Thanks a bunch everyone, your feedback is much appreciated! I happen to be a MA resident at the moment
, with many non-res carry permits, but my girlfriend lives in Maine and is a Maine resident, so I'm not as familiar with stores in her area as I SHOULD be!!! -as far as the long-distance relationship goes, we are very awesome together and have been together for two years now, we spend much time together and stay at each other's places at least once a week. we will be obeying any and all laws with her and her gun that we plan to purchase soon, but it's about time she has one of her own!
I can't wait to get out of Crazychusetts
(I was born here, not my fault!) and move up to Maine, I have many friends up there and they all agree I belong there. It is such a heavenly place to be!!! -
Anyhoo! getting back on track, I made a list of all the places mentioned so far, TinPig, I am a huge fan of Four Seasons, and Carl has always treated me right with my many purchases there
if we can get a good deal there, we'll have it shipped and transferred, but she has a bit of a budget, as do I, so we're looking to purchase locally.
Frog0207, thanks for the suggestions! I forgot about Howell's! I've been there on a few occasions, and I love that area of Maine and have a few friends there. When at Howell's I've bought some triple 7 powder for my percussion guns, a decent leather western rig out of their used leather bin, and I also bought some John Wayne ltd edition .45LC there as it was the only .45LC they had that day. They are a very friendly shop, and I look forward to my next visit. They didn't even treat me like a 'Mass-h*le,' probably because I'm really not one, and also perhaps due to the good guys I was with, but other people in Maine will sometimes never even give me a chance when they see my license plates. Thing is I can't really blame them based on what I see every day in this silly place (again I can't wait to get our of here!!!)
It's funny, at first I thought we'd find a better deal in a 'Mom & Pop' gunshop, but it makes perfect sense that the big stores sell at lower prices for volume sales... I'd rather give my money to a local owned business, but I do that often enough, and since we have a tight-budget and want the best bang for buck, we might just try the Kittery Post first, then try LL Bean's (LOVE their return policy!!! though I'm guessing it doesn't apply to firearms), and then if we need to we'll try Cabellas from there, saving the biggest chain for last option.
When I can, I still plan to visit Northeast firearms in Turner, thanks McDonl, Maine Tactical in Scarborough, thanks PVD, and Maine Military in Holden, thanks Denderwuz. I love the local places, and they all sound pretty cool!
Thanks again guys, I'll report back (hopefully soon!) with our shopping-results.
For anyone else who stumbles upon this thread, I still welcome shop suggestions and gun suggestions. OP has the gun criteria that we are looking for