My wife and I took a trip to visit old friends in Phoenix, AZ.
The friends just moved there 10 months ago from Wyoming.
Weather was hot (already in the low 90s before Spring actually started) and we went to several places.
Two of the places on my list were Dillon Precision and Shooter's World.
Dillon is only a few blocks from where my friends live in Scottsdale, the chi-chi northern suburb of Phoenix.
I brought along the broken bracket from my Dillon RL550B to swap. While there, I also bought one of the Instructor's Belts--I've always wanted one, but shipping charges always held me up.
My impressions of the Dillon Precision store front were at first, underwhelming. The store front is rather small, with scantily stocked shelves.
Of course, Dillon's bulk business is through catalog sales, and anything in the catalog exists in mass quanities in the huge warehouse behind the small store front.
When I asked to try on an instructor belt (sizes 38 and 40), the guy behind the counter made a quick phone call, and two belts were promptly brought up from the warehouse. In fact, the guy looked at me, ignored my first requested size, and had a 40 and a 42 brought out. I've dropped 25 pounds recently and am in size 38 jeans for the first time in about 5 years.
He knew better, because he was wearing an Instructors Belt with what appeared to be a Sig Sauer of some sort on it.
The size 42 fit, just as the customer service guy predicted.
Visiting Dillon was a pleasant experience. I even learned about the "Heavy Metal" class they offer---.308 with open sights out to 400 on steel targets and then 12 gauge shotguns up close. I need to go back to Phoenix and take some of those classes .
On the other hand, the trip to Shooter's World was a complete bust.
First, the directions provided by their computer link were wrong. We spent about 2 hours tooling around on what should have been a 45 minute trek across town.
Second, Shooter's World is "in the hood." It is surrounded by run down neighborhoods and run down warehouses that have hurricane fences topped with concertina wire. Not exactly confidence-inspiring.
Third, Shooter's World is nothing like the Shooter's World featured in Jim Scouten's much-cussed reruns of the defunct show, "American Shooter."
In fact, as I walked around in stunned disappointment at how small and dinky and dark and poorly stocked Shooter's World was, the guy behind the counter answered a phone call. What he said, explained everything.
"Hello, Shooter's World..............Yeah.......no........no.........no, we don't do those any more. You probably saw us on "American Shooter" right? Yeah, well that show makes us look really good, but that segment was filmed maybe 12 years ago, and we've had like two ownership changes since then. No, we don't have those any more. Yeah, some instructors rent our ranges for their classes, but we don't actually offer any of our own classes here right now."
Shooter's World is shot, if you ask me.
But interesting, educational trip to Phoenix.
hillbilly
The friends just moved there 10 months ago from Wyoming.
Weather was hot (already in the low 90s before Spring actually started) and we went to several places.
Two of the places on my list were Dillon Precision and Shooter's World.
Dillon is only a few blocks from where my friends live in Scottsdale, the chi-chi northern suburb of Phoenix.
I brought along the broken bracket from my Dillon RL550B to swap. While there, I also bought one of the Instructor's Belts--I've always wanted one, but shipping charges always held me up.
My impressions of the Dillon Precision store front were at first, underwhelming. The store front is rather small, with scantily stocked shelves.
Of course, Dillon's bulk business is through catalog sales, and anything in the catalog exists in mass quanities in the huge warehouse behind the small store front.
When I asked to try on an instructor belt (sizes 38 and 40), the guy behind the counter made a quick phone call, and two belts were promptly brought up from the warehouse. In fact, the guy looked at me, ignored my first requested size, and had a 40 and a 42 brought out. I've dropped 25 pounds recently and am in size 38 jeans for the first time in about 5 years.
He knew better, because he was wearing an Instructors Belt with what appeared to be a Sig Sauer of some sort on it.
The size 42 fit, just as the customer service guy predicted.
Visiting Dillon was a pleasant experience. I even learned about the "Heavy Metal" class they offer---.308 with open sights out to 400 on steel targets and then 12 gauge shotguns up close. I need to go back to Phoenix and take some of those classes .
On the other hand, the trip to Shooter's World was a complete bust.
First, the directions provided by their computer link were wrong. We spent about 2 hours tooling around on what should have been a 45 minute trek across town.
Second, Shooter's World is "in the hood." It is surrounded by run down neighborhoods and run down warehouses that have hurricane fences topped with concertina wire. Not exactly confidence-inspiring.
Third, Shooter's World is nothing like the Shooter's World featured in Jim Scouten's much-cussed reruns of the defunct show, "American Shooter."
In fact, as I walked around in stunned disappointment at how small and dinky and dark and poorly stocked Shooter's World was, the guy behind the counter answered a phone call. What he said, explained everything.
"Hello, Shooter's World..............Yeah.......no........no.........no, we don't do those any more. You probably saw us on "American Shooter" right? Yeah, well that show makes us look really good, but that segment was filmed maybe 12 years ago, and we've had like two ownership changes since then. No, we don't have those any more. Yeah, some instructors rent our ranges for their classes, but we don't actually offer any of our own classes here right now."
Shooter's World is shot, if you ask me.
But interesting, educational trip to Phoenix.
hillbilly
