doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Touchy Subject

Dave, if you find the following question too subjective and therefore potentially damaging to advertisers and supporters, then please let me know. My hope is that all things are taken with a grain of salt and people realize that there are no absolutes for such. Here goes:

What vendor do you feel most comfortable dealing with? Taken into account are things like fairness of pricing, good efforts to meet customer needs, all around gentlemanly behavior. I think you get the picture.

There are a bunch of good'uns but my personal favorite is George Caswell of Champlin Firearms in Enid, Oklahoma. Absolutely at the top of the heap.

My best dealings have been with individuals, private sales. I've had many dealings with gun businesses though, I know I'll get some heat on this one, but some of my best dealings were with Cabelas back when they kept a ginormous selection of good quality guns.
As far as the small shops go, Niles Wheeler was very good to deal with.
Back in the day Duncan at Hill rod and gun was good, Charlie is a good guy too.
I've had some good dealings with Steve Barnett too, every time we made a deal he'd throw in a couple nice extras here and there.

Joel Etchen Guns and of course my local Pawn Shops!!!!!!!!

Since the last half dozen guns I bought were off of Backpage ads and purchased at "My Office" which is the local McDonalds parking lot; I guess I have to say McDonalds is my favorite dealer. I purchased a mint condition Colt Trooper there while eating a Big Mac but you have to be careful about getting any sauce on the finish!
Most of the other guns I buy are from vendors at shows. Most of the major dealers(Cabelas excepted) including William Larkin Moore set up at our large gun show so there's no reason to go shop to shop.
As an aside:
I used to love going to Mandall's Shooting Supplies in downtown Scottsdale. Marty, the owner now deceased, was a real hoot. I bought a W.C. Scott SLE from Mandalls when they auctioned off the inventory.
Jim

Agree about Cabela's. They used to have an incredible inventory of "classic" stuff in just about all their libraries. Now they seem to have the same inventory spread among about 4x as many stores. However, I still deal with them when I spot something on their website.

Mark Beasland (www.mbabllc.com) is just down the road from me--unfortunately! Too much temptation. Mark does not maintain a website with current inventory, but he does make most of the major sxs shoots.

Personally, I just can't decide.

It's either Homeless jOe...

Or, ed good.

Best I've dealt with is Charlie at Hill Rod & Gun. Had good experiences with Cabela's, Steve Barnett and M. W. Reynolds. Private parties, so, so.

Best of luck to you!

Greg

Kirby Hoyt at Vintage Doubles is a pleasure to deal with. Absolutely honest in my dealings with him.

I would agree that Joel Etchen is great to deal with (as is Cole's), if you are buying new or recent make guns. But it is selling vintage guns that tests a vendor's character.

This is a tough subject - YMMV and there are some folks named here that I won't deal with again. KK, you may have phrased it the best way possible in asking who we ar "most comfortable" dealing with, because I am not sure I can say I fully trust any dealers. The two dealers I am most comfortable with are Graham Mackinlay and Francis Lovel - they are both in the UK so you better trust them because returning a gun to them is not really an option.