Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters "Interesting" conversation with a new clerk at LGS

Maybe they hire these folks intentionally so that we are made to feel superior to them.

Then maybe we will purchase something just to show them how much we know.

Or maybe if we stand around debating and correcting them we stay in the store longer and the longer we are in the store increases the chance that we will buy something.

Am I just grasping for a logical explanation to explain the lack of wisdom and logic found at most gun counters?

It can be fun sometimes though.

Or maybe most of those that know enough to be interesting are out using that knowledge.

I have run into very few gun store clerks who really knew their stuff. There have been a few here and there but not too many.

Mostly they had a pretty narrow range of knowledge and experience.

One of the best was also the owner of the store; he had hunted very widely across North America,was an avid shooter and knowledgeable rifleman, and in a former life had been in special ops for the military.He knew his stuff and taught me a lot.

Eventually the store closed down and he ended up in Afghanistan during the Russian occupation...it was rumored he was, and always had been, CIA.I guess you never know...

Ha ha Jedi mind trick, "these are not the droids we're looking for" .

When I was a kid, every town of any size in NH and VT had a LGS of the "mom & pop" variety, most of which smelled like Hoppe's #9. Most of the people were helpful and reasonably knowledgeable, some, like Bill DeVaux in Norwich, VT, exceptionally so. There aren't as many of those small LGSs any longer, as the owners are getting older and the young people don't take them over 'cause they can't match Wal-Mart's prices and make a living at it. When my Wife and I were first married and living in Hanover, NH, we used to do the "gun shop loops" almost every weekend. Northern loop one weekend and the southern loop the next. Found a lot of good buys in those small, out of the way, shops.

Since moving to Nebraska, I can only think of one LGS, and it isn't very local to me, that is worth the drive, Mike Strecker's place in Falls City, NE. Other than Strecker's, NE is pretty much an empty void when it come to small LGSs.

The pointless point of the ramble is that at least you have an LGS.

Jeff

I'm fond of LGS stories...we all seem to have them. I had a similar experience to this one last year. My brother and I were looking at a Kimber .308 they had on the shelf. My brother currently has a 30-06, but was thinking of adding a LW .308. The clerk overheard our conversation and said that he should get the .308 because it's more powerful than a 30-06. I asked why and was told "because the bullet leaves the barrel faster." What?

Another incident occurred at the same store a few years earlier when I was looking at the NightForce compacts. After checking out the reticle I wanted to see how positive the turrets felt. I spun the ele a few clicks and started to spin the windage turret when I heard yelling from approximately 20' away. The gun clerk literally ran from one end of the gun counter to other to stop me from spinning the turrets. My pard and I were caught completely off guard as he proceeded to lecture me on how I was "breaking the scope". He then said that I was ruining the "zero" on the scope by spinning the turrets. It literally took 10 - 15 seconds for what he was saying to register with us. It didn't help that he was visibly upset. He then told me I shouldn't touch things if I don't know what I'm doing. My buddy told him that I was a Ranger (civilians seem to think that saying this adds credibility), and the guy started to apologize. I had already started walking off at this time. Too late.

I do my best not to talk to gun shop folk unless I absolutely have to.

Maybe he knows where to find a rare 25-22/250?

That'll be my next project. The latest one, a 284-280....I call it 7mm Express, has been resoundingly wonderful. (It's a standard 280 opened up 4 thousandths to .284 by my very trusted smith. It's kind of a 280 improved. He said it was tricky reaming it out, but he only charged $300.)

Dang, and I just bought a .30-308.

You should AI it by lengthening it out to an OAL of 63mm.

Words of great wisdom there.

When I do have to talk to folks in gun stores I generally limit my vocabulary to "Gee!", "No kidding?", "Well, ya don't say", "Izzat so?", "Wow, that's impressive", all spoken with the wide eyed innocence of a youth, and finally "Oh, look at the time, I have to go..."

I worked in one gun store in Alaska and when I was mounting a scope to fit the buyer, the owner got mad and said that the correct way to mount a scope, no matter the size of the shooter was to pust the scope back until the edge of the objective hit the front of the front ring. This prevented the scope from moving back during recoil. I said that should certainly keep the scope from moving back during recoil, since most scopes I had seen tend to move forward from recoil.
Ironically, a lot of the gun clerks in a store that I worked at in Montana went on to become hunting and fishing guides. It wasn't unusual for someone that had never killed an elk to be an "elk guide".

I still remember the time I was in Sportsman's and asked the guy behind the counter to get me some powder. I put a couple of boxes of bullets on the counter, 130 grain .270 Partitions. He looked at 'em and told me they'd be no good for deer, I needed Barnes TTSXs. Not the TSX's, mind you, but the ones with the plastic tips.

Another good one was when I went into a store in Missoula, Montana and asked the middle-aged guy behind the counter for a box of 150-grain .270 Nosler Partitions. He IMMEDIATELY went into a rant about how he "could prove" 130-grain Partitions "hit harder," so why was I buying 150's?

I waited for him to calm down and asked for some 150's again. He glared at me while sliding them across the counter.

You know, these threads about gun store clerks always brighten my day. But it's a guilty pleasure. I feel a bit guilty about chuckling at the stories because I almost feel like I'm laughing at the mentally disabled...

The other side of the coin, and I'm sure some gun store clerks can back this up, is having to listen to the absolute BS coming from the customer side of the counter all day.

One reason I don't talk to folks at public ranges is that every conversation has somewhere in it, "Yeah, I hadda ------ that would shoot 1/4" groups all day long". "Shot that deer at 650 yards, just held right on him..."

Once again, "Gee!" "No kidding?", and "Gosh, look at the time..." are useful rejoinders.

That happens to gun writers too, believe it or not.

I also run into the occasional guy who starts running down a laundry list of articles he wants to see. I am always happy to listen to an idea or two, but when somebody lists several and tells me EXACTLY how he wants them written (because he actually wants to write them but doesn't know how), and finishes up by saying, "If you do those then I'll subscribe," I nod and smile and think GFY.

Then there are the guys who've read one of my articles, and ask me to tell them what I REALLY think. That's another GFY.

Good point, Jim - I've had the same thought reading through this. I've stood at the counter listening to other customers dazzling the staff with all kinds of reciculous crap. It does amaze me that the gun shop folks can actually be polite and listen to it with a straight face. I'm sure ingwe has some stories to tell (hopefully not about me )

I got the exact same reaction when I persisted in buying the Partitions, that's funny.

I guess one just has to establish a certain reputation. I like to go check out the local gun store once or twice a week and a lot of the guys there recognize me. Often when a clerk and customer are in a heated discussion the clerk will call me over and ask, "Jim, you know what you're talking about, tell us the real scoop and settle this argument for us..."