We have two of them here in the Denver area.

Number one is Gander Mountain. Lousy selection of cheap brands on most items. Firearms are not priced low but rather pretty much in the middle of the pack and the service makes your average Wal-Mart look like a 5 start outfit. I see no reason to ever spend a dime of my money in a Gander Mountain store.

Co sharing the number one spot is Bass Pro. Ditto except that they do have a better selection of items with the same lousy to non existent customer service.

I've had various salesmen at bAss Pro, explain to me that Winchester was out of business and didn't make rifles anymore so that's why they didn't carry them. All this while I am looking at three new M-70's over his shoulder.

I had one of the finer idiots in the fine gun room explain to me that I didn't want to buy a Manton in .375 Flanged Magnum because those doubles are only good out to about 25 yards. Besides what kind of a rich idiot would spend that kind of money on a rifle?

I had the "safety" lady at bAss Pro check to see if my Webley & Scott 700 double 12w ga was empty by jamming the muzzles into the concrete floor and yanking on the triggers then pointing at my mid section and doing the same. That's before I realized what a bunch or morns they are.

I am committed to supporting my smaller independent shops I see no reason to give these giant corporate nightmares my hard earned money.


How are these brands in your neck of the woods?

I'll add 'Dick's' to the list.

Jim

quote:

sharing the number one spot is Bass Pro. Ditto except that they do have a better selection of items with the same lousy to non existent customer service.

I would have the same impression of the Bass Pro in Denver. Have found no reason to go to Gander.

an d add the rest of the big box stores to the list, no thanks - i'll take the local little guy every time

I go into the big box stores because I am bored or I guess I convince myself I will find something "neat" - which hasn't happened yet.


As surestrike mentioned sometimes the guns salesman are lacking in product knowledge. WHich I could live withbut don't tell me something that is wrong and be all cocky like your a gun expert.

I am polite, don't argue and try not to tell someone their business.

I will admit I do not know crap about guns but i do not pass myself off as an expert.

quote:

Originally posted by Singleshot03:
As surestrike mentioned sometimes the guns salesman are lacking in product knowledge. WHich I could live withbut don't tell me something that is wrong and be all cocky like your a gun expert.

I am polite, don't argue and try not to tell someone their business.

I will admit I do not know crap about guns but i do not pass myself off as an expert.

Isn't that the truth!?!

Some of these guys know nothing about firearms. Yesterday they were a guy who needed an $8 an hour job and knew nothing about guns today they have a job at bAss Pro and are trying to pass themselves off as an expert.

I'm the same way as you I don't argue though I do know a little about rifles. I simply thank them and take my business elsewhere.

quote:

Originally posted by surestrike:
.....
How are these brands in your neck of the woods?

surestrike,

Well around here, neither makes my best shopping list but they are both different than you describe. Both BassPro and Gander Mtn have a great selection - BP has very high prices and GM is even higher!!!

BP and GM both suck, period. Cabela's has them beat by miles. As for Cabela's, I got lots of good deals there and most of the people are fairly knowledgeable, and everyone is ALWAYS polite to their customer and help as they are able to. While I do give the small shops some business, too many of them don't stock much and they are in no hurry to order anything for you either...and once in awhile, I get an attitude from them. It's for these reasons that companies like Cabela's exist. There is obviously a need there somewhere, that they are filling. That being said, the big box stores will never push all of the smaller shops out, unless they adopt the Walmart business plan where they will have a store within 5 miles of 95% of the population.

The big box stores carry too much crap that's made in CHINA. Almost all of the clothing is China-made as is most of the accessories.

Some how the big box stores, Gander, Bass Pro, Walmart are too clean and orderly. I can't smell gun oil, there's no sharpening stone for my pocket knife, no moth eaten deer heads, no boxes of mysterious parts.
Maybe the Chinese will invent an arosol that smells like gun shop.

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by arkypete:
Some how the big box stores, Gander, Bass Pro, Walmart are too clean and orderly. I can't smell gun oil, there's no sharpening stone for my pocket knife, no moth eaten deer heads, no boxes of mysterious parts.
Maybe the Chinese will invent an arosol that smells like gun shop.

Jim

+1

Bass Pro always seemed high on their gun prices and don't seem to know much about guns or ammunition. Same applies to Dick's, one store I have been surprised by is Academy Sports and Outdoors. Their staff isn't the most knowledgable but if you know what you're about their prices are very good. I bought a Ruger 10-22 for my youngest last Christmas for $189.

gouger mt .. the name says it all
REI -- insane prices
Bass pro? come on, really.. leading the pack in hyper inflation of reloading components.. and double the online prices for camping gear

ANY shop that charges extra or anything like retail for special orders

any shop that charges more than a nominal fee to do a frearms transfer ...

any hammerhead that tries to knock online sales .. yes, you get the same things, and get a better price ... and yes, they don't have to maintain inventory or a fancy store ... and yes, they don't charge me a cent more for special orders ... and yes, if you ar charging DOUBLE what the item sells for online, YOU are ripping ME off .. not them stealing your business .. you set the prices, deal with it...

