Trusted Gun Shop Reviews

[RangeHot]

Hey everyone, I thought it would be great to share our experiences with local gun shops. What makes a gun shop trustworthy to you? I know it can vary from one person to another. Have you had great or terrible experiences with any shops? Maybe you found a hidden gem that has an awesome selection of used guns or great prices?

I'm particularly interested in hearing about places that are good with transfer fees, too. Let's help each other out and recommend some shops we've personally visited. If you have a favorite spot or a warning about a place, share it here! Please mention where the shop is located and any standout features that made your visit memorable.

 

[ORDuckBeav]

I pretty much do 95% of my business with Beaver Town Guns in Corvallis. Great bunch of guys and Dave is top notch and knows his business. Highly recommend. Transfer fees seem to be on par with a lot of others. Not the cheapest and yet not the highest.

 

[Rimfire Fanatic]

Ace Buyers in Springfield has 30 dollar transfers and BGC. Mazamas wants 50, and Northwest Arsenal wants 70. If they charge more than 30 dollars it just means they don't want to do it and really don't want your business.

 

[Rimfire Fanatic]

Ok. Mazama's Sporting goods is a little different. Some of the guys there are great to deal with. I had one who wasn't. I forget his name, but it's a fat guy with red hair and a beard. I don't know if there is more than one there. When I picked up my rifle, I wanted to inquire about a couple of hand guns. He acted like I was putting him out. He walked off.

Another guy saw this and came over and helped me. I looked at a Ruger RXM, and a couple of High Power variants. This guy acted genuinely glad to see me and my friend and he answered all of my questions.

In the middle of that, red comes over and drops my rifle, in its box in front of me on the counter and walked off again, without saying a word.

He seemed like he was angry about something. He was a jerk and acted PO'd an hour earlier when I came in to do the 4473 and then when I returned to look at the handguns.

An interesting thing to note is that almost all of their firearms are a hundred dollars or more expensive if you buy them inside the store. I had got my S&W M&P 15-22 from their online site and they shipped it to the store. I paid around $470.00 for the gun on line and the same rifle in the store was $590.00.

The nice guy explained that most of their firearms are guns on their website are less money than buying them inside the store.

Well, this turns out to be true. 10 months ago I had ordered a Kimber Pro Eclipse. It was only $956.00. Same gun in the store was almost $400.00 more.

I had inquired about a vertical forward grip for my rifle. Once again it was ole red that I dealt with. They didn't have one in the store, so I asked if they could get one. He checked his computer and made some lame excuse about they couldn't get the one that I wanted, even though it was shown on the site. They must not make them anymore, he said. Which turned out to be untrue because I ordered one from the company direct for $18.00 shipping included. Mazama's wanted over 20 bucks.

Now if you ordered something from their site there is a $14.00 charge to have it shipped to the store. But deals can be had especially when ordering lots of stuff. The fee is a flat $14.00 and some cents, so you can order 1500 bucks worth of stuff, and the fee is still 14 ish.

So, if I can save hundreds of dollars by ordering from their site I will. Depending on what you buy, you can save some money. Either way, you will have to go into the store to pick your stuff up. But, you probably don't want to deal with the red haired fat guy with a beard.

Also, their ammo selection in the store is really limited. I ordered a few hundred dollars worth from their online store, so the 14 dollar fee wasn't so bad. Some new person owns the store now. The guy that owned it back when they were at VRC is the same guy that owned it when they moved to downtown Eugene. He was great to deal with.

They do have quite a bit of fishing stuff, but Bass Pro has more, and they give veterans and active duty a discount. 5% off firearms and ammo, and,10% on everything else in the store, whether you buy online or not.

 

[Hamden]

Ok. Mazama's Sporting goods is a little different. Some of the guys there are great to deal with. I had one who wasn't. I forget his name, but it's a fat guy with red hair and a beard. I don't know if there is more than one there. When I picked up my rifle, I wanted to inquire about a couple of hand guns. He acted like I was putting him out. He walked off.

