Anybody who has ever worked in a gun shop knows you see/hear some wild sh*t on a regular basis. In my 22+ years I've seen some doozies. Yesterday a black fellow came in and asked for a box of ".41 bullets". ".41 Magnum?" I asked, to which he replied "Yeah." I handed him a box of 210 gr Gold Dots and sent him on his way. He came back today and said "Them bullets was too big." "What kind of gun is it?" I asked, thinking there was a remote chance he had a .41 Colt of some sort. He said "It looks like one of them cowboy guns." So I'm thinking, "Yeah, it must be an old SAA." "Bring it in so I can see what you have because if it's a .41 Long Colt, ammo is about $75 a box." He reluctantly went out to his car and came back a minute later with a 6 1/2" barreled Ruger Blackhawk that was clearly stamped .41 Magnum, but with, get this, a 9mm cylinder in it. I said, "You do realize this is a 9mm cylinder in a .41 frame don't you?" He looked at me cockeyed and said "Ok, give me a box of 9s." Trying to make him understand the situation was like trying to explain advanced calculus to me. I'm quite sure the gun was as hot as a firecracker and when he was distracted I jotted the serial number down and later gave it to a cop buddy to check out, along with his tag number. I figured somewhere out there, there is a .357/9mm convertible Blackhawk with a .41 cylinder in it...

I would have sold him a box of 380 with a call to the popo with his plate number

I love these threads! What else you got?

I worked a gun counter for about a year after I retired and saw some really dumb stuff, but the dumbest was an old guy who came in and said he wanted to show me something. I said OK and he asked me to pull a Taurus Judge from display. He then picked up a box of .444 Marlin ammo and asked me if I knew that it would fit the Judge. He wanted to load the gun to show me. I refused and told him that although it might fit, it was a dangerous thing to do. I told him that the rifle ammo was loaded to about three times the pressure of the .45 Colt the gun was designed for. I believe the only thing that saved him was the smaller diameter bullet, which let a lot of pressure blow by.

Another goodie was about 5 years ago when another brain trust called and asked if we could remove a stuck choke tube. "We can try, but if it's rusted in, you might be S.O.L." I told him. He came in later in the day and handed me the gun. I looked at the muzzle, pulled a quarter out of my pocket and proceeded to remove the tube with no resistance at all. He took a couple steps back and said "Uh oh, this is embarrassing. It's in here." as he pointed to the loading port. He had stuck the choke tube into the magazine tube...

Back when I was involved in some trading, a guy that I knew pretty well came up to my table and told me that he had a gun I would really like but he wasn't gonna turn it loose.

What is it, I axed.

Remington 700 but came from the factory with a Winchester barrel.

How do you know that, I axed again.

He says because it is stamped on the barrel ".270 Winchester."

I tried to explain to him that the .270 was a Winchester developed cartridge and that was the reason for it being stamped like that but to this day, he still doesn't believe me.

I showed him a Sako I had that was stamped "7 MM Remington Magnum" but he just shook his head and walked off.

It is getting hard to find someone like you gentlemen who actually know what you are talking about behind any gun counter today. I have lots of stories from my side of the gun counter that keep me from shaking my head.

One of the most recent involved someone asking for 410 powder who was rudely informed there were lots of powders that would work in a 410 and he needed to go home and learn about reloading before he came back.

I went to Cabela's and asked is they carried Accurate powders and was told any powder could be accurate if I knew what I was doing. It was my last trip to Cabela's.

you all are nubbies, wait until someone brings you Dad's war trophy all loaded up

I have witnessed that a couple of times. Once with a 1911 in condition 3. Kid had no idea what to do with it.

Anyone one buying any thing should know precisely what they are buying and what it is worth. If not, they deserve to be hosed.

I agree.

Time was you could go to a gun store, ask questions and get real help. Today you had better know exactly what you want or stay home until you do.

Do you hose people who deserve it?

Anyone who tries hard enough can rationalize bad behavior.

Not Ed but I am sure he would not but he is not in the gun store business and there are this in that business who would.

That is the truth.

we used to live in better times

we used to live in better times [/quote]


Yes, my friend, we did. It is sad isn't it.

Not a gun shop story, but still mind boggling. A fellow I know had a call from someone who wanted to surrender a luger their father had brought back from WW2. Apparently the gentleman who was calling used to play army with it when he was a child,and his children played with it too. Since it was an unregistered firearm,he thought he should get rid of it. I'm sure you can see where this is going. When he dropped it off, my friend removed a full magazine from it and ejected a live round from the chamber. Fellow was shocked, only thing preventing a discharge was the safety. Makes you wonder how much this fellows dad really cared for them to give them a loaded gun to play with.

No wonder they took your guns away

Sorry about Aussies state, anyone that would give a loaded or unloaded gun to kids to play with is a dumb [bleep] .

Long story short, I had a newer owner of a pawn shop point a cocked handgun at my stomach, and pull the trigger, gun went snap. I did speak to him some in a rather loud tone.

I work p/t at the local LGS. Ive seen several rifles come in loaded with a round in the chamber wanting it bore sighted, new scope or trade it in.

Some people are dangerous to be around. Same with people wanting a holster and bring the pistol in loaded with hot chambers.

Although we have a few that leave it in their vehicle and ask if its OK to bring in. I always tell them to make sure its unloaded

You know what is really bad about this is that a man that served in hells gate brought back a trophy of his service and the disconnect to people from that point on until it was played with and became an unregistered firearm oh my God is just shame full so that reflects what Australia as a country has become, Let's hope that the US does not slip to this level

Do you still stop by there often?

never under estimate what stupid people are capable of. There are a lot more dangerous things that can happen to you than being shot

. Name three!! I'm curious.😙

My neighbor from across the street had a chest of war stuff he inherited from his uncle. He was going through it one day and realized it had a false bottom in it. Under the false bottom he found a Schmeisser machine pistol, brand new still in the cosmoline and several brand new magazines.

I think in this day and age one can do pretty good research online to at least get some idea of what to expect when they start asking questions at the shop.

My best story from my time working in a LGS. It's the weekend before deer season. We've got 'em lined up from one end of the store to the other getting deer tags. It's a small shop-the retail area is long and narrow, ending at the back counter where we were furiously writing deer tags trying to keep up. 4 lines of guys, all the way out to the door. This Indian (India Indian) guy walks past the lines, and comes up to the counter proclaiming he needs his handgun serviced. Needless to say, the guys waiting in line were about ready to lynch him right off the bat for blowing past them in line. As he's walking to the counter, he's pointing his uncased gun at everyone standing at the counter. Strike 2. Parts are literally falling off the old semi-auto. It was a Star 1911 clone. He sets it on the counter, and of course I quickly discern (after he pointed it at about half the customers in there) that the gun is fully loaded. We have an alert button under the counter, which I immediately triggered. The owner comes hustling up from the back of the shop with his .45 pulled and down behind his right hip. When he saw we had the gun secured away from the customers and the nimrod that brought it in, he escorted him out of the building and told him never to come back. He then went back in, dumped what was left of the pistol (it was missing both grips, the sights, and by this time, the magazine) in a bag and took it out to the guy, admonishing him in some very colorful language to never show up there again. As a sidenote, it was a .45 auto and he somehow had a magazine full of .38 Super in the mag well.

In WalMart the other day. Woman clerk working the ammo counter. Another woman asks clerk, "My husband asked me to get a box of ammo for his 45 auto. Will this box of Winchester ammo marked 45 ACP be what he needs?

Clerk replies, "No. You will need to find some that says "45 Auto".

JEEZ! It made my head hurt. I appreciated that the nice lady was trying to help her husband out, so I stepped in and settled the matter for them. Now the clerk knows what ACP stands for.

At least she didn't try to send the customer off with the wrong ammo.

I embarrassed myself at Buds.

Every gun shop I've ever been to that has had guns on racks that were accessible, you picked up the gun and brought it to the counter.

Buds does so much volume, I guess you get a tag for the gun and the gun in the rack is the "display" model. Hell I didn't know - they have new guns and used ones out on the display floor.

So I grab the gun from the rack and bring it to the counter. They looked at me like I was a damned fool and I heard the guy who had to get the gun from the back cursing me under his breath as he brought the boxed one up.

I guess I should have known better but I didn't particularly care for my experience there that day.

Buds has some great prices but its busier than a Wal-Mart on welfare check day.

Well yeah, if the seller has no character.

On more than one occasion I have had someone bring in a disassembled gun with the parts in a shoebox. After getting everything back in its proper place I find more parts(screws,springs,etc.) still in the box. Thinking I may have missed something, I take it apart again and then reassemble. I finally give up and call the customer. He tells me that he wasn't sure if all those springs,screws,etc. went with that gun so he just put them in th box to be sure.

I get this more often than not: Customer gun in a bag (GIB) took it apart, can't get it together, so I give him the price "if all the parts are there" He replies"YUp it's all there" so I start looking/inventorying and "Where'd this spring/pin/screw"??

"Oh, that must be what I dropped and couldn't find....." LOL

I think we're the only shop around that deals in used guns..

1. Vote

this guy keeps coming to me at the fleamarket wanting to know if i have a single shot h&r rifles. he says he'll buy all i get because they are rare and are becoming collector guns.he comes every week,if i happen to have one he never buys it or says anything. he then comes back the next week looking for one again.

Engineers, jeez.....

Maybe.... Some folks will look for any chance to cheat someone and let them remain ignorant. Some folks will treat people fairly and educate them. Nothing wrong with a profit, but I'll short myself a little before I'll cheat someone.

When I worked part time in a gun shop while going to school
we kept a started pistol by the phone. When a call game in asking a really stupid gun question the person taking the call then pickup the starter pistol and fire it into the phone. The shot would be a cue for another employee to grab the phone....Asking "What did you ask him"...he shot himself. As always they believed the employee did shoot himself and hung up.

The most common question was " Where do you put the gas in a Rem model 1100 since they read the gun was gas operated!

Doc

what I see behind the gun counters around here, are girls and boys that don't know as much as I do. Sad.

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.......

that happened to a buddy of mine who worked at a pawnshop.

Yeah I was at Cabelas which really seems to suck. They had a custom Model 7 with an unmarked SS barrel and a 223 Rem bolt face they said was a 223. I asked if I could bring my cleaning rod in to measure rate of twist and the guy acted like I'd asked if I could screw his daughter. I said I wouldn't buy it if I didn't know the ROT, so this BSer drops the bolt, shines an LED up from the chamber and eye balls it, telling me it just happened to be the rate I wanted.

More recently I had my semi-custom .300 Weatherby on consignment at an LGS. Just to see if they were doing anything to move my rifle I went to the place and asked if they had any 300 Weatherby chambered rifles

Guy says no; I reply oh really? He said yeah cuz Weatherby doesn't really chamber rifles in that cartridge much anymore due to lack of Ammo.

They've gone to standard cartridges he says. I scoffed as plainly and boldly as I could... he had that smarmy know it all tone of a doushey gun counter guy so ai reply "really? Weatherby stopped making rifles in Roy's most popular cartridge!!!???"

He replied with a repeat of his original assertion. I said well I have one on consignment here and wanted to know what if anything you were doin to move it and that's obviously nothing. That's when l lost patience.

He said oh yeah we're doing everything we can to sell it but (he used way more words than this cuz he obviously LOVED the sound of his own voice) there just isn't factory Ammo available everywhere.

I said well that explains why YOU wouldn't buy that rifle but not why you said you don't have a rifle you do have!?!?

More on the standard cartridges and Ammo..

To which I replied "You don have to tell ME that I own the thing but haven't ever had issues finding Ammo... Thank God I have more resources than this store!" As I headed for the door.

They had a really nice old Remington 700 BDL in 6 mm Remington. I asked if I could look at it as we are standing there arguing. I wanted so badly to ask "aren't you going to warn me about how rare 6 mm ammo is?"

Just to be clear I don't expect him to have exhaustive knowledge of his inventory and if he'd have simply said "I'm sorry I hadn't seen this rifle before" I'd have been fine, but doubling down on the stupid Ammo argument told me the guy hasn't ever said he was wrong about anything and wasn't about to start.

I don't get angry very often at all but this REALLY pissed me off. They take a big chunk on consignment items which is fine but they obviously aren't doing anything to earn it.

