I have a couple times that will never be forgotten. I just happened to be there in the right place at the right time.
1. Guy brings a loaded 22LR into the shop and says its jammed. The guy says if its loaded, get it out of here. Guy argues and says its jammed it won't shoot. OUT! customer slams it on the counter. CRACK! 22 is really loud inside. Bullet hits the wall a good 40 feet away. Employee calls 911, other employees draw weapons and hold customer until PD arrives. Hole in the wall is near other holes in the wall from same thing.

2. Small gun shop with large inventory. Probably 400 guns , some new, some used. Prolly 150 new, 250 used in the late 90s. My buddy looks at an H&R 12ga slug that's on the 10ga frame. It had a scope and wouldn't sit up there on the rack correctly cause the weight was all in the wrong spot if you remember those. I picked out an A5 to purchase and put it on the counter. Slug gun slowly tips over, bring every other used gun with it. 250 guns sliding and flopping onto the floor. Racket was amazing. Lady starts freaking out. Her husband explodes. I'm like, maybe this is a bad time. I'll come back. It was crazy.

My father used to tell this one........back in the 1950's he went to work at a local hardware store, that had a very good gun section. He traded in a Marlin lever gun in 25-20 for a Winchester Model 12 in 20 gauge, and the Marlin sat there for a quite a well without generating any interest. Kentucky was having it's first deer season in many years, and an old Black guy comes in looking for a deer gun. He sees the 25-20 and asked the guy that was working the gun counter that day if that rifle would kill a deer. "Kill a deer," the salesman answered, "that rifle will kill a bear." The old Black man said...."dats the one I want, cause you never know what's out dere in dem woods."

Just the usual stuff, everyone under 30 working there is ex spec ops, special naval warfare, eagle scout

Any over 40 weighs 500 pounds

I walked into a gun shop and kaywoodie was working there.

While I was in college I worked part time in the hunting/fishing section of a sports store. When ringing up a handgun gun sale I must have accidentally pushed the silent alarm. After the sale I was kneeling behind the cash register counter with the gun in my hand as I tried to find the form for the gun that goes to the state police. The next thing I heard was “drop it!” from the cop who responded to the silent alarm and had his weapon pointed at my head.

Mostly, my money leaving my pocket.

That's bad..... really bad!

First purchase.
Typical shop. Few window to maximize display space.
Those that there are are covered with manufacturer signs.
Fill the forms and wait, several other already waiting.
Seems like a long wait.
Suddenly hear a bunch of doors slamming outside.
One of the others waiting gets wild eyes and heads for the door.
The Police are there too meet him.

Guess his background check left something to be desired...

Clark Brothers in Warrenton, Va. I don’t think a thing has changed in 50+ years. Quite overpriced, but NOVA has a lot of money.

My brother and I went there religiously. Too young to purchase guns and ammo, but a friend of my dad’s would allow us to buy ammo and shoot on the range as long as we brought back all the empties before we left.

You couldn’t pay me to shoot there today though.

A guy here walked into our LGS, asked to see a Ruger 357, opened the cylinder, stuffed one round in and offed himself.

I didn't know one human could contain that much blood.

An old timer was bent over looking in the handgun display cases and ripped a huge fart. He stood up, excused himself, and said he meant to belch instead! LOL! Another time a LEO friend came into the store with a handgun wrapped in a towel and was offering it around saying he needed a set of finger prints on it! Did see a guy come in and ask if he could buy just 1 round of ammo, sad!

Showing up to pick up only pistol I ever ordered. I immediately knew I'd screwed myself. It was a Beretta 92s Italian LE trade in. The sights were a joke. Rear notch was very small, front blade was maybe a 1/16 tall. Just had cataracts removed 6 months earlier. Only way I could shoot it was in perfect lighting ,& then it was a strain. Was in stellar condition, but got sold quickly due to my disgust.

A LGS, pawn shop around here had similar experience. Guy asked to see a .410 shotgun. He loaded a shell, & shot the man on other side of counter killing him. This was 10 yrs ago, but I didn't see it first hand.

Damn, your life never got any better than that did it.........

To bad he thought that was the only way out.

Blood is like oil, one drop goes a long ways.

Worked behind the counter all high school and college. Had three accidental discharges from customers, one 9mm right between my feet. Another 45 ACP “close by” and a Browning FN Safari 308 through the roof.

Had a very well dressed gentleman come in and say “I’ll take that one...and that one....those two there.....” on and on till he had about 25 long guns and pistols picked out. He could pay cash for it. Turns out he was royalty from Kuwait if I remember, in Atlanta on business. Obviously not a US citizen...my boss about cried.

Waited on Ted Nugent one time. He was looking for a particular S&W 357 pistol that we didn’t have....but I had a matching pair personally. Told him if he’d come back tomorrow, I’d sell him one of mine. He did, and I did. Nothing like his TV persona back then. Genuinely a nice guy, not over the top in any way, kind...just a great guy.

Had a nice girl come in and request a 12 gauge that her boyfriend might would want and be happy with...said it was for his birthday. We picked out a Remington. She also purchased a box of shells to go with it. Thanked me for helping her out and walked out the door. She promptly took a shell out, loaded the shotgun and blew her head off in front of our store.

