Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Two Canadian Gun Shops I can recommend

The Tillsonburg Gun Shop - https://tillsonburggunshop.com

I have ordered a rifle, dies and other things from them. They are quick to ship.

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Lots of great gun shops in the Okanagan, small mom and pop, not the new Costco type with Sitka gear and 5000$ PRECISION rifles. if in Vernon dont miss Del Selin Gunsmith Ltd ( no website, Google for directions), On Vancouver Island John Pullen Gunsmith ( no website), in Kelowna A&C Sports is excellent. Penticton Backcountry Sports is pretty good.

When I was stationed in Comox, we used to go to Granlund Firearms. Does anyone know what's up with them these days? I know they are still open. Apart from mail order, they are pretty much the only game in town for central and north island shooters.

Karle Granlund was a good guy. Always treated me well.

It was smaller then. I was in Comox from 1988 to 1992, so they had just opened. It beat having to drive down island to Nanaimo for supplies. That was just before the Internets appeared to save us from long drives that were sometimes fruitless.

We used to go to Kesselrings in Burlington, WA, for bulk buys. They used to have handgun and rifle cases, and other things in boxes or buckets on the floor. You scooped out cases, put them in a paper bag and checked out by weight. The place was messy, but fun to snoop around in.

Amazon.com is one that I would not recommend, unless you are willing to wait and wait.

I wanted a Hornady 6mm short neck sizing die to play with. I ordered it March 1st from Amazon's Export Dep't. It has not shipped yet. I should know better. I ordered anther die last fll and it took 3 months to get here.
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'For Hornady stuff, Higginsons can get things quickly. I should have ordered from them.

Ha ha! Bump!

This man is ranting!

Oops, wrong thread.

This man could be ranting. Ha ha!

I had the opprrunity to check out Shooters Choice in Waterloo, ON a few days ago. There seemed to be lots of stock. Prices were typucal for a big city. A bit more than I'm used to, but the taxes there are probably high.

So many good businesses in Canada..

Yesterday, I was looking around for a Timney trigger for my Rem 788. I wanted to find a Cdn shop to keep delivery costs down and (hopefully) get it faster. All my usual haunts were out of stock except for Hirsch Precision - https://www.hirschprecision.com

I used to get a lot of Lapua brass from him. At any rate, he has the trigger I need, and I expect it will be here soon.

I've been to Shooters Choice a few times over the years. Never impressed. Staff always behave like they're doing you a favour serving you. Triggers and Bows used to be good, but now they're the same. I try to spend my money elsewhere. I've been treated decent at Goble's in London, Tillsonburg Gun Shop, Eli's in Simcoe, Ellwood Epps in Orillia when I'm up that way, Gagnon's in Oshawa, hell, even Al Flaherty's in Toronto is better. None of those place have ever made me feel like I was interrupting their day.

Mostly I poke around at gun shows and find what I'm looking for.

I've been treated well at Ellwood Epps in Orillia (although back when Ellwood himself was there, he could be a bit cranky! I thought of it as "Character" with a capital C ... :-)

Al Flaherty's in Toronto was just fine, and had some parts that I could not find elsewhere in Canada.

Goble's Firearms in London, Ont. has treated me very well, and bore the costs of a distributor's error so I could take my favorite rifle on a hunt (they offered a loaner rifle as well).

MacDonald's Sporting Goods in Winnipeg [ MacDonald's in Winnipeg has always been good to deal with. I just checked their webpage to get the correct url, and if any of you fellows back in Canada need a distinctive new rifle, how about a used SHILOH MFG 54-120 PAPER CARTRIDGE PERCUSSION 1863 SHARPS - VG for just $1495 (and those are Canuck bucks too - that is just $US 1120.

ADDED note: Higginson Powders is good too and in addition to reloading powders (and Pyrodex etc.) carries the full line of Hornady bullets, as well as all Lee Precision tools Higginson Powders Their website is fine but they are even better in answering emails.

