Tales From The Trade - Plonkers Hour

[airgunwerks]

I helped run the Invicta Field Target club in Canterbury back in the 80's and 90's, had a guy show up to shoot, and said his scope was rubbish..... he said the other gun store in town had installed the scope for him, and yes it was on backwards, you were looking through the front of the scope, this was pointed out by a number of club members to him..... he left and never returned...

I worked for HS Greenfield and Son in Canterbury back in the 1980's and early 90's, we sold handcuffs as we were close to the police station as the police had to buy their own and then get refunded.... anyway, one Saturday, and old geezer comes in, wearing a navy jacket, brass buttons and captains hat, with a dude on his arm wearing a dress and a wig.... they wanted to look at the handcuffs, and the one in the dress was way too excited about the whole purchase..... wish I could wipe that from my memory banks.

Another guy brought in a Diana 35 wanted a new rear sight, this was very early on when I worked there, I got a new rear sight and the customer held the rifle by the grip as it was laying on the glass counter pointing to the shotgun shells..... and for reasons only he knows, he pulled the trigger, shattering the glass door, yes he brought in a loaded gun..... I also had a guy bring in a SPAS pump action/semi auto, said he couldn't put any shotguns shells in it, I took the shotgun, pressed the pump handle release, and pumped the shotgun, and a round flies out of the gun, I repeated this five more times, (pre restricted mag days) yes, the shotgun was fully loaded, red faced customer mumbles thank you and leaves, never to be seen again.....

[oldskoolzzz]

As I mentioned on the other thread, I only had a brief stint on the other side of the fence so to speak but that was enough for me and I do feel for those that have been in the trade for many years having to rinse and repeat the same info time after time.

A chap at a local RFD always made me chuckle as he must have been working off the same script for decades

If any customers asked him about what’s best .177 or .22 oh boy I just hoped they didn’t need to be anywhere else as they will have a 30mins+ ear bending session

[MartynB]

I worked for HS Greenfield and Son in Canterbury back in the 1980's and early 90's, we sold handcuffs as we were close to the police station as the police had to buy their own and then get refunded.... anyway, one Saturday, and old geezer comes in, wearing a navy jacket, brass buttons and captains hat, with a dude on his arm wearing a dress and a wig.... they wanted to look at the handcuffs, and the one in the dress was way too excited about the whole purchase..... wish I could wipe that from my memory banks

[gunshop]

Heres one for you, had a customer send in a BSA Mercury for replacment of springs, seals etc..wel by send in a mercury, they only sent in the cylinder with the block screw stuck in it. When i phoned them to explain needed the whole gun, they said i only want you to change the spring and seals. Took me 5 long minutes to explain that i need the rest so that i could make sure everything worked properly.

In the end i had to use the analogy of taking a car in for repair because its not running right, then taking the keys with them so that you cant test it.

Eventually got my point across and im now awaiting the rest of the bits to appear in the post.

[jjjjjj]

I was in a gun shop and someone came in with a bsa mercury and he said it will not fire a pellet, the gun shop owner cocked it put a pellet in and fired it and it was fine, the bloke that bought it in had not been cocking it he just opened it and put the pellet in and shut it again.

The same shop the owner said he had someone walk in with a 308 Rifle no case not covered and he had walked down the high street with it when the shop owner said to him you can not do that he just said its ok i have got a licence for it, some people just should not have guns.

[Shed tuner]

The same shop the owner said he had someone walk in with a 308 Rifle no case not covered and he had walked down the high street with it when the shop owner said to him you can not do that he just said its ok i have got a licence for it, some people just should not have guns.

wow, that's brave...

[angrybear]

I've also seen several scopes mounted with the windage on top, elevation to the left.
Sent a brand new Hatsan back to Edgars as it was 14+ftlb, it was returned to me with the chrono test printout, 10 shots 12.05 - 12.1 ftlb

was in a dealer when a chap walked in with an Enfield 303 converted to smoothbore .410 he had just imported, it had come complete with a rifled insert to shoot .22 rimfire.

[craig9mm]

Few amusing stories I encountered whilst working at an RFD briefly about 15 years ago.

Customer was interested in purchasing a pcp but was concerned about the costs of recharging. Crunching the numbers with the customer it turned out he thought that once the divers bottle was empty he had to buy a new one no wonder he thought it was going to be rather expensive


We’ve all heard the usual Billy bull stories about ranges and crazy power had a few of them but I remember one chap claiming some outrageous things about his long range antics so as he was looking at scopes I asked him what he thought the rough range was to a certain landmark out the shop window yep he was totally full of it.. a 30m landmark is not 100m away

Talking of scopes one chap was struggling with a scope he had recently bought so running through the obvious I asked him to bring his rifle in so I could just double check everything for him yep you guessed it the scope was mounted with the elevation turret to the left and windage on the top

One chap wanted a sling stud fitting which was no problem told him to bring the rifle down when I discovered he had already tried as there was three holes in the cheek piece FFS

I wonder if I was in that shop with the 100 yard shooter? a year or 2 back in Stockport ??. Im sure his backsight was also on back to front. At best it was an 8ft pounder job....

[craig9mm]

A club member ordered a Steyr air pistol from a european catalog ......a Steyr 9mm 16 round pistol duly arrived.... needles to say he advised the authorities

[sebbo200]

Not an RFD or shop

But a member of my team at work had brought a p900w first gen from a local agricultural store that sold pretty much everything

The fill port was leaking a common problem, he advised me him and his mate found the leak and undone the cylinder end cap with it near to full of air

How he still has his fingers is beyond me, later on he sold it to me and brought a break barrel, dread to think what he's been getting up to with that

[Hsing-ee]

Not an RFD or shop

But a member of my team at work had brought a p900w first gen from a local agricultural store that sold pretty much everything

The fill port was leaking a common problem, he advised me him and his mate found the leak and undone the cylinder end cap with it near to full of air

How he still has his fingers is beyond me, later on he sold it to me and brought a break barrel, dread to think what he's been getting up to with that

Did the rifle do the rocket thing?

[sebbo200]

Did the rifle do the rocket thing?

Im not sure but when advised how silly he had been, it wasn't long before he thought spring would be relatively safer - knowing his competence I beg to differ

[Hsing-ee]

Im not sure but when advised how silly he had been, it wasn't long before he thought spring would be relatively safer - knowing his competence I beg to differ

Something with low pre-load and no finger-traps... A German market 6fpe HW57 would probably be safe-ish.

[sebbo200]

Something with low pre-load and no finger-traps... A German market 6fpe HW57 would probably be safe-ish.

I'm thinking more an old cadet that has a seized pivot and eroded spring maybe, something that could be chucked at the target and knowing the individual wouldn't hurt to much when it bounced back

[Hsing-ee]

I'm thinking more an old cadet that has a seized pivot and eroded spring maybe, something that could be chucked at the target and knowing the individual wouldn't hurt to much when it bounced back

There are those hard rubber AR15s the us military use for parade drill training ..