Good old traditional awful British gunshop adventure.

New Avon Arms
“Do you like being cold?” asked the chap who looked like Father Christmas, but lacked his friendly demeanour. “Oh yes”, I joked, thinking he was referring to my snowman-like appearance, “I love it”. “Well I don’t, so close the door”.

You should have turned around, walked out and left the door wide open.
 
I think the man has a point, Steyr,,,in 7-08, what were you thinking!!!....(only kidding mate ;-)

guy sounds like a knob, you must've been pushed to pay him for those boxes, but hey, at least he gets a well deserved shj1te review on the SD and the guarantee no one here will ever visit his muckboot push-sell shop.
 
deeangeo said:
Gregor Macleod - Now there's a man who knows how to look after & keep his customers........Tain's a bit far from London, but there's many a lesson can be learned by other dealers from him. Still, it costs nothing to help customers rather than be rude to them. ATB
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With out a shadow of a doubt, Ive only been in the shop once, but have bought of him over the phone. And what a gent advice recomendations etc. He had a few drool puddles on the floor and nose smudges on his display cabinets before the wife eventually dragged me ouy with my ear. If Gregor had been interested in my rifle I would of done a deal right then.


nutty
 
nuttyspaniel said:
With out a shadow of a doubt, Ive only been in the shop once, but have bought of him over the phone. And what a gent advice recomendations etc. He had a few drool puddles on the floor and nose smudges on his display cabinets before the wife eventually dragged me ouy with my ear. If Gregor had been interested in my rifle I would of done a deal right then.nutty
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:thumb: Know exactly what you mean nutty....... got the same treatment from my wife too......!!!
 
Gotta admit this is the thing that has me deliberating if I should have just got a .308 rather than a 7mm-08 - ammo seems a nuisance to get hold of! I reload (or try to anyway!), but even the brass is hard to come by unless I start necking up or down (= hassle!)... I probably won't even go to ruddy france now knowing my luck! :)... 4 months later and I'm still waiting for the poxy thing to be built as the barrels were so hard to get hold of!

Cancel the 7-08 and lose £350 deposit, plus go through the hassle of getting a variation for a .308... in hindsight if I could go back in time 3 months then yeah, but now I may as well wait!

PM - Any chance you could PM me where you're getting your ammo now? Figure I'll try some factory then keep the brass for reloading!
 
Must be doing something right to have been in business for at least 15 years. Other side of the coin may just be that his "character" knows more about firearms than most wiz kid online sales persons and fancy gun shops. After you get through the rather brash exterior may be lies a man with considerable expertise. On Sat I was talking about such a gunsmith who used to have a shop in Edinburgh. If you were a new customer you would have been left wondering how he ever survived but he could make parts from scratch, expertly repair any gun etc etc and is sadly missed by many, especially the "other Gunshops" who used to take their repairs to him. Personally I love these type of characters.
 
To be fair, I recently had exemplary service from Joe. He found out we lived nearby and actually brough a few sets of scope rings to my home for me to see them in the flesh and fitted them to my rifle, giving me nearly an hour of his time. I also had a 'bad first experience' there a few years back so I know where you're coming from, but he has certainly been there done that and knows more about deer and rifles than the shop assistants at the Beretta gallery.
 
Name and shame the shop so that the rest of us will never be tempted to waste our time with them.



It reminds me of a visit to Tom Collins at The Original London Armoury many years ago. A friend and I were up in London for the day and he was wanted to visit this magnificent emporium that always had a photograph of Tom and his actor nephew Lewis Collins (The Professionals) arriving at Bisley in a helicopter. The advertisements were full page and appeared on the back page of Guns Review. The impression that we had from his stock lists was that it was one of the major players. When we arrived outside it was a small shop that doubled as a hardware shop. One customer actually came in and asked for a gallon of paraffin while we were there.


On entering the shop Mrs Collins attacked us immediately with the words “What do you want – you have to have a licence to buy things in here you know”. My mate whipped out his FAC and said that he was looking for .38 bullets for reloading. As soon as Tom heard my friend’s welsh accent he blurted out “ Where you from boys, I’m from Dowlais myself”. After that we couldn’t do any wrong and in no time at all he was bringing out old scrap books with photographs of Winston Churchill’s bodyguard and of the pistols and holsters he had supplied him. He also produced a letter from the bodyguard thanking him for past services.
As for the bullets well it took him half an hour of digging just to find a couple of hundred semi wadcutter bullets, but at least my mate bought them for the original marked price once the dust had been blown off the packaging.
 
Sadly, the days of the small independant Gun shop look to be numbered.

The internet and the buying power of larger importers doesn't help them one little bit.

