People who hangout at gun shops.

[Molon Labe]

Seems like every time I go in a gun shop there are a couple guys "hanging out." They're usually talking it up with the guy behind the counter, shoot'n the bull, etc. With the exception of being on the receiving end of occasional unsolicited (and bad) advice, I have never had a problem with these folks. But I do have a few questions for THR members:

1. Have you ever been one of these guys who habitually "hangs out" at a gun shop?

2. If you work at a gun shop, do the guys who hangout at your shop annoy you?

3. As a gun shop customer, do the guys who hangout at the shop annoy you?

 

[WayneConrad]

If I see Bob working the counter, I will stop and chat with him if he's not busy. Actually, he usually flags me down even if he is busy. Nice guy, Bob. He sold me my first gun. I've been known to talk for half an hour before he has to get back to work.

Is that hanging out?

Edited to add: Sorry, I forgot to answer the questions. 1. No, 2. N/A, 3. No.

 

[Chipperman]

1. I have been that guy at the range gun shop. Doesn't really count the same, since it's an indoor range also. I was always there to shoot, not just talk.

2. N/A

3. Yes. Some are very cool, some are arrogant know-it-all's who usually know nothing. The problem I have is more how the owner of the shop interacts with customers while the groupies are there. Some gun shop owners will ignore customers to continue talking with the groupies. That is very annoying, especially when you practically have to wave a wad of cash in their face to get them to sell you a gun.

 

[KaceCoyote]

Wheres Spiffity doo da?

 

[spacemanspiff]

1. Have you ever been one of these guys who habitually "hangs out" at a gun shop?
yes, eventually the shop decided to put me on payroll and use my talents instead of letting me lounge around fondling guns. the jokes on them though! i have no talents!

2. If you work at a gun shop, do the guys who hangout at your shop annoy you?
now that i work there, it really doesnt bother me. the guys who come hang out are super cool and we wind up sitting around eating pizza and telling crude jokes.

3. As a gun shop customer, do the guys who hangout at the shop annoy you?
only when they offer bad advice.

edit - my fat fingers arent fast enough kace!

 

[TonkinTwentyMil]

Hangin' Out...

... is kinda fuzzy, but i think your point is an interesting one.

Too many gunshops beget bad reps for poor/hostile Customer Service because of claques of some Hangers-On. That's not good for expanding the universe of gun-owners and 2A advocates.

OTOH, I've seen some Hangers-On who actually helped newcomer type customers with friendly-and-informative advice.

At one gunshop where I was a frequent customer (a semi-Hanger-On) this actually happened:

While I was pondering a new purchase with the shop's owner near closing-time, a couple of pretty rough Gang-Banger types entered... and began carousing about, but not asking any questions, The owner quietly passed me a loaded .357 and asked me to take a position over in the corner. I did... thus putting the bad dudes in a cross-fire. They took the hint, and split.

That wouldn't have happened if I wasn't a trusted Hanger-On to the Owner.
Result: probable robbery thwarted.

 

[Average Joe]

1. No 2. n/a 3. yes

 

[Mannlicher]

the questions asked, and my answers

1. Have you ever been one of these guys who habitually "hangs out" at a gun shop?

yep, frequently

2. If you work at a gun shop, do the guys who hangout at your shop annoy you?

Been there. some did, some did not.

3. As a gun shop customer, do the guys who hangout at the shop annoy you?

Not a the shop I hang out in.

 

[AF_INT1N0]

No techinically not a gun shop hanger outer.. However my G/f would probably disagree with me.

n/a

No most gun shop hanger outers don't bother me. On the contrary our main GSHO will gladly help others out when my gun shop owners get too busy.

As a matter of fact most of the GSHOs in my local shop are the helpful kind.

 

[Jim K]

I have considered writing a book on the stuff I heard while working at gun shops, and later as a customer/hanger on.

Did you know:

The noise of a gun is made when the air rushes back into the barrel after the bullet comes out.

The head [bullet] comes out the end of the barrel because the shooting thingie hits the back end of the shell so hard.

Bullets go up after they leave the barrel, even if the barrel is pointing down.

Short guns [shot guns] are illegal because they shoot a lot of bullets.

A .45 caliber bullet won't penetrate a silk handkerchief, but a .22 will.

