Genereous gun owners

C

cornered rat

Moderator
:) Just stopped by the store where I bought my P14 rifle to get sling swivels added. One of the regulars (who helped me with advice re: the rifle) has proceeded to buy two boxes of .303 and handed them to me saying "here, try these and see if they work differently from the other stuff you were shooting".

Hmmm...this is someone who barely knows me. The guy running the store is neat in another way...I looked at an $850 HBAR AR15 and he said something about "what you got [Mini14] is good enough for the purpose, are you SURE you want to spend that much more for a small gain?" Nice, my gun dealer is concerned about me spending too much :)
 
My 'smith recently gave me 1st dibs on some new bits & pieces that came in from a guy that decided to "concentrate" on his rifles.

Lucky me - got to buy a tumbler & some projectiles at very reasonable prices !

Support your local 'smith & he'll support you. :D

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"The Gun from Down Under !"
 
cr: I posted a inquiry to Glock owners to make their case about the Glock being the best on another forum. My intention was for Glock fans to convince me why I should buy a Glock.One poster, jim, flatly stated to me to try a Glock, and if I didn't like it, to let him know. He offered to pay for the ammo. This was from a total stranger. I was impressed. To borrow a marketing phrase from years ago : "You meet the nicest people on a Gun Forum."

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A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined;
George Washington Jan 8,1790--There can be no doubt about the Second Amendment.
 
This has always been my experience too. I can't remember how many people have just up and given me some goody or other just on the basis of being a fellow shooter. How many times have you been out at the range and met an obvious new shooter? How often do you volunteer to let them shoot one or more of your guns with your ammo, just so they can see what it's like? Last week, I let some young guy blaze a 30 round mag our of my AR, just because he'd never shot one before. he didn't ask, I offered. Funny thing is, I am really not a generous type. You'll never see a nastier look than the one I give to some bum (screw "Homeless") when he asks me for a dime, but I'll gladly let a stranger blow a few bucks downrange just to enjoy seein him or her enjoy it.
Confirms a suspision I've always held,
Shooters are weird!
(Myself included!)

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Your mind is your primary weapon.
 
Now, I had a case at the range where an elderly couple came in and the lady wanted to try a Ruger SP101. All she wanted was to see if she could handle the recoil and blast. She balked at the cost of doing it: $16 for the range pass, 14 for a box of 50 .38 rounds and $10 for the gun rental.

The range waived the $16 pass fee. I provided some extra whimpy .38 handloads, a few regular rounds and a few defense rounds. She departed smiling.

Every time Q and I take people shooting, I end up spending $20-40 for passes and ammo per newbie...so, yes, even tightwads can get pretty generous when it comes to their cause :)
 
Just about every time I go to the range I try to let someone shoot my gun/s.

Gotta love the look on their faces when they shoot an accurate gun ;) & HIT what they're aimin' at !

Our range fees in Aus. are $10 range fee & the cost of the ammo. The gun's supplied FREE !

To date, anyone that's used my P-16 wantsone after using mine. :)

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"The Gun from Down Under !"
 
I've joined total strangers (met on the net or at a gunshow, etc.) at the range to let them shoot my HK. They've all come away impressed, and many have gone on to buy one of their own. I've also let several friends shoot my guns and my ammo at my expense just to get them to see our pastime (passion?) from our point of view. Now many ask me if I'm going to the range this Sunday everytime I see them. It's turned into a fun tradition of sorts.

One day I was leaving the range and a guy offers me several boxes of .40 practice ammo when he noticed my .40. He'd sold his only .40 and didn't plan on getting another for a few months, so he just gave me the ammo!
 
Cornered rat,

Where may I ask, is your dealer located? I have been looking for another dealer.
Also, what range do you normally frequent?
 
All these stories are very typical. I don't know how many times I've shot someone else's guns or they have shot mine just to try something different. Our Rangemaster makes a regular thing about giving informal lessons to newbees and if he is too busy, he'll ask one of us regulars to help the newbee out. None of us has ever said no. Shooters are some of the friendliest people I know and I like that.
Now if you really want to make new friends in a hurry, try showing up with your chronograph! :)
 
The dealers I have used are: Gunstop (firearms and reloading supplies) in Excelsior (decent prices, good selection), Bill's Gun Shop and Range in Robbinsdale (Q likes that range, so we go there), Wolf's Den in Hugo and Hunter's Den in Hopkins (which is the one mentioned in the post). Hunter's Den is not cheap on handguns, but does do fairly well on rifles...and I get along with the guy who runs it.

