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Fanboys eventually mature, and hopefully by then they will have absorbed a lot of knowledge by osmosis.
I travel a lot and make a habit of visiting every gunshop I can. Some are neat and tidy, some are disorganized, opinions are plentiful and knowledge varies. In every one, I have met a kindred spirit and I've had the good fortune to sit in on many entertaining conversations. I'm try to thank the shop owner when I leave.
I'm grateful it's a niche market that big box stores haven't stomped on yet.
I met one fanboy who was arrogant and insulting because I was looking at HKs and he was insistent that G20s were the only pistol worth considering. Whatever.
 
Nah, everyone knows that .22's are the ultimate defense round because you just shoot your attacker in the head and the bullet rattles around. o_O

I own a gunshop. I spend 40+ hours a week behind a gun counter and countless more working or dealing with guns in other fashions. My advice is generally the bigger the shop, the more likely you are to encounter fanboy. There are of course exceptions to every rule, as some large shops employ some very courteous and knowledgeable sales staff. Fanboy is dangerous to new shooters and gun buyers, but merely entertainment for everyone else.

After seeing the threads regarding things the gunshop clerk said over the last few weeks, I'm almost tempted to start a thread about some of the amazing things we hear standing on the other side of the counter...
Lol I would love to hear some of those, even though I have heard enough just shopping in gun shops and at gun shows. My favorite is everybody seems to have shot their deer at 600 yards, and half of them with an open sighted 30-30 no less. 600 Honest yards is a long stinking shot under the best conditions, under field conditions, a whole lot tougher.
 
:eek:Oh Lord no, these are stories. I know exactly how well I can shoot and it's nowhere near as well as some of the stories I hear, both real and not. Believe it or not, some customers are really just very talented. I have several competition shooters who frequent my shop and some of their accomplishments are truly impressive. Other customers I've had over the years at various shops are just truly impressive at telling stories. Most days it's fun either way...
 
Yep I just can't abide a liar. When I was stationed at Pope AFB back in the 1980s I worked part time at Cumberland Knife and Gun. They were a quality no BS gun shop that were into quality firearms. The one thing I disliked the most was people that came in and would proceed to fill us with all their BS about how accurate their rifle is. Things like it would shoot a 1" group at 600 yards. When I would ask them how much drop they had at that distance they would usually feed me some crap like 2 or 3 inches. AARRGG! The same years working at Pope AFB they had a guy that pushed a lawn mower that had been working at Pope for close to 20 years without advancing any farther than just laborer. His boss described Guin as a "guy that would climb a tree to tell a lie rather than stand flat footed and tell the truth". It was a great education for me being a 20 something SSgt at the time. He had a way of inserting his two bits worth of BS into everyone's conversation around him and it was never worth any educational value except to teach folks that they did not need to stretch the truth for their opinion to be of value. There was another gun shop owner down there with the name of Carl Woodall. Those of us at the Cross Creek long rifle Club called him Carl Would-lie. Because he was another that would lie about most everything. We had to ban him from our club and the reloads he sold also. He sold his "special" 7mm Magnum "mountain top to mountain top" loads that were nothing short of dangerous. We were just lucky that no ones rifle let go and hurt someone. Life is tough but it's even tougher when your a dumb bubblegum liar and no one believes a word your saying.
 
I don't know why some expect gun store workers/owners to be knowledgeable Svengalis of all things guns. Heck, when you go down to buy a used car, who cares if slick Amos doesn't know about the evolution of the automobile or how even to check the dipstick.
 
My favorite LGS has a wood stove that, during the winter, I sit by the fire while the owner tells me of all the bestest and worstest guns, the plastic Crap, the Best 45 round to carry, why a bump fire is great, why a 1911 will out shoot any other gun, etc.

I have learned quite a lot, and have been warm while learning:D:D:rolleyes:o_O:confused:;):)

If there was one person I would trust for information, it would be my LGS and his employees, for I can barely search and read differing opinions about guns on line.:D:cool:

If he would only serve cookies..........:(


The Gun Room has a wood stove?
 
