Thread: Gun Crafters Firearms & More

Originally Posted by Shooter98

Doug should not be allowed to do business of any sort.

I disagree, he should be allowed to do as he pleases like anyone else, but he is a prick and I will never give him my business again.

for ammo in salem, don't forget NW ammo supply, a bit hard to find (west of airport in industrial area) but the prices & attitudes are great there.

Originally Posted by jdub75

for ammo in salem, don't forget NW ammo supply, a bit hard to find (west of airport in industrial area) but the prices & attitudes are great there.

I've never heard of them?!?!?! Do they have supplies for handloading as well?

Originally Posted by Shooter98

I've never heard of them?!?!?! Do they have supplies for handloading as well?

NW Ammo Supply

Originally Posted by titsonritz

NW Ammo Supply

Better link at top of NWFA main page in the vendor links.
NWAMMO

The last place I go or call when i need something and can't wait for mail order.

I would give them a neg 1 if possible. The big gun that acts like he owns the place jerked me around when I first got an AR and didn't know any better.

I had purchased all the parts I needed to build an upper and called them to see if they had one of those AR wrenches in stock as I didn't have one. He goes on to tell me how crazy i am for trying to put an upper together myself and they see blown up ARs in all the time from people that don't know what they are doing and buy parts that don't work together. He tells me the upper needs to be head spaced and if it's not it could blow up on me. I respond by telling him that I didn't think the upper in an AR actually could be headspaced wrong by it's design. He insists that it has to be checked and adjusted to be safe.

So i give in and take it down to his "AR Specialist" to have them put the upper together for $50 or something like that. I figured it was better than having it blow up on me. The "specialist" put it all together in about 15 minutes and hands it back to me. I then asked the "specialist" how the headspacing came out. His response was "you don't headspace an AR" and acts like i'm an idiot. So i insist that I want it checked since that was the reason I had them do it.

So the dude checks the headspacing which takes another 2 minutes and then charges me an extra fee for "headspacing" my upper.

That was the last $ they got from me.

I also read a number of the posts in this thread. Not every one, but a number and noticed that some of the supporters of the business had only made one single posts on the site. Seems a little odd that you would sign up here just to tell people how great some shop is that is clearly not great.

I also don't care if they have high prices or not. I don't expect a shop to sell at mart prices and I wouldn't either if I owned a shop. They need to drop the attitude though. I have been in there and was ignored by the folks there that had time to help me.

I gave it a fair rating. First couple times it was a negative experience. Very first time Doug was a genuine jerk. He was making comments that didn't make any sense to get a sale. Then he implied we had removed some Wby Vanguard targets around that come with those rifles. We walked out with our money and made a purchase at Ole's. Last time I was in Doug was either on his meds or was in a very good mood. He actually treated me like human being. Doubt I will ever make a major purchase there though.

I come here on my way to the range sometimes. They have a pretty good selection of guns, new and used, especially for a small shop. They also have a pretty good selection of ammo, especially some of the harder to find Russian stuff. The ammo is priced about right, the guns are overpriced IMO.

It is pretty annoying they don't ever answer their phone. Although it doesn't really surprise me since I feel invisible half the time I go in there. Sometimes they will ignore your questions outright. I don't think the guy is malicious I just think he's rough around the edges. He should hire some salespeople who actually like selling and just stick to gunsmithing.

My .02

There is a reason so many people call this place GunCrappers - Doug is a complete bubblegum.

The excellent selection of firearms draws me in time and time again, but if the high prices aren't enough to scare me off, Doug usually does. I usually go in, honestly hoping that he is busy "educating" other customer publicly, just so I don't have to speak with him.

At one point I heard a young man asking him about consignment on a SPAS-12, to which Doug replied that he was in possession of an NFA, full-auto shotgun, and how illegal it was. It took the guy about 15 minutes to convince Doug that it was a semi-auto, legally-owned weapon. During this time, Doug was walking around, in and out of the backroom doing random things while arguing the whole time. After the whole ordeal, Doug basically just said "well I wouldn't be interested in selling something like that anyway".

Another, more personal experience, was when I went in looking for a AR-15 lower parts kit, and a bolt carrier group. Doug's employee tried to sell me on a DPMS parts kit that was twice what Midway (or any other in-store retailer) would sell it for. Then he went to get Doug to talk to me about the bolt carrier group. Doug did his whole "you can't build AR-15's from parts because they blow up" bullbubblegum, as others have mentioned on here. I know what head space is, I know you need to check it, and I know on the AR-15 you rarely have issues. When people generally treat me like this, I let them finish talking, and politely leave... the other problem with Doug is, he won't stop talking about how "wrong" you are for 15 minutes!

I may stop in here when I'm in Salem and bored, but as long as Doug is working here, I will never make a purchase. Higher prices are often worth better customer service but you will not find that here.

I have bought over 10 guns fro Gun Crafters. I asked Doug to find me a Browning lever 30.06, SS, break down lever action rifle. Doug said it would hard to find.I went to all the gun shops in town. No one had any idea of what I was looking for. Doug did find one for me. The folk's at Gun Crafters know there guns. I would rather deal with someone who is knowable about guns than an ignorant about guns. I won't buy anything from big box stores. I have visited Gun Crafters numerous times ove the years and found that the folk's @ Gun Crafters have been treated very professional.

Went there once, years ago after I moved to the area. Never again. I would drive to Pendleton if I had to before I'd ever set foot in that place again.

