Gun store employees

[Just Jim]

I do understand. An example...I live close to Fishermans in Oregon City. Seldom do I need expertise from the firearms counter, (as they have little), but I do stop in to look at firearms or related products. So I do need the help of the firearms counter people to hand me a gun, or read to me the price tag on a gun that always seems to be turned the wrong direction. Problem is, and it's become a game to me, how long will these guys ignore me while I'm standing at the counter waiting for them to acknowledge me? They're too busy huddled at the other end bragging to each other. I know in the sales industry, there is a lot of type-casting of customers. Sales folks look at a customer, immediately decide they're not a buyer, so ignore them. They have no idea who their buying public is. Ignore me for the way I look and dress, and they will have missed a sale. I am the buyer that is ignored.

WAYNO.

Very true, walked into a Cabelas in Idaho and the sales person wouldn't even let me hold a high dollar range finder I came in to buy with the $2,000 in cash I had in my pocket. Just came in from hunting and looked a little scruffy so he figured I had no money.

 

[Just Jim]

Ok there is a lot of valid points with people that feel that way. Here is my thing though. I hate walmart yet any person I ask there or most minimum wage stores can tell me where anything I am looking for is in the store. Should we not expect the same from the folks at a gun shop?
We may never get the same but that will never change the frustration when you stand there listening to a guy trying to convince me the LCP is better than the Sig 238 extreme.
I know better and I bought the one I want but if I had never touched a gun before as many folks these day are dealing with I might think he knows what he is talking about since he spends his day surrounded by guns.

The young guys haven't been around guns much and the old guys are probably only knowledgeable of a few products they like. If you want to learn about guns then salesmen are not your best bet. There are some real professionals out there on the net and there are some good magazines that give you knowledge. Guys behind the counter are limited by their own finances and experiences so very few know enough to help with informed decisions. JMHO

 

[40calruler]

Man I agree with the type casting as well. I went to Cabelas prior to this experience and had just finished a beautiful day of Steelhead fishing. I had everything from mud to blood on my entire body. Yet at Cabelas I had put 3 guns on layaway. The 238, a 17hmr savage, and a LCR .357. They told me many times they would be right with me and they continued chatting nonsense with each other and what seemed to be their friends in the store. I did not look like a guy there to spend any real money.

When they finally got to me I was pissed and said I wanted my layaway money back and after looking up what I was there to get I was suddenly a good friend of the guy...Bull Shhh. I took my money and went to the other shop and ended up buying the LCR, 238 extreme which Cabelas did not have that model and instead of the rifle I grabbed a PMR 30.
I know for guns 1700 is not a lot but for me it is more than enough to be treated decent. Well to me 5 bucks is more than enough to not be ignored at a store.

 

[NoFlinch]

......looked a little scruffy so he figured I had no money.

I remember an appointment I had with a Japanese man in Sacramento.

He wanted to buy a $450,000 rental house (This was the 80's).

I saw him pull up in a oxidized old Chevy wagon, got out wearing blue work pants, and had a ring around is head as if he had been wearing a hard hat.

"Oh yeah, fer shur", I thought to myself............

Come to find out, his "verifiable" income (he said he actually made more) was $167,500...................per month.......................

I learned one of lifes BEST lessons that day

 

[Just Jim]

I disagree strongly..............buying the best blender won't save my life...

Might I interest you in a good toaster then?

 

[Just Jim]

Man I agree with the type casting as well. I went to Cabelas prior to this experience and had just finished a beautiful day of Steelhead fishing. I had everything from mud to blood on my entire body. Yet at Cabelas I had put 3 guns on layaway. The 238, a 17hmr savage, and a LCR .357. They told me many times they would be right with me and they continued chatting nonsense with each other and what seemed to be their friends in the store. I did not look like a guy there to spend any real money.

When they finally got to me I was pissed and said I wanted my layaway money back and after looking up what I was there to get I was suddenly a good friend of the guy...Bull Shhh. I took my money and went to the other shop and ended up buying the LCR, 238 extreme which Cabelas did not have that model and instead of the rifle I grabbed a PMR 30.
I know for guns 1700 is not a lot but for me it is more than enough to be treated decent. Well to me 5 bucks is more than enough to not be ignored at a store.