And then there are the ones who start trying to 'close' me on a deal when I am just looking at, or handling a gun - and haven't yet said anything or gave an indication I was interested in it. There is one like this at my local Sportsman's and on a couple occasions and one in particular he started talking to me like a used car salesman as opposed to actually knowing anything about the particular rifle I was looking at (which was obvious he didn't). Quite frankly I was not at all interested in the rifle but was simply comparing it to something I WAS interested in at the time. I understand there are probably newbees out there who do not have near the experience some of us do but guns are a unique, niche market (as previously mentioned) and require a different approach from LGS clerks than hard sells, mis/disinformation or untruths about guns or their calibers and the ammo they use.
 
That's too bad, RV. The gun counter at Sportsman's/Wholesale Sports in Bend used to be staffed with a good knowledgable, non-pushy group of guys. Sad to hear the quality has dropped.
 
The gun counter at Sportsman's/Wholesale Sports in Bend used to be staffed with a good knowledgeable, non-pushy group
Still is for the most part. It's really just a couple is all. I typically talk to only one particular person when I am their and if he is gone then I wait until the next time I am in.
 
Unfortunately, like auto parts stores, hardware stores and lots of other businesses, there are lots of $/hr sales people and few enthusiasts. The reality is most knowledgeable gun people have moved on in life to a point beyond a $12/hr sales job and the gun businesses can't afford $30/hr help.

I don't think it unreasonable to expect the sales staff to have basic knowledge of the products on the shelf and to be able to answer my question, find the answer, or say "I don't know."
 
I went in to a new LGS about a year ago to just look around at what they had.

I was approached by a sales guy, and he started telling me HIS opinion on just about anything he could think of that was gun related.........:rolleyes:

So, not having said much until then, in my best southern/Okie drawl, I said;

" Ya know, I got me a 30-30 rifle, and I wanted to get more power out of it, so I bored it out to a 32-32. But I can't find no bullets fer it. You got any of them round here?"

UNBELIEVABLY, he started going off on how the 32-32 round was not really that much more powerful than a 30-30, and that I shouldn't have done that to my gun...........It lowered the resale value...........:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:o_O:confused:

I could only laugh:D................:s0140:

I've only been in that store once since, and that is because I was with someone else looking for something.........I didn't see him...:rolleyes:

I wanted to ask him about my 30-06 that I bored out to a 30-09 1/2....:s0151:
 
I wanted to ask him about my 30-06 that I bored out to a 30-09 1/2....
AW heck - Id'a rounded it up to a 30 - 10 ! Seriously though while funny he probably DID know a .32 Winchester existed but nothing more such as the correct designation of the round or that you can't in reality 'bore' out a 30-30 so he was filling in the gaps with a 'little' knowledge - and we all know what a 'little' knowledge can be.....
 
Yes, I've had an employee at Fisherman's Marine say that Sigs are the only pistol that using the slide release on wouldn't damage.(talking about reloading a gun,not an empty gun)He also said that Taurus guns have a lifetime warranty but they have to be sent all the way back to a factory in Brazil.

At a Big 5 I've had an employee claim that the Mosin Nagant was the best rifle of WWII and that it could shoot through the hatches on German tanks and that is why it was feared by the Germans in WII.(I tried hard not to laugh in front of the guy)

Once at J&B Firearms a obviously new employee was trying to tell me you can't decock a Walther P99 and put it in double action made.(this was not the AS model,it was the original model)

I've had clerks who didn't know what they were talking about at almost every gunstore I've been in except Frontline Arms but it appears that they are still closed or out of the business.


Every one of those guys had more firearms knowledge than every drill instructor I had in the Army.
 
Fan boys are fun; a lack of reasonable-privacy turns me away...

The local "good ole boys" or LEOs who just hang around the stores....visiting and watching other people are a "180" for me.

I'd guess that those "friends" of the shop owners turn me away 60% of the time.

Addendum: 2nd biggest "180"; when they expect me to pay NIB prices for molested products (display models).
 
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