"Combat Pawn"... no comments yet?

Any body remember the American Guns episode where Granddad's 870 got made tacticool? I remember reading a blog from the guy who was the customer. Evidently there was some kind of casting call by the show. The only problem is that Grandad's 870 is still in his safe. The gun was pulled from inventory at the store and made. The whole event was scripted from start to finish.
 
The thing that really disturbs me about some "reality" shows... such as this one and Top Shot, is seeing people I know behaving in ways that are nothing like the way they've ever acted in my experience.

I used to shop and shoot at Guns Plus. The guys (and gal) there were helpful, friendly, good shooters, and yes all were veterans. Several were Airborne or SF. None were clowns.

I knew a shooter on Top Shot, too. One of the nicest people you'd meet in real life. Producers there had him acting like a macho jerk.

Shocking, I know, but the producers tell the cast members to do a lot of the stupid or obnoxious things they do on the shows - producers want drama.

I just don't bother with any of these things anymore.
 
you got to wonder, is there anything on the tube that is, unadulterated, un-edited, pure and complete fact?

A question too few people ask themselves and even fewer care about.

Entertainment trumps content far too often...:(
 
According to the video description, they take security "very serious." Apparently, "very serious" involves waving around Desert Eagles, "tactical" AK sporters, and GoPro cameras mounted on the guns. They're not exactly conveying an image of professionalism to me.

What gets me is that they're a free-standing building in a field, with the only neighbor being a gas station across the street. That makes it a pretty easy location to monitor and secure. There's really no need for the mall ninja antics, and...oh, wait. Television cameras. Got it.

What worries me is the image this projects to the general public, not just of guns, but of the retail industry.

That was painful to watch.. omg.
 
Anyone else remember 'Tales of the Gun' or 'Lock 'n' Load with R. Lee Ermey'?

I miss them.

Most modern T.V is why I spend most of my free time at the range or on TFL.
 
I watched a bunch of the previews. From a pawn perspective, I don't see much that is out of line. It is TV and they are not going to spend a lot of time on the unexciting stuff. So you will see an unrealistic cross section of what is really going on in the store.

Like the other pawn shows, I don't doubt that they actually have a good amount prescreened customers that they have coached on behavior to make the transaction interesting or at least such that they know to cover the transaction with multiple cameras.

In the first transaction, a guy comes in with a H&K G36... not a SL8 cosmetic conversion, a real G36... a post 1986 ban, select fire weapon. There was no discussion about who he was or how he happened to come by this gun... just an "I want to sell it, you wanna' buy it?" kinda deal. Was he a SOT? Chief LEO? Who knows.
From an educational perspective, I found this odd. People who have no understanding of class 3 - title 2 - pre ban - post ban, may believe that these post '86 guns are somehow... available to Joe Shooter. Perhaps they thought the details of it would bog down the entertainment value of a half hour show. I guess that makes sense.

Pawn transactions are not about the education of the general masses. If you want a show about pawning, don't expect a show like Pawn Stars where there are cuts to a fat bald guy who apparently knows way too much history in the cut away compared to dealing with the customer. It is interesting, but if you are worried about reality, we don't do that in the pawn business.

A transaction for a S&W top break "lemon squeezer" revolver was conducted.
Pricing for these guns is all over the map, so without inspection, I don't know if the $250 offered and taken was fair.

I didn't see a single transaction where I could determine if the amount on the gun was actually proper. The detail truly wasn't there to determine it.

Man bought Glock for wife... had it laser engraved that day. Drama with laser engraver functionality. Drama with recent gun death of wife's Father. Sad and slightly weird.

Weird, stupid, nonsensical, unrealistic, etc. stories are not uncommon in pawn shops for pawns and you can find all sorts of weirdness in any profession where a person is purchasing a gift for a spouse.

They apparently shoot every gun they buy... or at least all the guns they bought in this episode.

We didn't have a gun range to do that, but every other item we could test out before loaning on or purchasing we tested. The specialize in firearms and so having a range to test them makes sense. I would not do as they did in one case and let the customer run the gun. The downside there is that the customer can nurse the firearm along, compensating for flaws.

Other than the guns, it's kinda dull. I assume there will be more interactive drama as the show builds a following.
At least, so far, they don't offer to turn grand-dad's old Remington 870 bird gun into a tactical shotgun for only 4-5 thousand dollars.

I didn't see this, but it does sound pretty stupid.

The thing that really disturbs me about some "reality" shows... such as this one and Top Shot, is seeing people I know behaving in ways that are nothing like the way they've ever acted in my experience.

