Heads up bargain hunters!
Yesterday (Wednesday February 15th) I came across the western United States and had occassion to stop in at the Missoula, Montana Sportsmans Warehouse store. They were having a customer appreciation sale and the sign read 10% off of everything in the store! I learned at the Missoula store that firearms were only 5% off?
The sale had me buying a bunch of stuff that I needed anyway for my late winter reloading and etc.
Anyway the sale lasts only from February 15th through February 19th!
If you have a Sportsmans Warehouse store in your area check for sales as it may well be worth your while stocking up on stuff.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Find a local store...

http://sportsmanswarehouse.com/stores.htm

V-Guy,

I was in that store on Tuesday and they didn't say a word about the sale. :-(

Snapper: I had been out of Montana for several days and was away from all local media during that time. I don't know if it was widely advertised?
I got some really good prices on a set of loading dies (Redding 22-250 at $26.00) and some Sierra 32 gr. 204 bullets (I forget what I paid for these). I also bought some powders, MTM cases, primers, Rifle case, the latest edition of the Blue Book of Gun Values ($29.00) and on and on like that.
One of the salesmen said he had just come back from his days off and he could not tell me the date the sale was going to end when I asked him - even! I had to ask the cashier how long the sale would last and she answered my question (ends the 19th).
Like I said it was billed as a customer appreciation sale and maybe it was a last minute thing!
I only wish I had more cash along to really stock up on primers, bullets and such!
More later
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I was just at the Portland store, they have a sign out front and nothing in the store, but when you go thru checkout, you get 10% off your total. This discount is good thru Sunday.

Thanks VG, took advantage of the sale today, bought some powder and some other goodies, forgot primers though, doh! Sportsmans sure has us western hunters dialed in, seems like the new cabelas is more oriented towads southern and eastern style hunting

Supposedly a new Cabelas is going in Post Falls, ID which is only about 20 minutes from the Spokane Valley Sportsmans WH. Should be interesting to see how Cabelas approaches the N.Idaho/E. Washington/W. Montana market.....

IV

Whats with Cabelas? Are they putting in two stores in Idaho? The front page of the Idaho Statesman a couple months ago said that Cabelas had bought the old Costco building in Boise and was going to setup shop there. Quoted the Governer and the hole shabang. I guess time will tell

Cabelas is also eyeing property in Lacey, Washington for a new store!!

http://www.theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060124/NEWS/60124002

Cummins Cowboy: When I lived out in the Seattle, Washington area, I got so tired of driving the 75 miles each way to Kesselrings Gunshop (the only decent Gunshop in the state at the time!) near Burlington, Washington and once I got there I would get distracted by the latest Varmint Rifle and forget why I was there!
Inevitably I would forget something I really needed amidst the daydreams that would ensue once I was in amongst all those Rifles!
I literally had to resort to making a shopping list! Instead of posting it on the refrigerator (where the nosey and sometimes suspicious VarmintWife could see it!) I would hang my "shopping list" on my loading components lockers door!
Where I live now its 148 miles each way to the nearest Sportsmans Warehouse (in Idaho Falls, Idaho) and 110 miles each way to Yellowstone Gateway Sports (in Bozeman, Montana) and at todays fuel prices I desperately try not to forget anything I "need"!
The local sport/pawn shop has some components but its a pretty skimpy selection.
Now to the subject of Cabellas. I went on a combination Varmint/Russian Boar Hunt in Texas last March and I had occassion to stop and shop at a Cabelas store in person for the first time!
WOW!
We stopped at three stores - 2 in Nebraska and 1 in Kansas!
At the Kansas store you had to take a "number" to be waited on at the Rifle counter! At the Rifle counter ALONE (not the pistol counter or the shotgun counter!) I counted 22 people in line (including me) to fondle the Rifles!
I bought Berger bullets and many other sometimes hard to find items at the various Cabelas stores we stopped at on that trip. I was nearly out of cash when I got to Texas!
The interiors of the Cabelas stores alone made the trip worthwhile!
Amazing and entertaining places the Cabelas stores!
The Sportsmans Warehouse owners (a husband and wife by the name of Stutgaard if I recall correctly) proudly displayed their photographs with their "Trophies" right along with the customers pictures on the stores "community bulletin board"!
Good for them!
I wish both Cabelas and the Sportsmans Warehouse Stores continued success.
I do know that shipping charges for sporting items and components have REALLY gotten "under my skin" since I moved to this remote corner of Montana!
My good friend Ben made up an excuse (visit relatives) to get his wife to make the 215 mile (each way) trip from his home here in SW Montana to the Missoula, Montana Sportsmans Warehouse just so he could take advantage of this sale! It was 29 degrees BELOW zero in Butte, Montana this morning! Thats 61 degrees COLDER than just plain old freezing!
It was 18 degrees BELOW zero at my home in Dillon, Montana this morning. I do not like to travel long distances in profound cold like that.
Yes, I am a sissy!
Happy shopping to all.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Bearcat (and Idaho Vandal): I just ran a map quest search and its a 7 hour and 3 minute drive from Post Falls, Idaho to Boise, Idaho! The mileage is a strong 451.8 miles between the two cities!!!
There are a lot of sportmen in between those two towns let alone all the sportsmen to the north, east and west of Post Falls and all the sportsmen to the south, west and east of Boise.
I think Idaho will be able to support 2 Cabelas stores.
Idaho Vandals intimation that the close proximity of the existing Sportsmans Warehouse in East Spokane to the Post Falls, Idaho intended Cabelas store (18 miles apart?) poses a more concerning question. I would hate to see either store hurt by the nearness of the "competition" but that situation may be beneficial to the sportsman bargain Hunter!
Again best of luck to both stores.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Last month I went through idaho falls with another member here, M1 tanker, I was shocked at how many gun shops idaho falls has!!! They have at least 2 shops that are better than anything in the entire salt lake or utah valleys, One had extremly good prices I think it has a big polar bear in it, VG I am sure you have been there!! too bad I am a utahn as they would not sell me a handgun which had a great price. I guess them idahoans love guns.

