What's the funniest/oddest thing you've heard/seen in a gun shop?

I was in a little LGS in Utah back in the eighties, and I heard a guy tell another guy that .308 is just a 30-'06 short and you could fire them just like you can with twenty-twos. It wasn't a place I frequented so I don't know, but I hope it wasn't a sales clerk.

Outlaw75 said:

obviously Middle Eastern

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It has been some years, but an Arab Potentate, well he was as arrogant as a Potentate and no doubt an Arab, came right out and asked my friend at the gun counter what it would take to buy an American gun off the books.

Jim Watson said:

You know, a lot of those dumb gun store questions turn up on the gun boards and are treated seriously; trying to straighten ignorant people out.

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I think you are correct. But too many at the gun stores feel they have to prove something in one meeting, and it tends to be a one or two sided. Here, there are more healthy conversations that lead to learning, generally.

Love sitting back and watch the counter guys try to talk and sell women guns. Their husbands have already directed them to a certain gun and the sales staff always has a different opinion. Can get quite interesting.

"... I heard a guy tell another guy that .308 is just a 30-'06 short and you could fire them just like you can with twenty-twos."

US Navy converted some .30-06 (7.62x63mm) M1 Garands to .308 (7.62x51mm NATO) with chamber inserts basically jammed in place by being fired with a proof test 7.62x51 cartridge. If the chamber insert came loose and was ejected with an empty case that stuck to it, the next 7.62 x51 cartridges fired in the rifle made really funny empties: all shoulder and no neck. Deliberately firing .308 in a .30-'06 should only be done if the alternative is being eaten alive by rabid bears, in other words, don't do it and don't advise it.

I was in my favorite LGS one day and on the counter was a Rossi Mares Leg that had a chunk missing from the stock. I asked what happened to it as it was one of their new display guns. A young guy had been earlier and was trying to do the Rifleman/Roster Cogburn/Josh Randall spin to cock the rifle and slammed it onto the display counter and broke the stock.

George Dickel said:

I was in my favorite LGS one day and on the counter was a Rossi Mares Leg that had a chunk missing from the stock. I asked what happened to it as it was one of their new display guns. A young guy had been earlier and was trying to do the Rifleman/Roster Cogburn/Josh Randall spin to cock the rifle and slammed it onto the display counter and broke the stock.

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Oh how stupid. You never pull a stunt like that with a gun that's not your own unless your a pro and ready to pay damages.

I was looking for ammo when I overheard the salesman tell a woman looking for a AR that the S&W M&P was for the military or police only????
All I could do is shake my head & walk away.

A pretty young lady checking out an 870 asked the salesman if she can use it to shoot peasants. She was getting ready for her first hunt the following week with her boyfriend and his family. They were going to shoot rabbits and peasants.

I’ve heard a few over the years:
Back during the Clinton panic anything resembling an AR was high-priced and hard to find. I was in a local shop and a young guy was paying $800 for an off brand piece of junk.
After he paid and got done with the paper work, just before he walked out, he held it up and proclaimed loudly “If you know anybody looking for an assault rifle - $1500!!”
The clerk laughed and the guy walked out.
After the guy shut the door behind him, the clerk said “Idiot”.
Another time I was at a gun show and a well-known shop from 100 miles away was there.
I got into a conversation with the owner about Colt Pythons and said I wish I had bought one before they stopped making them. This was probably 5 years after they quit.
He said they still make them and he just got one for a customer not long ago. He told me a price several hundred dollars below what used ones were going for.
I told him I wanted to buy three from him.
He got on the phone and after about 20 minutes came back and said “I don’t know what’s going on. I can’t find one anywhere.”
Oh really? This guy was usually very knowledgeable so I was surprised he didn’t know they quit making Pythons.

We used to have a little corner LGS with a sign in the window that read "Forget the Dog, Beware of Bird!"- and there was a giant, uncaged Cockatiel on the counter with a little perch, a water bowl, and some toys. He pretty much had free reign of the shop and would even talk a little bit.

There was an old hound dog who would lay behind the counter napping all day.

The story went that the shop got robbed a few years prior at gunpoint, catching the proprietor unawares. Unfortunately for the perp, he stood a little too close to the birds roost when he drew on the owner and the bird, sensing his buddy in distress, took off a goodly chunk of the baddies ear wih his beak.

This gave the shop owner time to draw his own gun and put two slugs in the scumbag, ending his life of crime permanently.

All ended well, except that the bird was traumatized by the experience and would occasionally blurt out "Give me the money!" to the chagrin of the otherwise extremely grateful shop keeper.

AK Hunter said:

I was looking for ammo when I overheard the salesman tell a woman looking for a AR that the S&W M&P was for the military or police only????
All I could do is shake my head & walk away.