Theone I would avoid is Frontiersman on Hwy 394. Their people have been rude in the past, and 50% of the guns I bought there were defective (two of four) -- you might have better luck, but I am avoiding other coincidences by staying away from them.

Bill's is a decent range, but it is expensive ($16 per pass, $100 for ten) and they want far too much info (driver's license). Roger's Pistol Range in Burnsville is handgun-only, but cheaper ($4 per person+$3 per gun) and much friendlier and more cozy. Q thinks it is too messy and stuffy and prefers Bill's.

If you stop by Hunter's Den, the older guy (Gene) is the one to talk to...the other one is just there to hang around. Tell them the Rat sent you :)

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Cornered "but cheery" Rat
http://ddb.com/RKBA Updated March 20
 
Another example of this happend today. Went to the range to learn using the sling (it helps a lot!) I saw a fellow in the next lane shoot up his twenty rounds of 30-30 and come over, looking at my Mini14. I let him shoot a few rounds through that and the P14 .303

He, in turn, devoted over two hours to showing me how to properly zero in the guns (.22 and .303 were spot on, the Mini was waaay off). We used a 25m target that mimics the apparent target size at 300m. Turns out that the Mini can keep two of each three shots overlapping at 25m (now, my skill is still not much, but clearly the gun is not the problem). The $75 .303 is DAMN ACCURATE.
While we were shooting, I let a kid in the next lane try my .22, he and his dad let me try their Buckmark (nice) and Beretta 85 .380 (love at first magazine...similar to PPK/s in size, much less kick, more comfy).

Gun owners at their best mellow helpful self...

Of course, we also had to have candidates for the Darwin awards there. Three guys (30 y.o.?) with a "tactic'd to hell and black" SKS, shorty AR and a pistol-grip black 12ga with a ventilated shroud. They were shooting ball, buckshot and tracers from the hip and screaming "yeeeha! that's it man, get that bitch!" after every few rounds, most of which hit the ceiling or the walls.

At some point, one of these bright fellas loaded his 12ga, racked it, then started adding another round to the tube. His safety was off. To hold the gun, he pointed it down and toward himself, with the barrel secured between his to legs, right below the crotch. I would not have been surprised had he shot his balls off...no such luck.

At that point I asked my instructor (a paratrooper dude, gotta admire their competence) to take a five-ten minute break and wait out the bozos. When we came back, these folks got out a "Budwiser can" camera and we taking pix of their fearsome tactical gear. Sheesh...


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Cornered "but cheery" Rat
http://ddb.com/RKBA Updated March 20
 
Cornered Rat,
Those 3 bozos are exactly what the antis love. One bad apple etc. The rangemaster where I shoot (retired Army Major, firearms and covert ops instructor) would have bounced them the first time they did something stupid, given them a stern saftey lecture and told them not to come back.
Unfortunatly, you Know they will just take their stupidity elsewhere. Even more unfortunate is the fact that they wouldn't listen if you tried to explain the error of their ways to them. No one has yet divised a suitable defense against stupid.
 
I have seen the good stuff a lot of times at the Second Chance Combat Shoot. I work on the "Back Range" at the machine gun tower where we rent various full auto guns to shoot. There are a buncha class 3 owners that show up there. More than once some kid or even adults have gotten the chance to fire a belt thru a ground gun without having to pay for the ammo. We have had class 3 people taking new shooters from gun to gun so they can shoot everything that was there. You have to admit shooting a 50 round belt each thru 4 or 5 ground guns and 30 round magazines thru several submachine guns gets to be ammo expensive but the owners of these guns never complained or cared. And there were a lot of people that before did not like the idea of full auto guns being in the hands of private individuals that changed their minds.
 
