Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire "Soup Nazi" gunshop owners!

Which shop is this? So Dad stays away from it.

I would like to see what kind of things a bunch of gun shop owners would say about their "favorite" customers.

Leaving guns on racks and letting anyone who walks in the door handle them is a real good way to get a store full of scratched, dinged and dented guns.

There's a pretty good shop in my area.
The problem isn't the owner, but the usual flock of resident "hang-arounders".
These are the guys who do just that,hang around. You have to walk around them and they are quick to offer their "expert" opinions.

He's a good guy just keeps the liberals out of his shop..... And he only charges 5-10% mark-up....

There are TWO like that in my area and this place isn't that big. At one of them it's ok if you don't have to deal with the owner. I will never set food into the other again.

First stopped at Lorant's in Shreveport in 1975. Since then I've spent over $20,000 on guns, ammo, and reloading supplies. Less than $100 has been spent at Lorant's. Won't waste your time recounting all the bad times in that place. Yet, they are still open.

Sorry to bring this up longshot3 - But 'maybe' it's just YOU!
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There's a guy behind the desk at an Auto Salvage Yard who really hates my guts. He asks at least "quadruple" whenever I ask "How much?"

I won't waste cyber bandwidth with my horror storys - but I think it's because I did get over-on-him once, a long time ago. Some people have l o n g memories. In your case case, maybe it's 'mistaken identity'.

Maybe the Gun Shop guy's got YOU mistaken for someone like ME.

I'm down from Illinois on fishin' trip in AR with two friends,fishin' is horrible so we are drivin' around on a Sunday afternoon killin' time when we see a sign with an arrow advertising a gun shop, couple minutes later at the end of the gravel road we pull up to a garage with a gun shop sign, jump out of the car, only to find the shop door is locked, then we notice a fellow walkin up to us from out back where we see a bunch of old boys around a picnic table with a sun tea jug, some AR-lookin' rifles and lookin' like they were plinkin' and tea drinkin'. The old boy announces that he is closed on Sunday but INSISTS that we come on in and unlocks the shop and flicks on the lighs. It don't take but 15 seconds to pretty much see everything he has (Raven 25's, RG's,H&R revolvers, SKS carbines and a bunch of pmc ammo, dog collars and web gear). Now I'm a Remington Model 31 shotgun collector, Joe is a sucker for sxs 410 and 28's, and Al collects Pre 64 Winchester lever guns and factory engraved Smith & Wesson Top Break Revolvers. We politly stay another minute pretending to be intertested and on the way back out I spot a box of candy bars marked 45 cents on the counter,so, just to be polite, I pick up 2 and drop
a buck next to the box and we walk out thanking the proprietor for his time. As he is locking up behind us he is talkin 2 himself loud enough so he knows we can hear "Ain't that the G++Damdest, Yankee Trick I ever seen, to get a man to open his shop just so they can Buy some F===in candy bars!"

After reading all these horror stories from gun shops I feel pretty lucky. I don't think I have ever been in one where the staff gave me a hard time. I have been in a few where the staff was pretty stupid but not rude. I have taken my southern accent into gun shops all across the country and been welcome every time.

We have a couple of good shops in town with some great guys behind the counter. They will freely admit that they don't know something and don't mind asking a question if they think that the customer probably knows more about the firearm than they do.

The closest I came to a "bad" gun shop was one in Atlanta that I had been going to for close to 40 years. It had been sold and the new owners had turned it into a LEO equipment shop. They did sell firearms. Their first reaction to me walking in was "not what you were looking for is it?" I said "Nope! Do you have to be a Cop to buy something in here?" The lady behind the counter said all it takes is money. I knew we were going to get along. They had a great price on a traded in Ruger 357 security six...

Big Ed to my buddy - "Only a puzzy would buy a 20 gauge."

Nice thread.

Wow, I feel lucky. A shop in Arvada treated my wife and I very well. The wife was looking for a handgun and we ended up walking out with a Springfield XDM 9mm. The sales guy didn't treat her like an idiot and patiently explained the various features. Since she was the one buying it, he explained it to her. He had her try different guns to see what she liked, and what felt good to her. I learned a thing or two too. When I bought my Springfield, I went back to the same store and got the same great service.