A .22 has just half the power of a .44.

German WWII rifles used the same ammunition as the Garand and even used Garand clips.

Machineguns are not as loud as rifles because they just go "putt-putt", not "bang".

Japanese WWII rifles were no more powerful than a kid's .22.

Yes, it is truly amazing all the good info you learn from listening to the customers.

Jim

 

[Wastemore]

Spacemanspiff,
that is exactly how it went down for me. Purchased lots of firearms, they needed a part timer and I'm semi-retired and have tons of time.JNow I'm like a kid in a candy store.

I used to go in and talk to Jerry from time to time, didn't seem to bother him, made a good friend out of it.

I have guys that come in and yap all day long, I don't mind it a bit.

As a customer it doesn't much bother me when people hang out as long as I'm not ignored when I need some service.

 

[Matthew748]

1. I don't hang out at gun shops. Sometimes I go to browse, and I am not adverse to striking up a conversation, but thats about it.

2. NA

3. Folks that hang out at gun shops do not bother me. Sometimes you get good advice, sometimes you hear bad advice, and sometimes you hear tales so off the wall they are laughable.

 

[Spreadfire Arms]

1. Have you ever been one of these guys who habitually "hangs out" at a gun shop?
before i became a gun dealer, yes, i was probably one of those guys, but not at a specific shop, but probably at all shops within driving distance. i don't necessarily think that's wrong so long as you are not in the way.

2. If you work at a gun shop, do the guys who hangout at your shop annoy you?
no, so long as they are polite, not only to me but to others who come by, and don't force their opinion down others' throats. also if they don't try to help make a sale, then expect some compensation or credit from the gun shop for helping to "make" a sale. i have had guys at gun shows in the past tell me they were responsible for helping me sell several AR-15's, pistols, stripped lower receivers, etc. the way one guy was talking he should have been employee of the month, but he doesn't even work for me?

3. As a gun shop customer, do the guys who hangout at the shop annoy you?
yes and no. it depends on what happens really. some gun shop bar flies can be annoying. i go by one place locally every now and then and there is an old guy who i've never seen buy anything from that store. he goes there, drinks their coffee, follows me around the shop, and then asks me for free schwag that i got from some LE agency, SHOT show, etc. he says its for his grandkids. i dont mind giving something to give his grandkids every now and then, but every time i see him he's always hitting me up for something, some LE agency baseball cap, some gun manufacturer's pins, patches, etc. he's a nice guy so i don't ever tell him to buzz off, lately i've been telling him i dont have any to offer him and apologize. i don't think he means to bug me, he just does because he asks for free stuff all the time. most of the gun shop barflies dont bother me, some are actually pretty smart and knowledgeable about certain things so you never know what good info they have. sometimes you run into a guy who talks about stuff he doesn't really know, but oh well, that's at every gun show, shooting range, and gun shop in America, just let it roll off your back.

 

[Moonclip]

I've done all three. They do not bother me as long as they are not in the way of the gun displays/paying customers transactions or offering incorrect, unwarranted advice or spewing racist or inapproprite views in front of me or others.

In fact I have seen them welcomed as a security device. No one wants to rob a place with potentially 5-10 cranky armed guys!

One hangout place I know even has coffee and a bathroom for the customers and allows you to smoke, hard to do inside in my state. Some make it clear, usually chains though,that hanging out is not welcome. One place I was with considered itself a family place and had chairs and snack machines and TV and such but it got out of hand sometimes with people thinking we were babysitter when they were shooting and letting their kids/dogs crawl around on the floor which had lead residue on it, not a good idea.

 

[f4t9r]

#1 yes
#2 no
#3 N/A
Most end up spending quite a few dollars over the years

 

[spacemanspiff]

its a side benefit to befriend the people who happen to work at a gunshop. i dont know how many times i've heard "awwww i dont want to have to inventory this [ammo, accessories, guns] and put price tags on it, its 5 minutes till closing! tell ya what, buy this right now and i'll give it to you at cost."

eventually you can start using that as a ploy.
"gee, it looks like a lot of work to tag and scan that box of stuff that was just delivered. why don't i just take it off your hands? say, 5% markup?"