And nobody knows wtf they have to sell or where it is.

"Excuse me, what is that Sauer 100 chambered in" - polite customer...."tha what? Could ya point to where it is?.....oh that!....ya that's the only sig rifle we gots..." - dumb fatass guy working behind the counter


That's a legit scenario too.

I worked in one for six years. WAY too many tales to relate here. One:

Reloading counter. Guy asks me "What's the fastest powder?" I told him Bullseye. He says "Gimme a pound."

Getting a bit apprehensive, I asked. "So what do you plan to reload?"

"My .30-06. And I want it to go the fastest."

That’s the ultimate

Going to John Walls in Blairstown Mo. with my dad and grandad. The shop used to occupy most of one side of the main street through town. Remingtons in one building,Winchester's in another,Ruger in another and so on. Go to the appropriate building and start looking for the caliber,model,grade,etc that you wanted til you found the one you liked. Then go see John and make a deal. It is long since gone now,but it used to be the best place around to buy guns.

I worked at a LGS shortly after college for a couple years back in '80 & '81. . Had a older fellow come out of the Adirondack mountains with his whole family in tow. He plops a gun in a beat-up case on the counter and says, "That was my grandpappy's, it's over a 100 years old, what's that worth." He was all grinning with great pride thinking he was about to come into a windfall. The owner takes a rusted, beat-up, store branded, single shot shotgun out of the case. He looks at the old-timer and says, "It's worth about $15." The old-timer starts ranting and raving about how old it was and that my boss was trying to cheat him etc. My boss calmly said, "Sir, I'm not trying to cheat you cause I'm not offering to buy it. I don't want it. You asked me what it's worth and I told you. It was cheap junk when it was brand new and now it's just old, rusty, cheap junk."

Had a fellow come in wanting to buy a replica of a Colt cap and ball revolver. "I don't need a permit to buy one of these right?" "That's correct sir. I can sell it to you but you'll need a permit if you are going to shoot it. However, I can't sell it to you along with the powder, caps or balls" "Ok good, I've got a problem with a neighbor and I want to scare him with it. I can come in at a later date though and buy the powder and stuff for it right?" "Sir, I'm not going to sell it to you, please leave the store."

A young fellow in his mid 20s came into the store with a couple of buddies in tow asking if we had a rifle in a certain caliber (I can't remember the caliber but it was something that wasn't popular in our area.) He wanted it for deer hunting. The only rifle we had in the store in that caliber was a Ruger No. 1. Though it's a fine rifle, it was one that we had in inventory for a long time. I showed it to him and he "Oh, its a single shot." I sized him up, looked at his buddies and asked, "Are you a good shot?" "Oh yeah, I never miss!" "Well then, for a guy who never misses, all you need is the one shot, right?" "Yeah, yeah, that's right. I'll take it." The following year it was back on the rack as a slightly used gun.

Lastly, had a scruffy looking guy come in looking around the place and acting kinda sketchy; walking around aimlessly, kinda nervous. He was the only customer in the store but his head was on a swivel looking around but not at anything specific. It was obvious he knew very little about guns as he asked some stupid questions. I was working alone and he points at a gun on the rack that was the farthest from the cash register. Without asking anything about it he says, "Can I see that one?" I replied, "I don't know? Can't ya see it from where you're standing?." He didn't reply but stood there a while and left. We didn't carry pistols on us in the store but my loaded .357 was on a shelf just under the register. I wasn't about to move away from it. I'm a believer in trusting your gut.

19352012:
Good day to you sir, I hope the week treated you acceptably and this finds you and yours as well as can be what with all the vagaries of life surrounding us.

Thanks for the thread and thanks to those who've responded, it always makes for an entertaining read.

The stories that I'll relate took place in Spence's Sporting Goods in Oroville, WA, a place where a lot of us Canucks used to cross border shop for all sorts of stuff before changes in US law post 911 made it unlawful for us to do that. I'll note that in searching out details for my story I found that Spence passed on in '17. He was a true gentleman and I had the utmost respect for him.

On this particular morning my hunting/fishing partner and I were down in Spence's looking at the latest bass lures as he always had a good stock and stores on our side of the medicine line didn't know anything other than trout existed in the universe.

Naturally since we were there anyways we'd peruse the gun counter to see what was new, I want to say I bought at least 2 firearms from Spence over the years, it wasn't that tough for us Canucks as long as everyone did the paperwork. So into the shop comes a bit of a tough looking chap, hiking boots, denims and the ever present checked heavy flannel "bush" shirt everybody wore back in the 90's as an outer jacket.

He greeted Spence and Spence him back so we knew all was well and weren't totally surprised when he pulled his right shirttail and pulled out a very nice S&W 686 snubbie, opened the cylinder, emptied it and placed it on the counter mat.


When he did that I noticed a Ferry County WA Deputy Sheriff badge clipped to the left of his belt buckle as well. Spence introduced us as "Canadian friends" and he relaxed and asked Spence if "that thing they'd talked about was in" as he was reluctantly ready to trade in his new 686 on it.

Spence then went into the back room and we talked with the Deputy about fishing for a wee bit, whereupon Spence returned carrying the one and only one of these I've ever seen.



