Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire At the Gun shop today

I stopped at a gun shop today on the way to the range. It's a small shop in a small town. I bumped into an aquaintance outside and asked him what he was up to. "Buying a gun and selling one", he said. I asked him what he was selling and he told me he had a Winchester 32 WCF lever action. I told him that I might be interested and to go ahead and see what the owner would pay for it and then we could discuss it. I milled around the store and bought a magazine for my 1911 and after a bit, this guy called my name. I went over to the counter and he said, " This guy is going to give me $700 for this rifle". " What would you pay?" The owner came out of his chair and his wife got in my face. I turned around and left. I don't know what model the Winchester was. It had a octagon barrel and the butt was crescant. Dang nice rifle. Too bad the seller is an idiot.

A lot of business owners get mad in that situation because your making a deal in their store. Best to go outside or somewhere else to discuss.

If I was the owner I would have been pissed too.

Yep.

Think the point was, seller's lack of sophistication blew any chance. Gotta learn somehow; bad timing!

Yeah, the seller be a dumbschit.

Prolly a nice old 94 too.

Do your deal outside the shop. Don't use the guns shop owner as a Stalking Horse.

It had to have been a model 92 if it was .32 wcf.... and if I were the owner of the gun store Id have tossed you to the street with instructions to NEVER come back...

Ken didnt do anything wrong by telling the guy to go ahead and try the store.

The seller was a dumbschitt for doing what he did... I saw a guy a week ago try and offer a guy $25 for an old Colt pistol because it needed a small part. TOTAL BS. This Colt would bring at least $500 in any respectable shop...

The way I read the OP is that he understood the owners' irritation & blamed the seller of the gun for putting him in that position.

Don't think the OP did anything wrong...in fact, he left when the seller showed that he was an idiot...

Coulda been a '73, too, Poopbah.

well that sucks!

but yeah I don't find the OP at fault, to me he did the honorable thing


it was the guy that had the rifle that screwed up

if he'd have said "Well let me think about it" and walked outside with the rifle, no doubt OP would have hit the parking lot and they could have determined if he would have paid more.


just bad circumstances.

If the owner was apprised of the full story and still feels the OP was persona non grata, I'd be happy to comply were I in his shoes.

if it was accurately depicted then imo the OP did nada wrong, just the seller

loose lips, sink ships

Like an 'Antiques Roadshow' recently where a man had an old violin. He was offered $1000 for it by a music shop and had it evaluated at the show. Value was placed at $50,000.

I had no intention of discussing buying the rifle in the store and especially not in front of the owner. I expected the seller to get an apprasial from the owner and we could talk about it later. Moral of the story, never assume anything.

Yeh not your fault, he made a bad judgement call.

Gun shop gun buy

Was in the old Shapells gun shop over in Boise years ago looking through a box of used dies when a couple of guys walked in with a nice old double barrel, and a sawed off (18 1/4" barrel) single shot 12 guage to sell.

The deal was made and the sellers left, owner picked up the double, and a guy right there handy picked up the sawed off 12. As he looked it over ( it was kinda rough looking) the owner offered it to him for twenty bucks, saying " this is what I really wanted, and I'd just as soon that wasn't in the shop" as he held up, and looked over the double.
guy looked the 12 over a bit and laid it on the counter. I let him get about a step away and I said, "I'll take it."

Took it home, did a little fixin, and it stands behind the bedroom door as I write this.

You should have made an offer before he went in the store.

It's entirely possible the music shop owner didn't fully realize the full value of the violin as well.

It may be bad form, but as an honest businessman, I'd have no issues with someone knowing what I offered for the rifle. Just because it's a fair deal, don't mean the guy can't get more for it.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want people thinking they could do business like this all the time, but I wouldn't get THAT upset about it. You'd have to be a fool to think that it's not happening behind your back.