Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

anyone been to the gander mountain (says GANDER MTN on the building) on rte 3 in fredericksburg? big place, good selection, but they seemed to be asking a lot for their milsurp rifles, such as mosin nagants. i've never seen milsurp ammo for sale there, only retail packaged ammunition.

the cool part about this place is that you can just walk around and pick up the long guns. you don't have to wait for someone behind a counter to help you, then take a gun off the rack, open the bolt, and hand it to you. you can just walk around and handle the teathered, trigger locked long guns. good youth selection, best i've seen.

pretty good selection of common ammo, such as .30-06, .308, .223, and others, but some oddball calibers are nowhere to be found. they have reloading stuff too.

We have 2 here in Indianapolis. Great selection but way high prices, especially on ammo.

i've found that their prices are dirt cheap on certain guns, such as the marlin model 60. 149.99 brand new. that's cheaper than walmart, or anywhere else for that matter.

I've heard good things about the one on Route 3 in Fred'burg. However, my first hand experience wasn't so good. On a few different occasions I went there looking around trying to decide on my next pistol, spend a lot of time looking through the glass and not once did anyone offer assistance. In fact, they avoided me like the plague. Maybe, I had B.O. .

I shop there all of the time. The prices are a tad high, I think, but they have about everything you need. Caution on the gunsmith. They have recently changed gunsmiths and they are way behind. They have had my S&W 910 (9mm) for almost three months. All it needed was the front site replaced with the one I brought in. They broke it and have another site on order (so they say). I need to find a good local smithy.

Used to go in there a couple times a week looking for ammo. It comes in sporadically. However, they have this ridiculous 1 box limit. Doesn't matter if it's a box of 20, 50, or 250. One box. I don't stop in as often now since it's barely worth it with that limit.

Of course if you are "special" they will ignore that limit. A couple weeks ago they got in 8 boxes of UMC 45 auto, 250 count. The kid wouldn't sell me any since they were all saved for "a special customer." I asked him about the 1 box limit, "but this is a good customer" he replied. I argued for a bit and he finally asked another worker who said only 5 were saved for the "special" customer, so I was allowed to buy one.

I've spent 1,000's of $$ in that store, wonder what it takes to be "special"?

The Gander Mountain in Roanoke was a good one. I had great service from knowledgable staff and there WRERE good deals to be had, even on 9mm ammo! Try 250 rounds for 59.95.

flowmaster wrote:anyone been to the gander mountain (says GANDER MTN on the building) on rte 3 in fredericksburg?

Watch out for random gunfire.

Random gunfire?

Rough part of town, maybe?

OakRidgeStars wrote:Rough part of town, maybe?

No, it's in a shopping district. That's about all that is along Rte 3 in that area. I'd be more afraid of being hit by a car than being shot.

Moccasin wrote:
No, it's in a shopping district. That's about all that is along Rte 3 in that area. I'd be more afraid of being hit by a car than being shot.

True. My wife was once at the center of a 5-car pileup right in front of GM. "But I only looked down for a second" were the first words out of the mouth of the woman at the end of the line.

BTW, did check the ammo shelf at gander this AM; no 9mm, no 45 Auto, no .380. That's the limit of my current interest.

Moccasin wrote:

OakRidgeStars wrote:Rough part of town, maybe?

No, it's in a shopping district. That's about all that is along Rte 3 in that area. I'd be more afraid of being hit by a car than being shot.

Not talking about the neighborhood, I'm talking about inside the store.

So, there's been an AD inside GM in F'burg?

The gunfire in side the store was during a conceal Carry class. An instructor for the class(I was told he no longer works with the group)supposedly had been out shooting earlier in the day and had forgotten to check the chamber of the gun. The instructor started the class off by pulling the gun to show the class and aimed the gun at the wall to release the firing pin and pulled the trigger. BANG! Hole in the wall and into the office behind that wall and the bullet was found lodged in the top of a computer monitor on the store managers desk. If the manager had been at his desk at the time things would have been very different. Luckily he wasn't but now the conceal carry classes are conducted off the stores property.

I purchased my M & P .40 from Gander in Fredericksburg. I found it on sale and got it for a respectable price. I have also bought ammo from them but now will only buy it if I can not find it anywhere else. Its extremely over priced. Twice as much as Wal-Mart right down the street. I will buy from them if its on sale, as they have reasonable prices for sales. They also have several sales persons that are very knowledgeable and helpful. I had one drop all he was doing and personally walk around showing me things he would recommend. I've also had the ones from time to time that you had to find and ask for help and they just grunted.

All around I'd recommend the store but keep an eye on the sale papers for the best deals.

That provides some insight to the comment about watching for random gunfire. I find it's sometimes better to be straight forward instead of playing 20 questions. AD's happen. They shouldn't but they do, hence the word accidental. Some places are worse than others for an AD though.

Man, talk about a tough break. It would be a real pi$$er to get accidentally shot in a gun store while shopping for one The good side is if you survived you'd never have to worry about ammo again!!!!

Thanks for (finally) clearing up the "randon gunfire" remark. I was in GM a few weeks back when someone was asking the cashier about the CCW class, and she replied they don't do them anymore because of an "incident." I assumed a student might have brought a loaded gun to class. The instructor forgot to check his gun after shooting? Sheesh.

The only reason I know the story is that I just took the class about three weeks ago and the instructor told us all the story. He said he is trying to get the proper insurance to get GM to let him back in and teach. For those that are interested in getting their CC permit, the class is about 4 hours long and it didn't suck. The guy that teaches it is not the one that had the AD. You can get his info from GM. Not that I'm trying to endorse anyone here, just adding my two cents.

There's nothing wrong with an endorsement. If you are happy with a product or service that you received, then please, by all means, share your experience. That's specifically why this forum (Gun Shop/Range/Gunsmith Reviews) is here!