Like Scott said good help is damned hard to find these days!

Long story short to protect the innocent (somewhat), asked to see a used 12ga riot gun. Handed to me with the action opened, looked in and saw the brass base of a shell in the mag. Told shop owner and he freaked when I proceed to cycle the scattergun and drop a 00 onto the counter. Gave me the M12 as hush money. Guy knew better and knew he had screwed the pooch. Still frequent the store ever now and then. We have never discussed it since.

I've been a shooter/handloader for quite a while, my father started showing me the ropes when I was about ten and I'm over fifty now. I taught mathematics at the university level for a number of years, and I do truly enjoy explaining technical things. So I would love to educate the willing, but these days it's hard to suggest to someone they need a little educating without getting a negative reaction.

And no, I don't open the conversation with "You're doing it wrong, you clueless dumb ass."

Some time back, I had a young man and his girlfriend at the counter. He had a Marines hat, t-shirt, and leather jacket with all kinds of Marine patches on it.

We got into a discussion about ballistics and he tells me that bullets continue to speed up and rise out to about 600yds. It's what he was taught in sniper school. We went round and round on that one.

Then, usually a day or 2 before opening day, I'll get the guy's who come in and want a box of 180gr 30-06 shells.

Me: what type would you like?
Them: 180gr 30-06;
Me: what brand, or bullet type?
Them: I said, 180gr 30-06

Ahhh, the joy of it all, lol.

It's been some years back that I was in a sporting goods shop in the Portland , Oregon area. A young man walked up to the counter and wanted to purchase a box each of of 220 Swift, 257 Roberts, .270 Winchester, and 300 H&H Magnum ammo, (to the best of my recollection). The clerk mentioned that he must have quite an array of firearms. The young man replied no that he had just one rifle and that was a Winchester Model 70 and he saw in an add that it was chambered in all of those calibers plus a few more! The clerk told him that was all of the calibers available in that rifle individually but not altogether. I left when the argument started.

lol....made my morning...one of the funniest ones yet!!

I have enjoyed these yarns, I am fortunate in that when I feel the need to grace a firearms retail establishment I can wander over the river to my local shop and get good service and knowledgeable conversation.

And he is a decent fellow to boot.


Most of the least knowledgeable people I have met have been firearms owners that have a self professed expertise in the subject. Nowadays I find it best to look stupidly at them and beat a hasty retreat as I am pretty sure the courts would take a dim view of me beating them to death out of frustration.


But God help me, it is a very difficult thing to do.

Unfortunately, that happens more than most people realize. In 2006, we had a man (who had been a semi-regular customer a few years prior) rent a Smith 686 on our indoor range one morning. He seemed perfectly at ease. He hung his target, fired 3 shots into the silhouette and stuck the next one in his mouth. I'll never forget that day...

After 50 years of Gunsmithing there isn't enough room here to tell the things I have run into in the past. One of the worse was a guy came into our backroom while we were finish sanding custom stocks. Had a German Luger he said would not fire. Pulled the trigger and shot a hole through 5 custom stocks on the rack. Had to grab the old gunsmith I was working for at the time to keep him from killing him.

Need not have bothered, that is called 'justifiable homicide'.

Don't disagree, but I don't mind ignorance; its convinced ignorance that rubs me wrong. There's no fixing stupid and nothing more stupid than an ignoramous who knows everything.

I was in a fairly respectable local shop many years ago just perusing the case. They had a nice Luger which caught my eye. I immediately noticed that the top of the extractor was sticking up.

I politely told the young man behind the counter that the Luger had a round in the chamber.

He racked the action and sure 'nuff,..a 9mm cartridge came popping up out of it.

He started muttering about a new guy that had started working there.

Spoilsport! That would be almost as unacceptable as helping someone new at a boat ramp instead of enjoying their misery. (All of the practice in the world on an empty parking lot isn't the same as actually hitting a ramp.)

Why would you hand someone a pistol when they are holding a live round for said pistol.

That is almost exactly what I do. I have some knowledgeable friends I can go to too.

I took a lady friend to the "big" local gunshop a few months back to purchase a steel frame D/A .38 snubbie for concealed carry, her first firearm purchase. Tell the clerk what we're looking for and he begrudgingly puts what they have on the table, practically holding it with two fingers at arm's length. With not a moment's pause the guy places a Glock 43 9mm on the table beside it, saying this is the latest and greatest carry piece. I thank him but say we're looking only at revolvers. With a grin as though he's just cured cancer the clerk pulls out a 6" Taurus Judge and places it on the counter, proclaiming "this one fires shotgun shells, perfect for a beginner". That's when we left.

I worked in a gun shop shortly after I graduated from college and the exact same thing happened. A grizzled old man came into the shop with his whole family in tow. He had in his arms an old cheap gun case with a firearm in it. He tells us that he has grandpappy's old shotgun, that it's so old it has to be worth a lot of money. He proudly uncases a store brand single shot break-open hammer gun. It was rusted, cracked stock etc. He puffs himself all up and asked, "What's that worth." The store owner looks it over and says, "It's worth maybe $15." The guy gets all indignant, and rants about how my boss wants to cheat him. My boss tells him that he told them what it was worth, it was NOT an offer and that he doesn't want it. Here's what made me laugh. My boss looks at the guy and says, "I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but it was junk when it was bought new and 80 years of hard wear and neglect hasn't changed that, it's now just old junk." The guy put grandpappy's treasure in the old case and stomped out.

One day I got a call at the shop from a customer who had a question about scopes.

Customer: "What does it mean when a scope is 4x32?"

Me: "It means the scope is a four power with a 32mm objective lens."

Customer: "What does four power mean?"

Me: "It means that if your target is 100 yards away, the target appears as if it's only 25 yards away"

Customer: "Does the bullet still have to go the entire 100 yards?"

Long silence.

Me: "No, sir, a scope does not warp the space-time continuum. The target merely appears to be 25 yards away."

My first Cabala's experience I found myself looking at single action handguns. I was looking for a Ruger Blackhawk as I was interested in some stiff loads. I was told the Uburty was way stronger than any Ruger made. There were two other gentlemen at the counter that in calm reasonable voice tried to explain that that was not right. The three of us could not sway his opinion. I am guessing this young clerk was about a third of our ages. He may still be there putting out his misinformation. I don't go there any more.

In all fairness I am sure there are more idiots on my side of the gun counter than they are on the other side. I just shake my head at the idiots I find there and try to make friends with the ones who know what they are doing. Those guys are rair and worth knowing.

There are times when you can have fun with some of these puffed-up experts. When working in the same shop, I had a guy in his 20s come in with a couple of his buddies. He was interested in buying something in a big magnum caliber (can't remember exactly which one, but probably was a .338 mag.) that he needed for hunting deer. We had only one gun in stock in that caliber and it was a Ruger No.1. I show it to him and he's looking at it skeptically. So I ask him, "Are you a good shot?" The customer answers that he never misses. I said, "Well this is the rifle for a guy who only needs one shot." He bit hard. He had to buy it to show his buddies that one shot WAS all he needed. When my boss came in the next day, I thought he was going to kiss me for selling this rifle that had been in inventory for a couple years. A year later that same guy came in to trade in the No.1 for a repeater in an actual deer caliber. We got it back cheap because we explained that there wasn't much demand for that caliber in a single shot in upstate NY.

years back i had a small shop in California. had a nicely dressed woman and her son-in-law come in one day with a polished wood case.
the lady asked if i bought gun parts. i said yes and asked what she had. she said she had two broken, (according to the son in law), shotguns. she said she would like $200.00 for them.
i said well lets see. he put the case on the counter, i opened it and there nestled in red velvet were a broken down matched set of Purdy's. i explained (after fighting with my conscience ) what she had and that i wasn't the place to sell them. still dream of them once in a while.

A customer of limited knowledge brought in the pieces of a .44 Super Blackhawk wondering why it was in such a scattered condition. It came to light that he used a Lee Loader for his handloads. One scoop of powder (2400 if I recall correctly) for light loads and two scoops for heavy loads and all was well. One day he ran out of powder and went to a discount store for more. He asked the clerk for some pistol powder. The clerk sold him a can of Bullseye. Two scoops was a bit too much. Fortunately he was not struck by any of the pieces.

You're a good man for not taking advantage of her, even though she was a Californian.

felt like kicking the son in laws rear. he was convinced the guns were broken and the only real value was the fitted case and accessories. i later saw them in the B&B gun store in the valley for 35k. Never did get to ask them what they had paid.

I might be starving but before I'd work in any so-called gun shop.....I'd make my bread picking up beer cans along the roadside!!

You and I differ, I will do what ever it takes to keep my family going. And I do not see any problem with firearms retail.

Me either. The world is full of dumbazzes. Gun shops are no different.

In a local gun store and shooting range,(about a year ago), a lady and her son went to the rental counter, rented a handgun, bought some ammo and went into the range.
The lady loaded the gun and shot her son in the head.

Saw the video of that.

Deerstalker, I remember that set of cased Purdy shotguns at B&B. I used to go in there a couple times a week looking at the used guns, etc. Got to know Bob and Barry Kahn pretty well over the years. Started shopping at B&B when they had the tiny store on Cumpston St.

I wonder if I were ever in your "small" shop? If it were in the Los Angeles area, I might have been.

L.W.

What part of AR?!? Had a Guy a few miles from here about 7 years back that was (he thought) selling semi autos to a foreign government and was offering "free personal samples" to the govt rep. Thing was, the govt rep was from our govt. FBI undercover if I'm not mistaken. Ended up in federal court a few months later and is back in the business. How, I'm not sure!!

Had the opposite happen to me at a gun show (one of the reasons I don't go to many shows). It was a few years ago during the time that 22 LR ammo was so hard to find. Guy at a table had 50 Rd. boxes of Rem Vipers for 6.50, and 500 Rd. bricks for $95. I looked and asked if it should be $65, instead of $95. He replied nope, their more expensive in bulk because everyone is looking for rimfire ammo right now. Asked him if he ever bought anything in bulk to which he said, "hell, all the time!" I said "when I buy in bulk it is cheaper per unit in the larger amounts." He said "well that's backwards. Bulk costs more. For everything."

I said "well you're gettin screwed and if people are looking for rimfire ammo so bad, then why is your table still full?!?" He got pissed and I walked. Can't stand people taking advantage of stuff like that!!😡😡

This is a combination rifle rangle/LGS variation. I'm working at the range the weekend before the deer opener. We're full up, with others waiting. A guy comes in with a .270 Weatherby Mag and gets set up to shoot. 'Tells me the gun should be good to go, but wants to run a couple to familiarize him self with it, as he borrowed it off a buddy. I assign him a target, and get back on my spotting scope to help the other shooters assigned to me. I was looking at his target when he took his first shot. No hit. I look over and he's white as a ghost. This beautiful rifle's in two pieces and there's wood splinters on the table and all over him.

Turns out he walked into a gun shop and asked for a box of .270 ammo. Yep-they sold him a box of .270 Winchester. So somebody loaned him this beautiful gun and he blew it up with one shot. There was brass all through the action. We couldn't even get the bolt handle open all the way. Thank God he only put one shell in it.

Friend can't understand how his Marlin 336 barrel can be stamped 35 Remington. Tells anybody that will listen that it's EXTREMELY RARE

Happened here recently. The guy even left the range fees and rental fees in a baggie with a note to the owner apologizing for the mess and inconvenience.

There use to be a pawn shop on Hwy. 19, north of Zachary,La. I was in there a few times, but his gun prices were way too high. He got locked up for selling automatic guns to people that didn't have a license to own them. I heard he was out of prison, had moved, and was back in business.

Sometime there's dummies on both sides of the counter.

Was in a store when a guy comes in wanting 8mm ammo. The counter guy says he's got some 8mm Magnum ammo. The customer thinks "magnum" ammo would be great. I 'splained that if he had an 8mm Mauser, the cartridges wouldn't chamber. They both looked at me like I was the village idiot. I walked away reasonably confident that no one was going to get hurt, at least, except maybe in the pocketbook.

Another time, I saw some South-of-the-Border types trying to buy some 7.62x39 ammo for deer hunting. The clerk was having a heck of a time explaining why they needed the expensive soft-points rather than the cheap FMJ. Don't know how that one turned out either.

