Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Another one bites the dust....

Western Sport Shop in San Rafael, CA is closing after 65 years.

Western was an old fashioned hunting and fishing store founded in 1947 that specialized in service. They really would take a beginner out into the parking lot and teach them how to flycast. Bashing gun store clerks is practically a sport on gun forums, but the staff at Western had decades of experience and really knew what they were talking about. Yes, their prices were higher than some places on the internet, but they offered a degree of customer service that is hard to find these days.

It finally succumbed to internet/chain store competition, increasing urbanization, poor local hunting and fishing and heavy state regulation.

It will be sorely missed.

http://www.marinij.com/business/ci_19634876

Tha is quite sad. I remember watcing several great gun and fun stores like that one close up in SacramentoCalif for much the same reasons when I was down there. Simms Hardware and the Old Sacramento Armory. One of the BIG reasons that I left that crazy state. The gun regs everywhere are a problem, but in Calif? They are just plain onerous and ridiculous.

Sad to hear it....we lost ours many moons ago

Been there many times and enjoyed the nature of the place. Have kids/grandkid just up HWY 101 from there and always look forward to stopping at WSS when I visit them - will miss this.

That is sad news.

I have been watching a "local" (Longview, TX)gunstore slowly put itself out of business lately.

Their customer service, or lack thereof, is what will finish them off. New staff, rude behavior, arrogant answers to folks trying to ask honest questions.

I am looking for another local source powder and will completely stop shopping there once I find it.

My last trip in saw the owner YELLING at a neophyte BP shooter about getting real black powder. He was telling the neophyte and his girlfriend that black powder could not be bought anymore, that they had to buy the BP substitutes he had in stock because the Feds had outlawed black powder.

That was just the straw that broke the camels' back for me.

Ed

Winchester's?

Ed, you (and others, no doubt) have noted one of the big issues - which is the matter of poorly informed staff (or even owners) giving poor info/opinons and treating customers like dummies. At times, it is difficult to hold one's tongue when hearing some of the drivel. And, many of these shops seem to stock less and less of the stuff that meets my interests.

But, even some well-run establishments are having trouble (like WSS) and, in that case, I think that local "environmental factors" of the social sort (Marin County, CA) may play a part.

On such visits, I am usually looking for a high quality used rifle of some interest, but often the prices seem higher than expected. Maybe I'm just too old and have not noted the changes over time, but maybe someone here can answer a question that may be germane. I know that such prices are a matter of productive markup over the intake price, but what % does a shop usually need to make on used rifles?

Depends on their overhead, I always worked in the 40-50% range but gave good prices for the used stuff be it a trade or outright purchase.

No f*cking common sense in that suck-ass state:

"The store may have a more difficult time finding homes for the many mounted moose, deer, antelope and other heads that circumscribe its walls.

'It's illegal to sell those under California law,' Bongio said. 'So for the most part, they'll be given to people who claim them � people whose grandfathers might have originally shot the (animals) years ago. The ones that are left over will either be given to employees or donated to whoever wants them.'"

So you can legally smoke grass there, but you can't legally sell a mounted dead animal head. Real f*cking smart.

The Laws in the State of California probably has a lot to do with this closing. I bet they are just tired of the Bull chit put out by this state and decided to just call it quits . Gun Control via the Back Door, cut off the supply .

I'm sorry they're shutting down, but really, why in the hell would you still stay there if you were in a gun/outdoors business?