Another "Silly Things You Hear In Gunshops" Thread

[Coach Z]

Yeah suppressors are ok to buy in some states but silencers are totally illegal..... Yup if it brings the db's down too much then it's illegal.

I was too stunned to say anything in response. Walked out immediately

[Gunfixr]

Some pretty good ones here. I don't spend much time out front, I get paid to work on guns, not sell them, so I don't get to hear a lot of what's posted.
But, I still get some good ones. When you're handed the phone, and the first thing said is: "can you put a gun together even if you didn't take it apart?", you're about to get a gun in a bag. Or, they bring it in and tell you it worked fine, and they cleaned it, and now it doesn't work. Did you take it apart? No, I just cleaned best I could. Well, this spot right here used to have "xxxx" mounted in it, which is now missing. This part will not come out by itself. Are sure somebody didn't take it apart? OK, I took it apart. Well, go back to where you took it apart, and if you can find the part, I won't have to order a replacement. Often, the gun has been taken apart and put back together wrong, or has been forced apart. I recently had an 1897 Winchester takedown come in for cleaning and cowboy action work, the owner had just purchased it from a friend. It wouldn't break down. Turned out, somebody had stripped the interrupted threads on the magazine tube, and simply epoxied it in place. Or, "it's been a great gun for the last 20 yrs, but then it turned into a pos." Duck gun, been used as a boat paddle an unknown number of times in the last two decades. Oh, hasn't been cleaned once the entire time. Open it up, the inside has to be scraped first so it can be cleaned. Got a pile of dirt roughly 2" tall maybe 3" in diameter. Remington 1100. No wonder it doesn't work.
Of course, the occasional request to make something full auto. Got a guy last week followed me out the door, I was going out back to test fire a gun, he wants to discreetly ask me if I can build him a suppressor. I explain yes, I can, and yes, they are legal (we are an /07 Sot).
It never ends, but at least it's entertaining.

[natman]

I got a phone call at the shop from a customer asking about rifle scopes.

HIM: What does it mean if a rifle scope is a 4x-32?

ME: That means it's a four power scope with a 32 mm front lens.

HIM: What does 4 power mean?

ME: That means if your target is 100 yards away, it appears to be only 25 yards away.

HIM: Does the bullet still have to go the whole 100 yards?

Long pause.

ME: Yes, sir, the bullet still has to go the entire 100 yards. The scope merely makes the target look like it's only 25 yards away. It does not have the ability to warp the space-time continuum.

How I managed to hang up without laughing out loud, I'll never know.

[Ruger480]

I hear this one a lot
"The .308 can do anything the 30-06 can do"

[mellow_c]

I was safely and carefully handling one of the new Ruger LCP's with bigger sights and shorter trigger a while back. I wanted to compare it to my original LCP. This was in a small private gun store.

I asked the guy (part owner?) if I could dry fire it once to see how the trigger feels. He said "Nooooooooo no no, people will be running for the hills if you do that." I handed it back to him and said thanks. There was only one other guy in the store.

I dry fired one a while latter at sportsman warehouse with a bunch of people around... I didn't like it. I like my original one better. But the bigger sights on the new one are nice.

[mellow_c]

Guy walks into the store... asks for .22lr. Guy at the counter says sorry, all out. Guy says... Geez, why don't they just make more ammo?

[Corn]

No real funny stories here. Weirdest, most exasperating experience I had in a gun shop was when I went in a LGS three or four years ago and was asking the clerk a question about my SKS. He grabbed an AK-47 variant off a shelf and started talking about it. I went back and forth with the fella some but he couldn't believe the SKS was its own rifle, kept insisting it was just an AK variant.

[4 Paws]

Guy walks into the store... asks for .22lr. Guy at the counter says sorry, all out. Guy says... Geez, why don't they just make more ammo?

Folks, I think we have a winner

[Rob228]

I went into Cabela's with the intent of getting tritium sights installed on a Glock 26 (turns out they didn't have a sight pusher). The guy that has to escort my unloaded pistol back to the "gunsmith" informed me that he approved of my choice for night sights instead of a laser, as he wasn't a fan of giving away his position.

He also kept referring to my new sights as "night scopes"

[Machineguntony]

About two years ago, when I got back into reloading, I didn't know if I would really stick with my rediscovered hobby, so I would purchase small amounts of components from either Cabelas or a LGS (which btw are very overpriced). When I would check out, I would hear this one on a semi regular basis: 'Isn't reloading dangerous?'

[D-Ric902]

Every handgun is compared to a 1911 for the trigger and every polymer is compared with a Glock. Those are the standards.

Oh wait, that's true

[Microgunner]

Guy told me today that he weilds an unloaded 45 without a magazize with a laser at home because no one has the nerve to challenge that red dot.
Bless his heart.

[Corn]

And I bet before he bought that .45 he kept an unloaded pump shotgun by the bed since the sound of it being racked scares any and all away

[Durnitz579]

I've got a couple to add to the list. Had a gun store employee tell me that the reason cops use Federal Hydra-shock ammo was that the little lead post in the bottom of the hollow point made it proof-positive against body armor. It did something to the bullet that guaranteed penetration through all types of armor and trauma plates. I responded that I had assumed that it had something to do with initiating expansion. I was informed that that was ridiculous, and that he had access to better info as a gun store employee than I did as a civilian.

Was in the LGS looking at concealed carry pieces. The helpful employee there assured me that in Virginia, if you have a concealed-carry permit and you should happen to encounter two unarmed people in a fist-fight, you are legally permitted to shoot the aggressor! I looked at him with an obviously stunned expression on my face, then he claims that is exactly what the guy who gave his CCL class said, and that he had even looked it up in Virginia State Code.

