Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How well does your LGS know you?

Anybody ever got a NICS delay and the shop sends you home with the gun anyway to keep you from having to drive back later “we know you’ll clear, but if we call, get your butt back here with it pronto”?

Yeah, me neither.

I'm on a first name basis with about 20 different shops. Some love me, some don't. They know I'm there to get a good deal, not listen to bullschidt.

3 LGS,s I do business in comfort.
And 3 pawn shops
They now I steer business their way from customers coming in.
Well known person.
Horse trade, sell, buy and leave meat on the bone as appropriate.
And get good deals in return.
And eyes out for certain items and calls over the years.
We got this in or this is coming out of pawn on x date type of things.

OTOH...
3 shops around here I wouldn't pizz on if they paid me too...

A couple of lgs’s up home that treated me real well…knew them for years, bailed them out by fixing projects they were over their heads on. Gave me special order stuff at invoice. Always knew when I’d want something they just took in. Good guys, friends, did well in a tough racket…both recently departed….RIP Don and Joe.

My LGS has my signature on the FFL. They treat me well, but the owner is a grouchy SOB.

Well,

I live in a small town & know 1 gun shop owner well. Have shot & hunted with him. Have done a bit of smithing for him some years ago. Now just a customer that can go behind the counter if he likes. They say howdy when I walk in & see ya when I leave. But that's just the ways of a small town & the region I live in.

On a larger scale, a place like Buds took decades to grow to what it is & I'm old, so have known Bud for a while. He's retired now but I shoot with the current manager. That doesn't give me special privileges in a store that size & the clerks that come & go don't know me. But if I need or want something above or beyond, I know which door to knock on.

Not bragging here. Like I said, I've been in the gun game a long time, no big bucks to get a stores attention, just familiarity & getting to know folks throughout the years.

Our local guy is a Jem. Works hard to find something you need and very fair prices. My word is gold there and I keep it that way.

Like a couple of others............................


we don't know what a LGS is around these parts.

Not even sure if there's an FFL within an hours drive.

Nearest shop is over that hour drive. Couple of more in OR but that does me not one bit of good for purchasing a firearm.

Local Ace hardware carries a little bit of ammo, no reloading supplies, some El Cheapo type cleaning stuff, the target stickers and such. Might find a couple of hunting related items too.

The LGS is a 2 hour drive away from here so I don't get in there a lot for FTF buying. Most business is done on-line and over the phone. A friend lives there and travels back and forth so I get free shipping and saves me 4 hr round trip drive.

I hunt there and have been going in there for once or twice a yr for about 30yrs. The owners know me well enough to greet me.

This happened to my dad for years (pawn shop). He came home with lots of good stuff.

Too well.

My buddy, Big Bob, was a rabid Ruger collector. In the last years of his life, he was having trouble getting around, so I'd pick him up and take him around to stores. He was infamous as either "Ruger Bob" or "Santa Claus." Bob looked like a cross between Santa and Chester the Molester. I became known as his sidekick.

There is one store that Bob treated like it was adult day care. I'm still well known in there.

I’ve been doing business with the same LGS for 50 years now. Bought my first pistol from them when I was 13. Of course, Mom had to fill out the paperwork and pick it up.
To say they know me well would be an understatement. 😬

Our best gun store is a pawn shop that sells mostly guns, they treat me fine but I don't buy that many guns. Just two last year. There are some really good gun shops less than an hours drive.

The one I've done the most business with the past 25 years was owned by two brothers that took over from their father. The oldest brother graduated HS with my father. One of the part time guys worked at the same mine as my father. Between me and a couple buddies that made numerous purchases, they got to know me pretty well. However, one brother is now retired and the other is about to. Don't know the next generation as well.

WAY back when I was in the Army, I'd frequent all the gunshops all over Fayetteville, NC (there were a LOT of them), and one in particular always had something I was interested in. AND the owner was a shooter, too, he'd haul out his Class 3 stuff now and then to the sand/gravel pit everyone shot at. He'd always let me shoot his full-auto stuff (Browning marked FN-FAL serial numbered 007) and his H&K G-3s and MP-5s. He knew that was good advertising, and I bought a lot of first class stuff from him (Colts, Brownings, S&Ws, Rugers, H&Ks). He usually gave me a pretty good deal on them, too. I was familiar with his wife and twin daughters, and even THEY knew my name. I don't know if he's still alive, but his shop has expanded exponentially now, (Jim's Pawn Shop). I hear about it even now. I suppose his kids have taken over and are running the place now. If I still lived in NC, I'd be there right now, most likely.

They know me far to well. Most of the time I'm only coming in to pick up a transfer but often enough I walk out with another one. Owner called me and came by my place a while back to learn about meat goats and raising them. His main guy that runs the shop is great to talk to but if there's other folks in there I don't take up his time. They're good folks and if I wasn't always busy I'd stop in more often.