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In northern Washington state near Burlington there was or is a gunshop named Kesselriing. I was wondering if anyone has a recent review or opinion, on this shop.
Thanks Erich


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Their firearms sales were shut down a couple years back by the feds. Pretty decent stock and reasonable pricing. A good selection of used guns - made it fun to cruise the racks. Probably the best selection of reloading stuff to be found in NW WA.

Service was terrible to great depending on the counter person you ran into. Regular customers soon learned who knew their stuff and who to avoid.

With the loss of their firearms license, they were limited to non-firearm product ... reloading equipment, etc. Still worth stopping by if in the area but no longer worth making a special trip.

It has been over a year since I last was in their store and, in fairness to Kesselrings, I do not know what their current status is - they could well have their firearms license back by now.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/skagit-county-gun-shop-may-have-been-worst-in-us/

Last edited by OregonCoot; 02/18/18.
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I just googled the shop and found the news. Holy $#(t. I never would have guessed.


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I live about 4 hours drive from the Kesselrings location.

Used to visit a couple of times a year for reloading supplies. Place was scary with big kegs of gunpowder sitting everywhere on the floor.

I knew their FFL was lost but did not know the real reasons. Been many years since I was there.

After reading the Seattle times article, man, how could anyone be that ignorant in the management of a gun shop???? Unbelievable.


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I used to go there a lot when I was managing a project at our Anacortes refinery (2000-2004) and always enjoyed the place. I did buy and Old Model Ruger 357 from them.


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I cannot imagine anything is left of that business. James G Murphy had two separate 2 day auctions. first one was spring of 2014 and second one was fall of 2015. the first one was alot of guns, handguns, bolt action rifles, shotguns and AR's. tons of other stuff, pallets of barrels, pallets of clips, wood for stock blanks, lots of reloading dies, holsters, silencers, etc. The second auction had large quantites of optics, ammo (cases and cases of ammo), some additional guns, seemed to be alot of collector guns this time and misc reloading supplies. i found it odd the mix of reloading. don't recall powder or primers or much in the way of brass. always thought that was odd given how large of a reloading shop it was supposed to be. i picked up some stuff at both but kind of regret not getting more. Was simply thinking of what I wanted/needed. I saw some people writing some big checks at that first one.

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Your classic American business tale:

Smart, Hard Working man (Ron Kesselring) builds a great business and endears himself to the community. 20 years later, his entitled and lazy son (Donny Kesselring), takes said business over.... and tuns it straight into the ground.

Ron was a good dude, he took good care of me and a couple buddies back my twenties, when I lived up that way. He hooked us up with deals on brass, powder, Leupolds, and bullets. He’d give us good money in trade, and did a little ‘Smith work too. I remember when there were hundreds of rifles on those old wood shelves.


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Originally Posted by OregonCoot
Their firearms sales were shut down a couple years back by the feds...

Several years ago, I think Yeagher's in Bellingham also had their firearms sales shut down. Don't know the details of that situation but they got their act together and got reinstated. Seem to be doing pretty well now.

I just read your link re Kesselring's. Holy crap- what a disaster. Went on for a long time, too, due to insufficient ATF resources to deal with it. How Not to Run a Business frown


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