I want to buy something new I wait till all the bugs are worked out of it then find the most knowledgeable guy around to talk about the gun or what ever. Even then they may know alot but not how I intend to use it. Not going to get much info from a store.

 

[40calruler]

Lots of folks are reminding me/us that you cannot trust the guys behind the counter. I do understand that which is why I said I will look up things on my phone before trusting them. However I am sure you are all familiar with a lot of their unsolicited advice. That is one part that kills me because I do not want to look at the guy and say "would you shut the blank up" which is what my entire body wants to do but I know better.

Problem to me is that how many folks really go online to a site like this and know where to look to find out the truth about what we may want to buy. They are at the mercy of morons. As I said complaining will not change it but what better place to get it out of my system than to a bunch of folks that I know have the same ridiculous experiences as me.

 

[AMProducts]

Yes that is the other thing that drove me nuts. The same guy was bragging about hunting deer around here and hog in Texas with his AK pistol. I do not hunt but I do know that that is pretty ridiculous.

It was as though he was vomiting stupidity that day.

AK Pistol is at least a legal method of take provided you're using "hunting" ammunition (not full metal jacket). I don't hunt deer personally, but I do hunt hogs quite a bit, I use my AR-15 with barnes TSX-BT, which does a very good job of making them table ready without destroying a lot of meat. This isn't legal in WA (minimum 6mm), but is legal in CA and TX. I've been thinking about buying a .300BLK for hunting in WA, but have not really made any decisions on what I want to hunt up here, I might wait for my .375 ruger project to be done and then go after elk or bear.

 

[40calruler]

AK Pistol is at least a legal method of take provided you're using "hunting" ammunition (not full metal jacket). I don't hunt deer personally, but I do hunt hogs quite a bit, I use my AR-15 with barnes TSX-BT, which does a very good job of making them table ready without destroying a lot of meat. This isn't legal in WA (minimum 6mm), but is legal in CA and TX. I've been thinking about buying a .300BLK for hunting in WA, but have not really made any decisions on what I want to hunt up here, I might wait for my .375 ruger project to be done and then go after elk or bear.

Yeah I am kinda in a whole new boat with that. I want to begin hunting deer or elk but as my entire adult life I have only collected pistols an small caliber rifles I have had to read a whole lot on what kind/caliber of rifle to get and all that fun stuff.

Obviously I can just get a 30.06 and be done but I want something that I can have fun with at the range and higher capacity as well and my understanding is .223 can be used for deer but not elk. Which of course can be totally wrong since i just read it and have yet to verify.

 

[Just Jim]

Lots of folks are reminding me/us that you cannot trust the guys behind the counter. I do understand that which is why I said I will look up things on my phone before trusting them. However I am sure you are all familiar with a lot of their unsolicited advice. That is one part that kills me because I do not want to look at the guy and say "would you shut the blank up" which is what my entire body wants to do but I know better.

Problem to me is that how many folks really go online to a site like this and know where to look to find out the truth about what we may want to buy. They are at the mercy of morons. As I said complaining will not change it but what better place to get it out of my system than to a bunch of folks that I know have the same ridiculous experiences as me.

I always look at the salesman of anything and decide if he owns the product he is selling. He makes $12 an hr in the gun store yet tells me how good a $2,400 gun is. He may own one but odds are he read about them in a sales magazine. It doesn't make him a liar, most are good people but they speak far beyond their real experience.

 

[NoFlinch]

. Not going to get mush info from a store.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fried-Cornmeal-Mush/

Just trying to help ya'

 

[40calruler]

I always look at the salesman of anything and decide if he owns the product he is selling. He makes $12 an hr in the gun store yet tells me how good a $2,400 gun is. He may own one but odds are he read about them in a sales magazine. It doesn't make him a liar, most are good people but they speak far beyond their real experience.

