A guy wandered in to the LGS

18DAI

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Slow day today at the LGS I work part-time in. Late this afternoon a fellow wanders in. Late 40s early 50s. I greeted him and asked if he was looking for anything in particular.

He says yes - a 4506. ?? I said the only 3rd gen 45 in the shop is on my hip. "You don't carry S&W?" I looked up on the security monitors to see if Jeppo was out in the lot playing a joke on me. I told him we had a few s&ws left, but as soon as they were gone we wouldn't carry s&w. I took him down to where the last of the m&p guns were.

He looked over them and said "What about a Chiefs Special in 45?" He seemed sincere. So I said "You know they stopped making all the 3rd gen guns, don't you?" He seemed genuinely surprised. "No! When did that happen?" I told him and said I had been there almost 5 years and had only seen one 3rg gen in stainless come in the door. A 5906. And it never made it to the display cases.

He told me that he moved down here from New Jersey a few years back. He was police and retired. All his kids were out of the house now and he wanted to take up shooting again. He had carried a 4506 on the job and loved it. He said he regretted letting it go and wanted another. When I told him to check the big auction board and gave him a price estimate for one in good condition, he became VERY discouraged. "I let mine go for $350!" That must have been some time ago.

Nice fellow. I joked with him and introduced him to the manager as Rip Van Winkle. He tried to talk me out of one of my guns and being unsuccessful said he would go to the auction boards.

Hard to believe that there was still a 3rd gen 45 fan out there who didn't know that s&w was no longer making those. Jeppo, did you send him in there? ;) :) Regards 18DAI
 
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Off-topic sir, but why is your shop discontinuing S&W's? I assume because of slow or low sales but curiosity killed the cat! I just found out this evening that one of our two LGS's is closing, I think, at the end of the month. It wasn't really a locally owned shop – but it had a great selection and MIL/LEO prices on SIGs and S&W's...
 
We dumped their other guns late last year. The m&ps don't sell. They are taking up valuable space. So we are dumping them as well.

The owner is particular about what we stock. Nighthawk, Dan Wesson, Glock, Sig, Kimber, Colt, CZ and Beretta are going to be the only lines we carry in the shop, other than used/trade in guns. Regards 18DAI
 
Hard to believe that there was still a 3rd gen 45 fan out there who didn't know that s&w was no longer making those.

I had a 10 year break in shooting from 97 to 2007 and I had no idea that a Third Generation S&Ws weren't available when I started looking again. I was really surprised when I couldn't find a Model 915 at a gun show. If I had I may never have bought a Glock


We dumped their other guns late last year. The m&ps don't sell. They are taking up valuable space. So we are dumping them as well.

I'd like to hear more about that. I was under the impression they were selling like hot cakes
 
Smoke not much to tell you. They stopped selling. All the local LE Agencies dumping them did nothing to help that.

The 320 and Gen 5 Glocks took over sales of full size and compact striker fired plastic.

The Ruger EC9, PPS and G43 out sold the shields at a 24 to 1 ratio. The G43X and 365 ended shield sales. Several months ago.

We were a s&w dealer, at one time. But the owner and the manager got tired of the quality issues and high purchase costs. And they didn't want any of their revolvers, which as a dealer - you had to take a certain amount of. So they said, bye! :) Regards 18DAI
 
Smoke not much to tell you. They stopped selling. All the local LE Agencies dumping them did nothing to help that.

The 320 and Gen 5 Glocks took over sales of full size and compact striker fired plastic.

The Ruger EC9, PPS and G43 out sold the shields at a 24 to 1 ratio. The G43X and 365 ended shield sales. Several months ago.