I was working the gun counter at Dick's once and another employee came over and asked how you bought a gun. I explained that once he picked one out, he had to fill out the paperwork so we could call it in and verify that he didn't have a criminal record. He asked what kind of crime would disqualify him. I explained that any felony and even some misdemeanors, like a domestic violence conviction would keep him from being approved. He hung his head a little and said, "oh" and walked away.

I believe I would have to keep that trunk and contents in a safe place as well as stocking up on ammo for it.

A young lady dropped by my shop and asked if I could fix her handgun.

She had been shooting one day and forgot it inside her open truck bed....for about 3 weeks

I looked it over and told her she had been rewarded a $400 lesson in responsibility

I offered her $50 for it but sent her on her way..

A little Break Free, and some 0000 steel wool would have that looking brand new............

Fascinating. Surprised it was not stolen.

Why

Was in a little Mom&Pop gun store. Mostly used guns. Fun. To chat with them. You know the kind of place.

A BurnOut walks in and asks if you can buy a gun if you have a felony record........no.

Not five minutes later he walks back in and asks " what if I don't tell anyone I have felonies on my record......then can I buy a gun?"

Took a minute to stop laughing to tell him no............

What year did she graduate from Mizzou.....and did she mention she was their Homecoming Queen?

I had a guy with a Ruger Single Six not understand why a Ruger would use Winchester ammo, he reading the marking on the cylinders and one said Winchester Magnum Rimfire. And the book confirmed that cylinder was for the cartridge only, played hell explaining that was the name of the caliber and any brand in that caliber would work.

Yup

But you sleep nights and that is worth more than the money.

Was out of town and stopped in a local shop with a sign that they specialized in reload equipment, etc.

Asked for a set of .300 Savage dies and old "Frank" the store reloading guy told me it didn’t matter what brand gun I was shooting the 300 Win Mag dies would work. Could not get the guy to understand 300 Savage was the cartridge not the brand. Finally he called a friend, after he hung up the phone he looked under the counter and found a set of RCBS in 300 SAV.Those dies must of been under the counter for years, they were dusty and marked 19.99 so I made out on the deal.

might have been. its a small world.
always regret not having enough ready cash to give that lady for those. never had anything else close come in except a pair of first gen colt peacemakers.
my shop was in Lancaster. just a hole in the wall.

Her age imo reflects her leaving it in the truck...her job (BSRN) although not proof would reflect to me that she more than likely purchased this handgun.

He means he is surprised nobody stole it from her since it was not secured.




Dave

Have a buddy went to a similar store to buy primers. Took a brick of Federal 215s to the counter (about $1.79/100 back then) and the young HS girl there rang them up and said that will be $1.93 . . . friend asked if she was sure . . . she made a smarty pants reply of "Well I scanned them didn't I?". He gave her $2, told her to keep the change and walked out.

Is your buddy white?



Dave

Of course he is. The "Inner City" type wouldn't have paid anything...just plain steal them.

Sorry....to many High Lifes....I'm on board now

Just not driving the ship

Kinda on topic:

Went to a local Pawn/Gun, mostly pawn, shop.

hanging on the wall was a Swiss Veterli, rim fire, broken firing pin, cracked stock, bayonet lug filed off.

How much I ask? $1200 the response. No response from me.

I am a sucker for anything odd, or odd calibred.

After fondling it a while, he says we'll take $800. I say, It's not worth half that. He says, OK we'll take $400. I say NO! I said that it is NOT worth half that!!!

Came back a week later got it for $100 and a bolt action 16ga.

PS: it had a spare firing pin in the stock.

I hear of this now and then but I won't do it. Her mistake true...but not her store. I would have corrected her mistake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSbZ8LmwTds

That really doesn't mean anything.
You're making assumptions without any facts.

I had to go down to North 40 and explain the problem to them.

This was after hearing the 10th dirtbag brag about "what a deal" he got.

They were all white.




Dave

Nope, never got out there to a gun store. Went into gun stores all over L.A., Glendale, Burbank, Santa Monica, Culver City, Encino, etc., but not Lancaster.

Coincidentally, our mail carrier retired when he worked in L.A. and moved to Bonners Ferry.

L.W.

I got a H&R handi in 35 whelen for $150 at Dicks last year. Was told ammo was impossible to get. Went right up to Gander and bought a box, found dies, but was surprosied how few .35 bullets were around. That thing was on my bucket list. 2 year before I got a .308 with scope for $140 there. Decent clerk, just going on what ammo they inventoreied.
I stopped s fellow buying 30-30 bullets, $15. for a hundred. He thought he found a deal on cartridges.

I don't like trigger locks, but fully understand.

Great thread fellas.

I worked at American Outdoor Sports on Long Island for a while.

We used to get cops from New York City coming in all the time.

One day two of them were laughing about how they chased two perps down an alley the two individuals turned around brandishing handguns.

Both cops unloaded the entire magazine of their Glocks without returning to battery and were laughing about how their rounds were impacting the 4th and 5th story apartments.

Neither bad guy was hit.

Then there was the time one of my co-workers took a phone call from a heavily accented individual wanting us to "lubrificate his rife" (sic).

My buddy turns and yells down the counter "hey guys, I think this guy wants me to lubricate his wife".

Don't even get me started on the survival nuts that used to come in.

Last fall, I was buying some 380 ammo at Walmart. The female clerk told me the brand I was buying was what she used, her gun didn't function right with the other brand they had in stock. So there's some good ones out there too.

Dale

We sell a bunch of guns, but our staff isn't totally full of "experts". I recognize this and try to educate as much as possible. I started delaying the opening on Tuesdays until 9:00 A.M. We use the time from 8-9 for training. Sometimes manufacturers come in for training, sometimes we do our own training and sometimes I just stand there and bitch!

As soon as things cool off, we'll spend a couple Tuesay mornings a month at the range. I want them all shooting and setting up their own guns. We'll do rifles, handguns, shotguns and muzzleloaders. I want diversity and experience across the board. Should be fun too.

The ATF is training this Tuesday morning. I just hired three new employees and the old crew needs a refresher. There's more to selling guns than firearms knowledge....

I'm not a fan of fugking people.

Regularly.




Dave

Much of the firearms "knowledge" I hear from the guys behind the counter at gun stores is either (1) false or (2) so completely out of date as to be useless.

I much prefer to work with people who are knowledgeable about the product they are selling and the procedures by which it is sold.

Well done!

So do I but the biggest concern I have is the bad advice and misinformation handed out in some stores.

Not much for good advice to be found at most gun counters.

But what do most places pay an hour?

I ended up with a NIB Weatherby Ultra Lightweight .30-06 that had been mispriced at $550. It was in the rack behind the counter sitting next to a .270. The .270 was priced at $1175. When I pointed out the mistake the clerk got huffy. "This," he said with pride and arrogance, "is the new Ultra Lightweight. That," he said dismissively, "is just a Mark V."

Yeah, the only difference was the size of the hole in the barrel, but he would not be swayed. So I bought it, filled out the paperwork, and took it up to the counter. Beep, $1175. Nope, $550, says so on the hang tag in the trigger guard. Manager had a fit but honored the tag.

Funny thing, I never saw that clerk again.








P

I am sure that is a big part of the problem. Who is going to teach the new kids when they don't pay a living wage to the old guys who know their stuff.

That's a big reason why the only stores I buy guns at any more are owner-operated shops. I may end up spending a bit more for new guns, but that is more than off-set by the deals I get on used guns as a repeat customer. That and I get to work with the same guys day in and day out, and they're guys who know their business because their livelihood depends on it. Wage workers often don't have the same motivation to build and maintain expertise.

Why would he do that?

People are strange.

Far as I know you still have to remind them.

Strange that they don't have a price on the carton.

Gun shops around me are not too bad, unless the gas station clerk is filling in for Howie.

I have been in a lot of box stores, but not a real gun store in years, until last month. A friend and I went to a gun store in Jackson, La. Small place, 3 employees that I saw, and the place was packed with customers. Pretty good selection for the size of the store, prices were good, (sale on Wolf match .22 lr for $45/brick, no limit, he had cases), and people were buying guns/ammo/reloading supplies. I saw 5 guns sold in the 45 minutes I was there and no telling how much other stuff. I realize age doesnt mean a thing, the owner was about 35, but he had 60+ year old men behind the counter and they knew what they were talking about, at least what I heard.

I was told this fellow didn't gouge people when prices went thru the roof on guns and ammo. He is getting rewarded now that prices have come down. People from all over go to his store.

That's the way to do business.

Yes, it is.

i had my shop mainly to support my collecting. i would take trades and make special orders for people, many who became fast friends.
i charged cost plus 10% on new stuff and most of the used stuff i charged according to how much i liked the item myself. i had many LA county Sheriff deputies as friends and costumers. sitting there one day and a guy that owned the frame shop next door came running in and told us a car load of inner city types had just pulled up to the small bank diagonally across the street.
four of them in long dusters holding something tight had gone to the bank.
at the intersection a friend who drove for a lumber company and banked at that branch saw what was going down. he told me later that he just started to see red. when the group of morons came out and jumped into their little honda Pat gunned his truck and rammed them into a power pole, blocking both street side doors and one of the sidewalk side doors.
broke one guy's legs and the other 3 scrambled out the back door, opened up with full auto pieces and emptied in one burst into the front of the truck.
then they ran around the block to the apartments that the car was registered to and every thing was over in about 20 minutes.
the deputies in my shop all gained rank and citations that day.

Hunting for quail in CA foothills with a 20 Ga over/under and my buddy who had a pump 12 gs, when we ran into two CA Fish and Game officers who wanted to check licenses and shotguns. The lead agent (newby in training by the other agent who just watched) did the checks. The newby did ok on the licenses and checked my buds pump for a plug limiter. When he came to my over/under he looked at it and was confused, and gave the shotgun to his trainer and asked him to check it for a plug limiter. The trainer did a good job of not calling him out during this inspection incident.

Note on current CA Fish and Game officers: About half are outdoorsman, and the other half are animal rights nuts these days. These days I go as deep into the dirt road areas and hike pack as far into the mountains as I can to steer away from these half cocked idiots.

Wouldn't it be easier to just move to America?

one more now i have my memory going.
was in a friends shop on Arrow in Fontana when som bangers came in. there were 6 of us rednecks already in there and there were only 4 of those vermin. the head vermin struts up to the counter and say's "Jew gots soome 9's bullits Deude?' my friend just looked at him real deadpan and said "jeyesss i got's sooome 9's booolits". the verm just looked at him and said "I needs 500" whereupon my buddy reached back, got a box of 500 bullets, in .355, put them in a bag and took the verms money. they all left with smiles on their faces. I asked my friend what he was going to do when they opened the box of bullets and came back for their money or ammo. he grinned and said "give them some more bullets"

Because he was an idiot. Even worse, he was certain. That's a dangerous combination.



P

I meant the manager. Why would he sell it for a price you both new was obviously mismarked?

I would of fired the manager and trained the employee.

I dunno, false advertising? He even said it was below his cost. The hangtag was in the trigger guard the whole time.





P

Reminds me of a trip to Sportsman's with my best bud 3 years ago. Both go in not really looking for anything in particular. Was set on guns at the time and not needing to spend money on anything. Behind the counter is a Weatherby Vanguard .243 (original) with synthetic stock, Talley lightweight rings/bases and a Vortex Diamondback 4-12x40 (might be wrong on power/objective) for $379.99. We had an argument over who was buying it. Neither of us wanting to spend the money, but if you got the cash on hand you can't pass up that deal.

He wound up buying it. I wound up getting a Vanguard Series 2 off a member here, face to face, a few months later for 4 bills.

____________________

It wasn't in a gun store but in a bar. Out with coworkers after work one night with 2 friends of mine as well. The boyfriend of the redhead coworker I wanted to bang kept going on and on about his 'sniper rifle' in '7mm' with the 'cryo frozen barrel' that was a full custom that shot sub-MOA out to 1,000 yards. He didn't know what action the rifle was, who made the barrel or what 7mm chambering. We still joke about cryo frozen barrels and magically rising 7mm whizbang bullets to this day. Rifle owner apparently spawned with said redhead and the spawn of stupid now roams the pacific northwest. It will fit in fine out here.