Folks, I assure you, while Virginia is gun-friendly, no such thing is even remotely true! I honestly wonder how some people remember to keep breathing.

In an unrelated matter, I was once in the local Walmart at the ammo counter. There was a woman in line just ahead of me that wanted some .410 shells. The counter guy, who happens to be the FFL holder for that store, turns around and grabs a couple different boxes and lays them out on the counter in front of her. He points and says "this one is bird shot, this is #4, this is buckshot, (etc.) What are you shooting at?"

The woman picks up a box and says "I'm going home and shooting my neighbor's dog. I'm sick of it piddling all over my bushes."

The counter guy leaned over the counter and snatched the box out of her hand and says "I'm not selling you anything." He looks at me and says "What can I get you, sir?" The woman stands there for a minute, fuming, stamps her foot and leaves. I sometimes wonder if that dog is still with us.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Heard today as I was browsing.

"If the Glock 17 holds 17 rounds, how does the smaller 19 hold 19 rounds?"

Ans:

"You get the dang extended mag that hangs out of the gun".

[Tom Servo]

The counter guy leaned over the counter and snatched the box out of her hand and says "I'm not selling you anything."

A couple of years ago, I had a frantic customer tell me she needed a "12 bore rifle." I asked for clarification, and she informed me that someone had traipsed through her bushes and crushed several. She'd been told that "a couple of rounds of buckshot to the butt" would discourage such future behavior. I tried to disabuse her of that notion, and she suggested that I perform an anatomically unfeasible act upon myself. That pretty much killed the sale.

I do worry that such advice is so carelessly thrown around.

[zach_]

So, I went back to my local gun store to look for a replacement stock for my 243. The guy behind the counter looked surprised to see me. I told him I was not sore about my rifle spending 8 months there. I checked on the internet reviews. Turns out that it is a common practice in their camp to put off small jobs to do the jobs that actually make the place money. Good enough I guess. They always gave good advice and help whenever I needed it. A customer (groupie) took out a sheet of paper and explained their method. He wrote three words on a piece of paper, and said that my rifle service MIGHT get 2 of the 3 desired features of their service. But definitely not all 3. Fast, good and cheap. Good people. Any of you in North Dallas know this......

[Unlicensed Dremel]

I do worry that such advice is so carelessly thrown around

....Like ol' murderin' Joe's advice to shoot them through the door. Nevermind that the guy in Detroit got 18 years for that, and he didn't even shoot through the door at an obvious non-immediate-threat; he shot just after opening the screen door, where he at least had an arguable (albeit very weak) claim of self-defense.

[Chuck Dye]

I have lately encountered a couple of clerks, including one at Cabela's, who could not understand that a red dot sight is not the same as a laser sight.

[RodTheWrench]

Kid that works at the local Farm&Ranch store told me he's saving up for an AR. I said "Great choice, the 5.56 is hard to beat." His response - "Oh, I'm getting the 223 version - I don't wanna knock my shoulder off, just hit squirrels at long range." Ok, buddy. Knock yourself out.

[NoirFan]

Guy walks into the store... asks for .22lr. Guy at the counter says sorry, all out. Guy says... Geez, why don't they just make more ammo?

The floor manager at the national ammo factory is reading this post on his lunch break. He slaps his forehead. "Oh ****, why didn't we think of that?!" Goes and throws the ammo-making switch from OFF to ON. The country is flooded with .22 and the shortage is over.

I never worked in a gun store so I don't have anything compared to the greats on this thread. I did work in a liquor store years back, and we had this very scraggly-looking regular who claimed to be an ex-marine. He would come in for his daily E&J and menthol cigs, and loved to show off his carry piece of the day. He usually did this by suddenly reaching into his waistband and yanking it up without warning. The liquor store is not a smart place to be doing that kind of thing in my opinion. Another of our fine regulars liked to talk guns, and was convinced that the "grains" of a type of ammo referred to the grains of powder in the cartridge. So the more grains printed on the box, the faster the bullet.

[skoro]

Once upon a time as I was browsing the glass case handguns, I hear the guy next to me say he wants "a high power scope with a wide field of view."

The clerk tries to explain that the higher the magnification is, the narrower the field would be. The guy says, "I have a 3-9x variable and it gets the same field no matter what power it's set on."

I was thinking, "here's your sign."

[Tom Servo]

He usually did this by suddenly reaching into his waistband and yanking it up without warning. The liquor store is not a smart place to be doing that kind of thing in my opinion.

Neither is a gun store, but you'd be amazed how often people whip guns out of their holsters and sweep the store.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Originally Posted by NoirFan

Another of our fine regulars liked to talk guns, and was convinced that the "grains" of a type of ammo referred to the grains of powder in the cartridge. So the more grains printed on the box, the faster the bullet.

Surprisingly common, that one.

...you'd be amazed how often people whip guns out of their holsters and sweep the store.

I was once talking of trading in my carry gun. The fella asks me if I have it with me. I said, well yeah, it's my carry gun. He says, let me see it.

I've never been asked to draw my gun before. I looked around and said... well, you do know it's loaded, right? (I'm thinking maybe I should bring it back cased and locked open?)

He says, this is a gun store, it doesn't matter.

I've always thought it mattered quite a lot when folks start drawing guns in public, even in a place where it might be "expected". Especially with no particularly great direction to point the thing.

[Tom Servo]

He says, this is a gun store, it doesn't matter.

Yowch! That guy is asking for an ND.

It amazes me when I reprimand folks for that, and they respond with "it's a gun store!" We're not bulletproof. It's no more acceptable to fondle and wave a loaded gun in a gun store than it is in Barnes & Noble.