arrested, is in jail, and told her to sell it to get bail money. It wasn't cased or anything, she was just carrying it into the store. Not only was it loaded but the safety was off but of course she didn't realize that. Luckily nobody got shot but the shop owner gave her hell for pulling a stunt like that. Then; he gave her a good lesson about safe gun handling and I hope she learned her lesson.

I stumbled into the same situation in reverse in El Paso once.

A friend had told me about a place off of IH-10 that was a store that sold AR15 accessories, mags, etc. Said it was good to check out...

Sometime later I was driving that highway and saw a sign that said Police Supplies, AR 15's, ammo, and whatever.

I whipped in and entered the "store".

My walking into that store was like a loud fart in church.

There was probably 15 people in there. Straight outta the movie No Country for Old Men. There were a couple of meetings going on between the clientele. They just stopped what they were doing and stared at me.

That store sold all sorts of stuff. Police "Tactical" uniforms, all sorts of patches that said "Policia Federale", FBI, Policia, etc.

It was cartel central in there. I'd truly entered the lion's den.

Didn't take me long to make myself scarce.

Was in a Shop about 10 years ago and they had a used Benelli behind the counter.

Asked the owners wife who was running the shop at the time to see it, she handed it to me with a closed chamber and started to walk away. First thing I did was start to open the action to see if unloaded and sure enough there was a shell in the chamber.

I sat the butt on the counter and told her, Maam this gun is loaded, she turned around, noticed it was pointed towards the ceiling, got a sigh of relief on her face, walked over and proceeded to empty the chamber and mag tube cussing her husband the whole time.

I have a hunch when I told her the gun was loaded and she had already turned her back to me that she was possibly being held up.

It appears he had traded for the gun just a day or 2 before and had never even bothered to check it out at all.

Also know of a shop owner who used a local smith for all repairs that came in the shop.

Smith came in once a week and brought back the repaired guns and picked up ones to be repaired. Owner had his own 22-250 in the truck and mentioned to the smith he wanted the trigger adjusted sometime, smith said bring it in and we will do it right here real quick.

Owner brought it in, sat in the gun vise on the counter and the smith reached over to see just how bad the trigger was, gun goes boom sending a bullet into a stack of 22LR brick on display. One of the 22 bullets went through the buttstock of a stainless Model 70 7mm Mag.

Nobody was physically hurt, just egos. They had a hard time explaning that hole in the stock to potential customers of the 7 Mag.

Yup,years back there was a place down in Naco that just as well have put up a sign reading "Machine Guns for Sale / Export",.....I mean EVERYBODY knew what the guy was up to. Rumor has it there was some fairly LARGE Mil. stuff channeling through the place, too.

Local legend has it he was some sorta ATF snitch, working off a drug beef.

....disappeared, POOF, one day,....

A friend TDYd over in Ark. found him running a gun store there some years later.

Que' vida' loca, ese frontera !

GTC

Not a gun shop but a bow shop i helped out in a buddie owned, a guy in a nice suit walked in said he needed the best compound we had, and everthing to go with it! we had a range in the shop, so I took him over to shoot his new bow said he had got invited to go hunting with the big boss, why the New bow, he didnt know a thing about bows or hunting! after 2 arrows into the ceiling of the shop and arrows all over the back stop he put one into the target, he was all excited claimed he hit the COW target! it was a black bear target, I asked him Why we would have a target of a cow? he was happy he hit the target, said he had to go paid and left! I was Happy we werent selling Guns!

Another shop a few miles away had a fellow walk in one day with a shell in his hand. Showed it to the owner and asked if they had any guns the cartridge would fit, owner said yes and hands the guy the handgun.

Next thing the owner knows the guy had the round in the gun and committed suicide right there in the shop.

Older owner and he actually had a heart attack right there when the guy killed himself.

Gunshops are, for the most part, retail stores. As such, new employees are not easy to find and even more so, not easy to train in the firearms business. It is not fair to think that all the employees should have all the knowledge of firearms and accessories that a lot of folks here on the fire have. To a lot of folks, it is just a job. Just think of how long it took most of us to gain whatever knowledge we have in the firearms field. Maybe we should try to help educate some of the folks working in the LGS instead of poking fun at their lack of knowledge. Just my thoughts.......