One large chain had a Westley Richards .500 Nitro Express Double Rifle. Nice shape, gorgeous rifle. I admire it a bit, then realize the price tag says $3299.99. I handle it, and carry it into the office, and ask the sales guy, "this the right price?" He says, "yes it is!". I say I'll take it. We're sitting down while he writes it up, and I'm debating on just how much trouble I could get in if they actually let me out of the store with it.

I finally ask again, "are you sure it's the right price?" He says, "yes it's $32,999.99" I laugh and say, "that's not what the tag says", He says, "I'm fixing it right now!" I laugh and say, sorry no, can't pay that much.

Sort of like someone in the White House?

Deerstalker; Did you have the Jack First shop on old hwy 14?

There's a lot really dumb people working at gun shops now. Mainly younger guys trying to act and look like some vin diesel dumbass. Might know a little about the taurus on his own hip but that's it.
No big deal to me, I don't do there to learn, I go there just to fight off boredom. If I buy something, it's usually from some hard up soldier who the army never taught him to live within his means.

I was in the Wal-Mart in Durango, CO, a few years ago and a guy came in and bought a box of 300 Win Mag ammo. He happened to be parked next to my truck and I asked him if he'd seen any good bulls, it was elk season. He said that there was a great bull coming onto his BIL's ranch and he was going to shoot it with his new Weatherby. Since he bought 300 Win Mag ammo, I was thinking Vanguard, but he showed me a Mark V. I looked at it and noted that it was chambered for 300 Wea Mag. He'd never shot it, never zeroed the scope, didn't know that 300 Win Mag was a totally different cartridge. I pointed the difference out to him and he shook his head as though he understood, but I sensed that he really didn't understand. I wished him good luck and we both went on our separate ways.

That about says it all for me too....and it comes from working behind the counter for 22 years.


But I know what you guys mean, I see idiots on both sides....asked a counter kid the other day for IMR4198, he promptly grabbed a can of H4198....I was not tactful in my correction.
Had a gunsmith the other day wait on me. " I need a short action BDL mag box with the stop in it for a .223"...
He assures me they have them and only $3.99..." I'll take one"

He brings it out...no stop.....I wasn't tactful that time either.

From the other side of the counter one of the dandies I remember was a father with his young ( 8 yr old son) came hauling in a Ruger 10/22 and a Ruger Mk I pistol....brought them in cause he borrowed them from his brother to take his son shooting and didn't know what kind of cartridges they took.....

As is my habit I immediately got the 10/22 from him and cleared it...unloaded. While I was doing that the 8yr.old was looking down the barrel of the MkI with his thumb on the trigger I grabbed it, cleared it and found it was loaded, with one in the chamber.
I know you shouldn't dress a man down in front of his kids, but I lost it.Big Time. Still can't believe I didn't get fired that day.

Nobody should get canned for doing the right thing.

Good Lord, surprised you didn't slap that guy out of the building and across the parking lot!

Had another one, a guy I knew, and knew to be somewhat of a tool. Handed his .25-06 over the counter to me. Force of habit, I cleared it. It was loaded. I grabbed him by the collar and pulled him halfway over the counter and whispered in his ear" Tod, I should shove this up your ass and unload it..."

Call me Mr. Tact again.


Trust me if you are in the business you learn quickly to clear every weapon you touch, every time you touch it. Period.

Damn, I can plainly understand if your lifetime amount of allotted patience is gone, long gone.

I try to make a habit of doing this with every gun I am handed.

Treating every firearm as if it may be loaded was drilled into me and my brothers our whole life, I still check even mine when getting them out to look at, and especially before handing them to people to see.

This ain't the half of it
http://phxux.9news.com/story/news/l...-crash-that-killed-motorcyclist/7888985/

http://mocux.9news.com/story/news/crime/2014/04/23/elk-retrieval-turns-into-manslaughter/8051829/

no , but i was just a short distance from him. i bought a lot of inventory from him when they moved to South Dakota. His Son in Law and i used to hoist a few. i used his basement range for checking out stuff i bought.
Jack Was a grand Gentleman and i was sorry to loose him as a neighbor.

Please allow me to disagree with you on a fine point of that statement.

I taught my son that every gun was loaded until he personally verified that it wasn't. Don't treat it as if. It's easy to get sloppy when you start thinking "as if."

Know that it is and behave as such.




P

So do I, even my own that are in my safe and I know are empty. Every firearm, every time.

I personally like gun shops that have their firearms displayed out where customers can freely handle and inspect them at will.

That said, though, I couldn't count the times I've been browsing the racks in a gun shop and seen customers pick a gun up off the rack, shoulder it, sight down the barrel, pull the trigger, and then hear the sound of the firing pin dropping where someone else cocked it and left it that way.

This led me to think just how easy it would be for some over the top anti-gun/animal rights zealot, or your run-of-the-mill nut case to sneak a live round in one or more firearms when displayed in that manner.

+1

We're really cutting hairs here guys. As long as you verify every single gun you handle is unloaded, (which you should-regardless of circumstances) people don't get hurt.

gophergunner,



Exactly. Nothing but semantics.

You are anti-semantics? Racist!!

I was at a large box store a couple years ago looking at a sale bill on the gun counter.

I man was purchasing a self defense handgun and ammo.

The clerk was giving this shopper a lot of advice on the best bullet design that was efficient at stopping and/or killing a man.

So I looked up from the sale add and said....

"So.....do you have a lot of experience killing men with handguns"?

Gun shops don't have a monopoly on "Sh*t you see"....

Try working as a range officer right before hunting season opens.....

Everything from new guns with scopes on backwards to old timers with a dusty box of shells checking the old ought-6 for minute of paper plate accuracy.....

Amusing...frustrating...and down right scary...all at the same time...

I did it for three years when I first retired.....that was enough to last a lifetime.....

Now if I could just find a deer wearing a paper plate during hunting season!

Sycamore

Our off-season practice should definitely consist of shooting actual deer.

And some people figure being able to hit a paper plate at 100yrds is good enough....
Sounds like you're one of em.....

America's moved too. No forwarding address.

Not to quibble, but hitting a paper plate at a hundred yards would suffice for about 99% of the deer killed.

Young guy brought in 3 Browning Auto 5's that were rust buckets. Been in the trunk of his car for 3 weeks after he and hunting Pard threw them in the bay upon the game warden's approach. They were in their duck blind down on the coast. Guns not plugged for 3. He wanted us to "clean em up!"

I have millions more. They are better shared around a real campfire!

what by definition is good enough?

The following is not a fish story. "Hey! this Colt SAA won't shoot at all." Looked and it's no wonder that .357 barrel attached to a .45LC cylinder wouldn't group.Yes the barrel was marked .45Lc.

I think you have that backward.




Dave

venison roast.

Reeeeeeeellly soft lead cowboy action loads!

GG, Have taken a lot of beginners and especially foreigners shooting for the first time. I ALWAYS teach that a gun is ALWAYS loaded. Even if you just looked in the chamber and nothing there. Therefore, you never pointed it at anything you do not want to shoot. Semantics yes, but it gets the point across to beginners very well.

Ray

I almost always use paper plates as targets at the range since setting up moving Deer targets is frowned on.
Cheaper that commercial paper and is as good or better since hits are easier to see.
Ain't got a damn thing to do with shooting Deer.

only if he's walking across a gun range

Did everything I could (with exception of walking out) to include getting the manager involved. I ended up donating the majority (20,000 +)to 4H groups including some as far away as South Dakota back in 2012-14 and shipped on my dime. May of not of been the right thing to do, but I like to think it helped promote a good cause.

AMEN that!

I wont argue this point with you out of respect Ray, but we're doing the same exact thing. I never pick up a gun without checking it to see if it's unloaded-either mine, or any weapon handed to me with a closed action.

See: 2.8 cm sPzB41 (Gerlach) - interesting.

Was quite impressed once by a kid in gun store whose criteria for handgun cartridge/bullet selection was based how many people one could line up and perforate with a single round. Scary. Never bothered to ask about his data source.

Einsatzgruppen

I know a guy who got too busy or distracted or whatever and forgot to clear a pistol he took in on a trade. He put a 9mm bullet through his left index finger. Luckily, the bullet went through instead of taking off the finger. The only other casualty was the credit card machine.

GG, No argument from me and I agree we are doing the same thing. Simply explaining how I do it. :-)

Reminds me of a guy I knew who was always so proud of himself when he buys a $5000 shotgun or rifle from a recent widow for $300.

Yeah, one that was handed to me was a STEN Mk II, and the other was an PPSh-41...I politely asked both to please leave.

Stug 44 and MP-18 here.

browning bar here.
the FBI informed me it had been burgled from a National Guard Armory.

I was working sight in weekend one year at a range. A good friend was working at the bench with me and his shooter could not hit paper at a hundred yards. My friend looked at the scope to make sure it was tight and checked out the rifle then discovered the shooter was shooting 25-06 out of a 30-06.

From then on we all checked the rifles nd the ammunition before letting anyone shoot.

Depends on where you hunt. Some places you can't see a hundred yards while other places three hundred yars is an average range.

BIL got invited to go to a hunt camp with some old timers. Said old boy shows up with a beat to death Mark V Weatherby and a box of minimum 25 year old shells. They all take a shot or 2 when they get there just to make sure rifles are GTG except old boy. BIL asks him if he's gonna shoot and dude tells him he doesn't have too. He bought 2 boxes of the exact same ammo when he bought the gun X years ago and sighted it in then.

Maybe his mark V is like my Dad's Winchester 88.
It was made in 59, he bought it new a year or so later. Borrowed a scope from my uncle for a couple of years, then bought a Leupold 3X9, and had it bore sighted.

He also bought a buncha Federal, and when he checked it at the range it was dead on 1 1/2 inches high, just what he wanted.
About 40 years later he ran out of the Federal ammo he had, so I provided him with reloads.

When we checked they were about 1/2 inch to the left of what he had been using, so he told me to leave the scope alone, and I did.
Been a year or so since I shot that gun but it was still right on the money for well over 50 years now..

Still the guys a idiot for not checking, we did that 88 before every hunt.

Another one was many years ago when the guy asked if the gas operated shotgun he'd just bought took regular or unleaded and asked where the "tank" was, and yes, he was serious...

It's not always the customers or the counter help, sometimes it's the owner. Went into a small LGS a couple weeks ago to look at a Glock 43. Guy has one and brings it out so I can see it. He gets out a Shield and a Sig P238 so I can look them over as well. When I pick up the Sig, he proudly announces, it's a 1911! I nodded affirmative and moved on out the door.

I was talking to the WalMart gun counter fella today to find out if they had the 199 RARs. They don't.

They do have one with a "pica ninny" rail. It was all I could do....

Google picaninny and obama's picture is right there.

I'm making a list of which guys my wife should sell my stuff to if I croak...

I thought that was for the college guys, or is my computer just being dyslexic again?

Good catch!

back in the sixties i used to go in to a small shop in cali.
the owner was a done it more, better and first type of a guy.
one year after he returned from a hunting trip to Colorado i asked him how he did.
he puffed up and said he got a 40 inch mulie with one shot 600 yards across a canyon. said deer was running flat out cross hill, held on its nose, and broke its neck.
i asked for years what load he was using but he never would say.
would love to load some of those miracle rounds.
oh yeah that 40 inch rack got stolen by the outfitter and the butcher stole 150 lbs of meat off the 300 lb deer.
it was fun to listen to him though.

I had a number of customers over the year proudly proclaim their Remington was a Pre-64....

LOL, I DO believe you. Guy I worked with started talking about how he loved to deer hunt. That year I was using an AR and he wanted to know what makes an AR. I said, "well, it's a gas operated, semi-auto rifle, like most Semi's"

"Well see, that's the problem, why do you feel you need THAT much firepower to shoot a deer. Gas operated, seriously, a gun so powerful it has a motor. See, I'm for basic firearms rights, love hunting but this as where you gun nuts go off on your own."

I tried, briefly to explain, but realized futility and said the serenity prayer and let it go. Worst part of owning an AR is that gas motor, the recoil keeps going out and if you forget to put stabil in it or use ethanol it is a BEOTCH to get started...make it even better his dream (not hired yet) was to use his biology degree to work for the DNR!

