Locally, we had Minneapolis Outlet, on Lake St, it was a pretty decent neighborhood in the era of the store, has become a complete hell hole today. Bought my first Tobin from them, a 12 that was so heavy it could have been a 10, serial number 700. There was a small store in Blaine, Tecto, guns and ammunition only, I bought a Ruger 10/22 and my brother’s Savage Fox Double from them. There was a Woolworth’s at Northtown, in Blaine, run by actual gun nuts, when I bought my 12 gauge 1100, the guy opened every box to see which gun had the best wood, he probably had 10-12 guns in stock, and seemed just as excited as I was. Burger Brothers was a cool place, missed on a cased pair of Darne guns one day, but, bought ammunition, Filson, and a Brummy box lock from them that I actually made money on when I sold it. Rum River bait had fishing,and a few guns and a full time gunsmith, or, what passed for one in the early 1970s. My Companion 12 has a burn mark on it, from that gunsmith, to this day, that I would point out to my dad when he said all shotguns needed a recoil pad. I didn’t want the pad to begin with, but, he out ranked me.
We still have Joe’s, new location about a decade ago, heavy on fishing, skiing, and hunting. I haven’t been in Ahlman’s in a few years, that was pretty much guns and ammunition only, as I recall, and the older guys ran a tighter ship back in the day. Refuse to set foot in Dick’s and the last time I went to Cabelas, the gun library was closed, but, they had a glass case full of somebody’s collection of plastic Remington .22 rifles, with asking prices of over $1K each. Must have been three dozen of them, and I left pretty much right after I stumbled on that pile of dung. I bought my wife some jackets in the cave at Cabelas, and a DAM fishing reel on a Cabelas name pole, but, other than ammunition here and there I don’t know if I ever bought anything else-certainly no guns. The reel was a very expensive magnetic drag version, and I have never seen another one in my life, save one on an auction site on eBay, in Germany. Weird.

I haven’t been in a Sheel’s, or, a Reed’s yet, can’t comment about those, and likely just as well.

Best,
Ted