Another "Silly Things You Hear In Gunshops" Thread

No need to go to the LGS to hear people say stupid things. Our very own Vice President has plenty of stupid comments of his own...

“If you want to protect yourself, get a double-barrel shotgun. You don’t need an AR-15. It’s harder to aim, it’s harder to use, and in fact, you don’t need 30 rounds to protect yourself. Buy a shotgun. Buy a shotgun.”

OR

“Well, you know, my shotgun will do better for you than your AR-15, because you want to keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door.” Most people can handle a shotgun a hell of a lot better than they can a semi-automatic weapon in terms of both their aim and in terms of their ability to deter people coming. We can argue whether that’s true or not, but it is no argument that, for example, a shotgun could do the same job of protecting you. Now, granted, you can come back and say, “Well, a machine gun could do a better job of protecting me.”

OR

“You know, they make fun of my saying about use a shotgun if someone’s invading your home – guess what, use a shotgun on someone invading your home and you don’t kill your kids – use an AR-15, it goes through your wall and it can kill your kid in the bedroom”
 
And those "sound bytes" will forever be immortalized in the annals of history just like Carolyn McCarthy' call to ban barrel shrouds aka "the shoulder thing that goes up"

:P
 
I know this thread is a few months old but I heard another great one today by someone I work with. He told a customer that the forward assist and dust covers on ARs were only needed by troops overseas and that civilians had no use for them.
 
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Joe_Pike said:
I know this thread is a few months old but I heard another great one today by someone I work with. He told a customer that the forward assist and dust covers on ARs were only needed by troops overseas and that civilians had no use for them.:eek:
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That's a fairly accurate statement, actually. I wouldn't say that civilians have "no use" for them, but they're not really necessary and you can get by just fine without them.

You should only use your forward assist in a few situations, like if you just did a chamber check or you just cleared the water from your barrel by slightly extracting the chambered round. And even then you don't necessarily need the forward assist, you can just push the bolt forward with your finger by pushing on the indentation on the side of the BCG.

But under normal firing conditions, you shouldn't use your forward assist. If your bolt doesn't go all the way home even when it went forward with the full force of normal operation, using the forward assist will often make your problem worse than it already is. Think about it; if your bolt doesn't go all the way home under normal operation, something is probably in the chamber and you're only going to make your problem worse by forcing it. The worst stoppage I ever had in my M16 was caused by my liberal use of the forward assist. It turned out that the bolt didn't go home because there was something stuck in my chamber, and using the forward assist only made the problem way worse.

As for the dust cover, it really isn't needed under most civilian conditions. Unless you spend lots of time in sandstorms or swamps, it's not really necessary.
 
I was thinking that guys that hunt with ARs would seem to have use of the dust covers if they travel through a lot of brush. There's all kinds of things that could get hung up in there if it wasn't covered.

As for the forward assist, I would say it's better to have it than not, especially if you ever get to a point you want to sell your AR. The vast majority of people will turn their nose up at a slick-side. But, to make a blanket statement that "civilians have no need of them" just to make a sale is kind of silly.
 
Had one myself the other day. Was shopping around for an antelope rifle for my daughter. Sales guy asked me what I was looking for. I pointed at my 15 year old, big around as a toothpick, daughter and said something along the lines of a .243 for antelope. He then explained to me, in detail, how nothing short of a .300 mag would be suitable for hunting antelope. I normally can keep a straight face and walk away when I hear this kind of thing but this was so ridiculous I could not help but busting out out laughing and asking if he was serious or just screwing with me. He was serious and new nothing short of a .300 mag would work because his uncle said so. Well... I did not but a .300 mag and am still looking for something she and I both like. Am thinking of going with a .270 because I can load it down for antelope or up for things as big as elk.
 
Joe_Pike said:
I was thinking that guys that hunt with ARs would seem to have use of the dust covers if they travel through a lot of brush. There's all kinds of things that could get hung up in there if it wasn't covered.
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That's not really a problem. I have spent many, many hours in the woods with an M16 and my dust cover wasn't always closed, and I never had a problem. I also never saw any other Marines have problems with getting brush in there. The primary purpose of the dust cover is to keep sand and dirt out of the action. And for most people -- even hunters -- that's just not much of an issue.