While we looked on, Spence ran through the features of it to the Deputy, after which he handed it to him. The Deputy, looked at the shotgun, looked at us all and said, "Well now when I kick down a door to one of them grow ops up back of Chesaw this'll get their attention!"

The other story involves law enforcement as well, which makes sense if one realizes that agriculture was the primary employer around Oroville then and law enforcement a close second as it's a border town so there were all sorts of agencies working in and around.

This day we were likely looking for fishing gear again, but encountered a chap who was about the same size as my hunting partner's older brother, which is 6'7" and a tad north of 400lbs. I want to say this chap might have been only 350 as he wasn't fat, but he was large.

He was an Oroville City LEO and was carrying a 6" barrel revolver, I believe a Smith, but can't recall that detail just now. His size was such that it looked as small as a 4" duty arm looked on "regular" sized folks.

When I asked him about why he'd chosen to stay with a revolver when most of the LEO had switched to auto loaders, his reply was that if it was needed as a blunt force multiplier he knew it'd work afterward for it's intended purpose and that he wasn't so sure about auto, for sure plastic framed autos as yet.

I'll refrain from quoting his exact phrasing, but suffice to say that buddy and I still laugh about it today when we get together. We always agree that getting a 6" barrel revolver applied to any portion of our anatomy by that chap would have been a deterrent of memorable proportion!

In the spirit of cross border shopping both ways, it turns out this chap was dating the ex-wife of an acquaintance of ours, proving once again how small the world can be in rural areas!

Thanks again for the thread and for allowing me to wander down the sunny slopes of yesterday with you all.

All the best to you as we head into winter and Happy Thanksgiving.

Dwayne

Our LGS I’m still trying to figure out who the actual employees are lol..

A dear elderly friend and all-around outdoorsman and firearm loonie i’ve mentioned here number of times, tells the most wonderful and color-filled stories from his youth (he’s 87 now). He was evidently the Huckfinn of rural NJ in those days.

One is how he and two pals just in their early teens, pooled their money and bought a milsurp trapdoor at the hardware store, and how the store owner would allow them to purchase one round per day to shoot (in the gravel pit), plucked from some crate “pretty sure came from the Spanish-American war, i dunno!,” he’d recall with a chuckle.

Present day, fondest memories with him are visiting a semi-secret antique gun honeyhole located in an old feed store back home together, the proprietor too knowing him for many years now. His legs will last about two hours of browsing, and in that time his keen eye will locate every rarity and notable, and I’ll enjoy hearing a few stories retold, and the occasional new story, and the discussions to follow at the dinner table reliving it all into the weeee hours of the morning. Priceless. Like GF says, wish could record those moments and stories effectively for posterity.

we live just a few miles north of blairstown. I went in there with my brother looking for a bolt gun , not sure what we wanted we spent the whole day digging thru box after box looking at so many we lost track of the ones that sparked an intrerest. we went back on saturday and started over. I found a beautiful rem with awsome wood my brother kept digging and had piled up a few to cull thru, when an old guy in overalls came in and yelled at us for being there. he took us down to the main building to see john wall and that old guy ripped us a new one for being in that building so late. come to find out we interupted the big card game that they started after they closed up the store. when we told john we finnaly found what we wanted to buy he laughed and laughed. we were there a couple hours after closing. those were the days!

I always enjoy seeing a guy at the gun store looking for ammo. I have never worked at a store, but some guys who work there aren't the brightest. Here are a few of the best interactions.

Shopper: "I have a 300 magnum, but its made by savage so shouldn't I shoot 300 savage?"

Guy Behind the Counter: "No you want 300 Weatherby Magnum."

I really hope this guy had a 300 weatherby, but not sure savage ever made a 300 weatherby magnum.

Another one
Shopper was in his 60's: "I need a box of 35 shells"

Guy Behind the Counter: "Ok here you go" hands him a box of 35 whelen.

Me being young and not smart enough to mind my own business. "Sir do you have a 35 whelen or 35 remington they are different?"

Shopper: "Kid, I damn well know what I have and these will work. I have had the same lever action for years and these shoot the best in it!"

Sometimes you just cant help people.
I do wish I could just set up outside a pawn shop and tell guys I will give them 10% over whatever the shop offers them. Some guys get absolutely ripped off when they have to pawn a gun.

I went into the Boise Gun Company early on looking for an A5 Light Twelve. They had one out front that was okay, they said they had others in the back but I would have to pick through them. They took me in the back and they had wood racks and A5s stacked like cord wood. Rows of the wood racks and all stuffed with similar models in each bin. Must have been a couple of dozen of them there. I picked through all of them and there were more Light Twelves but their price was too high. I asked they said their inventory was around 5000 guns.

Not in a gun shop, but at a gun smith. He had received a Kimber of Oregon 22h and the shipper wanted it rebarreled cause it wouldn’t shoot accurately. It was a custom classic with fantastic wood and it looked new. The gunsmith knowing that I had some 22 hornet rifles said “ take this to the range and shoot it, to see if it’s accurate”. I did and it was very accurate, about .75” at 100 yards. Brought it back and asked the gunsmith to call the owner and see what he would sell it for. Seller said $700. I bought it on the spot.

