Help with gun shop etiquette

There are dumb@#%#es everywhere. The only thing you can do is remember where they are and not go there again.

Man I wish I coulda been there for that.

While we're on the subject.. When I ask to see a semi-automatic handgun They always remove the magazine and lock the slide back, and hand it to me. I then close the slide (for lack of a better term) then look down the sights and dry fire it. I've never had anyone say any thing to me, but is the procedure you guys usually follow?

I normally close the action before handing it over. Keeps the slide slammers and hollywood flippers from, well, slamming the slide home and doing the hollywood flip. Ones that check again for themselves are really "watched" when they go in the range.

I've been called on it a few times and had to explain myself, but the customers that call me on it are shooters and understand where I'm coming from. Then they typically ask if the gun they're looking at has been handled by a slammer or flipper...

To the OP, I would have bought the $400 Kahr, and called the guy an idiot twice. One for selling a new Kahr for four bills, and again for thinking the breech and rails were getting scared up. Well, I may not have said it, but I would have thought it...

While we're on the subject.. When I ask to see a semi-automatic handgun They always remove the magazine and lock the slide back, and hand it to me. I then close the slide (for lack of a better term) then look down the sights and dry fire it. I've never had anyone say any thing to me, but is the procedure you guys usually follow?

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I always ask if I can dry fire. Most times they say go ahead, but some will put a snap cap in first.

+1 to letting us know where this place is.

I was selling a revolver a while back at a gun show.

The (uninterested) buyer snapped the cylinder shut on MY revolver and handed it back to me!

Well, if a seller handed me a gun, I opened the cylinder, checked it to be sure it was empty, I would have closed it shut before handing it back myself...butt first.

I always check to be sure its empty for myself. I usually hand an auto back with the slide racked open but sometimes if I check with the clerk right there with me and they also view the status of the gun simultaneously I release it, dry fire it in a safe direction while they observe and then hand it back to them.

Erik, I'd have left right then & there too if I wasn't familiar with the owner or management of the store.

TB

Vicious-Peanut said:

While we're on the subject.. When I ask to see a semi-automatic handgun They always remove the magazine and lock the slide back, and hand it to me. I then close the slide (for lack of a better term) then look down the sights and dry fire it. I've never had anyone say any thing to me, but is the procedure you guys usually follow?

Click to expand...

Almost...

Some gun shops are really freaky about dry firing. Not many but a few.

I always ask before dry firing a new gun in a gunshop. If they say no - and some have - I hand the weapon back and leave. I'm not going to buy a gun that I cannot test the feel of the trigger on.

My first and only reprimand by a dealer was when I asked to see a little pocket pistol. He cleared it and handed it to me with the slide locked back. So of course I immediately toggled the slide stop with my thumb and let that thing fly. Yep, he snatched it right back away from me.

I've been reprimanded at a gun show for racking the slide several times on a shotgun. The guy basically screamed I was going to break it. So I put it down and just walked about.
Also you should have offered him $200 for it.

Almost...

Some gun shops are really freaky about dry firing. Not many but a few.

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That's what I was thinking, maybe I should ask first. I will now!

Thanks

If a gun is made for handleing explosive forces slamming the slide back and forth, then there would never be a reason to think it would hurt the gun to rack the slide, or let it snap back being unloaded.

+1 for knowing what store this was?

I was in a Gander Mtn, checking out a Stoeger Cougar. After having the gun handed to me out of the case by the clerk, with the magazine in, I cleared it, then asked him if I could dry fire it. At that point he noticed that the gun didn't have a trigger lock on it, his eyes got big and he snatched it back from me. That's when I noticed that all of the other guns in the store had trigger locks on them.

I amazes me that they expect people to buy a gun without testing the trigger. Kinda like buying a car without ever sitting in the drivers seat.

Samilitant said:

If a gun is made for handleing explosive forces slamming the slide back and forth, then there would never be a reason to think it would hurt the gun to rack the slide, or let it snap back being unloaded.

+1 for knowing what store this was?

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On a purely intuitive basis you are absolutely correct. Unfortunately that pesky thing called reality often jumps up out of no where and bites us in the butt.

Letting the slide slam forward on an empty chamber on a 1911 is a baaaaad thing to do. Doing that often enough tends to break things. Keep in mind when the 1911 fires that the bolt face on the slide is slamming into the base of a brass cartridge. Brass is relatively soft. When slamming forward on an empty chamber the bolt face, extractor/ejector is slamming straight into hard steel. Things occasionally break when that happens. Why the 1911 is especially subject to damage of that sort is beyond my level of expertise.

Maybe 1911 Tuner can jump in and explain the specifics of the what and why.

Name and shame! Who was it? They need to be avoided by everyone.

Indeed

Quote:
given you should have asked before racking the slide,

I don't see a need to ask to safely handle a weapon unless it's a collector's item.


Quote:
he should have ejected the magazine, placed it on the counter, and locked the slide back before handing it to you.

Agreed.

Yeah, seriously. This clerk has no clue what he's doing or talking about obviously...

I asked him if he cared to tell me what he was doing, and he said that I had “devalued his gun because pulling the slide back scars the rails and breech, and I just cut the value of his gun in half”. He told me and my brothers not to move that he was getting the owner to come decide if I owed him any money for damaging this gun.

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Since they are all test fired before leaving the factory, go back there and tell him that you want one that hasn't been ruined by being test fired.

There are only a handful of guns made every year where working the action could reduce the value. I doubt anyone at Kahr has even heard of them.

I don't see a need to ask to safely handle a weapon unless it's a collector's item.

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I find it ridiculous as well, considering how it's to be used...but it just shows politeness to do such, which usually helps later if you wish to barter down the price, etc.

looking at guns

With a revolver that I have an interest in buying I will generally rotate the cylinder by cocking the hammer while applying a light drag to the cylinder with my finger. A few times I have been asked not to do this with on grounds it will place undue wear on the hand. Invariably said revolver has a carry up problem. Any more, if I can't do that test I walk.

you know, i understand the reason of hiring a person for minimum wage. but to put that person in a place to show firearms, with absoloutly no knowledge of them is not only rediculous, it is downright dangerous! i also would never go back to that store. but i would also write a letter to the owner and explain how dangerous it is to him that someone with zero knowledge is showing firearms to anyone. the next person through the door may know even less about firearms, and just pull the trigger!