How Much

[wymberley]

Can we rightly expect an RFD shop assistant to know about their product range? I fully appreciate that this is a complex environment with rifles of differing calibres, shotguns with differing bores and air guns with differing calibres and designs plus a monumental range of accessories. After the passed few days I'm ready to settle for, "I don't know, Sir, would you kindly give me a couple of minutes to find the answer", as a bonus for anything  other than a relatively simple query.

[bruno22rf]

I wouldn't buy from anybody that didn't have as much knowledge as I do personally unless it's something really obscure like Black Powder 20g loads for example. When you buy from a dealer part on the money pays for the advice and experience of the staff and if they don't have a clue then I think you're being short changed.

[London Best]

As I have regularly told my dealer friend when he has made a gaff or come out with BS, “You don’t need any qualifications to start a gun shop.”

[Genghis]

I'd be concerned if it was the owner of the shop, but much less so if it was the 18 year old shop assistant.

[Spr1985]

I’d be inclined to agree with the post above mine, a young shop assistant can’t be expected to know everything that a well seasoned older shooter knows. 

everyone has to learn and that means starting off with not a lot of knowledge. No one knows everything (despite what some would like to think) and every day is a school day, always something new to learn. I think being honest and respectfully requesting a minute or two to get the correct and relevant information for you is far better than spewing incorrect bs or just saying “dont know” 

[Fil]

On 01/11/2024 at 21:58, London Best said:

“You don’t need any qualifications to start a gun shop.”

Sadly that is the scary truth isn't it? All you need is to pursuade the FEO that you have a business plan, have the correct security arrangements and tell him/her what they want to hear. Then you've got carte blanche to start ripping guns apart, call yourself a gunsmith and sell trap guns to game shooters telling them they got a bargain. 

[London Best]

2 hours ago, Fil said:

call yourself a gunsmith and sell trap guns to game shooters telling them they got a bargain. 

On Monday this week I shot with a man using (I think) a Krieghof. It was a trap gun and must have weighed at least 9lbs+. It had 32 inch barrels with another couple of inches of chokes sticking out of the end, and had more gold on it than a French admiral’s uniform. He was saying he couldn’t get on the birds quickly enough. That was hardly surprising as we were in totally flat Lincolnshire shooting partridge coming over hedges 35 yards in front of the guns! Apparently, all his mates had told him to buy this gun and had told him what a superb gun it was. I’m sure it was …….for what it was designed for.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

9 hours ago, London Best said:

On Monday this week I shot with a man using (I think) a Krieghof. It was a trap gun and must have weighed at least 9lbs+. It had 32 inch barrels with another couple of inches of chokes sticking out of the end, and had more gold on it than a French admiral’s uniform. He was saying he couldn’t get on the birds quickly enough. That was hardly surprising as we were in totally flat Lincolnshire shooting partridge coming over hedges 35 yards in front of the guns! Apparently, all his mates had told him to buy this gun and had told him what a superb gun it was. I’m sure it was …….for what it was designed for.

Marvellous, what a prawn, I wonder if he uses a small, short barrelled skeet gun for shooting trap disciplines?

[London Best]

4 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Marvellous, what a prawn, I wonder if he uses a small, short barrelled skeet gun for shooting trap disciplines?

Dunno, but it certainly was not so effective as the 26 1/2 inch Royal Brevis on the next peg.
Which, oddly enough, does not seem to be any handicap on Welsh pheasants either 😉.