Thread: Any decent Gun stores left in Kitsap County?

With the closing of Gehrings and Foxes, are their any places left to go
in Kitsap for good gun experience, preferably with a gunsmith?

all I can find are pawn shops and sports stores. neither seem to have
any expertise and knowledge.

I know I can buy online, but I prefer to see things in hand, because
picture are not always accurate.

I checked out Boerings (sp?) yesterday. For parts they had a little
cabinet with everything mixed together. it was kind of like a mini gun
store

I miss being able to talk to people, about the best way to make fixes
or things to watch out for. a forum is not quite the same

I don't know of any. I stop at Boerner's in Gorst pretty regularly because its the only place close but they don't have the best service or prices.

I usually go to Mary's Pistols in Tacoma if I actually want to buy something. They have great service, and good prices and a gunsmith next door. If anyone knows of any good local ones let me know. Its a long drive to Mary's but Boerner's and that tiny place in downtown Port Orchard aren't cutting it.

Real tough to compete with the big stores is one reason.
Sportsman Warehouse, to name just one (Discount Sports?) buys in quantities of hundreds a month where a small shop might buy only a few dozen a year.
Typically a small shop cannot compete against such a business that buys in huge volumes directly from the builder where a little guy has to buy from a wholesaler.
That is one reason.

Another might be that the big store there carries loads of ammo and loads of shooting supplies.
Who can compete with that?

Thirdly, Kitsap may not have the gun enthusiast population it takes to support a nice mom and pop store as you have eluded to.
On the other side of the pond, you have millions of people up and down the I-5 corridor to poole from.
Not the case on this side.

Buying guns on line may not save that much considering you have to pay a transfer fee, and many times shipping fees are inflated.

Or... Maybe not

Yeah, or maybe the small shops around here were horrible. I hadn't been to the store up in Poulsbo in forever but the rest of the stores before Sportsman's Warehouse put them out of business were pretty lousy in my opinion. Just environment wise they were small, dirty dimly lit shops with high prices and gruff slightly unpleasant sales people. I can see why they went out of business. It was unpleasant to go to them.

They didn't go out of business from price. The prices weren't amazing at SW. If anything it was from selection, and ever since they were bought out Wholesale Sports doesn't stock anything!

The last shop I really liked in the area was Bayside Shooters Supply.

Originally Posted by cwegga

Just environment wise they were small, dirty dimly lit shops with gruff slightly unpleasant sales people. I can see why they went out of business. It was unpleasant to go to them.

That's the truth! Only went to Gehrings once because the guys there were jerks who wouldn't give you the time of day unless you were buying something, didn't like Sportsman's because the hick jocks I went to school with worked there and were a combination of stupid and rude but the new store is great but too commercial (they replaced the idiots with quality folk), Boerners is disorganized and pretty rag tag but the people are ok. Too bad there isn't a nice mom and pop store with quality hardware, ammo, and decent friendly folk that run it. I shoot out in the boondocks because the two ranges out here are ran by fascists. I'm a big boy, if I don't want to wear eye protection I'm not going to.

Originally Posted by cwegga

Yeah, or maybe the small shops around here were horrible. I hadn't been to the store up in Poulsbo in forever but the rest of the stores before Sportsman's Warehouse put them out of business were pretty lousy in my opinion. Just environment wise they were small, dirty dimly lit shops with high prices and gruff slightly unpleasant sales people. I can see why they went out of business. It was unpleasant to go to them.

They didn't go out of business from price. The prices weren't amazing at SW. If anything it was from selection, and ever since they were bought out Wholesale Sports doesn't stock anything!

The last shop I really liked in the area was Bayside Shooters Supply.