You gotta love Montana

Took this photo recently while dropping by a Walmart in Bozeman, Montana. Can’t say I’ve ever seen a Walmart in Texas that offered as many firearms, including models made by Ruger and Weatherby. The Weatherby Vanguard in walnut is one I suspect is only offered by Walmart in this part of the country. Heck, you can ever find convenience stores in Montana where you can fill your tank and buy a new deer and elk rifle in a single stop.

The Benbrook Texas Walmart had an equal selection of firearms until the gun/ammo run.

When things got rather dicey back during the summer riots, Walmart was known for pulling all their guns from store shelves for reasons of safety. It makes you wonder if certain demographics is a determining factor in how stores are stocked with rifles and shotguns.

That's the way it should be plenty of selection, no big deal.

Got more than an Academy around here

All bubba and booger picker guns

The Henry’s are the nicest rifles in the rack.

Every now and again you will come across a hardware store that has a good selection of rifles.

Honestly, and this is just my opinion, is that rifles have by and large gotten so much cheaper over the years. When I was a boy, you could buy a Remington 700 BDL or a Ruger M77 at the local Walmart and could order more from a Catalog.

Now they carry some Savage and Mossberg rifles and that’s about it. Academy isn’t much better.

It may not be as quite as nice - will have to check again this season, but the Graham Texas Walmart has a pretty good selection as I remember. I do miss the days growing up when you could buy guns at Penny's, Sears, Western Auto, Gibsons, and every Maverick Market had ammo. Hell, I sold them myself at KMart where I worked in High School. All but Penny's are gone now and they are on their last legs and haven't had guns in years. I hear there is still a Gibsons in Weatherford, need to go there sometime for old times sake.

I bought my first shotgun at a Furrs grocery store in New Mexico in ‘81.

You can still buy guns at Gibson's. And some decent waterfowl stuff as well. Mid and high end cold weather and wet weather stuff.

I bought my first Python from Furr's...6" nickle!

I should add to never pass the chance to swing by any of the Bob Ward’s stores when you’re in the area. They sometimes offer some great deals on brand name clothing including Stika and others.

I used to be the gun salesman in Bob Ward's in Bozeman. Back around 1990, we had quite a selection and everyone bought from us. Not even sure if they carry guns anymore.
Montana had a fishing publication back then, kind of like a newspaper with local fishing conditions, ads, etc... they would call me and ask how the fishing was and I would just report what the fishermen were telling me at the time and they would print it like I was the expert. lol

Yes, they still carry firearms and have a great supply of ammo. They would no doubt get a lot of my money if I lived in an area where any of their stores were located. Very friendly and helpful staff. And like many places in the state, they’re hiring.

Reminds me of a when I was growing up in the 50s and early 60s. Seemed like all the department stores, Sears, JC Penny’s all sold guns as well as Western auto and Napa. Of course back those days you didn’t find all these foreign made guns. Winchester, Remington, Brownings.You could find shells at a lot of gas stations

Several of these are scattered around Western Montana. Buy a new rifle and scope and get it bore sighted while you fill up and get feed for the horses and cows.

Rocky Mountain Supply

Reminds me of Sportsman Warehouse back in 1989 in Grand Junction Co. Huge store and gun all the way around the huge building on the wall I think they were at least 300 rifles there. Great store with just about any thing needed for hunting the rockies.

You need to swing by the Fort in Big Timber!!

http://www.fortmt.com/index.html

That was actually my first experience in finding a place were you could fill your tank, pick up a bottle of booze, and buy a new rifle. And the best damn breakfast sandwiches west of the Mississippi. Just ask the wife.

Hmmmmm….no scary black rifles….

It makes me sad that the vast majority of guns now days are made with synthetic stocks. I will always favor a pretty wood stock and blued metal

Me too.

Not me. Like asking for exhibition grade walnut for an ax handle. Not saying I wouldn’t own one but damn sure to pretty to work with

I concur. It's probably much easier and cheaper to outsource gun stocks to another company that may only offer synthetics. I would be surprised if the new Remington factory in Georgia includes a wood shop. Thankfully, there are gun makers like Winchester, Henry, and others who still take pride in creating rifles with wood stocks. The french walnut stocks offered with the new Winchester Model 70 Super Grade are beautiful.




