Worst "Advice" You've Heard in a Gun Shop/Range?

[Verdha603]

I'm pretty sure we've all heard them at some point; you walk into a gun shop, you're having a conversation with employee's and other customers and someone finally say's some advice (usually to someone new to guns) that makes you scratch your head and say "Really? Did they actually just say that?"

I mainly decided to post this since I'm sure there's an influx of new gun owners starting to make their way to public gun owning forums like this and it may help to dispel some of the less than well-thought out advice given out in gun shops.

Anyways, what would you say is the worst "advice" you've have to hear so far, whether its from an employee, a customer, or even just somebody else at the range?

For me I think the most common/worst one I've heard regularly is many folks advocating that a shotgun is the best home defense weapon partly due to a mixture of not requiring great aim/not much training to use effectively. I've had to sit there and listen to that and wonder if they've ever considered how that sort of reasoning would sound to a judge or jury if they used that in their self defense case.

A close runner up is the typical case of someone recommending to a female shooter looking for their first handgun to buy a snub-nose revolver because it's light, it's tiny, it "comes in ladies models", and they can shoot it through their purse. I've had to resist the urge to tell them that recommendation means that gun is going to forever stay in their lock box once they take that snub nose to the range for the first time and start to absolutely hate the recoil and muzzle blast for their first handgun experience, unless they're basing their advice on the assumption that the female will buy the gun, one box of ammo, carry it around, and never actually fire it until they actually need it for a life or death situation.

[afteractionreport]

Turners norwalk employee said all gripfins or featureless grips were illegal and that we should buy their hera CqB stock with kydex cus that's the only legal option.

I pushed back and said I dont think that's right. He said it was and that I should read the laws I said I did they're posted online and i still dont think hes right.

He ignored me after that

[afteractionreport]

He also thought a thread protector was not a good idea. Why? He responded "a thread protector on an AR" and scoffed.

Again tried to sell a brake to the customer.

[n8vrmind]

Prospective gun buyers should ask themselves, do they fully trust advice from car dealerships when buying a car? If not, then why base gun purchase decision on sales pitch from gun shop workers.

[norcalAF]

Watched the LGS employee steer a couple of new gun owners away from a Glock to an HK that was twice as expensive and DA/SA. Kept telling them it's the best for new gun owners....

[The Gleam]

Make a list of every possible variation of 'worst "advice" you've have to hear so far' at a Gun Shop that could have been said, and I can confirm that I have heard or overheard everything on that list said at least once, even multiple times, over the past 25 years at the sales-counter of several different Turner's Outdoorsman outlets.

It's a pandemic. I need to wear a FUD mask and turn up the knob on my tolerance/ignore filter every time I go into a Turners.

[Dvrjon]

It's a pandemic. I need to wear a FUD mask and turn up the knob on my tolerance/ignore filter every time I go into a Turners.

No pandemic...But, social distancing works. I’ve been in a Turner’s store twice. When they opened the new store in Sacramento, they were selling Ruger PC9s for $400. I went in to buy and went in to pick up.

Even with that, they told me DROS (at the time) was $30. I countered that it was $25: $19 DROS + $1 Safety + $5 Enforcement. It took three runs at them before they admitted the additional $5 was a Turner’s fee (for the privilege of them running the DROS — and it was subject to sales tax.)

I learned everything I need to know about them in two visits.

[MarikinaMan]

Here’s a bottle. Knock yourself on the head with it.

Coz your gonna get a headache from this thread.

[Divernhunter]

hold my beer---I got this

[FISHNFRANK]

The gun advice itself is mixed. Sometimes they’ve given me a perspective On a firearm that I didn’t consider. What I’d be really careful of is legal advice...”the Guy told me in the gun store,..”.(fill in the rest) isn’t ever going to stand up in court. That’s where I’ve heard most of the incorrect advice

[woolybugger]

I heard at one shop that czs are poorly made in china and that their barrels will crack over time.
I also repeatedly hear that the best gun for a women is a snubnose 357 probably in pink.
And best of all if you use a raw in a self defense shooting its an instant felony.

[Wordupmybrotha]

For me I think the most common/worst one I've heard regularly is many folks advocating that a shotgun is the best home defense weapon partly due to a mixture of not requiring great aim/not much training to use effectively. I've had to sit there and listen to that and wonder if they've ever considered how that sort of reasoning would sound to a judge or jury if they used that in their self defense case..

Actually, I think that argument is valid.
A person has to still aim with the shotgun, because it spreads about an inch for every yard that it travels. So at 5 yards, the spread will be about 5 inches. It definitely requires less precision than a handgun but packs a good punch.

And it definitely requires less training than a handgun. Aiming a shotgun is very intuitive like pointing a finger. For that reason, it just has a beaded front sight and no rear sight.

Fine to say in front of the jury in my opinion. Sounds reasonable to me to say that I chose a shot gun because it requires less precision and easier to use than a handgun.

[sealocan]

I realize that you're looking for bad advice from gun stores but you have to consider that SOME of those folks are just Sales people, not gun people, and they just repeat what gets them the sale. If their store needs to move their slow selling lot of revolvers that's what they're going to recommend.
So if I ever heard a claim I would take it about as seriously as I would from a washer / dryer machine sales person. Unless of course I thought they knew what they were talking about.
The stupidest gun thing I've ever seen personally was someone who had one of those old top break pocket guns made by either Harrington and Richardson / Iver Johnson / US brand (which was just a lower grade of Iver Johnsons) that was originally and supposed to be chambered in .32 Smith & Wesson / .32 S&W short, which was originally a black powder round...
And they had it fully loaded with modern .32 ACP cartridges.

I did my best to explain the power difference and that just because it fits in the chambers of the cylinder that it doesn't mean he should shoot it that way.
I think that's all he had so he said something like I won't shoot it unless it's an emergency.

I just shook my head and hoped I wasn't around for that type of emergency.

I do still wonder how many rounds .32 ACP one of those old top break revolvers could handle before any problems or a catastrophe.

[HK Fanboy82]

[GlockTalk9]

Not advice but when I visited the Dublin indoor range the other week, 3 new shooters only wanted 50 rounds with their rental. The look on the employees face was priceless