Stopped in a LGS in Texas and was eyeballing a raghorn bull elk on the wall. Owner comes up, tells me he got it in New Mexico...with a 600 yard shot, no less. And when they were done packing it out and processing it, he had 800 pounds of meat...

dang, i'm going to New Mexico.
been many a elk that weighed 1k lbs by the time i had them packed out but strangely i only got 200 or so lbs of meat. heavy bones i guess

Many many years ago this short stocky guy came into my shop. He opened up a gun case and inside it was a FAL. He asked me if I had a magazine for it. Looked at it and sure enough it had the selector switch. Told him it was illegal to have and I went into the house after telling him to just leave it and I would take care of it for him. He left and took it with him but I got his license number. Phoned ATF in San Francisco and told them what happened. A month later a ATF agent I knew very well came in and told me I did the right thing. Apparently they were setting me up. The head hauncho at that time was a real Pr--k. Good lesson learned though.

70's worked with a guy that had a 30-06 like no other, would tell us how special it was.
Would shoot dead on at 800 yards.

Gawd your a cynical one. Maybe it had a good barrel.

Did he mention how much holdunder at 100 yds?

how many times have we heard that some guy's wizbang was dead on from 50 to 800 yards. no hold over needed , just like a laser.
forget what they compared it to before lasers. a string i guess.

That had to be Harold and his M742 Remington? Or maybe not. He always said 900 yards.

I'd guess the best way to maintain flat to 800 with 'ol Besse would be to treat her right...like not wasting such a pristine barrel by sighting in. Maybe put one on a target (somewhere on a target) at 50 yds, just to make sure the scope hadn't gotten bumped but certainly why waste the time, money and barrel on shots between 300-800 just to prove what is already known.

It wasn't Clay Harvey was it?

A couple of years ago I heard a Cabelas employee tell a customer that the scope he just bought would fit on his rifles picadilly rail.

What a set up. How would anyone know for sure that you saw or knew what a full auto FAL would look like? Guy asked for a mag, why would you look further.. get him a mag.

I've no use for crap cheap setup [bleep] like that....

I imagine if Coyote hadn't of spied the selector switch on his own, the rat would have verbally identified it very loudly, then the trap would have been set..

Rat Bastards..

What trap??

Last I checked, it's not illegal to keep your mouth shut??

Holy Cow. Funny chit right there.

There are probably some that think guns shoot further when in Canada because of the metric system of measurement.

Hey now! What's wrong with that!?




Aqualung

Well, it might have been a Rem 700 built by Remington in 1963!

It wasn't.


Ever.

Had them try a derivation of that with me. Well dressed latino guy came in pretending to be ignorant and asking me about loading an M1-Garand. So I explained it to him. Then out of the blue he asked if I could hook him up with an MP-40. Told him thats class 3, we don't deal with class 3 on any level cause we don't have the license, and that this particular conversation was now over.
I immediately went to the boss' office, told him ATF was just here....they confirmed in the morning.

Only the ones that end in MM.

Coyote,

You would get in trouble for selling him a mag?

Do you need to carry stamps along with any Class III firearms?

Just asking, as I don't know the ins and outs of Class III stuff.

Thanks

Aqualung

Had almost the exact same thing happen to me. Opening day of deer season. I got my buck at first light. Took care of business and went into the local gas station, bakery, liquor store, ammo place for a doughnut and a cuppa joe. Guy comes in frantic that he forgot his shells and needs to get back out there. Asks for 300 Roy and clerk says all we got is 300WM. He says I'll take em. I tried to explain the difference and that the LGS would have them 20 miles away, but he knew better and bought the 300WM. Wonder what happened when he found out the difference...

Well dang. I always get about 800 lbs of meat off of the nilgai I shoot - I donate the other half to the needy. You can do that if you shoot them in the head and don't waste any. I generally use a .22 Hornet, it's good out to around 300 yards. Beyond 300, I switch to a .222 cause it has a scope. LOL

I have a Ruger Single-Six that is pre 64.

If you high test does the bullet go faster?

Geeze . You too?

I had probably a dozen guys come into the shop with a box of parts and "My kid took this apart.".....yada.

The ONLY guy that ever came in with " I took " etc got a discount!

Yep. That will buff right o.....

Is that what they call rust bluing? Ain't been around guns much but hear'd that rust bluing can make a gun valuuable.

Once had a guy answer "yes" on the "are you a fugitive from justice?" question on the 4473.
I looked at him and asked if everything on the form was correct.

"Yes" then he shrugged his shoulders and said "I'm already in enough trouble, I figured I didn't need more"

I grabbed the gun off the counter and told him to GTFO

Another guy came in with his buddy, playing Mr know it all. They were looking for a 30-06, but wanted one with a 26" barrel. I said we don't have any with 26" barrel's, we have 22 or 24"
"well he wants a 26", because they're more accurate"

I tried to explain how he was backwords in his thinking but he just laughed and told his buddy, "lets go find somebody who knows something"

Many moons ago I ran a large west Texas gun store during the height of the Brady Bill pre-buying panic, so we were super busy.

Couple of nerds come in one day all dressed up in new suits and new shiny shoes and one of them is carrying a AR-15 with a mag inserted in the mag well.
I moved quickly towards the door to grab the rifle and both nerds flip out their BATF ID's. So I ask dufus #1 if it was loaded, and he said he "forgot" to check.
Said they had just confiscated it in a " raid" and they wanted to know if our gunsmith could take a look at it and tell them if it was a "machine gun" or not.???
I took the rifle and pulled the mag, racked the charging handle. at which time a live round hit the floor! Handed it back to him and told him no it's not!

He said "How can you tell" ? I said it has no selector switch & he said "What's That" ?

I motioned for him to follow me to the gunsmith shop in the back of the store, replaced the mag, charged a round, stuck the barrel in our discharge tank, and said "watch this! "
I then flipped the safety off and asked him to step back and let two rounds go in the tank.

I then removed the mag, cleared the rifle and told him next time he should just fire the rifle & see for yourself. I pitched the loaded mag into our trash can, handed him the rifle and showed him the door.
Funny thing though is that we had a big BATF audit at the Store the very next week!
Never saw dufus one or dufus two again though.

I get asked all the time..."Got any 7mm ammo?" When I ask, which one,...deer in headlights.


Had a guy tell me he is 257 Wby shot 7mm bullets...didn't believe me when I said that the 7mm was 284 caliber.

Plenty of people claim the AO is either a range finder or a drop compensator.

Had a girl tell me she shot her first mulled deer buck,with a 243 win, at 600 yard...off hand. Same girl, same gun, and an elk at 400. Offered to go shooting with her, I wanted to see her technique and improve mine...never made it.

It was really bad at the Walmart in Tomball. No clue.

Tell them about the ultra rare Pre-64 Glock.

...or the guy that REFUSED TO LISTED when advised against buying .22 ammo for his Glock 22.

Dang - these stories have made me laugh more in the last few days than I would have ever believed...

They're priceless..

Having a selector switch, even one that moves to the FA position, does not make a FAL NFA. In order to be NFA, it has to have a sear cut receiver.
If you look closely, you'll notice that DSA FALs retain full selector movement, but are not NFA.
http://www.dsarms.com/p-14141-dsa-f...ium-threaded-barrel-fixed-buttstock.aspx

How nice of you to narc on a fellow patriot.

All of these.


On a daily basis.


Seriously.

As it turned out, he was being set up by an overly ambitious ATF supervisor. He was correct to be suspicious, and he kept his FFL. If he was buying the firearm, it certainly would have been his responsibility to examine the receiver more closely, but he smelled a rat and responded appropriately.

Several years ago, a friend called me and asked me if I knew a gunsmith who would work on the trigger on his new gun, a trigger job to make it lighter and crisp, thompson contender or one of them single shots, don't remember exactly which one, but it was chambered in Lazzeroni 300 warbird. I sent him to the best gunsmith I knew. He called me back, cussing, raising all kinds of heck and told me the gunsmith was an idiot. The gunsmith would not touch it. Gunsmith told him there was no way the gun he had could stand up to the 300 warbird.

A couple weeks later, after the gun blew up, he still has a scar where waht he believes was the casing hit him in the forehead, my friend purchased a ruger no 1, chambered it in 300 warbird and had the "idiot" gunsmith work on it. He has never had an issue with it.

Thanks Mudhen, yeah I knew something was up. Little chubby guy in a VW wagon plus he was handling the gun like he knew what he was doing. Better to be safe than sorry.

During my college years (about 15 years ago) I worked at a local K-Mart in the sporting goods department. Of course that meant manning the counter, filling out hunting / fishing licenses and selling guns / ammo.

What you see in an actual gun shop is bad enough as it is...but the people in those stores are usually there with every intention of going to a gun shop. Mix in the common public folk that fill up a cheap department store and you have the makings of epic stupidity.

Anti-gunners who always berated you (the company) for selling guns and ammo. The anti-hunters who did the same when we would roll out our hunting gear. The guys who always knew EVERYTHING about guns because their 'pappy' had raised them as a shooter since they were in diapers.

The constant use of "grams" instead of "grains"...
Anyone that showed up with a buddy (or girlfriend) in tow was the best shot, never missed, and always killed the biggest animal of the hunting group.

EVERYONE is an ex military sniper--EVERYONE. And if they aren't, their buddy is. No info about their military career though...they did 'secret' stuff and couldn't talk about it. They also can't tell you anything about muzzle velocity, ballistic coefficients, or minutes of angle, but they can make one shot kills out to 1K yards on demand....without practice. And the really good ones do it offhand.

One of the regular ex-snipers would always talk about his prowess with his .22-250 and how he would just bang the 800 yard steel, one after another. Of course, it was offhand....and this was long before the .22 cal fast twist craze. One payday when I had some cash in my wallet (rare), I offered him a bet. You show me your shooting skills and prove what you're saying and I'll give you $300--even showed him the money. He was "too busy for all that".

It got to the point that I dreaded walking up to that counter because I feared what the next idiot was going to ask me...it was nice being in that department though because I got to stay on top of all the clearanced stuff.

Isn't that the latest rage: Desert Camo Case Coloring....

What about the flip side? You know the clueless gun store clerks, or the outright deceitful ones. I remember looking for a 7mm-08 one time and the clerk, who I know knew better, trying to sell me a rifle chambered in 7.62x39 and telling me it was "basically the same thing". I remember watching a clerk talk a man out of a .260 or 7mm-08 for his very smallish ten year old son and sell him a .300 WSM. And I could go on.

huh? listed?

I've been blessed with better, a fat man in overalls was telling everyone at the counter his 270 was dead on at 1200, but a little low out at 1300.

I ask what kind of rifle?

Remington 760 pump he said.

I ask, what bullet you shooting?

180 'gram' he said.

I said, if you can shoot like that their are outfits that will pay you a a damn good wage for doing so.

him: HUUHHH?

5 gun store clerks have failed to make a sale to my wife, who came into the store educated on what she wanted, with money in hand to buy onhand guns, or order the gun she was looking for.

They all slipped into, "honey let me tell you what a lady needs, show you a lady gun, thats too much gun for you , heres what you need... etc etc"

One purchase was a Sako Bavarian in .270, i was there for that one.. Fella REALLY muffed that one up good.

Her: this is NICE! (shoulders, works bolt to see how well she can do it wrong handed being a lefty)
Me: look, its priced a little high, but if it makes you happy just get it
Counter monkey: wait wait wait, thats a 270 dear, let me show you the same one in 243?? It'll be better for a woman.
Her: I shoot a 270 already
Him: what i mean to say is, 270 is too much gun for shooting deer around here! You would only need a 270 if you hunted deer in south texas!
Her: I hunt south texas, with a 270.
Me: you are on your own fella.....
Him: Im just saying most women think they can shoot a 270 and they cant.....
Her: hands beautiful rifle back across counter, says, "thanks , now let me show you what $1500 looks like walking away from you. "


This is a very well stocked store, sells mostly high end guns. They keep double rifles and such in stock, You'd think they'd understand how to close a sale! haha

And this is just ONE occurrence of the sort that shes had, in a few stores.