John (a Swede from Canada --- Björky, björk, eh? :-)

Higginsons is outstanding. I just ordered a Hornady neck sizing die from them. They have to order it from the US, but they tell me it will be about a week for them to get it. They are good with communication and their time estimates have always been right.

WRT Hirsch Precision, the trigger I ordered from them yesterday has shipped. Peter is on the ball there too.

I know that we are all products of our generation. Epps has changed, and not for the good IMO. When George bought it from Ellwood, he had a clientele built in. His son runs things now and I don't expect hat he will go broke, but they suffer from uneven staffing issues and a horrible Internet presence. You'd think, given his age, that Wes would have made the web site better.

I've bought a couple of guns, couple of scopes, some dies and some powder and brass from Prophet River. Never had a hitch. I went into the store once when I was up that way chasing snows, mentioned to Clay that I was waiting for a decap rod, he went and robbed a die for me. Bought two scopes on two orders, online, on the same night. They charged me for two shipments, which was somewhat correct, two different invoices, he tossed 20.00 cash in the next shipment when I mentioned that.

I've bought from X-reload, no issues with them, they had what I wanted, price was actually better than buying out of the US in a couple of cases.

Wolverine in Virden has treated me well, no hesitations recommending them.

Rayn'er Shine Gunworks in Maple Crk Sask has been good , he is a home based business, just call and ask, if it is a reloading component, he likely has it, or will get it ASAP, which is usually pretty quick.

Tradexx has been good, bought bullets, brass and dies from him. Although he did talk himself out of a gun sale, but, at the time I may also have misunderstood what brand he was talking about.

Tried an order with Epps once, never showed, never charged me for it either.

Dragon Bullet Lube was good, got a few things from him, some stuff he didn't stock was PDQ to get. I'd bought some wrong brand gaschecks once, no issues, send them back. I bought the right ones off him in that deal.

Calgary Shooting Centre is one that could definitely benefit from upping their web presence, their selection of guns is pretty decent, lots not on their site, stuff you won't see in many other places in Canada. New Chapuis sxs's, o/u's, combo guns, Merkel sxs's and o/u's, Zoli combos , Kreighoff drillings and SXS's, some really nice used European singleshots, He is a Rigby, Blaser and McNaughton dealer. A lot of high end biathlon, target 22's, sights, etc. Access to RWS stuff and some other European ammo. Next to no reloading stuff though.

Canadian Waterfowl Supplies in Ont, excellent to deal with, Canadian Waterfowler's Pro Shop in Edmonton as well. Spent a good bit of coin in both of them.

I'm glad that we're getting input about gun shops from across the country.

Can anyone from Vancouver Island give us an update on Granlund? I know that we briefly talked about it, but I was wondering how the business is doing the past two or three years.

I was shopping for some brass and checked Wasp Munitions in Sylvan Lake, AB. www.waspmunitions.ca

I bought 500 pces of processed IVI brass from them over the winter for $80, so I went back. They are sold out of that brass, so I ordered 1000 pces of IVI 5.56 once fired brass. It has been cleaned, but I will have to punch out the old primers and ream the pockets. For $114 all in, it's a deal.



Because I am a glutton for punishment, I am about to order another MGM Contender barrel. This time it will have 223 Wylde chamber. I have ordered all my Contender barrels from Nine35.ca. The exchange rate sucks - 1.378400 according to Scotiabank - so it will end up costing close to $700.

Both these Cdn businesses are great.

My whirlwind tour of Southern Ontario gun shops continued yesterday with a stop in a village called Burfurd. It's a small rural community, and the business is called Triggers and Bows. There is a store with a shooting range inside.

You can see some pix of the place here. Triggers and Bows

It's a big place.

I played tourist and chatted briefly with the guy behind the counter. I bought some powder, an MTM ammunition box and a LNL modified case. I went there during the quiet time. No one was there, so I got to snoop around at everything. There must be a lot of archery people around the area. Lots to see.

https://www.triggersandbows.com/