Another guy saw this and came over and helped me. I looked at a Ruger RXM, and a couple of High Power variants. This guy acted genuinely glad to see me and my friend and he answered all of my questions.

In the middle of that, red comes over and drops my rifle, in its box in front of me on the counter and walked off again, without saying a word.

He seemed like he was angry about something. He was a jerk and acted PO'd an hour earlier when I came in to do the 4473 and then when I returned to look at the handguns.

An interesting thing to note is that almost all of their firearms are a hundred dollars or more expensive if you buy them inside the store. I had got my S&W M&P 15-22 from their online site and they shipped it to the store. I paid around $470.00 for the gun on line and the same rifle in the store was $590.00.

The nice guy explained that most of their firearms are guns on their website are less money than buying them inside the store.

Well, this turns out to be true. 10 months ago I had ordered a Kimber Pro Eclipse. It was only $956.00. Same gun in the store was almost $400.00 more.

I had inquired about a vertical forward grip for my rifle. Once again it was ole red that I dealt with. They didn't have one in the store, so I asked if they could get one. He checked his computer and made some lame excuse about they couldn't get the one that I wanted, even though it was shown on the site. They must not make them anymore, he said. Which turned out to be untrue because I ordered one from the company direct for $18.00 shipping included. Mazama's wanted over 20 bucks.

Now if you ordered something from their site there is a $14.00 charge to have it shipped to the store. But deals can be had especially when ordering lots of stuff. The fee is a flat $14.00 and some cents, so you can order 1500 bucks worth of stuff, and the fee is still 14 ish.

So, if I can save hundreds of dollars by ordering from their site I will. Depending on what you buy, you can save some money. Either way, you will have to go into the store to pick your stuff up. But, you probably don't want to deal with the red haired fat guy with a beard.

Also, their ammo selection in the store is really limited. I ordered a few hundred dollars worth from their online store, so the 14 dollar fee wasn't so bad. Some new person owns the store now. The guy that owned it back when they were at VRC is the same guy that owned it when they moved to downtown Eugene. He was great to deal with.

They do have quite a bit of fishing stuff, but Bass Pro has more, and they give veterans and active duty a discount. 5% off firearms and ammo, and,10% on everything else in the store, whether you buy online or not.

Mazama is nowhere near like they used to be. I miss Jim W there. Jim and I go way back to the Eugene Surplus Store days in the 1960s. Times have changed.

 

[Rimfire Fanatic]

Mazama is nowhere near like they used to be. I miss Jim W there. Jim and I go way back to the Eugene Surplus Store days in the 1960s. Times have changed.

Yeah, I miss that guy too. Also David Jones. I wonder what he's up to. Our parents used to be friends and I remember when we were kids. He showed me some of his rifles way back then. He worked at Mazama's and then GI Joes/Dick's. I wonder about his sister too.

I was always impressed that he was able to make a living doing what he was passionate about and that he was able to hunt at such a young age. My dad never took me hunting. I've never been hunting.

My grandpa was the one who first showed me guns. He had just a couple. We did shoot cougars that came onto his ranch. He had a Savage model 99 in 300 Savage and a High Standard Double Nine.

Later, my Grandpa and I got into pistols. We would target shoot out on his land outside of Creswell. He and I went to a gun show with my his brother and he got a Beretta 21A and I got a Russian Makarov.

For my Grandpa's 80th birthday I got him an S&W J frame. His guns were later passed down to my mom and then to me. They now reside with my 30 year old son. I had bought the J frame from David IIRC. I think that was when Mazama's was downtown.

 

[Rimfire Fanatic]

Let's talk about Northwest Arsenal. It has been 1 year since I bought a gun there. I had ordered a Beretta 92FS from them. It took a couple of weeks to get it. It was a little more money than buying from the likes of Cabela's/etc.

I had paid just under 800 bucks for it. But, everyone else in town was out of them. I wanted an Italian one.