Yep, plenty of that too...I've seen my share. But that wasn't the intent of the OP's discussion...





Inversely, this reminds me of a guy that came in looking to get his (small) 14yo boy a new deer rifle. I nonchalantly asked where he would be hunting and he told me they only hunt the delta here (think brushy tangles, swamps, etc; no food plots or major clearings). I asked if he was interested in a .30-30 or a small chambered bolt action like a .243, 7mm-08, etc.

"Nope! We don't want any of those. We want to get him a .300 RUM. I don't want any animals gettin' away after we shoot 'em."

I asked if he was serious. That ruffled his feathers. I tried to explain that you don't need that much power for a >100yd shot on a 120lb deer. And when I told him if he was deadset we would have to order it...he succinctly stormed out with his boy in tow.

Damn good quote there

Don't take this the wrong way fella, but I like your wife.

Refused to listed?

As in he wouldn't lean to one side?

I don't know if it's the campfire or my computer (on which I upgrade the software each time it's offered), but the spell check is driving me nuts when I am trying to post on this site. On my last post (one on this thread), it substituted another word for the word I was typing four times. Unfortunately, I only caught three of them and had to edit the post to correct the fourth (I typed 'he" and it corrected it to "the"). You have to proofread your posts carefully.

(I just reread my post here and saw that the spell check removed the word "on" in my second sentence, apparently thinking that I had typed "one" twice.)

Ben, I blame that kind of thing on "terminal dyslexia"







Sounds much better than the truth - "terminal stupidity" in my case.

Long time back when I worked at Walmart and I always felt sorry for the older lady who was in doing her regular shopping and was told by her husband to bring home a box of shells. She would produce an antique flap from a box of shells and ask for "that kind" no matter what I did to explain that Western was no longer an ammo brand, but an identical load in Winchester was available, she would not take it and then give me lip because she knew her husband would be nasty when she got home empty handed. I learned just to say, "sorry, but the state of Illinois requires all ammo to be sold only to FOID holders so your husband HAS to come in for himself to get the shells unless you have a FOID."
Then about an hour later some old coot would come in looking to give me schit with the same box flap and after a short argument I suggested that he visit the locally owned gun shop because they might still have a box sitting on the self of exactly what he wanted.
Oh, and the shells were for just a standard 12 gauge 6 shot load that the guy was going to shoot squirrels with....

Hey i like her allright too ha

gunshop prostaff tackleberrys are da chit!!!!!!!!

No wonder we have to read 7 pages of manufacturer warnings before we get to the operating instructions for a Frisbie.

There are really stupid people out there!

Now that's a good one!

I don't go in and ask questions at a store anymore. Lots of them have their own ideas.

Local store down the road used to be like that, until I finally pulled the owner aside one day and said look, I've done this a bit too, and I don't agree with what you like. I like my own, you don't need to "sell" me anything, when I come in, I have something specific I"m after. You have it, I"m buying it. No sales pitch or loss of time needed. If it doesn't work out its on me, not on you. And if you started carrying Barnes bullets I'd buy all of mine from you to instead of mail ordering them.

The very next time I walked in, I asked for a specific, Rem rifle, low quantity 300/221 threaded... he didn't have, he would start looking for it that day... wife called me a few weeks later, gave me a price and I asked if she wanted my CC number... nope good enough.

We've been fine ever since.

Just don't try to sell me 150 ballistic tips in 300 wtby ammo for my deer ammo again... LOL.

BUT having worked the inside counter side of this when I was in school, I know plenty of the flip side too.

LOL What a doofus! Everyone knows it's supposed to be called a PICANINNY rail, right?!

" The Sh*t You See Working In A Gun Store.."

So Walt walks in to a gun store.........

Is he going door to door in the neighborhood he just moved into to notify them of his pedo sex offender status?

Yep had the BATF undercover try to sell me a "Schmiser", speed dialed the S.O. and said I need backup NOW, then drew down on him and floored him and cuffed him.

Two agents ran in the door cred packs out yelling stop. After we got it sorted out I asked if they might just be a bit dumb pulling that schit on a sworn deputy of the county!

A friend of mine's father ran a small gun shop for years in PENN and would tell us all kinds of stuff from over the years. When the 7MM REM MAG came out in the early 60s and everyone had to have one, he had all types of Mausers and a few rolling blocks come in with the owner wanting it rechambered or rebarreled to 7MM REM MAG. He said he rebarreled a few M70s, M721s, and FN Mausers but not many. He turned down all other rifles and explained to them that the old rifles wouldnt handle the new cartidge. Most understood and bought new guns.

awesome!

Not at a gun shop, but my boss (for a very short time) years ago bragged about his .50 cal Desert Eagle. Said it was really accurate, but a hassle to shoot because it took CO2 cylinders. I asked if it was a BB gun, nope, "it shoots 50 AE".

Figured out later he'd heard they're gas operated and thought that meant it ran on CO2; obviously he'd never owned one.

*Listen... sorry your panties got bound up over a typo.

So that makes three of us, accounted for, that have had 'discussions' about gas operated firearms. Amazing. Of course the guy I was talking to quite literally thought I had a gas motor (I guess in the buttstock?) somewhere in my rifle...sounds like your guy just got confused by his paintball gun.

Brings up the timeless debate. If an AR-15 is gas operated would an AR-10 run on diesel? Good stuff.

OF COURSE... and nuke subs run on ???

LMAO! Surprise!

Walt who?

I go to my local gun club before the opening of any season and just sit back and watch. I try to intervene in dangerous situations if the range officers are busy with other idiots.

Nuke subs run on propane they filter from sea water. That is how the can stay down so long.

Another "gas-operated" giggle.

Hunting one day with an acquaintance, he is carrying a Remington 1100 and I have an A-5 Browning. I remarked on how convenient the gas operated system made changing ammo vs my Browning. He had a puzzled look and asked "Gas operated?", and I says yes.

His next remark made me laugh.

"I hope it don't run out on the next covey..." I explained gas operation to him. Don't know if he got it, though.

When I worked out at the rifle range we had a coffee can full of casings that had obviously been run through the wrong caliber rifle. It really makes you wonder some times. The lack of firearms safety displayed by guys who should have definitely known better always amazed me.

After deer season, the range was only open on the weekends, and with just a person manning the office, who would make the rounds every hour and check on the clay pigeon range, the handgun range and the rifle range. I was working on Sunday, and had two older fellers shooting up on the rifle range. I was keeping an eye on them through the closed circuit camera and I noticed I hadn't seen the one guy in a half hour or so. He hadn't come to the office, or gone down to the parking lot to use the biffy or get anything out of his car. I figured I'd better go up and check on him. I get up to the range shack, and the one guy's down on his rifle, lining up a shot. I asked him "where's your buddy?" He told me he was out behind the target butts. This guy would shoot, and he'd come out to check his shot! Sometimes you just can't unteach stupid.

No sheit. I heard about a guy in Montana that tried to run 22-250 ammo through a 7-08.

True story. They type among us.

Well, when I was in the USN and we had to qualify with the M-1 in boot camp up at Pendleton, the targets were manned by another unit in the pits below.. One guy took a ricochet right off his helmet.. Left a nice dent..

This was back in Jan. of '67.. Wonder if they still do it that way?

Nebraska Army Guard still did that in the 80's out at the Holdrege range, I believe.

That's how they did it at Camp Gordon Ga. for Sgt. York in 1917. I saw the movie.

Have done that early 80's at a gun club event, we all took turns in the pit.

Your old boot camp is now full of fancy shops and offices.

Same in '67 at Ft. Polk, LA.

Tall round metal culvert type pipe sections buried vertical w/metal ladders attached to inside wall, mostly puddles of water/mud bottom.

Kind of cool watching ricochet tracer rounds sizzle and burn out in the dirt and mud puddles around outside pit.
More scary than cool when one bounced inside.

Got a bit intense for a few minutes once for one young trainee soon after starting his turn down inside the pits. Pygmy rattler in the bottom and bullets flying over his head.

I think Camp Perry now has some electronic targets.. but they still have pits... the last time we shot the nationals in 2004 IIRC, they were all pits. I"ve never shot a highpower range that had anything other( reduced courses didn't have em, used your spotting scope but generally speaking pits are anywhere there is a 600 plus yard range)

Pits are very safe if they are designed correctly.

Yep, we had to work the "butts" in basic and later qualifications.

This has to be one of the most interesting threads I've read in years!

+1

I have worked in the butts. Was common at my old range. The sonic crack can get a little loud!

For those of you who have worked in the "butts" and have seen the movie Quigly Down Under.
Remember the scene where Quigly lines up the two guys at the ranch house the sound effect of the bullet hitting the two guys always reminded me of the bullet hitting the target backer at the 600 yd butt, same sound. Whoever did the sound effect got it right.

drover

Working the pits for the 600 HP shoot is routine at my club.
Wasn't in the military so never heard them called the butts.

Pulled targets in the pits at Camp Luna - back in my NG days.
200 yd qual ( small range ) with deep pits. Around 10' IIRC.
Still remember the sound of bullets ricocheting off the concrete retaining wall. (Don't think I could hear them today )

Sounds pretty exciting. Did that happen to you or did you find it in Webster's under the definition for caught between a rock and a hard place?

Every military range I've seen recently has been popups but the private range I go to has pits for the 1000..

Same here. And we also worked the butts for our own company when we had requal every year.

The one I love is HORN - A - DAY boolits.
OK, that just hit me, I'm going to start telling people the "N" is silent so it WHORE - A -DAY. LOL

Lee-uh-pold

Leah-pole

Suhvorski

One of my favs

"22 on a 38 frame!"

Suh-warv-a-hooski

Eye Mister ( for IMR)

Hog-a-dons ( for Hodgdon)

Dar-waan ( for Daiwa fishing reel)

Hornabee ( Hornady)


Seriously....

Teeker

Poobs had a kid one day ask for the following;

"I need a polycolt ribet for a Ruger super black cat!"

(Translation a Polychoke rib for a Ruger super Blackhawk)

He later blew up said revolver with his handloads!

Bullet weights in "Grams"

LMMFAO!

Gunner! Same damn kid blew up a Smith 29! I think he's in prison now!

Nope, not me per the snake ordeal. Happened to another young trainee on down the firing line. Snake wasn't there earlier. After chow it was. Had to of fell down inside between shifts. I didn't see it all go down with my own eyes. Couldn't have as I was inside another pit back toward the other end. I was told about it later by fellow trainees who were up on the fireline when it happened that did.

Going on 50 years ago now (summer of '67) but to the best of my memory that was the only rifle range I remember working the pits. I do recall shooting at some pop-up ranges at both Ft. Polk and Ft. Knox too.

"What grain bullet should I use?"

And we cannot the folks that have asked for a 'Veritable' scope....

Hope it blew his sack off so's he can't procreate upon release.

In your 44 mag? 300 grains.

"Musket-loader"

(Muzzle-loader)

I have heard "SUH-HORV-SKI" Poobs.

Yeah he made the evening news about 20'yewrs ago for some really stupid thing. Ended up either in the nut house or Huntsville

Bob I had one guy come in wanting to know if he mounted 10x scopes back to back on top of his rifle would he get 100x magnification?

You can't make this stuff up.

Perfect, almost!

Did you tell five 20X's would be shorter?

Really?

Had another that had a "Big 50" sharps that shot " absolutely flat" for a mile...



Another with a .280 that shot normal out to 200 yards, then it flattened out the whole way to 600 yards...


And yet another that had a Ruger #1 in a " .300H&H Weatherby Magnum Improved" which he used to kill coyotes at 900 yards.




And all the while I could never get a gun to defy the laws of physics......

Wheat? Rye?

Should have...coulda sold him more scopes....

How about wanting two scopes on their rifle? One for close shots and one for long range! Yup!

My step-father pronounces it "Sworski." I've corrected him dozens of times but he just keeps on. Drives me insane.

Never thought of it, sounds like an interesting experiment. Sounds like something the government would spend a few billion on if the congress critter had a child working for Redfield.

Milo

LOL

There was a guest (sure as hell not my guest) at our deer lease one year who said he was shooting a 300 RUM AI. He was claiming some astronomical velocity. I asked to see a piece of fired brass. He didn't have any. I asked what the handload specs were, he said he wasn't loading yet. I asked where all the velocity was coming from. He said something like when the powder starts burning it blows the case out to the vastly superior AI shape. Then the remaining powder burns so much better it gives the bullet that extra zing.