I worked in a busy LGS in my late teens/early 20's. It was the Friday before deer season opened, and we were just swamped selling hunting licenses. It was a long narrow sales floor in a plaza. The line for licenses was from the counter, all most out to the door. A guy comes in and squirms his way past everyonne and comes up to the counter trying to get someone to help him. He says he's got a gun that needs repaired. Of course our fist question is, is it loaded? He pulls the gun out of a paper bag and waves it across about a half dozen customers in line to get their licenses as he sets it on the counter. It's a cheap imported semi auto, a 32 or a 380 if I remember right. Parts are literally falling of the gun as he sets it on the counter. As soon as he waved it across the guys at the counter we hit the counter button to call the shop owner to the counter. He tells the guy to step away from the gun, picks it up and cycles the action. Both grp panesl fell off along with the round that was in the chamber, and the fully loaded magazine. The guy at the front of the line, who just had tht gun pointed at his face is white as a ghost. The owner abruptly escorts the "gentleman" to the door, sends him out and locks the door, returning to the counter to pick up the pieces of the gun, takes them to the door and literally throws them out into the parking lot, telling the dude never to come back. To my knowledge he never did.

Rural Country store got a brand new FFL and set up about 2 or 3 of their 1st scoped rifles for sale. Scope crosshairs were mounted in a X configuration. I just laughed, shook my head and left. I figured they would learn soon enough.

About 40 years ago I went to work in a gun shop with a verbal that it would be sold to me the next year. One of the owners deals was that he didn't want to work the counter anymore & that I take care of anything I could before coming to the office to bother him.

A couple guys came in one slow morning & wanted to know if I could apprise some Browning shotguns. Sure, I said, Brownings being very collectable at the time & were well documented, just open a couple picture books.

The two guys started carrying in Browning hard luggage, & lining them up on the counters. About 10-12 guns as I recall. They were all Belgian Superposed over/unders. Pigeon, Diana & Midas grades. Two barrel sets, or 2 & 4 gauge sets. When the research started, we realized that none of them matched the standard high end deluxe grades listed. All exceeded their grade in both extra engraving & gold embellishments. Uncatalogued stuff, off the charts so to speak. All, of course were mint.

I went to the boss & told him he needed to come out front. He asked if I couldn't handle it? I told him that I doubted he could, but he just had to see this. We could only ballpark the numbers for the bunch, but $200K was thrown about. That group of guns was nearly worth double the entire inventory of the shop, & it was a pretty big gun shop at the time.

I've been to a lot of shows & national shoots since then, & with inflation it's not hard to see stuff like that. & of that value often. But 40 years ago, that collection was a sight to see.

I was there once when there was a Remington semi-truck sitting out front delivering pallets of new Remingtons.... it was the only Remington marked semi that I've ever seen.
When I entered the store that day, there was only a path through all of the boxed guns back to John's desk. That old squeaky floor.
I got to go upstairs a couple of times and was in the building a couple of doors north picking up ammo many times but I never was down in the basement... I always heard that was interesting.
Remember when he had the fire? They had personnel from the Base respond because of all the ammo so I've heard.

You just described the staff at my LGS perfectly!

WE had a guy do that at the local Coast to Coast store about 40 years ago. He did at least go outside to do it. He was running away while the clerk chased him. The clerk caught him when he was dead on the sidewalk about a block away.

kwg

I worked at a gun shop in college. I recall seeing the same batch of guns to be appraised 2x in one day. Once from the soon-to-be- ex-husband and then from the soon-to-be-ex-wife. Gave them both the same $$ figures. Here's what I'll pay you for them, here's what I'm going to price them. Dude was only worried about the purchase price, female was only concerned with my retail selling price.

Another guy was going through a divorce and brought in several rifles that had been re-barreled by a local, exceptional gunsmith. Our store didn't buy or trade any non-factory barreled rifles. Guy gets very irritated and tells my co-worker, fine, you can just have them. Put something on your company letterhead that says you won't buy them and I'll give them to you. Co-Worker doesn't have the "stroke" for that and tells the guy so. Guy zips up the cases and leaves. Co-Worker was in a daze for days wondering how he'd let 3 or 4 very nice custom rifles slip through his fingers.

Guy comes in with an armload of old junk guns, some relative had passed away. Some cheapo single-action 22lr pistol with the firing pin on the hammer skitters off the top of the pile, lands on the hammer and the guy catches a 22LR slug through the calf @ about 18". Slug ended up in a mount of a life-size mountain lion taking down a life-size nearly 170" deer. The guy is lucky the mount's owner didn't send him a bill for about $10K. One person escorted the guy to the back door where the ambulance picked him up, a 2nd followed with a bucket/mop, didn't actually bleed all that bad.

I went there many times as a young fellow over 50 years ago, back when his wife still sold groceries on the left side of the store. The right side had used guns. The dialogue always went like this, "John, what do you want for this gun? Well, you look like a pretty good boy, you can have it for XXX.00." He had it all in that place.

I suppose the LGS owner then had to list the Ruger .357 as "Slightly Used, Excellent Condition."

When I lived in Studio City, Calif. years ago, there was a large, well known gun store, B&B Gun Sales in North Hollywood. I'd bought a number of guns there over the years, new and used, plus ammo, reloading stuff, etc., I'd come to know the owners, Bob and Barry Kahn pretty well. One afternoon I was in there checking out their used guns section to see if anything interesting had come in.

