I drive a charter bus and I had taken a high school football team to another town (no names, more info on why later) to play this past Friday. As usual, while my group does their thing, I get paid for sitting around waiting. I went to get a burger and happened to see a large sign next door: GUNS. Ahh, the magic moniker. Of course, I have to go in and look.
Once I find a parking spot for my 45-foot bus, I walk in to the shop. It's small and packed with guns of all types. Plus, it was a huge mess. The walls had bookshelves that were crammed with.....crap. Old parts from probably hundreds of guns. Holsters and accessories (new and used), ammo boxes, loose ammo, plain ol' trash. Believe it or not, there were many handguns (used, I assume) tucked and stuck in between all that mess!
As for folks, there were two or three employees and two or three customers. It was really hard to tell who was who: they all wandered around both in front of and behind the counters, and they were all drinking beer (it was after 6PM). Ahh, good times. If only I was not at work...
Anyhoo, I mentioned to one friendly guy that I collect ammo, and would he happen to have any loose rounds that I could buy. There were plenty of loose rounds around but I suspect they were part of the, ahem,
ambiance as he refused to part with them. We chatted for a short while and then I continued perusing.
Then, in one corner on a shelf, I saw an obscured, perhaps forgotten, stash: boxes and boxes of old ammo! I actually had to go behind the counter to look through it, but I found LOTS of neat cartridges. Many still in the original boxes, some with all the original cartridges in the box. The clerk tells me to find what I like and we'll work out a deal. So, I dig.
I don't bring much money to work because I end up spending it, so I only had a few bucks. Knowing this, I only picked a few cartridges that I thought I could afford. Well, as I put my selections on the counter, the clerk drops them in a bag and says, "There you go." I then asked, "How much do you want for it?" He says, "Don't worry about it."
Well, if I had known that was going to happen, I would have picked out more.
He indicated that since I was a collector, he wanted me to have 'em.
Anyway, I ended up with just a few, but very neat, cartridges:
Three .38-44 Specials (factory, not reloads,
read up on these, they're interesting), several old .38 Special (I specialize in .38 headstamps, so this was a score), several different types of 9mm JHP (me likey JHP...), about 10 factory 32 Remington cartridges (no longer available, I presume), and finally some regular range 9mm.
What a score! And all for free, just for being friendly. It reminds me of that old Honda motorcycle slogan: You meet the nicest people on a Honda. In my case,
you meet the nicest people in a gun shop 
Finally, and the reason I'm keeping the location of this shipwreck private, is that there is a whole bunch more neat old ammo there! I'm going back with money! You stay away
