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

I keep searching for fantastic deals on "old, out-moded, no-longer-good-for-anything" revolvers, but I must never look in the right places.

I made one customer pretty angry at me when I worked behind the gun counter. He wanted to look at a S&W mountain gun that was in the case, and I lied and told him the gun was on lay away and I couldn't handle it. He asked me if I could get another one, and I told him no, and he probably wouldn't like it anyway because it recoiled too much. He was not happy and he and his wife left the store with him telling his wife what an A hole I was- That was actually what I wanted, because his wife had bought the same gun for him a few days before and had it stashed for a Christmas present. We all had a good laugh about it right after Christmas.

I've got 2 Colt Light Rifles in 30-06 now and neither shoots that well; I think I'm off of e Colt Light Rifle kick for no. But, Duke's rifle has been on GunBroker for 5+ years. I am surprised that he's kept his money tied up for so long.

When it comes to knowledgable salesman I still believe in the adage, "you pay peanuts, you get monkeys". Apparently they teach something different in Business school.

Maybe we should be tipping them.

Fortunately I've got a few guys at a gun shop I deal with you are pretty dang knowledgeable for their age. I'm 43 and all but one of the guys at this shop are younger than me and shoot A LOT. They have the biggest assortment of shooting toys you could imagine.

I don't know how they have a dime to take home. They are also pretty darn handy as bowhunters too.

As much as anything, they are just nice guys who spend tons of time visiting about hunting, shooting, guns, bows, you name it. It's a fun place to kill a couple of hours.

And they have bent over backward helping me find guns and sell them at very fair prices.

There's a shop in Emporia where the owner does the same with potential customers.
Can't pull his tubby butt away from his coffee drinkin' buddies at the BS'ers table.

One of the stupidest things I ever heard actually came from a gunsmith.
I had a NM RBH in 45 Colt and asked if he thought it possible to ream the 45 ACP cylinder for 454 Casull.
His reply? Hell, if ya' want a magnum just shoot 44's in it.

I went to look for some bullets for a .243 Win I had and asked the guy behind the counter what they had. He hands me a box 95gr or 107gr SMK (can't remember which). I tell him that my barrel has a slow twist and was looking for a shorter bullet. He looks back on the shelf for a few seconds and says: "No, don't have any shorter, all the ones I have are 6mm". I thanked him and walked away!

I was in a shop a few years back and a clerk was showing me a pretty nice Springfield 03 that had just came in for sale. He pointed at the switch on the left side of the reciever and told me that it made the rifle semi auto when it was flipped down.

I was at the LGS (actually a department store, GI Joe's) several years ago. Weatherby had just introduced the Ultra Lightweight model.

I was there for spark plugs but since they didn't have what I wanted I decided to look at the guns. What real man leaves the store without looking at the guns, right?

So behind the counter are two identical-looking rifles. The only difference turned out to be the size of the hole in the barrel. One was a .270, priced at $1175. The other was a .30-06, priced at $575. Stainless fluted barrel, blued receiver, gray stock, the works.

I asked to see the .30-06 (because everyone knows that .270s are gay) and the young (and very sure of himself) expert handed it to me. I examined it carefully and asked why the price difference?

That one, he said, pointing to the .270, is the new Weatherby Ultra Lightweight. That one, he said, pointing to the .30-06, is just a Mark V.

They look exactly the same, I replied. Are you sure? Yes, that one is just a Mark V. The other is the new Ultra Lightweight. I'll take it, I said.

He wrote me up and I filled out the form. After passing the background check he passed me off to another clerk to walk me up to the register. The rifle, in the box, still had the price hang tag in the trigger guard. This became important.

Beep, said the scanner, showing $1175. Nope, I said, it's $575. They called a manager, who tried to get me to pay their cost at least. Nope, I said. See the tag? $575.

I started hunting with that rifle exclusively in 2004. If I really thought about it I could remember all the animals I've taken with it. Maybe.

Funny, I don't recall seeing that young man in the store again.



P

He was just Interviewing to be a Gun Magazine Writer

I wasn't going to add anything because everyone seems to have at least one story. However, after a trip to Bass Pro on Sunday, I can't help but add another.

I asked about a red dot scope for a handgun. The clerk told me that they only have red dot scopes for rifles. I asked what the difference was and he replied that the eye relief was different.

I saw several small red dot scopes in the case and mentioned that they look small enough for a handgun. The clerk said let me get our resident expert on red dot scopes. He returned with their expert. He pulled a couple of red dots out of the case, held them up against his eye (as close as you would hold binoculars) and stated "These will never work on a handgun".

We have a little gun shop in our valley that comes to mind when I read mule deers post.

They fancy themselves as experts in all things "tactical" in spite of not a single one of them having any sort of .mil/LE background to my knowledge.

They are quick to give their steely eyed stare and try to impress with their not so concealed handguns, flashing their iron to doubly impress customers.

I had one go on and on about FN belt fed machine guns ( I did not ask a thing about machine guns or FN) and how they should actually be deployed, as opposed to how the military's better units do so currently. I asked if he was a former armorer or spec Op operator. He informed me in a rather put off and condescending tone that he did not need to be either to know they were doing it wrong (to paraphrase and abbreviate his long winded non sense).

He explained that he had been selling guns for 6.5 years and he knew guys in the military. I asked if he had to take a test to get his ffl (yeah I know it is not nice to subtly mock people, but sometimes it is just too irresistible). He replied that he did not actually have an FFL, just worked in stores where guns were sold.

Somehow he turned the conversation to concealed carry and how he could spot guys who carried guns a mile off. He also could spot cops (who don't know anything about guns) at the same distance.

My partner had walked up and being the polite guy he is, literally laughed in this ninjas face and called him something along the lines of a fuqing maroon.

That of course really got the conversation rolling and our ninja gave us his best "mean mug".

We then proceeded to pick up the shipment of plastic guns that had been ordered for guys to use as BUGs and off duty pieces.

I thanked our genius for his unsolicited advice and we left, barely escaping with our lives.....

That place seems to hire clones of the genius we were subjected to. It is little wonder why I avoid the place like the frigging plague.

This part of the state is in desperate need of an old fashioned gun shop....

And somehow the bullet weight gets equated to powder weight, and everyone knows 180 grains is definitely more powder than 150 - although even the latter in anything shoulder-fired...yikes! [rolls-eyes icon]

Gun store in Boise with employees that can be similar. Some clerks are okay but some will glare at you and try to visually intimidate you the minute you walk in like you both owe them money and just insulted their wife/sister/mother all together.

It's a shame I don't go there as they have a huge inventory even if the prices aren't the greatest. But the owner flat out lied to me as he tried to cheat me out of a set of Ruger scope rings - said they were sold separately when Ruger had been including them free for years - so I don't go there at all any more.

Boise Gun co. Or Cliffs Guns?

Boise Gun but now that you mention it Cliff lied to me as well about a few bucks on a Lyman sizing die. I don't darken their door either. Amazing, disheartening really, to see how little it takes for people to sell their integrity.

A dickhead named Dick told me the 30-06 is a 30 caliber bullet with 106 grains of powder. He repeated this some weeks later even after being corrected the first time. Dick thinks nothing of anything or anyone but Dick. The old saying around the shop was "Dick Dick before Dick dicks you." He spent more time in the bosses office with the door closed than everyone else did doing real work. He didn't have to pull his weight like everyone else. Couldn't if he had to. I always figured he had something on the boss nobody else knew about.