My shooting partner calls them Slander Mountain! Thats how much he likes them.

As in anything, it takes an educated buyer to make good purchasing decisions. I agree that Gander Mt tends to be high but in the local store, I bought a really cool used Volquartsen Ruger MkII that absolutely shoots the lighte out for about 2/3 of retail. Prices too high, don't buy. Seems simple to me.

The big box places are OK if you're shopping for pre-season discount dove loads or fishing lures or anything on sale. You just have to recognize the employees' limitations and don't expect much from them. I never do. And be prepared to help them find their way. And I'm talking about everyone from sales "associates" (don't you just love that expression??) to the back shop people who assemble your order and frequently get it all confused.

But frankly, I personally am not interested in low rating them. They mostly work hard at their jobs and are trying. Anyone who does that I don't mind cutting some slack. I don't expect them to be like old time guys who've spent decades shooting, hunting and fishing who I still find at what small independent places are left.

Though I'd FAR rather give those small locals my business, often times they just plain aren't price competitive. And there's the problem.

I had a sales person in the Cabela's fine gun room tell me that I didn't want to buy the merkels 470 double rifle I was holding because a 338wm would do the job just as well.

Don't they teach those guys how to sell anything.

I don't know about the dolt in the fine gun room but the fact is that a fellow may be a cop, or may be standing behind the counter in a gun shop, or may be a hunting guide but that doesn't mean they automatically know jack shit about rifles.

I feel the need to chime in here. For years I worked part time at a quality sporting goods store that was eventually bought out by gander mountain. (I don't even have the respect to capitalize their name). Needless to say in my opinion they drove it into the ground. The quality products were slowly replaced by crap and all the knowledgable people left. What remains churns my stomach. I avoid the place like the plague. Cabelas currently gets all of my business except for one small local shop that deals in reloading supplies. If anyone on here works for gander mountain and wants to disagree with me.....I welcome the debate!

gander mountain is just crap in every respect. overpriced, poor quality products, lots of crap you don't want and none of what you do.

I've found bass pro to be hit or miss. Most hunting stuff is overpriced. A lot is poor quality. Just about the only things I get there are fishing items on clearance. Bought two really nice baitcast combos a couple months ago and couldn't be happier with them.

Academy just opened a store here this year. Selection is usually fairly decent (except for firearms). Pricing is average (most firearms are priced the same as MSRP), and sometimes they have really good prices. You just have to happen to walk in at the right time.

I really liked Sportsman's Warehouse, but the store they had here only stayed open for about a year.

I love Mack's Prairie Wings. If you can ever come to AR during Thanksgiving and the Wings Over the Prairie festival, they have a HUGE sale and you can get all kinds of stuff cheap. Couple of years ago I got a really nice $300 parka/bib overall set for $150

For the most part, I really just stick to two local shops and get everything else online. Bought a new bow last year at one of the local shops... price was lower than anywhere online, and no shipping, and they set it up and paper tuned it for free. Just this week I had an issue with the cam and they fixed it for free.

The problem with the service at the big chains is that the employees are mostly just city dwellers who happened to get the job. They're not like the rest of us and the small store owners who actually get out and shoot/hunt/fish.

The Cabela's here is alright except for the fact that they are constantly rearranging the store which makes it very hard to find anything.
Our local Bass Pro Shop doesn't ever seem to have what I'm looking fo and just really seems to be more interested in selling T-shirts with the company name on them more than anything else.
Dick's and Sports Authority are a joke. Never been to a Gander Mountain so I don't have anything to say about them.
Almost all of my hunting/shooting shopping is done online these days. Although, there are some local pawn shops where you can run across a good deal from time to time.

Here in Richmond we have Bass Pro, Gander Mountain, Greentops and Degoff's, all on the north side of the James River. I've been to the two national chains, once each, baby sitting my beautiful three year old grand daughter, so mother and grand mother could shop for grand daughter's dad.
Grand daughter and I meandered up the knife dept, at one or the other national stores, to see about replacing my pocket knife. An aside don't use Buck knives as a screw driver, broke the point off one the blades. The young clerk was helping a cute young lady who showing a lot of clevage. The young lady was leaning over looking in the display case and the young clerk was staring down her blouse, attempting to see her navel.
Grand daughter and I wandered off to watch the fish.
Bought a new knife at Greentops.
I might have gone back if he offered to to allow me to come around the counter and help him look for the young lady's navel.