I was standing beside an older woman, probably in her 70s, who was gingerly handling a semi-auto pistol of some caliber. .32 ACP maybe. She wanted the pistol for "self protection." She told the salesman she'd "take it." I knew him pretty well. He asked her if she wanted a box of cartridges for it?

She said, "Oh, I don't want any bullets. I could never shoot anyone. I don't even want to shoot it. I just want to scare them away."

The salesman and I kinda looked at her askance, then he talked her out of buying the pistol. Sold her a small canister of mace instead. He later told me that wasn't the first time he'd run into people like that.

It takes all kinds.

L.W.

In the 1980's and early 90's I would call and kill a lot of Bobcat process and sell the fur. Every year I would have a big fat fur check. I would go to B&B Wholesale in North Hollywood and buy three/four guns, whatever I wanted like a freaking kid in a candy store. At that time B&B was the biggest best stocked Gun Shop in all of So Cal. This was the same Gun shop the handed out weapons to the LAPD in the Middle of the infamous North Hollywood bank shootout.

Good thread!

Was in a gun store that was large enough to have 2 gunsmiths. A guy brought in a 1911 .45 and stated the pistol would fire full auto. One of the gunsmiths picked up the pistol pointed it into a bullet trap and pulled the trigger. Sure enough, it was fully automatic, as the first bullet went into the trap, the rest made neat little .45 cal holes in a straight line up the wall and firing the last rounds into the ceiling. I'll never forget the look on the gunsmiths face.

“A .270 will just pencil right through”

We had an older gentleman come in to shoot on our range. We have a printed copy of our range rules that shooters have to read and initial, so they know what they can, and can't do. For some reason, so many people read the questions out loud while they're answering them. One of the questions asks how much firearms experience you have. He read it and answered aloud "I qualified Expert in the Army, so I must be an expert" (he was Nam-era). He then asked for some 20ga slugs for his slug gun. Five minutes later, he was back at the counter b*tching. "These shells won't shoot in my gun. It's probably because they're 2 3/4 and my barrel says 3 inch". I went out on the range to see what was wrong. He had an 870 slug gun and the barrel looked kinda big. I looked, and sure enough, it was a 12ga. The bad part of retail is you can't embarrass a dumbasz customer too much, but it was good for a laugh.

That's exactly right. I don't know how many times that I picked something from the sliding glass door cases to the right of the room or something that had just came in leaning onto to post at the corner of his desk and he'd say something like" I gave Joe Bob $400 for that but you're a good customer and I'll take $300 from you".
I don't remember buying a used gun from John ever for less than what he gave for it. Did I ever believe it? NO! That was just John and when you payed cash, he'd pull a wad the size of a soup can out of his pocket. People would bring him in meat from critters they had killed from everywhere and he had an old electric skillet "that looked like it had never been washed", sitting on a spool or table next to a fridge by his desk and the boys would cook mystery meat and sometimes offer some... I never tried any.
I remember going to "Wall's Store" when Sako Riihimaki's and Browning Safari's and Ithaca 4es' were wall to wall in the glass doored used gun cases.

We are all the poorer for the loss of businesses like John''s!

I spend 40+ hours a week behind the counter at my LGS, a few things of note:

While 2020 is a banner year for sales, there are A LOT of armed IDIOTS out there.

I can tell horror stories for days, but I pulled all of the 38 Super from the shelves, and put it behind the counter because I got tired of telling people: “no, that will NOT fit in your .38 Special revolver”.

A-to-Z Pawn in Blackfoot was owned by an old fellow named Lyle and his wife Virginia back in the 90s. Lyle was (is...I dropped in there last September and got filled in on what's gone on the last 25 years) a short little fellow, and kinda reserved. It was a pawn shop, but most of the business was guns back then. Lyle had a fellow named Buck working behind the counter (and others as well), and Buck was a pretty outgoing fellow. One day he asked Lyle if his mama used to dress him up in blue jeans when he was young, to which Lyle replied "yes, of course." Buck had set the hook...then he asked Lyle, "did she leave the zipper down so you could see where you were going?" The four of five guys standing around who witnessed this were practically rolling on the floor...Lyle got red faced and walked back to his office and wouldn't come back out. Great day, that was.

Doc's Gun Barn in Pocatello was a great place in the mid-90s. Small, but lots of inventory, and Doc Blanchard was a great guy to do business with. One day I spied a Norinco 1911 Compact in the display case...first I had ever seen, and I wanted it badly at first sight. I'd had two Norinco 1911A1s (I think I paid $205 for those back in '93 or '94). The 1911A1s were as reliable as stones. BUT, I had to have that Compact so I grabbed one of my A1s at home and went back down to Poky. No one was in the shop, but Doc and myself that morning. I laid my boxed pistol on the counter and told Doc I'd like to swap. He opened the box, picked up the pistol, and pulled the slide back just a bit while peering into the breech. Then he vigorously yanked the slide back and a live round ejected and landed on the counter, and there I stood with my mouth hanging open. Before I could say a word Doc just walked away and went back to his office or something. I'm sure he did that to give me a little time to think about what had just taken place. I had known better for many years long before that day, so all I can say to this day is "mea culpa," and I plead guilty that day at Doc's. We eventually conducted the trade, and part of the deal was I was to always triple check a gun for live ammo (and I've held up my end of that bargain to this day). Unfortunately, the Norinco Compact was a complete turd and I didn't keep it long. I wish I had thise two 1911A1s back!

