LGS in Madison, Wisconsin

I am hoping there are fellow Wisconsinites here that would help me out -

I relocated to Madison in the past month and am looking for a good local gun shop as close to downtown as possible - perhaps within 20 miles from the center of the city.

I've found the Gander Mountain, but I am not impressed (as usual) with their prices or customer service...

Welcome to Wisconsin! You have now decided to reside in the most liberal city in the mid-west.:banghead: But fear not fellow Wisconsinite, we are also the latest state for CCW.
I think your best bet is to head east 33 miles to the Johnson Creek area. Near there you will find a place called Milford Hills. I call it a little -bit-of-Heaven. Upland game hunting, rifle range, gunsmith services, a trading post, great food, and one of the best Sporting Clays courses anywhere! It is upscale, clean, and staffed by great people. I'm over an hour away, and wish I could get there more often. Welcome and have some fun in life::D
http://milfordhills.com/

I have a relative that is a gunsmith in Madison if that is something you are looking for.

If you're lookin' to buy, odds are you need to get outta Mad-Town and hit the outlying small town gun shops for decent prices.

What are the best small town gun shops within a reasonable distance?

I've found some via websearching, I'm mainly looking for first-hand knowledge and referral to a great shop with decent selection and price.

There used to be a great shop with a gunsmith on the far west side of town, rusk gunshop, but they closed down years ago. Madison law says no pistol sales in town, they were located out of town and got grandfathered when the area was annexed by the city. Was really sad to see them go, they had pretty good prices and selection.

All that's left is grampa's gun shop on Williamson street. He doesn't have a large selection, basically has a dark storefront in a residential house. Good dude, though, as far as cranky old men go ;)

You're going to have to look outside of town. Do a google search for gun shop, an some stuff will turn up, but you will have to drive a bit.

Before gander mountain consolidated their stores and moved out of town (I presume in order to sell pistols as well as long guns), they had good prices and decent selection. Bought a like new NEF sb1 for $59 plus tax there in about 2003, that was cheap even back then. Went to the new store while visiting this winter, and was not particularly impressed. Used to be all the use guns were on the floor and easy to look at. They used to have a gunsmith there too, but no more so far as I could tell.

Downtown Pardeeville has a nice little gunshop Dixie Law Enforcement. Their address is 140 N Main St. They have always had good prices that beat Gander. The front of their store says "your local friendly machine gun dealer".

If you ever make it to the Black River Falls area, one of the best gun stores in the state resides there. Moe's Hardware Hank. Great folk, family run business with over 2000 guns in stock. Most times(for me anyway) they beat online prices like Bud's and Davidson's and they give excellent prices on trade-ins. If they don't have it and/or can't get it, it can't be had. Been a long time since I bought a gun anywhere else.

Moe's Hardware Hank (http://www.moehardware.com/guns/)

What about Cabelas in Richfield? They have a lot of selection and the prices are ok, maybe 10-20% higher priced though.

Then you have Gander Mountain Gun World. Supposedly the largest gun store in Wisconsin. They certainly have anything you'd want to see by all the major brands. I love window shopping there. But I would never buy from them, except for the used $150 870 I got. They have the worst prices on guns I have ever seen. Imagine a Glock Gen 4 G26 for $699.99! I'm serious too, the prices are that bad.

If I were you I'd window shop all the guns I was thinking about at Gunworld. Then drive 10 minutes further to Cabelas and buy/order it there.

buck460XVR - +1 on Moe's. I just relocated from Eau Claire to Madison and have purchased from Moe's before. I recommend them to anyone who asks me.

Rowdy1 - Thank you, I'll check that out on my next Saturday trip to find guns.

I actually like the Gander you visited, but Milford Hills is fantastic. nice range, sporting clays, and Pheasant hunting. I was there last weekend.

Madison is a desert when it comes to gun stores. Ugh. Dick's only sells shotguns and shotgun ammo and...and...that's about it. Oh, and there's this guy:

http://www.grampasgunshop.com/

Mixed reviews but at least he's downtown and sells guns. Good luck.

You can go to Gunbroker and type in your zip code - it will give you a list of shops in your area that receive guns . That's a start .

If you get down around Delavan check out the Dam Road Gun Shop.
www.damroadgunshop.net

I will be staying in Madison for a couple of weeks in March. Does anyone know if you can rent guns at Milford Hills?

There might still be a small gun shop in Sun Prairie. I lived in Waterloo in to 90's and bought a Ruger Blackhawk from them. The place is small, but the dude was friendly.

I just emailed Millford Hills to see if I could get some rifle instruction while I am there. I have been meaning to do this, and heck... if I have a free weekend anyway.