I heard the dumbest thing at Cabelas the other day.

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5ptdeerhunter

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My friend and I were walking along the case where they keep the scopes and stuff like that and this guy was asking the lady behind the counter to let him take the rifle cartridge and see if it would fit in the gun. She told him "Sir that is not safe." She didn't really know what to say to the guy. I was kind of shocked that anyone would ask to do something like that. It kind of freaked me out. I mean what if the lady was an idiot and let him do it. Someone could have been shot or even worse. Thankfully though the lady wasn't an idiot and remained calm. The man didn't stick around to long after that either. He soon left the store.

Have any of you heard a conversation like this before?
 
More common than it should be, both in stores and at gun shows, one of the reasons most shows require ties on guns and often ban displays of loose ammunition. The idjit usually comes up with something like "I just wanted to see if it fit" or "I was just checking the caliber".

In one case not too far from here, a man asked to see a 9mm pistol. When the clerk showed him one, he pulled a round out of his pocket, loaded the gun and killed himself. I don't know how that could be prevented, but stopping people from loading guns is a no brainer.

Jim
 
Jeez, I think that if someone wants to know what caliber a gun is, they should do their research, or ask, read the owners manual, look at the tag on or around the gun, look at the side of the gun, etc. Also, maybe there should be a supply of snap-caps behind the counter so if some dimwit wants to know what caliber it is after that, or if a round will fit, they have a 'drone'
 
Asking for a round to see if it will fit in the chamber would make me take two steps back .... and I'd take the firearm with me. That’s just scary...
 
I've done it.

Years ago, when I first started loading my own ammunition and didn't understand much about crimps, I took some problem cartridges downtown to ask for advice. The gun shop owner tried them in several revolvers, compared my rounds to factory fresh, and convinced me to pay closer attention to the manual.
 
My son relayed one to me year before last. Won't mention the company -they don't deserve the smear - but one of their regular, experienced customers chambered a round in their showroom, closed the bolt and brushed the trigger as he revrsed his grip to open the bolt and eject the round. It went through the wall behind the counter, at a downward angle, BETWEEN THE FEET of a girl working at a computer in the adjacent office, and through the outer wall, into a terrace on the lawn outside. The girl told my son that it took out about four bricks, and you could see lawn if you looked under her desk. He heard the tale because he was looking for a job in computer graphics, and she was telling him why her job had just become a vacancy. He didn't apply.
 
Good for the lady at Cabelas. You never know what some idiot may do if she had let him chamber a round. He then might have wanted to pull the trigger just to "test it". You never know who you are dealing with. Safer for all concerned to prohibit that sort of thing, particularly in a large store like Cabelas dealing with strangers.
 
Sorta reminds me of the few months I worked at Turner's Outdoorsman. One day I'm restocking ammo on the big tables and a guy comes in with a loose cartridge, a .41 mag. He asks me and my friend "Hi, do you have any of this ammo left?". I told him that we didn't stock that caliber, and he says "Do you have anything close?"....
Me: "Well, sir, it doesn't matter if it's close- if your pistol is chambered for that caliber nothing else will work in it", or something to that effect.
So he picks up some .44 mag rounds, opens the box, compares them to his lone .41, says "These look close enough, I'll try these out."
I say "Sir, your gun wasn't designed to function with those rounds.", and my friend chimes in with some other words of warning.
Guy doesn't listen to a word we say, walks up to the register, and goes home with a box of .44 mags to try in his .41.
 
I once asked to load a gun that I was looking at, and the guy behind the counter gave me a round to load. I have to say, I do a lot of business in this shop and they know me very well for several reasons. I wanted to see if a .357 round would fit in the cylinder of a S&W model 19 that was stamped and labeled as a .38 Special.

And yes it did.
 
Sorta reminds me of the few months I worked at Turner's Outdoorsman. One day I'm restocking ammo on the big tables and a guy comes in with a loose cartridge, a .41 mag. He asks me and my friend "Hi, do you have any of this ammo left?". I told him that we didn't stock that caliber, and he says "Do you have anything close?".... Me: "Well, sir, it doesn't matter if it's close- if your pistol is chambered for that caliber nothing else will work in it", or something to that effect.
So he picks up some .44 mag rounds, opens the box, compares them to his lone .41, says "These look close enough, I'll try these out."
I say "Sir, your gun wasn't designed to function with those rounds.", and my friend chimes in with some other words of warning.
Guy doesn't listen to a word we say, walks up to the register, and goes home with a box of .44 mags to try in his .41.
Click to expand...
:what: :what: :what: :what: :what:
 
Would this guy be dumb enough to maybe use some tool like a pliers to help get the tight 44 ammo into the 41 cylinder.
:what:
 
All ya gotta do is take a hand drill, select a bit that's pretty close to the .44 brass, and hog out those cylinders a little.

:what:
 
All ya gotta do is take a hand drill, select a bit that's pretty close to the .44 brass, and hog out those cylinders a little.
Click to expand...

I never thought of that, but you know that is a scary thought because it would work. :scrutiny: At least untill the .429 bullet meets the .410 rifling. :eek:
 
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Probably a dumb question, but don't all guns in recent memory have the caliber stamped on the barrel specifically to deal with this kind of thing? I thought that was an industry wide standard nowdays.
 
Yeah, but a lot of folks don't think that way - it's a bullet, right, and it should go in the gun, right? Make it fit!

My former favorite gunshop (now out of business) would have a rash of "it doesn't go bang" right before deer season. So they'd clean the nice customers' guns, and get all the crud out of 'em, and they'd go "click" real well. But the customers inevitably wanted to be sure that they'd go "bang." FWIW, more than a few folks also seemed to think that bore sighting a scope equated with dead-on accuracy for Bambi... Even when lectured to the contrary... But I digress...

Bubba wants to make sure the boomstick goes "bang!" Click ain't good enough. How do you do this? You pull a bullet/cut a shotgun shell, and pop the primer. It goes bang, the customer goes away happy, and anyone browsing who isn't familiar with the concept freaks out...

Due to the proprietor's kids, the shotgun shell powder would occasionally mysteriously find it's way to the ash tray that sat next to the guest chair...
 
you gotta be pretty friggin carefull with a loaded gun.

this evening i was trying out my new shotty, a norinco m97. that shotgun has NO SAFTY! NONE! its a repo of the winchester 1897 pump action shotgun. i was loading the gun and then with my left hand tossing out clay targets then shouldering and shooting them (2 at a time) i had to constantly maintain trigger discipline! i managed to, by being VERY careful, not blow off a foot.
 
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