Had a FIL ( now-ex) who insisted on referring to Midway as Midland, and Cabelas as Gabriels....

I was always afraid he would bump his head and lose that one IQ point that separated him from the carrots and peas....

have you heard of a fine quality air rifle made by Farrenbock?

M-1 "Guard"

"Dillinger"

(Small 2 shot hide out pistol)

And the popular "stubb" nose 38!

LYAO and drawing pay has to have some benefit KW.

Whole wheat in the Redhawk makes me fart - a lot.

Chester, do you remember the old boy that showed up at our Buffalo League match with, and had an old WW2 Smith "Victory Model" in .38 S@W that kept "locking up" ?

Turns out a rocket scientist on the counter of a local place had sold him some .38 spcl + P. The lead noses were sheering off on the barrel, and he was using both hands to cock it.

GTC

A guy came into the shop with a semi shotgun. He says he has a problem pulling the chamber back.

I said "What?". He grabs the bolt handle and pulls it back and it sticks halfway back.

I said "That's the bolt.". He said "Well, I call it the chamber."

I say "You can call it a red, red rose if you like, but everybody else calls it the bolt."

Forgot about the Dilinger ( yeah, we got them too...) but I'll bet the stubby was a 'Smith and Western'....

Actually it was a Smith & Weston!




On a 38 Frame!!

When I worked at a friend's shop a guy bought a Remington 870. Didn't think too much of it. He said he was going to hunt rabbits with it. Every Friday night he would come in and buy a box of shells. After about 8 weeks of this the owner asked him if he was doing any good and the guy said, "no, not many rabbits around." So then the owner said "well you are sure going through the shells, are you missing what you are shooting at." Guy says, "no, I am not shooting at much, just going through a lot of shells unloading the gun."

After more questions, we realize the guy did not know he could manually unload the gun without shooting it! Every time he was done hunting, he just shot the gun in the dirt until it was empty......

I still get a nervous twitch when someone starts talking about "Sa-BOT" deer slugs.

and then the "LEO-POLD"

Just a bit before closing a young guy comes in with an Artillery luger, needed $800 for bail money. Probably stolen.

Owner kept an open bolt Mac-10 in the back room, new clerk was showing it off to another "friend" and cocked it, then rode the bolt down, BOOM, shot right through the wall into the next store. Luckily no one hit...

Customer came in Thompson semiauto, said he got a bullet stuck in the barrel and decided to remove it by firing more. We got 10 FMJs hammered out of the barrel...

Countless others coming in with rifles or shotguns with a round in the chamber, safety off, and totally shocked when we took the weapon away (usually after it was pointed at our guts) and cleared the chamber and out pops a round...

At the range one day, some SE Asian kid was sweeping his AR15 over the range, he had been warned several times by the range master. The guy next to him told him quietly "I was killing your kind in 1960, and damn well can start again." The kid was offended (LOL) and got up to leave, all the time eyeing the old Marine.

This is one of my favorites, he frequents this site, shoots a 300 weatherby in Remington 700 sendero. He shoots "dimes" at 200 yards free handed. I have more than asked to see that shooting. The guys I know that have personally seen him shoot, tell me he shoots "baseballs" at 100 yards off a rest. Maybe he shoots better at 200. When he loads his shells, he will tell anyone they are an idiot if they are faster than him, it takes him 3 or 4 hours or something stupid to load one round. Guess that is why he shoots the proverbial "dime" at 200 yards free handed. I could go on and on with his laughable, comical, know it all opinions on guns and especially his handgun accuracy.

then there is my female cousins boyfriend. we will all be sitting around talking about our current favorite weapons and he will be on his iphone, quiet for a while ,then start popping off with something about some exotic round, firearm, body armor etc. sounds like a genius. barely knows how to hold a rifle. we dubbed him GOOGLE.

I remember working the butts in boot camp. The sonic crack of bullets passing a couple of feet over your head leaves an impression.

TV and movie folks that think that high-powered rifles can be easily silenced with a silencer should spend five minutes in the butts.

One time I worked the butts for a city kid on the firing line that was afraid of the M-14. My arms were getting tired from waving "Maggie's Drawers". Didn't see any snakes, though.

You Marines know what I am talking about.

I'd forgotten about it since it was so long, ago, but while in college I worked part time in a gun shop, just for a couple months. It was in a large shopping mall in town (the only one) and one day close to Christmas it was quite busy. It was not a very big shop, so any conversation could be heard throughout the store.

One big black guy, who might have been a college football player, is walking around the store, and says out loud, "I'd like to kill somebody sometime, just to see what it feels like."

A hush goes through the crowd, and multiple people turn their heads to look at this guy. Behind the counter is an off-duty Texas State Trooper named Doug, who was a nice guy but could pretty much pass for a Marine DI. After a couple seconds, Doug says, "Have you considered suicide?" Everyone in the store busts up laughing.

The black guy, flinches, looks down, then grins and looks at Doug and says, "okay, I deserved that." After that they chatted a while, and Doug showed him a couple of pistols. So his wit defused something that could have been ugly.

Obviously I wasn't there so don't know the context of the situation, but even after the discomfort was "defused" I still don't think I would have shown him any guns after making a comment like that.

FT Polk also had pits, at least the year I won the LA service rifle match it did.

I know exactly what you're talking about although I was in the Army. At Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, the first time my squad and I were down in the KD pits pulling and scoring targets, the SNAP of those .30-06 (Garand) bullets passing overhead were, uhhh, interesting, to say the least.

Later, we got used to it. Fifty soldiers on the ling firing Garands made it sound like popcorn popping down in the pits.

L.W.

I've heard, "Up the grainage", referring to increasing the powder charge.

Try 250 firing spots at Perry at once, Viale, Rodriguez both firing at the same time in rapids... that was what we said popcorn...

Impact into Lake Erie... CG had tough time keeping boats out at times, the impacting bullets supposedly looking like schooling fish on top...

I just discovered a good explanation of "Maggie's Drawers" and where the term actually came from on The Southwest Rifle Shooting Blog:

The History of "Maggie's Drawers" by Hap Rocketto

"As you so well know from your days at the Recruit Depot the term Maggie’s Drawers refers to the red flag waved vigorously across the face of the target to signify a complete miss of the target during practice.

Flags are no longer used, being replaced by value panels and chalk boards. However, one term from the flag days has held on with a tenacity that is indicative of the strong traditions of the high power community. If a shooter had the misfortune of firing a miss a red flag was waved across the front of the target. The flag is commonly known as “Maggie’s Drawers” giving us the term now generally used to refer to a miss.

I thought you might like to see this poem by James Stockton, a gunner with C Co., 5thTank Battalion, 5thMarDiv on Iwo Jima (WW-II).

"Maggie’s Drawers"

A hundred Marines sat on the line,

Rapid fire, and all was fine.

The rifles cracked, Bull's Eyes, we know;

Down came the targets, now they'll show.

White spotters adorned targets left and right,

Looked like snow, a pretty sight.

But Wait!!!! What's that where I shot?

Not a single one! . . . not one white spot.

I look for black ones 'round the "bull,"

No luck there either, I feel a chill.

They start the disks, white for bulls,

None for mine . . . there they were still.

A single pole rose o'er the butts

Waved back and forth, like in a rut.

A red flag waving, a miss of course,

And that red flag is "Maggie's Drawers."

The term Maggie’s Drawers seems to be based on, as many things are in the military, a bawdy song. Prior to The Great War (WW-1) there was an old music hall song entitled "The Old Red Flannel Drawers That Maggie Wore" which became bowdlerized, as things tend to be by the troops, into something less delicate than might have been sung in vaudeville in the United States or in British music Halls of the day? Below you will find a variant.

"The Old Red Flannel Drawers That Maggie Wore"

On the night that Maggie died
she called me to her side
and gave me those good old flannels

They were tattered, they were torn,
'Round the [bleep] they were worn.
Those old red flannel drawers that Maggie wore.

When she stooped to fix her shoe
You could see her ring-dang-doo
Those old red flannel drawers that Maggie wore.

When she stooped to fix her lace
You could see the promised place
Those old red flannel drawers that Maggie wore.

When she stooped to fix her garter
You could see her red tomato
Those old red flannel drawers that Maggie wore.

When she threw them in the sea
They came floating back to me
Those old red flannel drawers that Maggie wore.


While I have no definitive proof that this is the origin of the term I feel it is as rational and as reasonable a source as any. As I have not heard of a competing story I feel pretty comfortable supporting this Etymology of the term.

You mean you haven't sold anyone a side by each, or a side by twixt, a mouser or one of them there moisten nuggets?

Sounds like our old friend "Larry Root"

moisten nuggets!!! LMAO...

Glad to see my old coworker and I are not the only ones who delight in using that term!

Man I love this thread...stuff a gifted storyteller couldn't make up. Not so amazing that the MSM can say crap that would have most of us saying WTF while shaping the opinion of the non-shooting community.

Sounds like many here have actually been within a mm or so of death.

I've told this one before here, but it deserves another:

25 years ago the then head of marketing at Swarovski told me he'd often visit stores that sold a lot of Swarovski scopes, but not tell them who he was just to get some honest feed-back.

Apparently Swarovskis first became popular in the Southeast, because of the really bright view, and a shop in Birmingham, Alabama was selling more than any other store in America. My buddy dropped in one day and wandered back to the optics counter. A big 'ol boy was standing behind it, and my friend pointed the Swarovski scopes on display under the glass, saying: "You sell many of these expensive scopes?

The guy said, "Yeah, we sell a bunch of them Sooverwhoskis!"

My friend said, "I believe it's pronounced Swar-off-ski."

The ol' boy said, "Not in Alabama!"

JB: glad you checked in..


There was a time when JB didn't completely believe the stories I told him about the gun counter..

But one day he was there and we were conversing when a customer came up, holding up a bullet " I need some of these, Im doing some reloading".

What calibre is it? " Don't know"

Who made it? " Don't Know"

Whats the grain weight? " Don't know"


Thats when I shot the glance at JB, with the obvious " You see!" overtone to it.


True story.

We need to swap subs over to methane from propane and then trench in some pipelines from big pork, dairy, and beef producers and send all that methane into the ocean and have free fuel.

At least there was the opportunity to experience how you could (very roughly) estimate the range and direction from which the shots were coming, from the “thump” which comes after the “crack”.

We would not only work the frames up and down for the deliberate and rapid serials, and mark and patch, but also hold targets on sticks for snap and movers. The movers were the worst: holding up a plywood fig. 11 nailed to a length of 2”x1”, shuffling in a conga line along the trench, and showered with splinters and the odd nail whenever someone hit the target in the midline. Still, everyone had to take a turn.

Always loved husbands that would send there wives in with the guns they themselves had phuqued up.

Chick came in on day with a new M1A holding the bolt in her hand, "my husband and my brother were shooting this rifle they just bought downstairs and this thing fell out!!! They want their money back!"

I figured the reason you were upstairs was to get away from all that!

Tom,

One I really liked happened with Dave. A young guy came stomping into the gun section, one hand clenched in a fist. He saw Dave behind the counter and held out the fist, then opened it to reveal an expanded bullet. "Your recommended this POS Nosler Partition to me for elk!"

Dave looked at the bullet and said, "Yeah, I did. One-eighty .30's if I recall correctly."

The young guy almost shouted, "I shot a bull and it went 20 yards before falling over! And the damn bullet didn't even exit!" He lifted his palm under Dave's nose, apparently to prove his point.

Dave looked at the bullet very carefully, then said matter-of-factly, "Looks like perfect performance to me."

Whereupon the young guy went stomping out again, mumbling something else about never coming back in the store ever again. Dave looked at me, smiled and shrugged.

Not at the gun store, but at a bbq a cousin-in-law who was in the marines for a short time informed me that if a 50bmg round got even within a couple feet of your head, it would blow your head clean off.

Well it didn't work, Ben!!!

Years ago some guy came in to return one of them big Sharon Tate commemorative Buck knives (General?). Said when he bought it the sales person told him it was a "gutless" knife!