And while we're on the subject, I like how manufacturers seem to have moved away from high gloss to matte wood finishes that do a much better job hiding battle scares. They also seem to make a rifle easier to grip in cold weather when wearing thick gloves.

Going back a long way. I was 12 yoa or so.
I once whittled out a stock for a 22. Took 3 tries due to screw ups. No idea what happened to that gun.

It is cheaper, you can abuse them with little consequence, and quite a few younger folk do not have the funds/desire for a quality wood stocked rifle.



A couple recent additions.......



Pre-enjoyed Colt Sauer in 300 Win Mag.



Pre-enjoyed J. Sipp Custom in 221 Fireball


ya!

GWB

Find an Atwoods store and check out their ammo prices & the $'s on the couple dozen shooters usually on the rack. I shop the one in Jacksonville whenever I'm in town. Last time I looked they had Norma ammo in several calibers and 300Wmg's at way cheaper than anywhere else I know of back when I was shopping for another 300wmg after I did a dumb arsed thing and sold a unfired Wby SS 300 for waaaay too cheap. I also bought some great bore & chamber cleaner and a caliber appropriate brush I've never seen anywhere else, that I use to shoot the broke ejector Marlin 270 with . Spray some of this pink stuff into the chamber before you load the next round and you only have to barely tap the spent round with a cleaning rod or sometimes you can just bump the buttpad with the muzzle standing upright to get the fired round to drop out by itself when you pull the bolt all the way out. Never seen this pink stuff anywhere else either.

Re: the Marlin Model 7 STAINLESS STEEL ...A POX ON RUGER FOR PUTTING THIS POORLY DESIGNED EJECTOR ON A GREAT SHOOTING RIFLE in a Marlin Model 7. Oh by the way the chatter on some other sources sez Ruger is going to come out with the pirated designed LEVER ACTION rifles that Marlin had built for years. You can only hope Ruger doesn't do to the Lever action shooters what they did to the Model 7.
My Marlin Model 39 D 22 rimfire lever action gun is still shooting as well as it did when I found a unopened case of them hidden on a 4 story high steel rack somebody was trying to steal when we were closing the Schoellkopf warehouse in Carrollton in umm '79 I think it was, and was a given one of them as a reward.
Ron

Beautiful rifles!

The missive above is a reflection of the contractor in Kentucky who is ID'd on the side of my barrel, that Ruger used to build my Marlin Model 7, and Ruger's lack of adequate engineering in specifying how the extractor was to be built out of normal steel material instead of pot metal. Everything else about the gun's parts fit and the workmanship is comparable to a Ruger or any other common US made rifle ...and it shoots little bitty groups if I am paying attention, with really old WW Ammo that I was using to break in the barrel when all the problems started and the extractor fell out of the chamber when I opened the bolt, to load another round for the next shot.

OTOH If I could find a Savage extractor I'm told that with some careful, judicious file work the Savage STEEL extractor will fit fine and last as normal ... but I should buy several of them if I expect to keep and use the Model 7 as I would any other rifle the rest of my life, but there are no Savage extractors to be found that I could find for almost the last year or so as they are all being used for other brands of rifles ...like my Marlin Model 7. It's possible in a couple years this will all resolve itself ....otherwise I've got a very expensive Stainless Steel and black composite canoe paddle.

OBTW the name of the pink bore cleaner at Atwoods is "Pro-Shot Products 1 Step Gun Cleaner & lubricant CLP" . "Cleans, Lubricates, & Protects in One Easy Step". The stuff works best with a correct sized for caliber metal chamber brush, and wiped clean the usual way you'd treat the bore of the barrel . You will be surprised at the amount of black soot that will come out of your chamber. I was , in a gun that had only been fired 10-15 times from Brand New....and looked exactly as new when I got thru.
Ron

Jeez Louise !!! what magnificent piece of wood & workmanship in THAT rifle....I'll show this picture to my wife as a reminder that Santa Clause is coming soon...and pray she gets the dumb joke ....
Ron

I spent my first couple of years of high school in Weatherford and you could walk into the Gibsons and they had a barrel full of SKSs that could be had for $99 a piece