About the three bozos...normally, they would have been bounced out of the range. However, the new (incompetent, unhelpful) guy the range just hired did nothing. I plan to talk to the range manager about his 1)dereliction of duty and 2) unhelpful, snotty attitude. Hope to call tomorrow, see if I can get him straightened out or dismissed (that range did fire two utter *******s they had working for awhile...got much better to shoot there after that.)

I declined to talk to the three morons for two reasons: wasn't sure they were safe and was too busy with my instructor. Should have, but didn't.
 
Thanks for the info rat.
I normally go to Al’s in White Bear Lake. He has fairly good prices, but not much of a selection. I think I will go to Bill’s and try to hit him up for a name discount. :)


[This message has been edited by Bill F (edited March 22, 1999).]
 
Back in grad school, myself and one of my lab mates were the only shooters in the department. Once or twice a month we'd go to the range on a Sat with our arsenals.
This one day I'm on the pistol range with my .45 and Blackhawk .357. I'm all over the place with the Blackhawk...fiddling with the sights, but no improvement. This old guy is watching, then comes over and chats a bit. He asks if he can try, so I give it to him and he isn't doing much better than I was. (This guy had a nice collection over on his bench and you could tell he knew what he was doing.) He is puzzled, looks at my ammo and takes a few rounds out of his pocket and tries them...still not too good. So he looks the gun over and whips out a bottle of red nail polish from his pocket...puts a dab on the front sight, fires a round...adjusts the rear sight...fires another round and its dead on. Hands it to me and sez its fixed...I fired a few and its perfect.
My lab mate comes back and says there is a pistol turkey shoot in 10 minutes and he was going to enter the auto category. The old guy asks why don't I enter the SA...I said nah, and he pep talks me and then leaves, comes back and he had entered me and paid for it (a buck a round) and hands me 6 rounds of .357. I ended up winning a 12 lb frozen turkey.
I am thrilled and this old guy is grinning ear to ear and wouldn't let me pay him back. I invited him over for a turkey dinner but he declined. Just before we left he asked if I ever wore red polish...I said no, so he whips out the bottle and gives it to me, with a smile he said his wife has plenty and never misses it.
 
hal
saw your post on this thread about me offering to pay for your ammo! that was over 1 1/2 mths. ago still haven,t rec. a bill yet. so have you made that pistol purchase if you get out to co. look me up and i will take you to the range i belong.
jim
p.s.
i use up as much ammo letting people use my firearms as i use myself however other shooters at range reciprocate in kind
 
This reminds me of a gentleman who set me on the right path when it comes to accurate pistol shooting.
It was 1981 and I was stationed at Ft. Bragg. One Saturday, I was at the range, shooting like usual (lousy) and this old fella shooting in the next lane is driving tacks at 25 with a VP70Z of all things! Well, with such an unusuall gun, I HAD to talk to him and after awhile, he made a few suggestions about my shooting technique.
I gave it a try and saw an instant and very dramatic improvement!
His name was Guy McMurray, and he was a hell of a fella. Retired Army officer (LTC I think.) and a WWII vet. We met almost every saturday for a year or so, then I got into spec ops and spent little time at Bragg. Finally lost track of him, and I figure he's probably passed on by now, but I always think of him when I offer some "kid" a few suggestions and see that light in their eyes when they suddenly start hitting what they aim at.
I'm sure he had better things to do than teach some snot nosed Private how to shoot, but he always volunteered his time and we became rather good friends.
Gentleman Shooters.
HCI can go to Hell, they have no idea what kind of people they insult.


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Your mind is your primary weapon.
 
jimc: Again, thanks for another generous offer. If I am out Co way I will look you up. Likewise if you ever get to notheast Ohio, let me know. My plan to buy a Glock is on hold for the next few months. I fell to the lure of another Browning Hi Power. I just couldn't resist it, it looked so darn pretty with it's brushed nickel frame and black slide. The Glock is in my future though, I have been looking at them in .40 S&W.

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A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined;
George Washington Jan 8,1790--There can be no doubt about the Second Amendment.
 
You don't need to look far to find good gun guys! What about all the fine folks who take time and effort to share their expertise with others right here on TFL. No matter that the question may seem dumb (there are no dumb questions, just ones that need answered), or be from a "newbie". Great folks and a lot of knowledge.
 
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