 

[akluvr]

I'm voting for Mr. Keenan's book. Lot of educational stuff that is. So much for keeping your ears open and mouth shut.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I'd rather shoot targets than shoot the bull.

 

[P0832177]

The one gunshop I use has great ownership and good counter help. There are some know it alls that hang out there though. And, listening to them nauseates me! But, to each is own. The worst place is chain store in the north metro. This one guy gives a really bad name to CCW Instructors! He is so FOS that a person just has to shake their head!

Then there are the people that read too much on BBS's that come into the shops and pretend to think they know more then the good counter help.

 

[Soap]

1. NO.

2. I worked at Dicks in between semesters in college, and no one hung out there regularly.

3. YES. I cannot stand people that hang out at the gunshop all day long. There are some that I see literally every single time I go...any hour, any day. It drives me nuts! :banghead:

 

[MikeIsaj]

I don't hang out at the shop but, I've been known to spend an hour buying two boxes of ammo.

The guys there don't bother me. If they did I wouldn't stay. My father-in-law (a salesman), once told me to always give a salesman a few minutes of your time, you'll be surprized at what you will learn. He was so right that I do that with everyone.

 

[Dionysusigma]

1) I don't usually "hang out" in one, but I often go to window-shop.

2) We'll see. I start work at Outdoor America this Saturday.

3) Only on occasion. I fear that I myself might be an annoyance, but only because I sometimes ask other people (not the staff/salesman) questions and opinions regarding stuff I don't know much about. I only offer advice when I've heard it repeated from several sources and checked it myself (which is once--the differences among .38spl, .357mag, and .38 +P/+P+).

 

[M-Rex]

1. No. Get in. Buy something. Move on to bigger and better things.

2. N/A

3. Absolutely. They clog up the store...especially when there's 3 or 4 of them, and two are reading the newspaper, and the other two are leaning over the counter talking about some stupid sport of the day to the owner.

Annoying as hell. If they're that lonley, they should buy a dog.

 

[Gunpacker]

Guilty

I can't go in without looking over the stuff. Sometimes get in a conversation if owner is friendly. One owner was happy he engaged me in conversation. I had been talking cop stuff with owner, a retired Deputy,and was getting ready to leave when a really big motorcycle type guy came in and was unhappy with a gun on consignment deal. The guy got really obnoxious and loud, and owner made eye contact with me. I placed myself strategically, and owner kept trying to calm guy down. He eventually left still snorting, angry about what one of the clerks had told him. We both breathed a sigh of relief. He and I are both retired, and neither of us wanted to battle the guy. Not sure what would have happened if I hadn't been there, because that guy was not a reasonable person.

 

[mustanger98]

Seems like every time I go in a gun shop there are a couple guys "hanging out." They're usually talking it up with the guy behind the counter, shoot'n the bull, etc. With the exception of being on the receiving end of occasional unsolicited (and bad) advice, I have never had a problem with these folks. But I do have a few questions for THR members:

You can meet interesting people and hear interesting stuff that way. You can find out something that works, or you can find out what not to do. What annoys me is the doofus(es) behind the counter who think women can't shoot anything bigger than a .380 and most can't handle that much. I'm a guy, but I have a sister who can shoot anything she wants to.

1. Have you ever been one of these guys who habitually "hangs out" at a gun shop?

Yup. And you wouldn't beleive what my gun-hating grandmother says about that and how she tries to get my Mom to give me grief over it. She won't say it to me, though; she just tries to get Mom to stomp over it.

Oh, and the owners- a married couple- are friends/neighbors of mine. The discussion ain't always guns and hunting; sometimes it's horses and horse shows too. Oh, and they told me about the time she shot Magnum Research's BFR in .500S&W and the shockwave blew her hair straight back.

2. If you work at a gun shop, do the guys who hangout at your shop annoy you?

N/A However, some customers have asked them why I'm not on the payroll. The owners told 'em I eat too much and that my Stetson ain't to keep the sun off; it's for carrying groceries.

3. As a gun shop customer, do the guys who hangout at the shop annoy you?

Not very often. At that other aweful place I used to do business with, I ran into annoying people all the time. Seems like it's a magnet for that kind. In my friends' place, they're mostly just good ol' boys and girls who like to hunt like I do.