Always wondered what that mess looked like????

That same shop would give you a great deal on one of those "Stire Man-licker" rifles to put under that scope. The Steyr importer was in a Birmingham suburb. Lots of Bubbas running around the swamps with fine Austrian equipment.

I believe I've told the story here of the old black man (and I mean old! Had white hair) that came in asking for a box of .32's for his revolver. When he was asked if he needed .32 longs or shorts he replied, "jez gives me da long ones, I jez snips dem off til they fits!"

That there, is some gonesmithing attributes, he has

Probably a fine old gentleman that never shot anyone that didn't need shooting.......

If it had exited he would have bitched that it "penciled on through..."

Didn't the 223 Remington (5.56mm) just blow off Viet Cong arms if it hit one? Believe it or not, I was told this by a guy I once worked with (he was an administrative sort in he Army, no combat).

This really isnt anything odd...and is fairly common.

m

Sounds like a modern tacticool AR-15.

We had a match held once, after a big match, silhouette target, on a stick. At 300 you engaged from sitting, they'd run it up, walk/trot it down X number of targets, and then yank it. You had to flip it 90 degrees to pull it down between frames..

You were allowed a coach... my first iron sight shots were followed with favor left half. Good. I continued to fire, swapped mags in the AR, and fired and they had a tiny issue at the end, as I fired a shot I saw the target stop and rotate, and I just went back to center mass and fired one more as it was trying to go down and it just went away..

They called back out of the pit... target repair... evidently I'd shot the stick enough, and the last shot they said centered the stick again.... sideways, as they tried to pull it, said it just fell then...

As I recall they had something smaller than a 2x2 more along the lines of 1x2 surveying type lathe to hold it up....

Blind pigs. Better than skill any old day.

One of the longest trailing jobs i've had in the last say 15 or so years, was a doe shot in both lungs and dang well centered, wiht 50 bmg ball at about 200ish yards.

NEver bled until where she fell. Half inch hole in both lungs.

LOL

I didn't know they made a 9mm revolver.

Barkoff,

Ruger sells some that are .357 Mag with an extra cylinder for 9mm. That gives you an option for cheaper ammo for plinking or targets.
That cylinder for sure was from a different gun than what the guy carried into the store, though.

Myron

That firearm has a beautiful patina, how much you want for her?

Well, that thread was fun, that settles it, Hillary has my vote,

No, Smith & Wesson also makes/has made a few models chambered in 9mm. Jerry Miculek just recently used one to bust a balloon at 1,000 yards.

Dadgumit Bark, I don't wanna pick on ya, but in the tread with this title??
TFF.

Then there is the dipshit on facebook who gave primer advice to a guy wondering about changing primers. He said the magnums blew thru the powder column and burned from the front. He didn't care for my questions, and even another guy stuck up for him trying to make it sound like he knew what he was doing. He had been loading for 40 years and knew what he was talking about.

HilhamHawk,

I forgot Smith 9mm guns. There are probably a few others out there, too. Don't think anyone but Ruger made interchangeable ones, though.

I never could understand why anyone in their right mind would buy one, other than the interchangeable cylinder ones that allowed cheaper ammo for practice.

Myron

HilhamHawk,

"Smith & Wesson also makes/has made a few models chambered in 9mm."

As well as the Blackhawk interchangeables, Ruger also made some in the Security Six, Police Service Six, and Speedsix models. I may be wrong, but I think there have been some in their LCR, SP101, and GP100 models also.

Myron

Should I go with a dual frequency or CHIRP unit?

"That firearm has a beautiful patina, how much you want for her?"

A new form of color-case hardening? Turnbull must have done the work!

I think the Ruger Six-series revolvers were chambered in 9mm for use in different countries's police forces where that is the standard issue. I also believe the SP101s were and now the LCR are marketed as a backup gun for law enforcement who are issued 9mm service weapons.

Aqualung

Aqualung,

"I think the Ruger Six-series revolvers were chambered in 9mm for use in different countries's police forces where that is the standard issue."

Yes, and most were available to the civilian market also.

There are also some guns that are made in odd calibers for sale to civilians in countries that are not allowed to own a handgun chambered for ammunition that their military uses.

One of the oddballs I saw was a Ruger P85 chambered in 9mm Largo. The Largo is a 9x23 cartridge but for sure no 9mm magnum. It is loaded a lot milder than our regular 9x19. It was intended for civilian sale in France where the military restriction applied. Makes no sense to me, but I didn't make the rules.

Myron

Or buddies who blow up guns........

My feeling is that this behaviour should be encouraged as it leaves less competition for resources for the rest of us.

One of my favorites was guys coming in the store to ask for "bullet heads". Or sometimes "bullet tips". Usually an explanation was met with "Yeah well I call them bullet heads."

Another pet peeve of mine is "grain weight". Does your doctor talk to you about your "pound weight"?

Not a gun store but similar. A few years ago I was working as the cashier at our local gun club. Very late on a Saturday afternoon just before the Monday opening for deer, shotgun only area. Got a call from LGS owner saying a call had come in from someone who had purchased a new shotgun from them, and the guy was at his deer camp a couple of hours drive away. He had run through all the slugs he had bought and couldn't get the scope sighted in. Would they keep the store open until he could drive in to buy more shells? No they said but they could send some to our club the next morning for him to pick up.

Next morning the LGS gun shop owners son brought in the ammo and the hunter showed up with his gun. We looked it over, checked the mounting screws for tightness, etc., and could not find anything wrong. After sitting staring at it for a minute or two I finally realized the scope was mounted 1/4 turn off so the adjustments were reversed.

After taking the scope off and correcting the mounting I took to our range and checked the sight in where it worked beautifully. (Note: The scope had been mounted by the owner not the gun shop.) I thought he was going to kiss me before he left to go deer hunting.

Jim

I've heard the "bullet tips" around here quite a few times.

While not in a gun store, I have noticed something at the range several times the past couple of years and I want to scream every time it happens....Happened last week again when I took my uncle, who is on crutches at the moment, to line up his new squirrel gun.

I can remember 4 times for sure, maybe more, where some guy beside me at the range is lining up their hunting rifle. Well, they're about 8 inches off from the bullseye (100 yards). Instead of adjusting the damn scope they just call it good and say "I'll just hold to the left" or whatever. This blows my mind that people are either too scared, lazy or dumb to adjust a friggin' scope.

We had a few of those show up at the rifle range. If we had time we'd remount the scope, if we were busy, we just figured out the conversion and just sighted the darned thing with instructions to fix it after deer season.

Took the kids to Bass Pro the other night and went to the gun counter so my 9 year old daughter could handle several of the youth rifles to see which fit her best. She has a birthday coming up and want's a deer rifle of her own. After trying several she liked the Ruger American Compact the best. I asked if they had it in 223? He sneered and told me I needed to get her a 270 like he started with at 8 years old and 60 lbs. My daughter is rail thin with tiny bone structure and cant even hold up her sister's H&R 243 long enough to aim it. I explained that I needed s 223 due to the recoil/muzzle blast issue. He laughed and then told me that a 243 is not really a deer rifle, much less a 223. I laid the gun on the counter and took the kids and we walked off without another word. My daughter turned to me and asked. "Was that man right daddy?". I said, "No sweetie, that man was a dumbass."

Good thing you weren't in Texas, would've probably been told you needed a .30-06... Dumbasses!!

Good enough for the military, but not good enough to kill a hundred# deer.

I thought the .223 was the Official Deer Gun of Texas!

Not to mention the guys that refer to bullets as "pills". You even see that on gun boards, including this one.

That's when you go and find the manager and let him know what just went down. I was in a Walmart one day and the same type of situation happened. When I butted in and told the customer the sales person was wrong he walked out. I turned around and there was a very pretty lady standing there. It turns out she was the store manager and offered me a job.

I have taken a mule deer with a 22 hornet at 240 yards. He was not nearly as smart and a dumbass.

Well.. Not for the "really smart" ones... Haha! Had one tell me the 270win wasn't enough for South Texas whitetails, need a .30-06 to get a good blood trail. So you guys with .223's, .243's, bows and arrows and stuff are outta luck...

Anything at 240 yards with a 22 hornet is reason enough to spruik to all and sundry...heck, I would drive into town and tell strangers of it.

Good shooting.

know a guy here that killed a nilgia at almost 200 yrds with a 220 swift and the nilgia was running, one shot kill.

We have all taken arsey shots, but over 200 yards with a hornet takes more than arse.


added, and anyone that tells you different hasn't used one.

Well another dumbass here, but I gotta speak. Here in Michigan they now have youth deer seasons. I watch videos of children in their blinds, on daddy's lap, him helping hold gun , and helping them pull trigger. Used to be they had to be 14 to deer hunt. If a child isn't old or big enough to handle a gun- they shouldn't be. Oh yea, .223 plenty big.

He old game warden at Sarita his fav nilgai rifle was a Ruger #1 in 220 Swift!

Not to change the subject but lots of three year olds kill huge deer around here on that youth weekend using a 7 mag.

SEE good deeds never go unpunishhed I always wanted a job at WM selling guns on a 20 hour schedule instead of being a head machinist. I have seen the sideways scopes;, too. And the guy who was "good" enough that he could ignore the range flag. He left in a huff because I kicked him out.

.223 is big enough, have killed a few FL deer (small) and several hogs with a .30 cal G.I. Carbine.

When I was in Jr. Hi. Our metal shop teacher's deer rifle was an old M1 carbine.

I saw a guy once that deliberately mounted his scope 90 degrees out because the windage turret was in the way of ejecting cases. I helped him get it sighted in and he went away happy. He wasn't planning on playing with the sight-in any more, anyway.

Right becomes up, and up becomes left.

nifty-two-fifty;
Good afternoon to you sir, I trust the Labour Day weekend has been going according to plan for you.

Your statement twigged a long forgotten memory with me in that we had to do the same way back when to get a buddy's bear rifle to eject the empties.

I want to say it was a Sako from that era - so 25-30 years back - and it was a .375 H&H with some type of Leupold straight tube scope in a lower set of rings.

Until we turned it about every third empty would nicely drop back into the feed path and the ones that didn't had dented case mouths too... at least I think it was the same rifle doing that....

Anyway I can't ever remember seeing that again, but we surely saw it once.

Thanks for the memory jog sir, all the best to you this fall and good luck on your hunts too.

Dwayne

It was a one time thing. Deer was standing next to a rock I had been shooting squirrels off for three days. 10X Burris scope was dialled in. a bunch of deer came into the field and the woman who owned the field told me to shoot them. I told her August was not exactly deer season. She reached into her purse and came out with a stack agricultural kill tags. I was shooting a contender with a 14" barrel in 22 hornet with home swaged bullets. The deer presented me a great spine shot and I took it. It fell into it's own shadow.

I do not recommend the hornet for deer but under the right conditions it will do the job.

My grandpa is the one who got me into hunting - he used an M1 carbine for deer hunting (I still have it!). We were poor folks, didn't have a lots of guns to choose from - I used a single shot .410 with slugs for about my first 5yrs of deer hunting ('til I was old enough to mow folks yards and make enough to buy a pawnshop pump 12gauge and then used buckshot. I didn't have a rifle other than a .22 'til my senior year of college!).

I hope you're full of schidt on purpose.





P

Party hunting with a twist.
My three year old shoots a .223.
Well...my three year old shoots a .300 WM

Nope, not at all. That is what their daddies proudly post on Facebook. Them three year olds are some fine shots and that weekend before the regular season opens is a great weekend to be out there.

So what do you call Barnes' XLCs? Viagra?

Did that on a M788 to avoid drop-backs. Worked very well; helps to be somewhat spatially inclined for sighting in.

Roger. No offense intended.




P

In close woods or heavy Palmetto scrub you just can't beat the little M1 Carbine loaded with soft points for deer and hogs.

BTDT it works very well...

It probably happens. They said it did with my nephew on youth weekend. But he was 8 IIRC. He missed the first time too.. but everyone said dad had to have shot it.

But it sure doesn't happen around here very much, the young ones that kill, I generally know and they hang out around the range and 4H shooting sports.

Most folks are just sour that the kids get an early chance.

Very similar.

.410 with slugs for a couple of years, then a 12 ga pump w/buckshot until I was 24.