Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Here's a question for fellow gunnies...

Several times now in recent months, I've had different counter-jockeys hesitate to let me dry-fire a piece I'm looking at, to try the trigger.  (I always make a point of explicitly asking for permission to try a trigger, just as a courtesy.)  I've even had a couple of people now try to tell me that it will damage the firearm.  (It's always a centerfire that I ask about.)

Is this craziness now happening everywhere?  And for how long?

Okay, so the people that seem to do this are almost always young enough that maybe they just don't know.  Okay, maybe.  But still--this isn't something that they're going to come up with on their own.  Someone has to be telling them this, else they probably wouldn't say anything at all.

So: who is that?  Is it maybe the same corporate brainiacs that won't allow you to do so much as remove a bolt from a bolt rifle to look down the bore?  Is it gungrabbers, wanting to plant the seed that guns will fall apart if you use them?

Any wisdom there?


3 comments:

Joel said...

I can kind of understand a refusal to allow dry-firing a gun right out of the display case. I don't agree, but I understand (what I take to be) the reasoning. Which would be, "we're selling new guns. If it's got use-marks of any kind, then it's not new anymore."

Of course before I can get excited about buying any gun, one question that must be answered is "how's the trigger?" If you're not willing to let me answer that question - in a way that, as you point out, can't possibly hurt the gun - then the voices will start telling me you're trying to hide something and I'll lose interest.

Kevin Wilmeth said...

Maybe you're right, Joel, about the "it's no longer new" idea. That's an Occam-friendly explanation, at least.

I suspect, too, you may have a similar background to mine, in regarding the classic "poor man's trigger job"--wherein you take any new (centerfire) piece, liberally apply an appropriate lube to the moving parts, and dry snap it about a thousand times, usually within an hour of getting home. :-)

I've not seen a piece yet that doesn't smooth up and improve with this treatment...and of course then you can understand what the true need for further work might be.

MamaLiberty said...

Don't know... never ran into that. I have a favorite gun store in the city, and every time I go in there I handle as many of their guns as I have time for... and the "boys" behind the counter are super helpful and happy to have me try the triggers, or bolts or anything else. They seem to get a big kick out of the old lady who comes to play with all the guns. LOL And I've never even bought a gun there, just ammo and accessories on occasion.

I do take all of my visitors there, if possible, and we all get an opportunity to handle the guns.