The original Uncle Lee's in Greenville, KY had that same mount. I've admired it many times.

It was a great place. Went with a friend while he picked out a Browning O/U took us to the old Bank and there was a room full of Brownings. They said go thru and pick out which one you like. We were there for hours.

I had fresh catfish from that skillet on more than one occasion, caught out of the Grand River that morning. Right behind that old desk was where all the Browning 4 barrel sets were. He had 2 dozen of them one time I was in there. He had a fellow that stayed in the store at night since it had been broken into several times. The guy slept on a cot up on the loft right above Johns desk. A couple of loaded shotguns were on the cot during the day. I was told he had shot the front doors off the place more than once.

Youngster behind the counter at the big box sporting goods store. Nah... we dont have any 44-40, but you can shoot these 44 Magnum in it.

Many years ago the guys at Norm's Gun Shop in White River Junction, VT, kept a loaded revolver in a holster hanging on a pole behind the counter. I remember that I was looking at a rifle that I thought would be an unsuccessful combination of rifle and cartridge, a Savage 99C in 22-250, when I heard the "click...click" of a revolver hammer being cocked. I looked over my shoulder and saw a young boy holding a revolver unsteadily in one hand and aiming it in my general direction. I just started moving slowly to my right to get out of the line of fire. I might have said something, but don't remember.

One time while hangin at my favorite gun store a guy came in and was showing Jack, the owner pic's of a very large grizzlys tracks in the sand on the shore of a mountain lake, well it got my attention because I spent a long night at that lake in a pup tent with my wife and my dogs went crazy barking all night.

Well the customer in the next photo had a picture of the bear that left the tracks, that really got my interest. Then he told us after watching the bear for awhile it wandered off, so he went up the hill to see what the bear was up to. Well he found a dead Mature bighorn ram the bear was feeding on! holy crap! Then he showed us a pic of the full curl set of horns, he took them!

By this time Jack & I are thinking holy fuug. I asked him if anyone saw him with the skull? He said yes he showed them off... I then informed him he was lucky to be alive and the bear was probably sleeping off a full belly nearby and by the way possessing those horns was highly illegal. He was in disbelief and Jack said yep he is right. The guy said what should I do ? he left the shop in a hurry..

Oh and I was at that same lake a few weeks ago and ran into the Chuck Norris of Montana...... yep Shrapnel...

Thinking some of the strangest gun shop stories might be made this year.

I know the managers of a few gun shops, small & large. And they all agree that there a lot of scary or potentially dangerous customers are showing up these days. Folks wanting to buy guns & they don't even have a clue of which end is which. Of course there have been customers like that all along, but the mgrs. are telling me that the numbers of the totally uninitiated are staggering.
They've had to take appropriate measures & extra steps for some customers. To the extent of offering pre purchase training classes or down to simply refusing to sell to some. Even though a purchase might be legal, safety & common sense must overrule.

I expect the number of accidents will rise.

I was in a shop in Roseburg Or. in 2009 wanting to trade a Ruger Red Label 20 gauge in on a semi auto .40 cal. I looked at everything behind the glass but the guy I was dealing with didn’t want to trade. My kids were with me, my daughter was holding my right hand as I stood at the counter and she pulled away and wandered off to find her brother. Seconds later the ex Army “Armourer” that I was dealing with points an HK .40 at the glass and squeezes the trigger. The sound was deafening, dust dropped from the ceiling, and I’m frantically searching for my 3 kids.....
The bullet went through the glass, I felt something hit my leg which I later determined to be glass and the exit hole was at my daughters chest level. Had she been there she would have been gone.
The owner (Army guy’s father) came from a back office and was wringing his hands and wailing like a baby. Turns out he’s the genius who’d shot his hand at a gun show a few years prior.
They claimed later that Army guy “checked” the gun, which was a trade in, and that the extractor failed to remove a black cased Winchester cartridge.
I probably should have sued the shop but didn’t and of course never stepped foot in that establishment again.

Mostly my experience has been some turd behind the counter arrogantly playing up to his coterie of sycophants by being dismissive and demeaning...I don't say a thing just walk out and shop elsewhere.

My local gunshop is owned and run by a knowledgeable fellow that looks after his customers.

Probably the most unusual visit to a "gun shop" was back when I was about 12 or 13 in 1965... The Meier and Frank Store in the big shopping mall downtown Portland had a very upscale gun counter in one corner, right next to the pet store section of the store... I was lusting after some of the guns on the shelves- Purdys, Winchester 21's lined up, and several high end English shot guns. A guy walks up and asks to handle one of the beautiful shotguns and I watch from a few feet away as he swings and looks it over. He eventually asks the counter person- "$6,500?" and the guy answers yes... so, the customer pulls out a wad of cash and pays the guy while he puts it back in the factory box with all the accoutrements and he takes it home.. this was a time when $6500 was a lot of money- in fact it was the same price as a new AC Cobra or an upgraded Corvette at the time...

