Musings on local ranges and gun shops

[dragongoddess]

A few thoughts on local gun shops and gun ranges. If you don't use them then you will lose them. Funky but true. You must do as much business as possible with your local shops and ranges. As to the shops they cannot stay in business with $25 transfer fees or what ever the local shop charges you. Oh I know its a pain to pay a few dollars more but that is the difference in having a shop or not having a shop. So what is your desire?

As to ranges its getting neigh on impossible to just go out into the sticks and run a couple hundred rounds through your weapons at an assortment of cans bottles or whatever. So you need to support your local ranges. Yea there is a membership fee and they may make you use their ammo but at least you will have a place to shoot when access to open land is gone. And it will soon be gone.

You see its easier to pass a law banning the discharge of firearms than it is to ban the firearms themselves. SO if there are no local shops or ranges this type of law is easily passed. Yet if there is a strong business support in opposition one can pretty much rest assured that such local laws won't get passed. Of course the only way there can be strong business opposition to something like this is if your local gun shops and ranges are financially strong and therefore have an interest to stay in business.

In other words "We have met the enemy and it is US"

So suppport your local shops and ranges or they won't be there next time.

 

[XavierBreath]

I stopped frequenting a major gun store in my area three years ago not because of the prices, but because the owner's wife treated me, a paying customer, like dirt. Now I do not expect to be treated like royalty, because I am not. I also do not expect to be treated like dirt, because I am not. Three years later, I still could care less if they go out of business. They have the best selection of Colt 1911s around (although overpriced), but I have learned to get by without them. I do not need them, and they might have benefitted from my business.

There is also a public range that I no longer frequent, because the sheriff canceled everyone's memberships in a fit of anger after his tax was not passed to pay for new goodies for his deputies. He later reopened the range when hunters began scoping in their rifles on street signs. Fine. I shoot at another range, on my own land, and on the land of other shooters. When the sheriff comes up for election I will vote for his opponent.

There are many places to buy and shoot. If social misfits can't run a business effectively they need to go out of business. It's survival of the fittest, and if they can't treat customers with courtesy, then they need to close their doors. Sorry, but I already pay taxes to support a welfare state, and I darned sure am not going to do it with firearms too.

 

[dragongoddess]

Well when owners of a business mistreat their customers then the customers need to express their feelings by purchasing elsewhere. My post was more in the line of increased buying all of ones arms and ammo online. Business is lost to those running a good shop and providing great service. As to the politics in your area its outside of of my understanding. I was just trying to point out that there were other ways that the "anti's" can destroy our sport. So it really doesn't matter if you have 10,000 acres if its against the law to discharge a firearm in public we lose. So supporting those businesses that support our sport is important. They are the biggest stick we have in this fight to save our sport.


As far as your statement about the welfare state please be advisied we are all members of said stae. Don't believe me. You are using this internet. Developed with your tax dollars as was medicine, roads, materials for all products, your doctors, lawyers, or any other college educated and for that matter anyone who has gone to school. So in that light we are all members of the welfare state but that really has no bearing on the topic.

 

[bearmgc]

Geez, I'd love to exclusively buy at local shops, but the majority around my town central WY, have lost any interest in negotiating. And when they offer 30-40% trade value on my gun then sell them for more than new, I lose respect for them. They still try to feed me BS and say its steak, like I'm an idiot, then don't wait on me later, because, I'm guessing, I didn't take their "deal." I've had sarcastic remarks made to me when I ask questions. I've held my tongue, been respectful towards them all the while. Now my money walks somewhere else. I'm a woman with money, not a stupid woman. As to ranges, I've already spoken on this, but here goes again. I can't get a key to the indoor range, because nobody there keeps appts made for range orientation- for the past year. So I'm paying $75/yr, and can't even use the indoor range. Forget that crap. They're all putting themselves out of business, because they think they're the only game in town. The Anti's have nothing to do with this, its pure business contempt for the very same people that keep shops in business. We've had many threads on this issue, and when a shop owner treats his customers well, they keep coming back, even if the prices are a little more than online. Dragongoddess, in this thread, I think you are preaching to the choir....

 

[Werewolf]

My post was more in the line of increased buying all of ones arms and ammo online.

The internet is a fact of life. It is here to stay and it is not going away.

Brick and mortar shops need to deal with that. Some have - some haven't and probably never will. Those that deal will survive, some will thrive. Those that don't will go the way of the dodo and a well deserved fate it will be. The dodo had no choice - it couldn't compete with man.

Gunshops on the other hand have had plenty of time to leap into the 21'st century (heck - some of 'em are still living in the 19th century) so there is no excuse for them not to embrace the new technologies which will allow them to acquire customers from far and wide. If they go down I for one will not be shedding any tears for them; for as long as there is a demand for firearms and firerams accesories there will be merchants willing and able to supply it all the while earning a good profit.

 

[BlkHawk73]

I've got no problems at all paying a bit more at my local shop compared to the large corporate stores. Never have. Not just becuase I usually have to special order what I want, but becasue I know I can order what I want and enjoy the talk at the local shop. I go in and I'm known by name. the big corporate store could care less. I'll pay for that personal service.

