Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Headed to UP end of June.

Any old or must stop gun shops. Into blue and wood. Coming up from West Central Indiana.

Jays in clare or gaylord mi.

Let us know how the trip turns out. I’ve always wanted to pay a visit to that area.

Have fun, man, any specific places you're going to hit? Mackinac Island is always cool (matter of fact we ate some Mackinac Island fudge today ).

Northern Michigan or the UP is on my short-list for retirement.

Get ya' some of this.

Have some fun for me!!

As mentioned above either of the Jay’s stores are worth checking out and the Cop’s and Doughnut’s bakeries in both towns. Highway 2 along the Lake Michigan shoreline is scenic. Tahquamenon Falls is worth seeing and so is Whitefish Point near where the Edmond Fitzgerald went down. The Pictured Rocks are great and Porcupine Mts if you make it over to the West side. If you’re into Hemingway the Two Hearted River and Fox River are definitely worth fishing. If you’re into fishing at all nearly any roadside stream will usually hold trout. There’s all kinds of good smallmouth bass, pike and walleye fishing from a boat. Depending on how much time you have chartering a boat to go out on one of the Great Lakes would be fun.

IMO you should plan to see Lake Superior if at all possible and the Pictured Rocks area would be a good place to see it. Lake Superior beaches are a cool place to spend sometime. Lots of wild scenic views with crystal clear water, rarely above 65 degrees even in July with awesome sunsets and stargazing over a bonfire.

If your travels take you through WI and down I-43, Bradley Guns, Denmark, WI is right off the highway and has a huge new and used selection. Much bigger than you'll find at any chain retailer. Great people to deal with. If you make it to Bradley's, might as well stop at Basil's for a burger.

Have fun on your trip. The UP is a beautiful, special place.

Thanks, for all the info. Wife and I did the 5 lakes 15 years ago on our tour bikes not much room for guns. This time in the car. Headed to Mackinac Island. Hoping to stop at the older shops no chain stores. Of course, will stop at all the junk stores got to be fair right.

If you happen to go through the Saginaw Bay area you might want to check out Dick Williams Gun Shop in Saginaw and Duncan's in Bay City. If you head on to the west end after visiting the Island you might want to stop and visit Jason at the Woodland gun shop in Baraga. He usually has several used wood and blue deer rifles on the rack. Plus it's on the rez so no taxes.

Beginning August is the best month in the UP I've lived there for many years....really not many gunshops around any more they seam to be all closing....
There was a shop lots of wood guns prices were high internet near M-28 and I-75 have been in the area in at least 10 years....
In Newberry there's a shop mostly old fishing tackle at the west end of town on M-123.....haven't been there in several years....

About the only thing to do is drive and ask locals in towns....most gunshops have gone out of business.....ones that are still open charge a super high prices and have mostly junk........

Are we neighbors? I've been to that gun shop about 300 times.

Lived here my whole like (mostly) and this is the first I've heard of it. I was a Nickolai's and then Virlee guy

Was at Virlee's (New Franken) on Saturday.

Bradleys is pretty inconspicuous for a gun shop but people come from all over to buy there. It's pretty rare for someone to beat their price.

Sounds like I have something to do later this week then lol.

Bought my last couple at Virlee - a 20 ga CXS and a 480 Ruger Bisley. I'm not a Cabela's guy, On-Site was never great and worse after Butch died, Never tried Gus's, Gander was good, back in the early 90's. Faskel's was neat back in the day - Oshkosh.

As to UP gun shops - J's in Powers is kind of amazing for what it is. Small, not a lot of selection but I was in there once and she had 458 Win Mag ammo on the shelf, along with 7mm Mauser - just never know what you'll see. I was getting decent powder there too.

I know you like wood and blue but these guys had ammo the last time I was in there. Also bare actions etc for builds. Bark River Precision

I’d bet some of the local pawn shops may have a treasure or two, but I’m just guessing.

I've never seen a pawn shop. Not saying they don't exist, I've not been everywhere in the UP but I can't ever remember seeing a single one. If there was one - probably good deals on chainsaws too.