What was the most unusual about the visit, though was that right next to the gunshop was the pet store so I wandered over and looked at the animals for a while- which included a Lion cub, monkeys, and several other exotic species... I found out later my grade school buddy had a cousin had bought a lion cub there and raised it until it was several years old and treated it pretty much like a pet dog. I saw it once and it was a huge animal and afraid of people except for the owners...

I bought my p. dog hunting partner a Shilen Select match stainless barrel blank, and he took it to a gunshop where there was a gunsmith working in the back. He went to pick up the rifle, the gunsmith handed him the rifle, and he had a massive heart attack and died on the spot. It took me a while to get over this.

In a small town GS picking up a pistol and chatting about guns.....

Gamey lookin guy walks in and asks if he can buy a gun if he has a felony

“NO!!!”

We’re talking about it and 5 minutes later he walks back in and asks
“What if I don’t tell you about the felony?”

No one answered.......all were laughing too hard....

I was at Warshalls in Seattle way back in the day 40 some years ago.


I was looking at some guns and whenever the boss was not around, the employees would whisper to me what was wrong with the guns.

That giant old gunstore soon went out of business. Too bad, my father had them rebarrel a Win 1897 in the 1950s.

I sent a revolver to Ruger one time for a fix and they sent me a new pistol. Asked to send ffl info and I called my favorite gun shop; Thunderstik Trading co in Tucson AZ. Told them the story and they said I didn’t need an ffl as it was already my pistol, a replacement for a pistol I already owned didn’t need a transfer. I told them Ruger insisted and they argued but finally said they would do it for me as a favor but insisted they wouldn’t charge me a dime for the transfer and that Ruger was being unreasonable. Great folks. I miss that store.

A student at the Co School of Trades (gunsmithing) heated the plug on a ML to get it off, without first checking for load. Apparently no one on the intake of the piece had either.

I know this bcause I asked about the hole in the overhead of my table.....

The first gun shop I bought anything from suddenly closed, the owner was accused of selling guns to the IRA.

Don't remember if he went to jail or not.

Joe Pepitone, New York Yankee great, happened to be shopping for an over-under for skeet/trap shooting when I was in a Long Island gun store back in the early 1990s. I happened to have a baseball and mitt in my trunk. I asked him if he would sign them both, if I went out and brought them into the store. He happily agreed. I still have them both.

One day I got a call at the shop from a customer who had a question about scopes.

Customer: "What does it mean when a scope is 4x32?"

Me: "It means the scope is a four power with a 32mm objective lens."

Customer: "What does four power mean?"

Me: "It means that if your target is 100 yards away, the target looks like it's only 25 yards away"

Customer: "Does the bullet still have to go the whole 100 yards?"

Long pause.

Me: "No, sir, The target merely appears to be 25 yards away. The scope does not actually compress space-time."

Somehow I managed to hang up before I started laughing.

I was in the original Bud's gunshop back when it was a small shop actually owned by Bud about 35 years ago.It was a storefront kind of place,...not very wide but fairly long. It had a couple of racks running the length of the store that were about 6' tall.

Just me, another guy, and the guy behind the counter. The other guy asked to look at a .357 revolver. He picked it up and started walking off cocking the hammer, then pulling the trigger,,...went over behind the rack and walked to the back of the store where he couldn't be seen.

I thought it was odd. Then I looked at the guy behind the counter (not Bud) and he had a very "no nonsense" look on his face and was staring very intently towards where the guy went.

After maybe 45 seconds, the guy walked back, placed the revolver on the counter, then walked out without saying a word.

I asked the guy behind the counter,..who was now looking out the door the guy had just walked out of, "What the hell was that about?" He didn't say anything,...just shook his head.

To this day, I think that guy was going to load that revolver and rob the place,....but lost his nerve. Maybe because I had walked in. I wasn't carrying, but he didn't know that.

The gun store I worked in was not too far from a high crime region. I had a couple of gang bangers come in looking for a "9". They reeked of pot. They picked the cheapest one out of the counter. I told them to hold on and I will get one out of the back in the box. I stalled back there and then told them we were out. One of them said to give him the one in the display. Nope, we don't sell display guns. They left.

Had a real fast talking New Yorker try and buy a handgun out of state, no permit, no ID. Get out!

Had a few obvious attempted straw purchases with one guy telling the payer what to do.

best time I had in gun shops was 80's and 90's where you just walked in got couple pounds of powder few hundred primers bullet heads. nobody bought 100K primers 2 tons of powder 50K bullets at once like they do now. same people tell you that you have a mental problem if you did not stoop to their level and empty store shelves

1963, Bullseye Gun Shop on NW 27th Ave on the north side of Miami. I was nine and my dad took me to get my first firearm, a Winchester single shot 22 rifle and the salesman threw in two boxes of yellow box Winchester LRs. I don't think I've ever derived more pleasure ifrom a firearm ever.

