Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Old Time Gun Shops

I really miss these kinds of shops.

Logans Gun Gallery in north washington PA is like that. several years ago i got a line on a limited edition rem 7600 35 whelen carbine that they had. never saw one before and i called them to make sure it was what they said. i gave them my CC on the phone and drove up there after work in a driving snowstorm. come to find out it was made for export to europe. fancy wood, beautiful bluing and is almost too nice to hunt with but i do anyway. little hole in the wall place and when i walked in it was lined with guns floor to ceiling. they had the best selection of remington pumps i had ever seen outside of my house and it was all i could do not to max out my CC. prices were excellent. i got the whelen for $550 and they had a 35 rem carbine for the same. if i wouldn't have already had one i'd have bought it too. should have cause i could have doubled or tripled my money. they had a bunch of the fancy birdseye maple 7600s in a lot of calibers for about 700 bucks. they also had a bunch of nice vintage smiths and colts as well as shotguns. great shop and if it wasn't so far away i'd be a regular customer.

I miss some of those old time gun shops too. However, if I owned a gun shop, I would carry all the tacticool stuff. If you want to stay in business, you need to carry what the market wants rather than what you like.

Randy Shuman's in Newville, PA, he specialized in Winchester M/70's and had most every M/70 that Winchester ever made along with a large selection of other Winchesters. One time he took me in the gun vault in the back room to show me the really special one of a kind Winchesters. Also like to visit Tom Norman's Sport Shop in Wykoff, NJ run by gunsmith Jack Korzinek, sadly both these places are gone. Jack did a really neat conversion on Ruger #1's & #3's converting them to .22 RF and .22 Magnum, he also had a process to blue stainless steel. He was a top notch gunsmith and was highly regarded for his work on .22 match shooter's rifles. And motorcycle guys would've loved The Sport Spot in Wayne, NJ which was a combination Harley dealer and gun shop, I remember walking thru the motorcycle showroom in the front to get to the gun shop. Growing up in Paterson, NJ in the early 1960's the place to go was the Paterson Rod & Gun Store on lower Main St., it was a real old time gun shop they always had puppies in the lower part of the glass store front. IT was run by JImmy Salvato who wrote a column "In the Great Outdoors" for the local paper. Later on the store moved to Hawthorne, NJ and his sons took over the business as Jim aged and eventually retired, just wasn't the same as the old store. The Ramsey Outdoor Store was another neat place, I bought a pre'64 Winchester 94 .30-30 that was unfired for $140.00, bought boxes and boxes of Winchester .308 Power Points for $5.00 a box. Ray's in Plainfield, NJ always had one of the best selections of used guns in rows and rows of long glass cases.

You’d think .270 would be the official caliber of the City of San Francisco.

In Northern New York two that come to mind are Hilltop Hunting and Fishing in Morley and Dick’s Country Store(Gun City; Music Oasis) in Charabusco. Haven’t been there in a while.

Keystone Armory in Edinboro, Pa. Great store, great people. Been to Juniata Trading Post in Everett, too. Good place!

I know das rite

Favorites from the past were Atlantic Guns in Silver Spring, MD and Sell's in Hanover, PA.

Currently, Valley Guns II in Inwood, WV is a great store with underground ranges on site, and a new facility for training at a another location. They also take Gunbroker consignments at a reasonable rate, which saves me all the heartache and shipping nonsense.

This was Bob Chow's old shop. His son owned the building and was tired of City politics. My buddy Steve rented it from him. I got to meet Bob Chow at a shooting event to honor him shortly before he died.

I did get to buy a Model 28 that Bob Chow had worked on.

Best I ever seen was Ledford's Trading Post in Hickory NC. It seemed like you could get ammo for literally anything there. A lot of it was really old stuff too. I especially miss them since I couldn't find .38-40 anywhere around here yesterday.

The last local, old time gun shop, was Greentops. It's now a a Walmart style gun shop like Cabala's and Bass Pro. I miss the smell of solvents, old wood floors, old leather and occasionally Hoppes #9. If I were blindfolded and taken there I would not know what sort of store I was in. I can get the same atmosphere here in my home office and order on line.

Randy Shuman still deals in collectible guns but is not affiliated with his old shop, "Shuman's Gun Shop". The shop is still a quality operation but not quite as high end as when Randy owned it. When Randy had it, pre 64 Win 70's were about the lowest end guns in there, and it went up from there. I think Winchester made less than 10 375 H&H with the standard barrel (as on a 30-06). Randy Shuman had 6 of them!

John's Sporting Goods in Germania (Galeton address) PA has a large selection of used blue and walnut guns.

Perry's Sport Shop in Austin, PA

Coopers Sporting Goods in Mansfield, PA is another good one.

Miller's Gun Shop in Mill Hall or near there is another.

Elk Ammo and Arms in St Marys, PA has a good inventory of new and used.

I have friends who sometimes spend the day cruising the locals shops in central Pennsylvania, north to south!

edinboro outdoors in edinboro itself is not bad as well. looks like they moved a block since i was there.

my camp is around the corner from JTP. i hit it every couple weeks and have bought several guns from them. excellent selection of new guns and so-so used guns. right after deer season and before christmas is the time to hit it for the used guns. the one in everett itself has a nice selection these days as well. bought my 77/22 there in 1990 for $239. my old man gave me guff about spending so much on a squirrel gun. but when i came home day after day with a limit of headshot squirrels he changed his tune.

kittery trading post, kittery maine, its not just a gun shop, has everything outdoors, but i was impressed with it. hell could even buy fresh cooked maine lobster.

https://www.kitterytradingpost.com/new-used-guns/

here in corpus, texas gun shop.

nobody mentioned grices in clearfield so i will. huge selection of new and used guns and just about anything you need for loading, etc. some of the counter guys are dicks though who make you feel like they're doing you a favor for selling you a gun. probably because they deal with a lot of out of town dicks so i don't blame them too much.

Dukes Sport Shop in Newberry Mi. The first place I would head to when I was up there. Loved that place.

In Eastern PA Boyer's Hardware in Slatington. It's a old wood floored hardware store and gun shop. Gun shop is up on the mezzanine. If they don't have it, they can get it. And used guns are a reason to stop by every week. They have a stuffed giraffe on the main floor. Only one in the neighborhood. Family run, owner usually there every day and he is a hunter.

CB Guns in Owasso, Oklahoma. While not a large shop, they always seem to have a nice selection of revolvers, rifle and shotguns for the hunter and collector. They also try to keep old military rifles on hand. Interesting blend of firearms.