Good traditional gunshops - name your favourites, past and present

Elderkin & Son (Gunmakers) Ltd - Spalding. Many a time as a lad I was dragged to this shop by my dad and uncle to drool over the English Shotguns! Didnt mean much to me then, but how quickly we learn! Very knowledgable staff and did a fantastic job on my shotgun stock only a couple of years ago for a good price. Also like Northallerton Shooting and Countrywear as they always have a massive stock of firearms, shotguns and equipment in what is effectively an extended house...
 
2 shops spring to mind as a child i'd go to with my father eying up the goodies hoping I could save up to upgrade my 20b gardner gun.
Leominster gun room was always the best and had the most trinkets in and was always a special treat to take a trip out there.
There was a gun shop down Church street in Hereford that closed before I turned 18 that was wonderful just for the shop smells and state, the floor had old wooden floor boards that although polished were gnarled and squeaked as you walked across them and down stairs was an extra bit where they had pistols and things, if memory serves me write i think the guy made his own S/A pistols called spitfire but it is a while ago. If harry potter had done gun shops that would of been it.
 
Not rifles i know, English shotguns only. Real old fashioned shop just as things used to be, Careys of Ledbury and Malcolm Carey is really one of the old school.

Too "old School" if you ask me, a mate of mine went in there and asked if they could fit a new foresight to his beretta shotgun that had snapped off, the response was "no...we don't do O/U". Needless to say we turned around on the spot and left, never to return. Went to a place in Leominster (forget the name) and they did it for him for a very reasonable price (the thread needed drilling out before it could be replaced).

It was just a snobby responce to be honest, he looked down his nose at us becuase we shot 'over and under'. I know thats not their speciality but they could have just said that and reccommended somewhere else.
 
Why funny, I thought you lived here :lol:



Over the last few years I have travelled for a decent deal and been lucky to find some very good gun shops.
Francis Lovel in Oxfordshire, then Chris Potter after not visiting for many, many years, and the last couple of guns have come from Steve Beatty at Ivythorn, who has made me feel very welcome and given a very good deal on each visit.

Neil. :)

last good gun shop we had was crouch guns in hullbridge Ernie Greenberg's shop , He sorrowfully been long Dead now. i know francis as a old pale we used to shoot pratical pistol together but his hart is with the ££££££ english s/s/ shotguns its not an old type shop with the smells etc wish it was.
 
last good gun shop we had was crouch guns in hullbridge Ernie Greenberg's shop ,

I visited it a couple of times with a mate, pre pistol ban, around 94/5 maybe.
Was taken there by a mate, now also dead, well before his time :(

Neil.
 
Gregor Macleod in Tain and Callum Ferguson in Tomintoul, both very nice guys to deal with, they wont sell you what they want to get rid of, and if you take there advice you wont go far wrong.
 
Back in the 60's, as a boy my younger brother and I would go into Rigbys in Northampton, it was an allidins cave, with alsorts of stuff, then we had the Sportsmans Lodge, another great attraction as a youngster for shooting and fishing, they have both since closed, Northampton Gun has been there for years and I have purchased everything from catapult rubber to full bore rifle's over the years, first name terms with all the staff, they are all friendly and helpfull, not much seems to have changed in the forty odd years, maybe more, I have been going in, where have all those years gone?
 
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