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I had a nice, brief conversation with a local Sheriff's Deputy in line at the grocery store about her new M&P and if she liked it better than the Glocks they had just retired.

As we were cashing out, she, somewhat sheepishly, asked me what "it" meant.

"Im sorry, 'it' what?"

"M&P."

swingmaster said:

A pretty young lady checking out an 870 asked the salesman if she can use it to shoot peasants. She was getting ready for her first hunt the following week with her boyfriend and his family. They were going to shoot rabbits and peasants.

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swingmaster said:

A pretty young lady checking out an 870 asked the salesman if she can use it to shoot peasants. She was getting ready for her first hunt the following week with her boyfriend and his family. They were going to shoot rabbits and peasants.

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Maybe the young lady had a speech impeachment.

NIGHTLORD40K said:

asked me what "it" meant.

"Im sorry, 'it' what?"

"M&P."

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I am sympathetic. To me M&P means Military and Police, a .38 Special revolver.
Do they even spell out Military and Police on the current crop of automatics and rifles?

Not many things really come to mind...but I remember once when I was about 22 and my only rifle was an SKS and had a couple shotguns. I walked in and was window shopping for a "real" American bolt gun in a common caliber. That was in about 1993. I told the owner, an old geezer with a good rep who had that shop since the 60's, that I might be intereted in something in .243 Winch. He grimaced and scratched his head and said, "Well... We dont have a lot of guns in weird calibers like that." I just stood there like "what the (expletive)??".

243 is a "weird" caliber?????
It's probably almost in the top 5 deer hunting calibers along with .30-30, .30-06, 270, .308 and maybe one or two others.

I wondered how that guy ran such a successful business.

Maybe if you'd have said .243 Winchester.......

Wonder if there's a .270 Block & Tackle?

To some old timers there are only two calibers, and .270 is 'that durned newfangled out-westy' gun.

Or even just ask for a .243.

Knowing that many of us old shooters have tinnitus and hearing loss I always make myself clear. I don't use slang. Correct nomenclature helps a LOT.

A pretty young lady checking out an 870 asked the salesman if she can use it to shoot peasants.

I had a flashback to Mel Brook's History of the World Part I ...Pre-revolution French nobility skeetshooting peasants.

Especially if you looked at the YT clip I posted.

I've posted this before, but it bears repeating:

One day I got a call at the shop from a customer who had a question about scopes.

Customer: "What does it mean when a scope is 4x32?"

Me: "It means the scope is a four power with a 32mm objective lens."

Customer: "What does four power mean?"

Me: "It means that if your target is 100 yards away, the target looks like it's only 25 yards away"

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

Long pause.

Me: "No, sir, The target merely appears to be 25 yards away.The scope does not actually compress space-time."

Somehow I managed to hang up before I started laughing.

You gave him a wrong answer. The bullet does still have to travel the whole 100 yards.

But that did get me thinking about a book I read a couple months ago The Light of Other Days, Arthur C. Clarke/Stephen Baxter. In it people end up with 'personal wormholes' which are first used for business espionage, then political intelligence gathering, then voyeurism (which leads to youth not bothering to wear clothes). I wonder if it would be possible to open a wormhole and shoot through it? In the book the wormholes are invisible and silent. Think of the possibilities; Never have to leave home to drop that trophy buck, (of course, you'd have to know and trust someone nearby to hold it for you....) 1000 yard groups would go way down, but on the other hand, assassins could make everyone's life hell......particularly for those (in the book) who spent all their time online, um enjoying themselves, while watching other do so. Morte in flagrante delicto.

Where do I begin...

Guy and his friend at academy "ya want a .22 it will bounce around in the bad guy"

Gun shop manager:
"Women are stupid and should be directed towards a revolver, dont insult them with a semi"

Armed guard:
" yeah I got the police version of the Glock 17, others have to get the civilian version"

Inlaws:
"Women shouldn't own guns"

Mother:
"I just want to scare someone if they break in"

Inlaws again:
"I believe in the 2A BUT"

Some guy at another gunshop:
"Theres some races that shouldn't own guns at all."

And my personal favorite from around the web:
"9mm is just as good as .45 ACP".

The Evangelist Cowboy said:

Inlaws:
"Women shouldn't own guns"

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The Evangelist Cowboy said:

Inlaws again:
"I believe in the 2A BUT"

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Somehow you and I must share some of the same in-laws.

entropy said:

You gave him a wrong answer. The bullet does still have to travel the whole 100 yards.

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Ha, good point! I was concentrating so hard on not laughing while the customer was still on the phone I didn't consider all the angles.