I was lucky to have been friends with the late Sandy Gibb. His place was an emporium of kit [actually it was a hovel!] god knows how he found anything, very often he didn't!
Always a great deal, the usual was "pay me whenever".
Greatly missed in the North East.
His prices were always the most competitive, I never worked out if he had a fantastic memory or he just made up the prices!

I would go round to pick up bullets and dog food and leave with another gun and a jar of freshly made jam from his mother!!!!

Happy Memories:)
 
Gazza said:
Must be doing something right to have been in business for at least 15 years. Other side of the coin may just be that his "character" knows more about firearms than most wiz kid online sales persons and fancy gun shops. After you get through the rather brash exterior may be lies a man with considerable expertise. On Sat I was talking about such a gunsmith who used to have a shop in Edinburgh. If you were a new customer you would have been left wondering how he ever survived but he could make parts from scratch, expertly repair any gun etc etc and is sadly missed by many, especially the "other Gunshops" who used to take their repairs to him. Personally I love these type of characters.
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Was that a wee corner shop opposite Meadowbank Sports Centre by any chance?

It was the same with the fishing tackle he sold...
 
I must say I enjoy visiting gunshops in different parts of the country some have been good some bad
But one gunshop local to me will never have another penny off me !
Its a long story but I popped into this local shop just to buy a few rimmy bullets ,no problem he said and produced my requirements but on me producing my firearms cert. he noticed I had bought rather a lot of ammunition in various calibres then proceeded to give me a right lecture about me not supporting his local gunshop because I had purchased these elsewhere !!
Now I can see his point in one way but if he could supply what I wanted at the same price as the place I bought them from then I would have bought them from him , but he was at least 25% more expensive
Many shops are closing all over the country as Internet buying takes over but some shops deserve to lose business and close
Regards Andy
 
cwd said:
I must say I enjoy visiting gunshops in different parts of the country some have been good some bad
But one gunshop local to me will never have another penny off me !
Its a long story but I popped into this local shop just to buy a few rimmy bullets ,no problem he said and produced my requirements but on me producing my firearms cert. he noticed I had bought rather a lot of ammunition in various calibres then proceeded to give me a right lecture about me not supporting his local gunshop because I had purchased these elsewhere !!
Now I can see his point in one way but if he could supply what I wanted at the same price as the place I bought them from then I would have bought them from him , but he was at least 25% more expensive
Many shops are closing all over the country as Internet buying takes over but some shops deserve to lose business and close
Regards Andy
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I agree what you say is so true. Ive a RFD 5 mins from my house but I cant get what I want when I need it, I once got a bollocking when I went in for somthing he noticed that I had bought something else where!! I explained I came to him 1st seen what I wanted, produced the Credit Card but he didnt have the means to process it! Ive now moved to another RFD and a trade member of this site, if he doesnt have it he will get it then stock it for me.


Nutty
 
For one moment I thought it was that other shop in St James’ but then remembered they have a SALE on!

The sooner you get into re-loading the better and if it helps in making the jump I’ll leave a wee RCBS press at the BSRC Club House for you FOC.

Cheers

K
 
When I was first looking to take up shooting, I visited a couple of gun dealers to seek advice.

It was enough to make most people say, stuff this I'll take up fishing. The advice was a suck of the teeth, followed by well you'd have to get a license from the police and they'd come out and interview you, and then you'd need a steel cabinet, and you need somewhere to shoot you can't just..............

After all this, the third shop (John Browns Lock Stock and Barrel) was a breath of fresh air. Having introduced myself and what I wanted to do, they asked a few relevant questions. Have you got permission to shoot somewhere? Have you ever been in trouble with the police? etc. You'll have no problem this is how to go about it............

I took the advice, and subsequently bought my cabinet and first gun and a slab of cartridges from him.

If most gun shops treat new comers to the sport like the other gun shops, were buggered.
 
Hi pine martin i think you would be better reloading your own rather than trekking all around london
 
Klenchblaize said:
For one moment I thought it was that other shop in St James’ but then remembered they have a SALE on!

The sooner you get into re-loading the better and if it helps in making the jump I’ll leave a wee RCBS press at the BSRC Club House for you FOC.

Cheers

K
Click to expand...

Which particular St James shop did you have in mind? Thanks for the offer by the way. Very generous of you! I should be at the BSRC on 6th February to try out my new rifle, assuming it's delivered on time. I'm ridiculously excited about it all now!
 
biker1 said:
Hi pine martin i think you would be better reloading your own rather than trekking all around london
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I have no intention of continuing to do this, it's just that I want to try out as many loads as I can for the first time, to find out what works best in my rifle. After that, my current plan is to have HPS reload my brass to the same specs. Sort of like when you take a suit to a tailor in India and as them to make six identical copies...
 
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