Joe_Pike said:
As for the forward assist, I would say it's better to have it than not, especially if you ever get to a point you want to sell your AR. The vast majority of people will turn their nose up at a slick-side.
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That's definitely true about the resale value, but I wouldn't say it's always better to have it than not. I've seen plenty of people -- including myself -- make things way worse by using the forward assist. Also, the rifle is a few ounces lighter without a forward assist.

Joe_Pike said:
But, to make a blanket statement that "civilians have no need of them" just to make a sale is kind of silly.
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It's a little bit extreme, but it's definitely not silly. The truth is that the vast majority of civilians, including hunters, don't need a forward assist or dust cover. And without them the rifle is cheaper and lighter. Also, without a forward assist you're not going to make a stoppage worse by using it at the wrong time.
 
Just this week:

Me: "I'm sorry, sir, but you've been denied on the background check. I can't release the gun to you."

Customer: "What? I've never been in any trouble!"

Me: "If you'd like to appeal the denial, we can..."

Customer: "Well, I am on probation for a DWI. Could that be it?"

Me: "They don't tell us, but..."

Customer: "I got busted for writing some bad checks a couple of years back."

Me: "But, other than that, you've never been in trouble?"

Customer: "Well, there was also this time when..."

Yeesh!
 
He told a customer that the forward assist and dust covers on ARs were only needed by troops overseas and that civilians had no use for them.
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The first version of the M16 that was used in Vietnam had an industrial chrome plated bolt and bolt carrier. Bright, shiny things tending to attract the eye and therefore fire in combat being bad idea, the original design incorporated a dust cover.

The first version also suffered from the Army changing from the IMR (Improved Military Rifle) powder the AR was developed with to ball powder which caused excessive fouling (coupled with a rifle that was given to the troops as 'never needed cleaning'). It was thought better to be able to close the bolt on a fouled chamber in an emergency than to have a rifle that was inoperable. Of course, forcing a cartridge into a fouled chamber does Nothing to solve the fouling problem and likely only exacerbates the problem.

A civilian AR suffers not at all for having neither of those features.
 
Just tonight I was down at Cabellas to put a deposit on a Star 9mm and this sniper was waxing about his prowness shooting at 500 yards at the local outdoor shooting range that I know for a fact only has a 100 yard rifle course.
 
Isn't Ruger a subsidiary of Beretta?
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Nope. Beretta's Italian and Ruger is German. My customers told me.

Also, the .243 Winchester is utterly incapable of killing Georgia whitetail, but a .223 Remington is too powerful to be humane.
 
I was at a gun show and saw these two guys at a table looking at revolvers. One guy tells the other that the faster a bullet goes, the less time it spends in the barrel and thus reduces recoil.

I was going to ask him how fast does a 44 magnum's bullet have to go to reduce recoil to rimfire level?
 
I don't work in a shop but I feel for you guys. I really don't spend much time at all in gun stores, but I have witnessed THREE occasions where someone brought in an "unloaded" semi auto. Each one of them were about to start field stripping the gun when the clerk said, "let's just check it unloaded one more time, ok". Out pops the chambered round.

My personal peeve: scopes that are labeled 3x9x40 instead of correctly as 3-9x40. I have walked out of about a dozen gun stores because the employees weren't smart enough to realize the difference on a variable scope.

If I have chosen to walk into a gun store rather than go online, it is because I need some information that I don't have.
 
I have walked out of about a dozen gun stores because the employees weren't smart enough to realize the difference on a variable scope.
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I'll do you one better. The guy who swore the .243 wouldn't drop a deer mentioned that he was having to shoot them four or five times. As he described his situation, it occurred to me that operator error may have been a significant factor.

I asked him if he'd zeroed the scope before he took the rifle into the field. His response was, "Zero? It's a 3x9!"
 
I love this thread... I heard the gun counter guy at a big box store today, tell a customer that .40S&W falls between .380 ACP and 9MM.
The same salesman also told the same customer that a Glock17 is a better carry gun than the 19, because it has a longer site radius, and higher capacity
 
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