VG might I make a suggestion, since you live in BFE, guys like us are always buying new toys, The best thing I have ever done was get a C&R licence, The dealer discount I get from midway can't be beat by ANYONE. If I see a good deal on a scope or something i always check my midway price to see if its really that great a deal. people freak out when I get better prices than what someone like the optic zone offers. I bought a leupold spotting scope last year, I got it for almost $450 less than what cabelas or sportsmans has them for, thats a new rifle!!! do it, your first order will save you the $35 licence fee by itself

I hear there is a new Sportsmans Warehouse store going in to Wichita this spring. This area went a long time with very few decent shops, now there's the Cabelas in Kansas City(150 miles), a Gander Mountain in Wichita(100 miles) and the proposed SW this spring. Something tells me I better get a second job!

Cummins Cowboy: Dang if you were in Idaho Falls you were just 145 miles from the VarmintHacienda!
I get down to Idaho Falls about 4 or 5 times a year and I go to "Ski's Guns Shop and the Sportsmans Warehouse and a coin and Gun Shop that I forget the name of right off hand. I also stop in at a gunsmiths place about 2 miles west of Ski's Gunshop. This smith is a great guy and often has stuff for sale!
I will try to remember the coin and gunshops name as I have bought two or three long guns from them.
Did you see a monster Mule Deer in Ski's Gunshop? He says he got that last year in Montana! About a 240 Mulie if I got that correct in my memory bank?
Yeah I buy lots of stuff from Ski's!
Tell me more about the C&R license. I am not familiar with that format.
Yes Idaho has a high percentage of resident Hunters and shooters! I have Varmint and Big Game Hunted there for many years. I have also done many a Gunshow in Idaho (Boise, Sand Point, Lewiston, Coeur d'Alene, Salmon etc!). They do love their Guns down that a way.
Long live Idaho.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I think ski's was one of the places we went to, the coin, place was closed by the time we got there, so I didn't get to see it, There is another shop The guys name is max, that might be the gunsmith you are refering to. He seems like a quiet type guy but pretty cool to talk to. seems like all the places had good prices on the guns, as opposed to here, all of us on here know what stuff is worth.

C&R licence, this is a licence that allows you to have any firearm over 50 yrs old or firearms that have been deemed C&R eligiable to be shipped directly to your home. I bought a couple milsurps with mine, haven't used it much in a while. The best thing about it however is compaines like midway, brownells and a few others give you a substantial discount on ordered items, They give you dealer prices. If you are a gun nut like me this comes in very handy for ordering new toys, and other goodies. You have a form to fill out, then you send it in to the ATF along with $35 and it usually takes about a month to get your licence and its good for 3 years, speaking of that I need to renew mine again. If you are interested in the licence PM me and I will give you more details.

Sportman's is pretty good, it's usually cheaper to run over there than to mail order. They are only about a mile from my house. Can't take my wife in there, however. Inevitably, she'll come out with a pair of new boots, and pets a new 28 ga. Beretta SxS: "I like this". Sure you do, honey. Move along, now.

Of course, the guy that owns Ross's Coin and Gun lives a couple doors down from me, and he knows what guns I like. Not unusual to get a phone call with instructions to get my hiney over there to look at a new trade. That's even worse than living within a mile of Sportman's.

What is really amazing is how many places there are to buy reloading components in this town. I sat down with a friend one time, and counted more reloading supply outlets in Idaho Falls than in his home town of San Antonio (at what? 80 times larger?). I always joke that the fast food joints ask if you want some 4350 with that.... Dutch.

varmintGuy- the 240" mule deer is a fake but it is a BIG fake.

Dukxdog: I did not know that thanks for filling me in!
Sheesh - some people!!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Dutch: Thank you for that input! I am going to have to snag an Idaho Falls phone book and look into the yellow pages as I apparently am not fully aware of all the "Varmint Hunter friendly" places in your town!
Maybe the online yellow pages will fill me in on the other component and Gun outlets in your fine town!
Thanks again.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

You've hit the bigger attractions. I like Max's, too (although he's a cantankerous fart and he's as paranoid about the RMEF as you are ). Always has some really nice higher end used guns all accross the spectrum. Plus, he's a dandy 'smith.

The rest of the outlets have much less "stuff", like the local farm supply stores, etc. If you need to run in and get a drum of oil, a couple of rolls of barbed wire, you can also pick up a mec reloader, a Ruger 10/22 and some buckshot loads for coyotes. The way America used to be. Dutch.

next time you go into max's I dare anyone to tell him that your dad, took the picture of that big ass buck behind the counter, it must be 57" or so wide, you can't miss the picture behind the counter, Do that It will really get him going. Also tell him 300 RUM's are for people with size issues, and a 308 is better, Just a little something to tease him a little. He is really a pretty cool guy, I enjoyed my visit there and would definatly stop again if I go that way