Confusion at the gun counter

Status
Not open for further replies.
It's amazing how some of these guys can stay in business so long. He's been around at least 30 years. Our town is not huge; maybe 8,000 proper and 60,000 in the entire county, but we have a lot of traffic from the towns farther out that drive through on the way to the DFW metro. He must survive on out-of-towners and one-time customers because nobody local uses him more than once.

I've been in there twice. Bought a Ruger M77 in .270 in 1999 and left feeling like I had been ambushed at an intervention. It took me several years to venture in there again, and I had another bad experience so I blew it off. Too bad. His prices were not horrible and he had a good selection. I also lived a mile away. Now I drive 40 miles to a shop in Fort Worth.

I've been tempted to go in there with some friends who don't know him and get him spun up on purpose, but I really would be flirting with disaster in this case.
 
I ran into one fella who was avoiding counseling b/c it would supposedly keep him from renewing his FFL. Such rumors might explain much about our industry.
 
sleepyone said:
It's amazing how some of these guys can stay in business so long. He's been around at least 30 years. Our town is not huge; maybe 8,000 proper and 60,000 in the entire county, but we have a lot of traffic from the towns farther out that drive through on the way to the DFW metro. He must survive on out-of-towners and one-time customers because nobody local uses him more than once.

I've been in there twice. Bought a Ruger M77 in .270 in 1999 and left feeling like I had been ambushed at an intervention. It took me several years to venture in there again, and I had another bad experience so I blew it off. Too bad. His prices were not horrible and he had a good selection. I also lived a mile away. Now I drive 40 miles to a shop in Fort Worth.

I've been tempted to go in there with some friends who don't know him and get him spun up on purpose, but I really would be flirting with disaster in this case.
Click to expand...
I hear you. This guy is a racist berserker with not even one braincell and rails against anything he doesn't have. It'd probably pretty easy and fun to go in and bait him into a fitting apoplectic seizure.
 
witchhunter said:
Afew years ago, a new gun store is opening and I stop in, talk to the OWNER, ask if he carries reloading supplies. He says yeah and points to a shelf. Primers and powder but no bullets. I ask him if he has bullets, He points to the ammunition on another shelf, I look and look but no bullets. ...
Click to expand...

I went the other way with that once. I mail ordered some 9x18 Makarov bullets, thinking that it was a heck of a good price for ammunition. All I could do was laugh at myself and shake my head when I opened the box. I still have the bullets. Maybe someday I will get into reloading...

Jim
 
I realize the .22 WRF can be fired in a .22 WMR . My point was that the clerk was probably NOT confusing the two cartridges because he NEVER mentioned the .22 WRF and the cartridge is so old and "rare" he probably didn't even know the .22 WRF existed.
 
Stargazer 65, your story reminds me of the scene in the movie, "Five Easy Pieces," staring Jack Nicholson, where he is in a cafe with a couple of friends. He orders a dish not exactly on the menu, and the waitress and he go through the same type dialogue you had with the gun store employee.

Hilarious scene, if you remember the movie.

L.W.
 
Leanwolf, that was one of my favorite movies and one of my favorite scenes. Short version after the waitress refused his original order: I want the chicken salad sandwich but don't put anything on the bread, toast the bread, put butter on it, hold the chicken salad and bill me for the chicken salad sandwich. :D
 
Last edited:
I've seen the same thing Klusterbuck. My nephew was shooting .22's with me one day, and grew fond of the ammo we were using (CCI mini-mags). He was quite proud to show me he'd bought a box "of the same kind" later that afternoon. Sadly, he had purchased a 50 rd box of MAXI Mags (22WMR).
 
"I have seen some guys get confused regarding 22wmr vs cci mini mag 22lr."

That would be me. I realized after I had finished shooting .22" LR in the Arminus & was about to change cylinders that I had been shooting .22" LR out of the WMR cylinder.
 
sleepyone said:
a LGS in our town is owned by a nut case who regularly insults and belittles anyone who comes through the doors. My deceased FIL went in there one time to get a box of 300 Savage. The owner tells him to point to it on the shelf. This is my FIL's first time in the shop and there are about three rows of shelves about 10-15' long full of ammo. My FIL says "Hell, I don't know where you keep your 300 Savage" to which the owner replies "If you can't point it out to me, I'm not going to sell it to you."

A friend of mine goes in the same shop to buy a rifle and begins to complete the 4473. He lives in Fort Worth and puts down Ft. for Fort. The owner tells him that is not the correct way to spell it, calls him a bunch of names, and goes into a tirade. My friend finally tells him he can take his rifle and stick it up his **s!

Last story. same guy. An ATF agent comes in for a routine look at the books, and this guy is convinced he is part of an illegal sting operation, so he draws on the agent, takes him to the ground, handcuffs him and calls the county sheriff.

many more stories...
Click to expand...
I would go in that man's shop just for entertainment purposes. That is too much.
 