I had them do a bluing job for me a few years ago and it was a good job. Bought a pistol there last week. It cost me maybe $50 more than I would have spent on GB if you count shipping etc. I was treated respectfully and it was a plesant transaction. Ken

I've bought and sold a few things with GC over the years and have learned that Doug is the way he is and lacks in people skills. I've never had great or even good service from him...fair at best and that's a stretch. I stop in on my way to work every so often and generally walk out shaking my head at how a high majority of his customers, or potential customers are treated. I try and keep my money local and in small shops if possible as I feel it is important to do so for many reasons. To each their own and we all have the choice spend where we want to spend it. We need these small shops for numerous reasons and I hope GC the best, and I hope that they open their eyes and ears and maybe they would figure out that so many of us don't mind spending a little more for good customer service, instead of being left like a dog that just peed on the floor.

So I'll post my story of dealing with GunCrafters over the last 3 weeks. I have had both good and bad experiences. I went in to buy a handgun with my wife, on a Saturday, early afternoon. We stood at the counter for at least 15 minutes looking in the cases, looking at the stuff in the store. Despite not being busy at all nobody looked at us, or spoke to us. Finally I got someone's attention and explained what I wanted- an XDM 3.8 compact in .40 S&W, bi-tone. Doug told me they didn't have one but would be happy to order me one. So for this trip- it took forever to get someone's attention, and they didn't even offer to let me hold any or talk about any other options, which I found odd but not terribly off-putting. Once I got Doug's attention he was reasonably pleasant to work with.
The following Monday, after pre-paying for my pistol to be ordered, and looking at my receipt which had no model number or anything on it, I called in to make sure they were ordering the correct pistol- I was assured they were and proceeded to anxiously await the arrival of my pistol. The following Saturday I got a phone call that it was in. Being in Portland to sell a car at the time I told him it would be fairly close to 5 by the time I got there and he said it was no problem- they'd just stay open a little later to take care of me- which I appreciated. When my friend and I got there, we had another 15 minute ignor-a-thon, before anyone spoke to us, and the pistol they ordered was in fact wrong (3.8 bitone-not the compact) Doug assured me he could sell the one they ordered no problem, and he would just re-order, but the compact might be difficult to get. After contemplating a bit about whether or not I still wanted the .40 or if I wanted to get the 9mm in stock- I was told because of a gun show that was on- it was too late in the day to run the check and get me on my way if the 9mm was what I wanted. Of course if we hadn't been ignored for 15 minutes there would have been plenty of time. I also kinda got the vibe that if they reordered the pistol, no matter what showed up would be mine.
The following Monday, I was able to stop in, the shop was empty except Doug and 1 old timer shooting the breeze- after Doug finished his story, he asked what he could help me with, and I bought the 9mm he had in stock rather than reordering. Monday's visit was quite pleasant and I would have a very positive outlook if that had been my only contact.
I work in customer service at an auto repair shop. Providing excellent customer service really isn't very difficult- you mostly have to care. You have to treat every customer as if they are the only person in the world that is important, because at that point in time- they are. That's what being a salesperson/customer service rep is. As for the claims that they are overpriced- all of the pistols I looked at were exactly in line with all of the other shops I shopped with, and my pistol was actually priced $50 less than freaking Cabela's...All in all I'd say it was a average experience, pushed towards fair because I have routinely received excellent customer service from Ole's, and The Gun Broker in Woodburn. That's my $0.02 anyway

Based on what I'd read on this forum I was reluctant to do business with Gun Crafters, but I remember my Dad had bought a bunch of guns from them years ago when he still lived in town. I figured I'd give em a shot based on that alone.

So... I've been in the market for a particular gun recently. Nothing exotic, it's a current production model of a very common gun. I called there during business hours and left a message asking to call me back and let me know if they a.) had it in stock and b.) what they were selling it for?

It's been over a week and I've not heard anything back from them.

Doesn't really matter now I guess because I've since gone to another shop and paid retail for it.

So I guess that's that.

Thanks for playing.

I stood at the counter for 15 min one day while they tried to figure out how to give me the 20% off discount on some bullets. there must have been 4-5 large yellow signs around the reloading supplies advertising the discount. But when the clerk rang me up he didn't bother. So it took him and Doug a good 15 min to play with the cash register trying to get it to record the sale correctly. As to me I was ignored during this no sorry about the wait nothing. All the while I had exact change and could have cared less about a receipt. No one offers returns on Bullets anyway. But instead of taking my money (which I suggested a couple times) and letting me on my way. I got to stand there and watch them try to figure out the bookkeeping problem they had created.

I'll go in there again. A sale is a sale and I shop prices. But its been a long time since I expected anything from the crew there.

I like Doug...he is fun to shoot the breeze with, and he has a great selection of guns and accessories. He's been in business for over 20+ years, he must be doing something right!

Wait so your mad cause Doug did not call you back?

I would of just called later, or gone in..

I swear no one has any time to spare, When I go to look at guns I make sure I have time its a leisure thing. I dont need to be rushed and im sure he feels the same way.
Sure he can be a pain and sometimes his people skills can suck. But if you go in expectin drive through service forget about it..

I don't expect "drive thru service" but acknowledgment of my existence as a customer with a wallet full of cash that would like to spend said cash at his establishment on firearms in the first 20 minutes is not exactly asking for the moon. When Best Buy provides a better shopping experience- you suck pretty hard at customer service...

Originally Posted by bikejunkie

I don't expect "drive thru service" but acknowledgment of my existence as a customer with a wallet full of cash that would like to spend said cash at his establishment on firearms in the first 20 minutes is not exactly asking for the moon. When Best Buy provides a better shopping experience- you suck pretty hard at customer service...

My sentiment exactly.
Seems that unless you're one of the "in crowd" they don't care if you come or go.