I was surprised when it came in. It was an Italian one but it was two tone.

The two tone was a surprise, and that may be why it was $798.00 before my military/veteran's discount. It was $750 afterwards, so about 50 to 100 more than a plain black one bought elsewhere. I was pleased.

They don't really have much in stock at their physical store.

They do have a lot of rental guns. But they don;t have many of the new models that are out there now. Most of the guns in the rental case are what was there when it was the Baron's Den.

If you want to try a handgun out before purchase, I think they are the only ones in Eugene that have rentals.

The indoor range was dilapidated the last time I was there. I went to shoot there and they had a broken chair in the range. I almost h\it the ground when I sat on it. I told a kid that works there and he didn't seem to give a shit, saying you could still sit on it. I told him that he would probably feel different if someone injured themselves and sued them. This punk was really young, like maybe 21 or less. Everyone else in the shop was great to deal with though.

The carpeting in the 50ft range had holes in it in several areas. The ceiling tiles were peppered with holes. For what they charge for membership and daily shooting fees on top of that, one would expect nicer facilities.

Their online store has a lot to offer. And you get military/veteran's discount on anything ordered from their online store or what's in stock in the store, unlike Mazama's.

 

[Hamden]

I was a member at the Baron's den . Years ago as I was practicing sustained fire with my 208s, (I was the only shooter there) in comes one of the owners sons and kicks me out so they could have a sudden non scheduled shoot more on the defensive discipline. I never went back.

I think Mazama started after Eugene Surplus Sales area turned into downtown development and the Hult Center. Jim opened near Hirons next to UO. Then near Valley River first across the street, then in Valley River. Finally out west 11th. I also miss Allied Surplus and John Warrens with Chief Huey

 

[Hamden]

RF mentions his 92FS. I have two of them. Each enhanced a little for EIC shooting. They are excellent guns.

 

[ORDuckBeav]

Another fine and well trusted shop is Tick Lickers in Salem. See Jerry if you ever go there. Great guy!

 

[Rimfire Fanatic]

Bass Pro (Formerly Cabela's) in Springfield used to be a lot better. They used to let you dry fire the guns and handle them. Now, they have damned trigger locks on the guns and won't take them off to let you check feel, trigger reach, reset, etc.

They are shameful. They told me to go to another store to try a gun out, and then return to them, and buy the firearm. Well, I'm sorry but that is just dirty. They must get commission or something to say that.

I have had two guns from them that I bought last year where their goddam trigger lock's internal screw went through down to the bare steel. I talked to the store manager and got the pistols discounted, but I try not to buy there now.

The only way to buy from Cabela's/Bass Pro is if you already are familiar with the firearm you are trying to buy, and if it's on sale at a stupid low price, like the Kimber 1911 two tone 5 inch that I got that was regularly $649 to $700 that I found on a 1 day sale for under 5 bills out the door after the sale price with my Military discount on top of that. I think it wound up costing me $452 and change.

As far as trying out a gun at another shop when BP recommends doing that and returning, I won't do that. I went over to the shop they recommended, who had the gun I wanted that was about 49 bucks more expensive, but they let me handle it and dry fire it. And I bought the gun from them on principle.

If BP wants my business, they are going to have to change. I will pay a bit more to a gun shop whose policies and staff I like rather than return to BP/Cabela's, which I mostly hate.

But, two to 400 bucks difference may make me buy from BP/Cabelas, if I am already familiar with the gun that is for sale, and they don't try to make me waste another businesses time that doesn't have stupid policies, and tell me to return to them and screw the guy with better customer service.

Ammo can be a good deal sometimes when Bass Pro has it on sale. But, it usually isn't.

I only shop for 22LR, 22 WMR, 9MM, 38, 357, and 45ACP. They stock a lot of ammo. Way more than anybody in town. Odd calibers too. But it is usually better to buy what I want in bulk online from somewhere else.