Had a similar situation on the same caliber about 6 months ago or so. Asked for some CCI .22Magnum TNT rounds and got Maxi Mag HP. I caught it on the way to the register and the clerk blamed his bad hearing and the loud store :D
 
Ammo confusion

Our local (small) gun store has virtually no ammo to speak of. Customers are buying anything in the hope that they can eventually trade for the caliber they need. Sad state of affairs
 
Customer comes in looking for "nine corto" ammo. I grab a box of .380 and explain that 9 corto/9 kurz/9 short are all Euro designations for .380. He doesnt seem too sure. I show him the ammo. He won't buy any.

Customer comes in asking for 8mm. I sell him a box of 8mm Mauser and wonder what your typical ghetto dweller is doing with a Mauser. But not my business. He comes back a few minutes later to explain that it's for a revolver. I rack my brain as to what kind of 8mm revolver there is (I think the French made one in the 19th century). But I dont have any. Then he comes back and says, It's like a Glock. Eight millimeter automatic? Maybe a Nambu? I dont have that either. Then I ask, what other markings are on the gun? He tells me there's an A75 on it. Aha. Astra A75 in 9mm. And the way the Spanish print the 9 with the bottom curled it might look like an 8. Especially if you were stoned half the time and barely literate. But I wondered how anyone could look at the 8mm Mauser ammo and figure it would possibly fit in an Astra A75.
 
A friend of mine goes in the same shop to buy a rifle and begins to complete the 4473. He lives in Fort Worth and puts down Ft. for Fort. The owner tells him that is not the correct way to spell it, calls him a bunch of names, and goes into a tirade. My friend finally tells him he can take his rifle and stick it up his **s!
Click to expand...

At one time 4473's did not allow for any abbreviation. Probably still don't if you read the instructions. You had to spell out everything. Ft., would not have been acceptable with an ATF audit. It really came down to the ATF auditor. Most stores never really cared as long as it was obvious what you meant. But a few other stores had gotten their hands slapped by auditors in the past and are really strict about making sure you don't abbreviate anything.

The store owner was technically right, but it sounds like he should have handled it better.
 
A lot of are gun people are not necessarily well versed in every cartridge ever produced or even still produced. I know pretty well the cartridges I shoot and load, but am not even close to knowing them all.

Similarly, a store clerk in any industry cannot be expected to know everything that all of his potential customers know. A decent gun counter worked asked for ammo with which he is not familiar should consider it an opportunity to learn something.

It could be that the customer is entirely right in what he's asking to buy, and it could be that he's utterly clueless. Either way, if the unloaded firearm for which the ammo is needed were to be presented at the counter, action open and muzzle safe, there is little doubt the correct ammo can be determined, if not by sight then by a brief Internet search. That way, nobody gets offended, and nobody buys the wrong ammo.
 
They probably don't want to sell you that magnum stuff as it's only good for killing stuff. What you wanted was .22 WMR. I think 22 magnum and 22 WMR can be shot by the same gun. :) Just maybe, if the clerk thinks about it, he may have learned something.
 
I had a gun store clerk that kept on correcting me on what I wanted.

I asked for ".22 magnum" for my Ruger Single Six. He said, " We have no .22 magnum, just .22 WMR." So I said, "That's actually what I want, .22WMR" Then he says, "No, .22 WMR is not the same thing" So I said, "Fine, I don't want .22 Magnum, I want .22WMR" Then he says' "No, no, no, you don't want .22WMR, it's not the same as .22 Magnum"

Finally, I took a deep breath, and said calmly, "OK, let me start over. What I meant to ask for when I first came in was .22WMR. .22WMR is what my gun shoots, I mistakenly said .22 Magnum" (I don't even know what .22 Magnum he's talking about but I'm not about to ask because it might cause more confusion)"

Then he says finally, "Oh OK, we got some of that, you should have said that's what you wanted"

So now that that's all over with, what .22 magnum (that is not .22WMR) would he have been talking about? I don't see it.
Click to expand...

I think this would make a great comedy skit at like a NRA banquet, or something . :)

One store I went into has a policy of not opening ammo boxes in the store. I can appreciate that, but I need to know how flat the flat nose bullets are, as it can sometimes lead to feeding problems in my semi-auto. The clerk said "Ammo is ammo - it doesn't make any difference."

I owned a music store for many years - sometimes gun store clerks can be like music store clerks.
 
Had a customer come up to the counter at the LGS. Handed me a box of .45 cal HDY bullets and was asking if we had any more. I looked in the back and found an additional box and brought it out. He was ecstatic. We began talking and he asked what the FPS of these would be. Looked at him and said depends on the charge you put in but 950fps is pretty average for a 45 ACP. He responded "Oh I don't reload". He thought the bullets were loaded ammo. Was quite embarrassed and we found him 2 boxes of the loaded stuff.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Brubz
  • Locked
Federal Ammo catching up?
2
Replies
32
Views
2K
Sniper66
S
4
  • Locked
What is the purpose of 22WMR (magnum) rifle?
2
Replies
26
Views
14K
Loic
L
L
  • Locked
.22lr vs .22wmr revolvers
2
Replies
31
Views
10K
Eb1
Eb1
stchman
  • Locked
Using .22WRF in a .22WMR rifle.
Replies
18
Views
10K
oldfool
O
Milkmaster
  • Locked
  • Poll
10/22 WMR or the Henry 22WMR lever gun?
Replies
21
Views
3K
hksw
H
Back
Top