No stories but all the above makes me think how lucky we are to have Larry's here in Huntsville. Place is unbelievable. Store looks like the average size, well stocked gun store. But the retail area only takes up about 10% of the place. They have many thousands of guns and many millions of rounds of ammo. What a lot o people do not know is the really good stuff never makes it up front. As I was told, why put a 10,000 dollar gun up front for hundreds of looky lous to handle and mess up. They know the serious buyers and you are quietly told they may have such and such you might want to look at. Never hurts to ask what a gun store has in the back. Especially if your looking for something special.

I was in a Gander Mtn one time looking at ammo. This guy walks up and is having a LOUD phone conversation with another guy. All I klow is I heard .308 Norma Mag on the other end of the phone. Guy grabs a box of .308 Wins and says Don't worry i got you some ammo. He started to walk away and I said those wont work in a .308 Norma Mag. He turns around and tells me they say.308 right on them. I told him for loaded .308 Norma mag ammo hes going to need a reloading press or a time machine but those .308 Wins wont work. He walked away with the shells.

LOL. That's awesome!

Sometime in 1990, I was in London wandering around by myself and I decided to pay Holland & Holland a visit. The store is incredible and while I was looking around, a Limey in a 3-piece suit asked if he could help me with anything, I chuckled a little and said: "No thanks, I'm just here to gawk." He reached over to a rack, grabbed what looked like a large bore double rifle, handed it to my and said: "have a look." I looked at the incredible firearm in my hands, and discovered it was a 32 bore sxs scatter-gun, priced at reasonable £32,000.00 - the exchange rate was ~ 2:1 at that time. Since I was the only "customer" in the store, he proceeded to lead me all around showing me all manner of Holland & Holland firearms and he allowed me to handle each of them. All of them were truly incredibly firearms - many of which were north of £100,000.00. What struck me the most, other that the craftsmanship, was just how well all of the guns balanced. H&H has ergonomics down pat, that's for damn sure. I ended up spending almost 2 hours there and he was full of information and answered all of my questions - which were many. It was truly an experience to remember.

Unfortunately, I was lacking the funds to take one home to TX.

I watched a gunshop expert in Idaho Falls sell a couple a smith 38 special and 2 boxes of 38 super ammo the other day. I comment that those shells won't fit that gun and the salesman said ignore him they are 38's and its a 38.

Bb

Live just down the road from there and share your sentiments about the place.

Haven’t been to Clark Brothers since I moved out of VA in 05. Used to be a guy that worked there named John that referred to me as ‘easy money’, if that tells you how much I spent there. I’ve heard it’s changed a bit. Used to head to Green Top quite often as well. I liked the old place more than the new one.

Old70

Now there's a great story!

Thanks. That's a fascinating place. I was in there one time, just to look. No one else was there except a gentleman who worked there. He asked if I wished to see anything in particular, and I didn't so he brought out a really superb side by side 410 or 28 gauge shotgun, I don't remember which. It was $42,000 as I recall and was the lightest, best handling shotgun I have ever held. Absolutely superb.
Nice to be reminded of that.

One other sort-of-gun store experience was when I was driving across country and stopped outside of Tulsa in Claremore to see the hotel that J.M. Davis had. He had guns in glass display cases in the lobby. He said we- I had a friend with me- could go upstairs and look and he had rooms of that 4 or 5 story hotel filled with guns. One room would be the Winchester lever gun room, another would be Remington, etc, etc. There were machine guns on the walls upstairs. He had two or three Walker Colt pistols. I saw two but I think he said he had three. He's gone now--this was 50 years ago- and his collection is in the hands of the state and some are on display at a nice museum. (https://www.thegunmuseum.com/).

Now that it's been mentioned it might have been the 32 bore In Holland and Holland. It's been a long time and maybe it was that the price was 42,00 pounds. Out of my budget for sure.

Years ago I was in a gun shop that also sold archery equipment. Guy walked in the night before archery deer season and said he borrowed a bow from a buddy and needed one arrow for the next day’s hunt. Salesman said is one all you need ? “ I only have one tag” was his reply.

Same experience there. I noted that the current inventory was a bit beyond my means and he replied "but it may not always be and we want you to think of us if that becomes the case". Heck of a salesman!

My wife and I were walking to a pub recommended to us by the Marriott hotel concierge near Hyde Park in London about 12 years ago when I looked across the street and saw James Purdey and Sons. Unlike HighNoon and Pugs however, it was a "bank holiday" and they were closed.

You would love Joel Etchen in Laughlintown Pa.

I drive by for years, no idea it's a gun shop.
One day a friend mentioned it, so the next time by, I stopped.
It's a block building, sided by slabs.
The sign has the name, and a claybird being broken.
Until you know it's a gun shop, you dont see the clay bird.
There is no indication of guns.
They keep the door locked, when you try to open it, they let you in.
Walking in, it's just accessories.
A hard left takes you through a vault door into the gun room.
High dollar shotguns aren't my thing, but nothing in there goes under $1k.
And you can pick up the stuff under about $3k.
The good stuff is locked in cases.
Not my show, but a neat place.

I was in the Axmen in Missoula, MT several years ago when this fairly hot bitch was checking out some of the jewelry they have in there. All of a sudden she let a ripper loose. She ran out embarrassed but the gun counter folks and I just started busting up laughing.

Hasn't changed 1 bit.
Still over priced,under staffed,under educated.
Plenty opinionated though.