Jim

If you still have the knife you might consider sending it back to Buck and tell them the truth, they'd probably replace the blade pretty cheaply.

quote:

Originally posted by arkypete:
I might have gone back if he offered to to allow me to come around the counter and help him look for the young lady's navel.

Jim

Thats good stuff there.

The Gander mountain in Middle town NY bangs the guns togather like core wood. I have guns with 10 years of hunting that are less beat up.

Gato
One of my shooting buddies to pity on me and used his diamond file/sharpening rig and reground the point for me.
Thanks for your suggestion.

Jim

I like Sportsmans Warehouse, but a lot of them have gone belly up. Scheels in Reno/Sparks is all right, also the one Billings, Mt.

Here is my LAST experience with BPS - it wasn't in-store, but...

A relative gave me a $50.00 gift card for Christmas from Bass Pro. This is good for me, because who can’t use $50.00 worth of something from BPS, Cabelas, etc...?
We have a BPS in my area, but it is about 40 miles from my house, so I opted to make a purchase online. I have done this several times with BPS, Cabela’s, etc…
My purchase was set to arrive within 4-5 business days. Three full weeks later I called Customer Service (at least what BPS calls customer service). They told me they were sorry my shipment never arrived and give it another week or so. If it hadn’t arrived by then call back.
I waited another week, called back and was told they were going to overnight my purchase to me. Ok, great. I have been waiting a month at this point for something that was supposed to come in 4-5 days.
Two days later – nothing had arrived. So I called back. They couldn’t find it in the system. I was told they would look into it and get back to me. The next day, the package arrived. I was not even remotely surprised when I opened it and found it wasn’t what I ordered. I ordered a pair of deck shoes; they sent me three rolls of fishing line.
So I called back and explained the situation to the “Customer Service Professional.” Basically she told me, “Oops, too bad for you.”
At this point the $50.00 is irrelevant. It isn’t worth the aggravation. So I told them to refund the purchase price (they agreed to do this on a BPS card) and asked if I would return their fishing line if they sent me a prepaid Fed-ex label. I agreed.
A week and a half later, the fed-ex label arrived with a letter stating that as soon as they received their merchandise (merchandise I never asked to be shipped to me mind you) they would begin to process my refund.
So I called again. I explained the situation again and told the void on the other end of the phone that I had no intention of sending anything back to BPS until they rectified the situation. Basically she called me a thief. Then she said I would be receiving an invoice for the fishing line (line I never ordered) and if it went unpaid, they would file a credit rating report on me.
This is when the situation got a little heated, I told her anyone from BPS was welcome to come to my home, pick up the fishing line and stuff it in their arse.
So here we are like, 3 months after the initial order, I still have their fishing line, and they still have my refund.
I get a catalog from BPS. I called the number on the back ad told them just where they could stick that catalog. I again explain the situation to the shocked lady on the other end of the phone.
Two weeks later I get a BPS card in the amount of my original purchase – the one I never received.
That is pretty much it. It took three and a half months for BPS to get the “right” thing done. I would say that is pretty pathetic customer service. And they will never get another dollar from me.
I have had mix-ups with other sporting good retailers and it never took them more than 2-3 days to get things right...

Wow!! how do those places stay in business and keep their parking lots so full if everybody hates them and shops at the Mom and Pop shops.

I visited Cabela's in Austin, Texas back in 2010. I was like a boy in a gun store... ah hang on I was in a GUN STORE and I'm just a big kid at heart. While I didn't speak to any of the guys behind the counter I was sure blown away with the selection. Seen nothing like that before

CABELA'S DEFINATELY NEEDS TO COME TO NEW ZEALAND!

There's a Bass Pro 8 miles down the highway from home. 'Last time I was in there I went through the camping department. One employee made eye contact with me, then turned to another employee and asked him what he "got for lunch at Whataburger." "A #5," said the other employee. "What's a #5?," asked the first guy. And they went on and on. Whoa, that is some deep shite.

Many big box stores (of all types of products) don't pay commission now, so you get the ol' "find it yourself and don't bother me" teenagers and twenty-somethings that in ten years will be wondering why they can't get ahead.