The best guys I have found in the shops are the older guys who worked a career and are there more out of being bored and retired than for money. They may not be the most upbeat at times but if you show them respect they tend to share their knowledge with me.

 

[156256Hunter]

Don't forget that the gun counter guys also get a lot of newbies who ask a lot of novice (dumb) questions that could have been answered beforehand with a little bit of Internet research, and they see other guys who just watched Point Break for the 15th time, and show up at the shop with their girlfriends to purchase a P226 as their first firearm (to impress the bored-looking girlfriend).

On the other hand, it is sort of funny when the counter guy automatically assumes you've never owned a firearm before and then proceeds to enthusiastically explain how a semi-auto pistol works (gee thanks guy. So you're saying this entire "clip" thingy with bullets goes into the bottom of the gun, and I don't have to pull back the top part of the gun after each shot?).

 

[Just Jim]

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fried-Cornmeal-Mush/

Just trying to help ya'

Fricking spell checker

Now I am hungry

 

[40calruler]

Don't forget that the gun counter guys also get a lot of newbies who ask a lot of novice (dumb) questions that could have been answered beforehand with a little bit of Internet research, and they see other guys who just watched Point Break for the 15th time, and show up at the shop with their girlfriends to purchase a P226 as their first firearm (to impress the bored-looking girlfriend).

On the other hand, it is sort of funny when the counter guy automatically assumes you've never owned a firearm before and then proceeds to enthusiastically explain how a semi-auto pistol works (gee thanks guy. So you're saying this entire "clip" thingy with bullets goes into the bottom of the gun, and I don't have to pull back the top part of the gun after each shot?).

Hold on..I do not have to pull the slide after each shot? That is going to save so much time of picking up live rounds and putting them back in the "clip". Yes I so have had that many times. Someone behind the counter trying to show me how to work a gun and me saying "uh the mag release is right there buddy".
I suppose just with that I should just accept there are a lot of idiots in any industry but again why are the words "I don't know" so hard to spit out for so many of these guys. They would rather make things up than say that a lot of the time

 

[40calruler]

Fricking spell checker

Now I am hungry

Seriously I want a bowl of oatmeal now...bastards!

 

[NoFlinch]

Fricking spell checker

Now I am hungry

Hey Man!
Mush WAS spelled correctly...it's not the spell checkers fault

It's the "spellers" fault.....

Come to think about it, fried corn meal mush with maple syrup & butter does sound really good....................

 

[AMProducts]

Yeah I am kinda in a whole new boat with that. I want to begin hunting deer or elk but as my entire adult life I have only collected pistols an small caliber rifles I have had to read a whole lot on what kind/caliber of rifle to get and all that fun stuff.

Obviously I can just get a 30.06 and be done but I want something that I can have fun with at the range and higher capacity as well and my understanding is .223 can be used for deer but not elk. Which of course can be totally wrong since i just read it and have yet to verify.

In WA 6mm is the minimum caliber for hunting "big game" it's in the DFW hunting regs under "methods of take".

Over all, I would recommend hunting small game first, rabbits and other upland game (dove, quail, rabbit, squirrel) are a great place to start because it will give you a feel for cleaning animals. The biggest thing once you step into big game is you now have a multi-hundred pound animal, that you need to clean, and in many cases chop up before you can do anything with it.

The rifle is probably the cheapest and simplest part of hunting. What those hunting shows don't show you is having to go out, find the animal you took, then find a way to drag it back to your vehicle, get it back to camp, where you clean and dress it, and then pack it up to take it off for either further processing, or to butcher it yourself.

I usually like going hunting in a party of 4-6, breaking off into groups of 2. This way we can cover more ground, and at the same time if someone is successful we can all converge on the kill-site bringing in extra tools, and all help carry off the kill.

 

[NoFlinch]

Hold on..I do not have to pull the slide after each shot? That is going to save so much time of picking up live rounds and putting them back in the "clip".

So, what you are saying is that these "automatic feeder guns" don't make you put in bullets?

I'm going down to my LGS right now and ask how I can get one of these

 

[U201491]

Let me guess... Fisherman's across from Washington Square?

That was my bet too