I think some of the stuff is enhanced. No doubt there are issues between people. However, it is that very aspect, real or not, that drives me away from shows like Top Shot, American Guns, that show with Red Jacket, and showing up in Combat Pawn. It is the stupid interpersonal interaction. Talking about the about to kick and employee's ___ (butt) simply is not appropriate behavior in a business. It was done in Combat Pawn but shows up similarly in several shows.
 
Lately we've been closing threads on these shows, the primary reason being that they do not promote the responsible use of firearms, the Second Amendment, or the adherents of either in a very positive light and thus are not worthy of discussion or notice. And, too, at least one of the shows invariably invites discussion of the females on it.

So far this thread is maintaining a very good discussion trajectory. Please, everyone, let's keep it that way.

That said I've watched a few minutes of pretty much all of these shows. A few minutes is more than enough to know that they are, the modern day equivalent of circuses designed to placate at least some of the masses.

Often the "facts" about the firearms are so incredibly wrong that I can't actually believe that these individuals are employed in the profession.

All in all, I think these shows do SERIOUS damage to those of us who take firearms, firearms ownership, and our Second Amendment rights seriously.
 
Anyone else remember 'Tales of the Gun' or 'Lock 'n' Load with R. Lee Ermey'?

I really liked (Lock and Load) but, don't care that much for Combat Pawn or some of the others they have been showing. Top Shot is about all I will watch now.
 
About the only good thing I can say about this show is that I doubt the times from when they went to the shoot house were fake. I used to work with one of the guys on the show and know he can shoot well.
 
Ok I am surprised nobody is complaining about how they "open" the store every morning. Did you guys see that?

There is no way its real. I can understand opening the store as a group armed of course. But they are walking around guns drawn pointing them all over the place aiming them at who knows whatever. Obviosoly fake, I turned it off as soon as I saw that.

Yeah, I watched the show for the first time list night....and the G36 & the way they "open" the store each & every morning both caught my attention... I've recently opened a shop of my own FFL07 with S.O.T. Class 2. Both of these "issues" need further information. I don't know how the laws work in Spring Lake, NC-- but business property( open to the public ) and running around brandishing loaded weapons (even on your property- out of doors) is a real big no-no, and from an ATF prospective-- allowing employes ( assuming these were store owned firearms) to take NFA items home with them...
 
I seen the episode where the guy went in and sold his ACR (that he JUST bought from them 3 months past) WITH an additional stock and foregrip that he added for $1100...That guy must have been out of his mind.
 
I seen the episode where the guy went in and sold his ACR (that he JUST bought from them 3 months past) WITH an additional stock and foregrip that he added for $1100...That guy must have been out of his mind.

Hope the show producers paid him the balance of the money he left on the table.

c
 
Lock 'n Load was fun. It was a decent survey program, even if some of the facts were pretty blatantly wrong.

Most amusing incident on LnL was in the anti-tank guns episode.

Gunny was in the front hull of a, IIRC, an M18 Hellcat, the one with the high-velocity 76mm gun.

He was (for a change) wearing hearing protection and the long billed forage cap he likes, and had a huge poop eating grin on his face.

Until they lit up the main gun.

The blast from the gun blew his forage cap off his head and his grin just evaporated into a wide-eyed stare of stunned silence.

The guy in the other hull position let out this huge "SON OF A BEACH!"

I chuckled about that for the rest of the show.
 
Last nights show was entertaining enough, but $800 for a knife?
$7500 for a decked out M1A?
For real??
I'm living in the wrong century or something.
 
I agree, the knife was HIGH priced, and that M-1A, (which the guy selling called it an "M-14", BTW), looked like it had been remade for an episode of Starship Troopers. The Philly Palm Pistol looked museum quality.
 
Even before Guns Plus got on TV, they would open up the store like SWAT every monring with guns drawn, etc... I never buy firearms there because they think that they know everything about firearms.
 
Lock 'n Load was fun. It was a decent survey program, even if some of the facts were pretty blatantly wrong.

Certainly no interpersonal soap opera issues there, but I could not take the yelling. I found the show best watched with the volume down. ;)

I agree, the knife was HIGH priced, and that M-1A, (which the guy selling called it an "M-14", BTW), looked like it had been remade for an episode of Starship Troopers. The Philly Palm Pistol looked museum quality.

While some of the customers may truly just show much, the other pawn programs do have customer screening which means only certain folks make it to the TV area for transaction videoing. I would not be surprised if they did not have a casting call for customers like Gunsmoke does for buyers.

Not for a gun show, but here is a casting call for "customers" for a possible new pawn series...
http://www.actorspages.org/notice_details.php?pd_id=11606
 
Reality TV?

There is no reality in "Reality TV"

People looking for their 15 minutes of fame." Yesterday I couldn't spell TV Star, today I are one."
 
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