Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Surprise find at cabelas

Happened to be close to my local cabelas yesterday and stopped in. Used gun room in the back had a beautiful ruger #1 varminter in .243. Looks unfired to me, I can't find a single blemish on the rifle anywhere. Came with box, rings and all paperwork. Priced at $849, it now has a forever home in my safe. Maybe cabelas isn't completely useless after all...

Nice score.

Darn good price. Hope it’s accurate.

Every now and then their Gun Library has some good deals.

Nice grab! I've made several good scores at Cabelas. I've found that many trade-ins don't make it to their website, you have to be there at the right time. I always do a "drive-by" of the gun counter when I'm close to a Cabelas store.

Stole it!!!

Yup. Stole it.

I hope it is too. Will find out soon

I picked up a #1 in 338wm at a Cabelas in 2019. Forgot original price, but they had marked it down to $749. I made an offer for $699 and they said yes. Always ask for a lower price.

You got a smoking deal. I would have snatched that up with no hesitation. Actually saw a #1 in 38-55 at LGS today for $1800. Really nice shape, but not quite in my budget.

I browse Cabelas gun library every now and then and good grief they have high prices on used firearms

Yep. Most items are over priced, some comically. Every once in a while though you can find a screaming deal.

Have to agree - I bought a Freedom Arms 83 premiere grade 454 with a Leupold scope ordered as a factory package with the box to fit the scope - $1200 at the Post Falls, ID store. Seemed to good to be true where generally everything Cabelas is over priced.

Just last week, I saw online that Cabela's had a Browning A-Bolt 12 gauge slug gun for $799 which is about half of what they are asking on GunBroker/GunsInternational.

I emailed them saying I'd take it if it was still available and the response was that it sold within an hour of going online. I didn't even need it as I already have one but for that price I was going to put it in the safe for one of my sons. I kind of feel bad for the dupe they ripped off on a trade-in or sale if they could sell it that cheap. If you have to use a slug gun those are one of the best.

quote=Blackdog85]Happened to be close to my local cabelas yesterday and stopped in. Used gun room in the back had a beautiful ruger #1 varminter in .243. Looks unfired to me, I can't find a single blemish on the rifle anywhere. Came with box, rings and all paperwork. Priced at $849, it now has a forever home in my safe. Maybe cabelas isn't completely useless after all...[/quote]


I’m pretty sure I have some high rings for that, if you decide to go big with the scope. I’ll look later and see what they are.

Nice snag.

Wow! Good job! Amazing price for a Cabelas!

That’s a sweet deal

If they know they can sell it in store they won’t bother putting it online or guns international.

I’ve gotten some ridiculous deals out of the one here and in Utah. I have also passed up on some I should not have before the pandemic. Like a boat paddle 22mag for $399 or a Ruger 44 carbine for $599.

I picked up my clean pre-safety Marlin 1894 in 357 for $599 plus tax.

I’m pretty sure I have some high rings for that, if you decide to go big with the scope. I’ll look later and see what they are.

Nice snag.[/quote]

Actually I'd love to find some offset rings if anybody has any laying around. Thank you for the offer on the highs. I'll keep that in mind. Still undecided on how I'm going to scope it.

My goodness I'd pay some serious money for a boat paddle in 22mag! $399... 😳😳😳

I’ve had success asking “what’s your best price” at Cabelas library. But have not been in one in several years.

I'll try that next time. I figured those prices were pretty non-negotiable. As cheap as that one was, I was looking behind me on the way out the door waiting for the cops to cuff me for stealing 😂

Must depend on the store? I've always tried to dicker on their price but all I ever get is a shrug and "it's out of my control". Of course I don't get too demanding when I'm holding a gun I know is already priced at a fraction of it's value.

I was watching some prices on Guns International for rifles offered by various Cabela's Gun Libraries around the country. It's been a few years so I forget the exact time period (a month, maybe?) but if a firearm didn't sell within that time frame they'd lower the price by 9 or 10%. Then if it still didn't sell they'd lower it by another 9-10% and so on.

Watched an 1885 Traditional Hunter for a while, called the store where it was located and asked that it be sent to the local Cabela's, so it cost me $25 basically for the right to look at it. When it got there I said I'd been watching it, it hadn't sold for X amount of time, so offered them 10% less than the last listed price at the other store. The guy looked at something on his computer - most likely its price history and length of time for sale - and said okay, no problem.

'Course, that was 3-4 years ago, Bass Pro probably f'ed up that paradigm. Went into the local gun library last week and it was pathetic, they had maybe 1/10 the amount of firearms they used to display and most of those were black shotguns or rifles with a few scraggly semi-auto pistols. Shame, that, I'd bought three or four guns from them at very reasonable prices over the last several years.

Gun prices at Cabelas have little correlation with what others are buying or selling, especially on-line sales, in my opinion.

Last month I picked up a Ruger No 1 stainless in 45-70 from Cabelas. They shipped it to my local BassPro. Saved me a few $$!!.
Price was fair. When was the last time you saw one for sale? I used it to take a deer on the last day of our rifle season.

If the gun has been sitting for awhile they will usually deal. I’ve had the manager of the gun library refuse to deal on anything that was put out within a few weeks.

They will markdown stuff that’s been sitting. They can look up how much they paid for an item and won’t go below that unless they screwed up when they assessed the value and overpaid.

I haven't seen any truly good deals since BPS took over but I seldom venture in there any more. Pre-BPS I was well enough known at the local Cabelas that if I bought a gun it was underpriced! A couple of examples were a Remington Model 81 modified by Krieger to a detachable magazine; a 25 caliber Model 8 for $300; a pair of Savage 1899s, one in 25/35 and the other in 38/55 for $1200 total; a Browning Citori 3.5" Hunter for $650; and an original Marlin 410 lever shotgun for $400 are a few that come to mind.

In the old days Cabala's would negotiate on prices if the gun hand been on the shelf for a while. It seemed they needed about 6 months to begin thinking about dealing. I actually bought back a gun I sold them for less than they paid for it but the gun sat for nearly two years.

I’ve picked up a couple of deals there, but not since BP took it over. I’ve stopped in a few times when the mood took me but there’s been no deals that I could see. Since they revamped the gun library search engine, it’s no longer very usable so I don’t even look there anymore.