Oh they all have their drawbacks but they do offer some things that didn't exist prior to their arrival. I can't speak to Gander Mountain as there are none in my area. However, there is a Bass Pro and a Cabelas. I like to hunt more than fish so Cabelas often is my first choice, but much of what I like has to be purchased over the phone or online. The stores have limited inventory. Bass Pro, amazingly, has a better, cleaner, and much more organized display on ammunition. That amazes me but is accurate in my market. I love the Gun Library of Cabelas but I generally don't purchase new firearms, so I really don't give them any new gun business.

I do most of my gun business with a local independent store and will continue to do so, but my local store only handles guns, some ammo and that's about it. Therefore, I'm forced to do the big box stores for all other supplies. When it comes to fishing gear, I find I get good advice from both Cabelas and Bass Pro. Some of their guys are fanatical fisherman and they DO know their stuff.

I also find both stores have been responsive in providing gratis items for charity auctions. They do put a few bucks back into the economy. We need to give them credit where deserved.

have to agree, my area worst--- Gander Mountain, Bass Pro then Dick's.

No problem with Cabelas. They have 2 very nice stores within 2 hours drive.

Dicks is the worst. They are my last choice.

Dicks is the worst. They don't even sell handguns. way to support shooting there jerkwads. The only thing I buy at dick's are the black friday complete loss leaders. in and out once a year in 10 minutes for them losing money.

Sportsman Warehouse is pretty good on gun stuff. Best price on reloading components. (esp lead shot for shotgun) and fair and reasonable prices (read best around here) on ammo/shotgun shells. Sportsman over expanded and almost went under back in 2008 (all teh closings) and their inventory has never really recovered.

Gander Mtn sucks. What else can you say? ridiculous prices.

Bass Pro is GREAT for fishing stuff (actually cheaper than wal mart on standard lures and such), hit or miss on other stuff and ridiculously priced on their guns. (esp their "fine gun room". fine guns yes, but 10 grand more than the local fine gun room (or even NY and London).

No Cabelas but I've ordered online and been very pleased with them.

I have been to Gander Mountain several times while in the Denver area and I must admit, I was not impressed one iota! I thought their selection on things was rather below par in the firearms department and sporting equiptment overall.

Dicks is another one I will not even think about going to period. A huge waste of my time. Bass Pro is worse than Wal-Mart........never again.

I like it when you go to a gun counter and say without pointing, "May I see that Silver Pigeon II (or other gun by name/model), and the guy turns around facing the guns and you hear him say 'Hmmm..." and he tentatively moves in a direction, not sure exactly where he's going (of course he's trying to read all the tags as fast as he can). Slowly he raises his hand to the Brownings and you say, "No, three rows down." And then you see the panic because he doesn't know whether he should move left or right. Then he says, "What was that again?" And you say "The Silver Pigeon II." Then you wait for three seconds and give him a little break and say, "Beretta". And finally he gets it and says, "Oh yeah..huh huh brainfart." Then he walks to the two rows of Berettas and reaches for the Onyx and you say, "The one in the back." "OH, yeah." Finally he hands you the shotgun after breaking it over his knee, slamming it shut way too hard and looking for something else to do.

Nothing wring with not knowing, but lots wrong in not admitting you don't know and not asking for help the first time.

I can't believe Cabela's sells any guns, at least looking at their prices in the gun rags. Are their in-store prices better?
C.G.B.

quote:

Originally posted by cgbach:
I can't believe Cabela's sells any guns, at least looking at their prices in the gun rags. Are their in-store prices better?
C.G.B.

In-store prices same as on-line. Prices generally high, but I have lucked into a couple of genuine deals via their "library" in the web.
However, most of their prices seem (to me) "maximum" possible.

G Mountian Flint Michigan is the pits too. My experance was trying to buy some MtM shell storage boxes. Only one clerk in the area who was in deep, trying to sell some thing to a big boobed blond bimbo.I decided to wander around and come back and maybe the guy had sold him self by the time I returned, to find he hadn't. I havn't got all day to wait for the clerk so I go to check out some stuff the wife had picked up.
At the check out the clerk asked if I had found every thing OK. NO!! I didn't I tell her so she asked what I wanted she will have some one run and get it. So I say then your going to make the 6 people behind me to check out while jack rabbit jack runs to fetch what the clerk should have taken care of, NO THANKS. I tell her Williams Gun Sight Davison Michigan is right on the way home. Williams had what I wanted on a shelf for a nickle more, same as the primers, gun powder and bullets which G.M. keeps locked in a cabnet so you have to deal with a clerk.

They stay in Bussniess because city people havn't gotten to deal with a place that has good customer service. Being treated by sales clerks that were not properly trained and like to look at womens cleavage is normal to them. Women think the stuff is stuff their hubbies want since it cost more and they like it when the clerks look at their cleavage too.

Al