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Gun Buying Experience: Yugo SKS |
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Gregory Morris, 5/4/07 1:37:14 pm |
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I saw them on sale for cheap in the Dunhams vintage rifle section. I picked out the nicest one, which was still an ugly junker, but it works great, and for $99, who cares? It's a plinking gun! After I filled out my 4473, the lady (who I now suspect to be anti-gun, based on how she treated me prior to this) called the NICS center, and it came back with a hold. This was the same lady who made me wait a day to buy my Mosin Nagant. I figured there was probably some little glitch or something, which isn't uncommon with a system like that... but I still thought it was a little strange, since I had just bought a Bersa Thunder .380 a month before that, and a Russian M44 a few months prior to that... no problems whatsoever. The state of WV (and I guess the country... not sure about that though) goes by the rule that if the background check doesn't come back within 3 days, the store can sell you the gun. So I went home, after leaving a number for the store to call me.
After 4 days (it was over a weekend... only weekdays count in that 3-day period) I called the store back, and they said it was still on hold. Same story the next day (after 3 full business days had passed.) So I asked if I could pick up the gun anyway. That same lady said, "That's against our store's policy." Well, that kinda pissed me off. Of course I questioned it, and she said they reserve the right to not sell a gun for any reason. Ok, fine. But why are you in the business of selling guns if you don't want to sell me, a law abiding citizen, a gun? I just bought one from you a few months ago anyway! So, slightly disheartened, I got my NICS number from them with the intention of trying to check into it. They assured me NICS wouldn't tell me a thing, unless the sale was actually denied. I never actually bothered to call them.
Then I got busy, and I never did have time to check with NICS, so and a month passed with my gun purchase in limbo. One day I was sitting at my computer, looking at my bank account and I thought "hey, I have some extra cash, I need a new rifle!" (Not an uncommon thought for me.) I remembered my poor SKS, sitting all alone in a box behind the counter. I drove over to Dunhams, and there was a different sales rep behind the counter. I asked him if by chance NICS had approved me. He shuffled around through some papers in the back, and came back to me with, "Yeah, it looks like you were approved about a month ago." By then I was gritting my teeth... "Why didn't you call me a month ago," I thought, but I wanted my gun, it wasn't this guy's fault, so why make a big fuss about it? I did, however, insist that I get it at the original sale price, which I think was was about $110. The guy couldn't remember what the original sale price was, so he said "does $99 sound right?" Well, after the frustration I'd been through, an extra $10 discount was deserved, so I replied "I dunno, I guess so." So I put down my bank card, grabbed $10 worth of cheapo 7.62x39 wolf FMJ, and walked out with my new (to me) gun.
So a caution about buying guns from somewhere that isn't a gun shop: the people behind the counters may not like guns, and may not want you to have them. Some of them just get stuck behind that counter. At the very least, you may find customer service non-existent. If you buy a gun from a general-purpose sports shop, find the sales rep that is helpful and friendly. Honestly, though, I'd stick to gun shops, because they want to sell you the gun, and will do everything, by the book of course, in order to get that gun into your hand. The only reason I buy guns at Dunhams is because they occasionally have a good selection of extremely cheap, and relatively high quality milsurps. |
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