We were a s&w dealer, at one time. But the owner and the manager got tired of the quality issues and high purchase costs. And they didn't want any of their revolvers, which as a dealer - you had to take a certain amount of. So they said, bye! :) Regards 18DAI

That is a sad commentary on S&W R&D and vision. Revolver sales/ interest are are up across the country if you believe certain articles. With only Ruger and S&W and a very few Colts S&W should own that market.
We have a LGS very close to here called Top Gun Supply and they did this years ago. I went in their looking for used S&Ws probably 7 years ago and they had nothing New in their cases under about $700 at that time. Most were over $1K. This was a pretty large store too. Mostly they had Sigs, Colts, Dan Wesson, WC and Les Baer. It look like a womens botique clothing store. Each gun was very well displayed with about 2 sq ft given in each case per item. They do a lot of on-line sales I found later on. Thee were no Glocks, Rugers, SAs or RIA guns there either. The story ends with a sale as my wife did buy a used/ certified Sig P238 for about $500.
 
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Not only LGS's closing, but a local company that is a distributor nationally, Williams Shooters Supply, just announced this past week they are closing their doors soon as remaining inventory is sold.
 
At our store, the Shields still sell pretty well. So does the M&P Sport 2. But that's it. We purchased lots of 40 cal M&P's from a few LE agencies, but being 40 cal, they don't sell. Some were never fired. But we have no problem selling S&W revolvers. SD9VE's also sell quite well. But we blow them out for $289. People's eyes light up when we show them two 17 round mags of 9mm goodness. They sell themselves. But yeah, people still walk in asking for the Glock 43, or Sig 365. Last Gun Show I did we opened with 4 Springfield Hellcats. Within the hour, they were all gone, & I could have sold another 25 that weekend. While I can carry anything I want, I carry a 9 mm Shield. GARY.
 
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I've been seeing the Shield rebate ads at a couple of my LGSs and kind of figured they weren't selling particularly well based off that alone. I do live in the great state of California so the retail handgun market here is a time capsule of whatever was in production circa 2010 and the M&Ps seem to cling to life so far, but the new Glocks and SIGs go fast and for quite a bit more than any of S&W's polymer offerings on the PPT gray market.
 
I think you'd have to be a high volume dealer to get breaks . The guy that owns the Orlando Gun Show , and a lot more in Fl , always has a bunch of LE trade-ins . He also gets them from Brinks . I guess if you have deep pockets you get good deals . 18DAI , you didn't send him to THE store did you ? He would have died looking at their prices , but then they carry top notch guns .
 
I think you'd have to be a high volume dealer to get breaks . The guy that owns the Orlando Gun Show , and a lot more in Fl , always has a bunch of LE trade-ins . He also gets them from Brinks . I guess if you have deep pockets you get good deals .
That would be my boss. Not only does he own the show in Orlando, but also Ft. Myers, Lakeland, Palmetto, Tampa, Daytona, & Broward County. Plus 8 Shoot Straight stores in Florida too. On average Shoot Straight sells 500 firearms per show. All this grew from one table at a gun show in the early 80's. GARY.
 
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On a tangent ......
I had a similar issue as 18DAI's customer's about 20 years ago........when I went to "replace" some 19s and 66s I'd traded in the late 80s.

I expected to just walk in the LGS and get 2 1/2 and 4 inch guns.......took me several years to get the six guns I wanted in the condition I wanted at LGS.
 
You want to talk "a guy walks into a gun store"? Here's a true story:

About 8 years ago, I was in my local gun store, talking to a salesman, who was behind the counter. In walks a White guy about 40 years old. This guy was so drunk that he had trouble walking! The salesman and I looked at each other in amazement. I said: "here's the scary part: what if he drove here?" (Luckily, he didn't -- at least, we didn't see him get into a car; yes, we followed him to make sure).


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Cherrypointmarine I sent him to the big auction board! ;) Regards 18DAI
 
Today's "driveway paper"; Academy has Shield 2.0, 9mm or .40 for $199 after a $50 rebate. They also have 250 rd 9mm ammo for $32.50 after a $12.50 rebate. I'd get 10 boxes of the ammo if'n the rebates weren't such a pain. Joe


Wow a Shield 2.0 9m/m for $199, I would buy one for me and my stepson right now but I just checked our Academy Sports and they were $329.
 
What I have observed is that the .380 compacts sit on the shelves. As a result of the sub compact 9mms introduction I suppose.
 
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