Nothing worse than a "salesman" treating the customer badly just because they have an honest question. I'm not about to hand over several hundred dollars on something I can't inspect or ask questions about. If I get crappy service, I'll vote with my dollars.

The real profit is on the accessories. I try to pick up something from the good stores even though I might save a buck or two if I went somewhere else.

On of my best friends worked behind the gun counter at Larry's in Portland. He has stories that will take you from rage to tears of laughter.

New Deal Shooting Sports over by Deming used to be good until Rick and Terri and their boys got busted for selling arms to undercover ATF agents posing as suppliers to the cartels. A new gun store has sprung up in Deming and I hear good things about them, but can't seem to go by when they are open.

We've got a grumpy owner at Active Arms in Fort Collins. There's never anybody in there due to his attitude. Wife is nice to work with at least. Whenever I need a reloading supply he has it. Also has old bullet at old prices. But he's such a jackass that I hate going there. Never seen him sell a gun and haven't noticed a change in inventory in about 5 years. He did show me his personal .256 Newton though, which I was really digging. After literally buying over 20 pounds of powder from him and a few cases of primers, he had the gall to bitch about me never buying bullets from him, when he's like 40 miles away from me. He must be independently wealthy or something with his attitude and the plethora of other gun stores around here.

Contrast him to the other major gun store in Fort Collins, Rocky Mountain Shooter Supply. That place is always busy, has a ton of staff, including a few women who are knowledgeable. And they have tons of stuff and turn over the inventory. Only store in Northern Colorado with a good selection of modern revolvers. Plus they sell a lot of guns on commission, so you can see great prices on rare used stuff. Not all the staff is knowledgeable, and they have a poor selection of reloading supplies, but I still like the place.

Other places I can recommend for people tired of ol grumpy at Active Arms is the Gunroom in Lakewood, and Grandpa's (also an eccentric, highly opinionated owner who won't shy away from racial epithets). Both have a lot of used bolt action rifles.

Green Mountain Guns in Lakewood used to be pretty good. They always had a lot of stuff in stock and the counter guys knew guns. Just googled them and it looks like they are still in business...

They're still there. Only been there a couple of times, but rarely made a point of going to see them

Q. What do grumpy gun store owners do in their spare time?

A. They read the 24 Hour Campfire posts and get really pissed-off.



( Then they go back to their Gunshop and w a i t ... )

I don't like getting talked down to by ignorant counter monkeys but, in defense of the gun shop owners, in today's legal environment where the Feds and the Locals and all the politicians are looking for any excuse to shut the gun stores down, it takes a stubborn and persistent guy to even try to stay in the gunshop business. And the gunshop owners aren't personally responsible for the increasingly petty laws and regulations that they have to follow. So I try to cut them some slack. Especially with the paperwork requirements. Not their fault. And as for prices, they can charge whatever they want. We can pay it or not. Our choice. I usually know more about the types of guns and accessories I'm shopping for than the employees at the gunshops anyway so I let them talk and try not to argue with them or laugh at them. Sometimes they really do know their stuff and the other times I get a good story to tell later.

I think Ft Collins was the first place I saw Rifle Magazine on sale at a bookstore.

Only sporting goods place I found was JAX. This would have been about '95. I didn't have time to shoot or clean my rifle, so it was just as well.

Sycamore

Man, there's no way I'd drop a dime in shops like that. The only bad experience I had was at a shop in Anoka, Minnesota. I had never been in there, and just stopped by to cruise the racks and see what they had. A salesman asked if he could help me, and I said, "that's okay-I'm just window shopping today." The smile on his face was gone in an instant, and he smugly replied, "we don't sell windows here." I immediately left. That shop is no longer open-I wonder why.

I've been in many gun shops, and pawn shops and never had a bad experience like you guys speak of. Maybe I'm just lucky. I prefer the mom and pop shops to Cabela's or Gander Mountain, but I've had good experiences with customer service there too. Ahlman's gun shop in Morristown, Minnesota is a good one to hit if you're ever south of the Twin Cities.

My favorite shop back out east has to be Grice's Gun Shop in Clearfield Pa. Go in there the weekend before deer season opens and it's a total zoo. I think every hunter in that area of Pa. converges on Grice's on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.