 

[evan price]

My local store charges about $34.50 per battle pack of SA .308. AIM surplus with shipping it was still about $28.50 per battle pack. That is about $45 in savings with sales tax added, per case. When you order stuff in bulk like I do that equates to about a free case with every order.
Sure they have to make a living. But so do I.

 

[ceetee]

I used to frequent a local Mom and Pop gunshop. It was a nice place run by nice folks. They were educated about their product lines, enthusiastic about helping beginners learn, and always wanted to help people make educated decisions about their purchases. I bought my first gun... no, make that my first FOUR guns there. Then, Mom and Pop got divorced, and liquidated their stock. Pop took the FFL and went... somewhere.

I went around looking for a new place to shop. In my travels, I ran into:

1. The guy that would sell me any gun I wanted as long as it was a Jennings, Raven, Lorcin, or Grendel.
2. The guy that would sell me any gun I wanted as long as it was a 1911.
3. The guy that would tell me exactly what gun I wanted to buy, and what ammo to shoot out of it.
4. The guy that would let me look at the guns through the glass, but not touch...
5. More than a few guys that didn't seem to even want to discuss what I wanted, or even approach me.
6. The guy that did listen to what I want, and even has it in stock, but priced at 150% of MSRP... non-negotiable.

Since then, I've bought most of my guns at gunshows, after researching market prices. It matters less to me these days who makes the sale, rather than the simple fact that the sale was made. I'll happily drive an hour to go to the range that lets me shoot my own defensive ammo, rather than patronize the one close to me that makes me use his cheap range ammo at double the cost.

That way, I can skip the "Chairborne Ranger" stories, and I don't have to listen to the guy that tells new gun shoppers about a certain polymer-framed pistol that's so accurate and ergonomic that "if you hear a noise at night, you don't even have to be able to see what made it... you just point at it and shoot. You'll hit it."

 

[History Prof]

As to ranges its getting neigh on impossible to just go out into the sticks and run a couple hundred rounds through your weapons at an assortment of cans bottles or whatever.

Depends on where you live. Maybe you need to move a little further west than far west Texas. Very little public land in Texas. Hit NM and AZ, and there is plenty of it. I'm fortunate enough that I have the choice of a city range (so close to my house that I hear gunfire all day every Saturday) or driving fewer than 10 miles out into the sticks. I can drive for 40 miles in any direction before I get to the next town, so there are hundreds of thousands of acres for me to shoot on - all nice and legal.

So you need to support your local ranges. Yea there is a membership fee and they may make you use their ammo but at least you will have a place to shoot when access to open land is gone. And it will soon be gone.

None around here. Just how far west are you? If you're in El Paso, take the blacktop road from El Paso to Columbus, NM, and just find a place anywhere along the 50 mile stretch of road. You may get buzzed by the black choppers from time to time (no kidding, and no tin foil hat here, ICE trains at the Las Cruces airport, and the Customs choppers really are black) but if you're not breaking any laws, no problems.

I'm not at all disagreeing with your argument, just pointing out that it doesn't apply everywhere.

As for the gun shops, I support both of my local shops, and one in Deming, NM, whenever I pass through.

 

[Gord]

There's a difference between shops that price their firearms a bit higher than internet prices, and shops that seem to think offering crap at 150% of MSRP is a good idea and make it plain they think you're an idiot if you say otherwise.

Sorry, but the 2nd Amendment plight isn't that desperate yet.

Gunshops around here tend to suck. I offered $200 + DROS for a Bulgie Makarov a while back, priced at $275, and was told, pretty rudely, by the owner that his prices are non-negotiable. Now, I'm willing to pay a little more locally - but 1.5 to 2 times the going rate slightly exceeds my definition of a little more. And I certainly will not pay even that "little more" if a shop wants to treat me like my very existence is a personal affront to them.

Until my local shops hop on the bandwagon for that whole "free-market capitalism" thing, I will continue to order my guns, ammo and accessories from faceless corporations and online vendors. Because, frankly, I'd rather buy from a faceless corporation than an individual with a derisive sneer on his.

...and I'm sure that'd happen much more quickly if people would stop trumpeting the "if you don't buy a Kimber at 50% markup instead of that Charles Daly you've been eyeing on Gunsamerica, the 2A is going to kick the bucket" crap.

 

[KC&97TA]

#6. The guy that did listen to what I want, and even has it in stock, but priced at 150% of MSRP... non-negotiable.

I try to give the little guy more buissiness, expecially with Turners and Big Five always stocked with 'gun nuts' who want to tell me thier national guard stories.

But... when I finially found a Springfield GI and it was priced at $565 non-negotiable, I had to pass. Then reluctantly went back and paid for it.

But... when the shotgun I bought from them came into serious gas system problems, they wouldn't even look at it for 3 weeks if I brought it in.

I'm done with that certain "shop". Unless you're spending upwards of $2,500 they don't really like to talk to you, don't ask to see a Remington, you'll get handed a Browning or some crazy Italian jobby.

I've found that the local public range makes thier money off of; ammo and targets and range fee's. Thier guns are actually always below retail, most of the time they are a few dollars cheaper than what I can get them for aboard the Military Base.

I don't like buying out of catalogs, but Brownells is the best I've found, Midway is close, but Brownells will mail 1st class mail, so if you only need a $7 part you only need to pay $4 in shipping, not $16 in Fed-ex fee's. Saves a few bucks.