Wal-Mart Guns

LSandBinc

I have talked with a few factory reps, one being from Remington, they all have told me that when the gun parts are produced they use guages to check them. These gauges go from 1 to 5 parts fitting 1 and 2 gauges stay with the manufacture, custom shop(1) and guns assembled to ship to dealers(2). Parts that fit the 3 gauge go to chain stores Wal-Mart, Gander Mountian, and Dicks to name a few. 4's go to the scrap pile.
I guess my topic goes back to the Crabby Gun Shop Owner. First are you really saving any money. Second you only get what you pay for.

Has any one else ever heard this?

Mobuck

No personal experience, but another guy told me he bought a walmart rem 700 for his son's b'day and it wouldn't function properly. He took it back and threw a fit until they gave him a replacement and it had a problem, too. Now he's still waiting for that one to come back from Remington. No rifle for son's b'day either. I've never bought a chain store gun and I've never had a rem 700 that was a dog either.

Mobuck

Nighthawk

It is true xmart has an agreement with some of the popular manufactures as well as the not so popular. Xmart has an agreement with some of the arms makers to make guns exclusively for them. Most of the time you can tell by looking at the stock, instead of being walnut it may be birch with walnut finish it may not have the checkered stock like the one at the gun shop. As for grading of internal parts you are exactly right. I hope this can be of some help to you.

Good luck.

Rugster

COONASS

Well I always thought this about chain stores........Especially about the wood..........Now how do ya'll all feel that responded to Chucks..
"Cranky gun shop owners"..........Most of the time in life you do get what you pay for............coonass

"A man is known by the
company his mind keeps."
T.A. Aldrich

SixStringer

I know the Winchester FMJ 9mm at Wallmart has a different casing over the lead then the Winchester FMJ everywhere else. Its also loose in the box instead of in a nice tray. However, its 12 cents a round, so who cares?

hacker

many chain stores have carried name brand guns for many years that had other names on them or had slightly different features, usually a leeser grade of wood, etc but i really find it hard to believe that any manufacturer would rate their guns on a sliding scale and ship bad ones anywhere. either a gun is within specs or it is not. i have read in several publications that companies with custom shops take guns from regular production for customizing and do not get special or better ones. i am pretty sure the 1-5 grading story is an urban myth as i heard the same story about winchester and colt years ago and both denied it. as for the bad guns people bought they could have come from any store as quality with all of the gun companies has slipped in recent years. the deal with kmart or walmart is that they buy a lot of guns and get a quantity purchase price. they don't buy guns of less quality and i think walmart for sure would not accept guns that were substandard. i find it hard to believe that a damaging story like this is so well known that i have heard it. if i have heard it, i figure everyone must have heard it and no retailer would want this sort of bad pr. story is a hoax started by people wanting to hurt the big stores.

i never make misteakes.

RockinU

sixstringer,
7 out of 10 boxes of 9mm that I got at walmart recently contained 101 for the price of 100...and they're cleaner to shoot than those damned blazers

Rafter-S

hacker-- I think you have it right. Parts that function either meet spec or they don't. With the liability issues the way they are now days, no major firearms company would, in their wildest moment, allow less than first quality parts to leave the factory. Now there may be "blimished" products (products that function OK but have imperfections in appearance) that get sold at reduced prices.

And that's not to say all Walmart guns are blimished. Walmart likely has contracts with gun companies to take all their blemished products. So if Walmart orders 10,000 Ruger 10/22's, there may be 20 in that group that are blemished. The others are the same as those sold to gun shops.

Edited by - Rafter-S on 05/05/2002 16:07:03

PotatoBob

Wal Marts sporting goods department managers order their own guns,based on what sells in their area and on personal preference.There are company guidelines they must follow but it is generally pretty much whatever they want to order,that is in their catalog.They order from distributors,not directly from the factory.I will try to get the names of the distributors my local wally world uses today,as im friends with the manager who does the ordering.

martzkj@msn.com

Bob, I've been told just the opposite at Wal-mart in the gun department. They are pretty much give what to sell, they only have very little input on what they get. For example here in PA. you will find semi rifles that you can't hunt with and percussion muzzleloader that you can't hunt with. I asked why they stock them and they tell me it's what they get. However they do have a book of guns they can order for you. I have personally bought guns dirt cheap on clearance because they didn't sell in PA, because they can't be used and sold them here.

BayouCritter

I heard the same about baseball equipment from a source I believed to be reliable. For instance the bats and gloves meet factory specs, just not the creme of the crop. The same is going on with boats now. Travis Marine is the largest boat dealer in the country and they order enough boats they tell the manufactorer how they want them. The Travis Editions are cheaper and if you know what you are looking at, you can tell manufactoring short cuts are being taken. They are still coast guard approved and meet boating standards, but in my opinion not as durable. I would imagine Wally World is doing the same with guns they order. If a gun distributer is a supplier for Walmart, he can have cheaper edition guns available for the managers order list.

S&W Man

The 1-5 scale system is not an urban myth. The guns are still within specs and acceptable tolerances, they are just graded as to which part of the tolerance scale they fit into. The manfacturers know that they can have more problems with the guns that go to the marts and deal with them as compared to the small gunshops. They know these will produce far more comlaits and problems for them as these buyers are the ones that will be more vocal. They also know that the small shop buyer expects more. IT STILL DOES NOT MEAN THE GUNS ARE NOT WITHIN SPECS OR TOLERANCES. Just where. AS for ammo, same thing applies, The ammo that goes to the marts is within specs and tolerances, but may have a higher failure rate. I have, in the past when they carried them, bought 22LR from the shops I deal with. I never had a misfire with them. Since they have stopped carrying them for the cost reason and I have been buying from the marts I have a 1-2% failure rate. Not bad but worse than 0%.

Just my 2 censt worth. The small shops are worth our time and money, for when they are gone and the marts are where you have to go, they will control what you can get, and they ARE in bed with the liberals who want to see our second admendment rights disappear. If you don't believe this, I have a piece of property for sale real cheap.

The second admendment GUARANTEES the other nine and the Constitution!

gunpaq

Support the local independent gunshop owner who will be there to take care of you and not some snot-nosed teen punk or tie clad manager at Wal Mart who doesnt know which end of the rifle goes bang. For a very, very few dollars more you will get the same gun that most always will be able to return if a problem, plus you are helping to support a small business and not a mega corporation.

Pack slow, fall stable, pull high, hit dead center.

Otoman

Gunpac I am with you 100% on the gun purchase deal. I don't think that it is right to get a bunch of advise from a small gun dealer, vacuum cleaner shop or whatever and then go buy it from one of the big chains for less money. The additional price that you pay is for the knowledge that they bring to the party and the service after the sale...I am a salesman and one of the things that I dislike the most about customers is them having me solve a problem, and then find out that they bought what ever product or products that it took from a competitor because he was cheaper and didn't have anything invested in the sale....My wife is getting ready to buy a new Vacuum and I told her to buy it from the people that have serviced our old one all of these years, full well knowing that it will be cheaper at a big chain....Oto P.S. this is an issue that I have a short fuse on, along with the foreign manufactures bringing America's Industrial Base to our knees because of their inexpensive Labor Costs.....Several Years ago I went to buy a new ball Glove and finally found one that was made in America "NAKONA" I am not saying however that there is nothing in our house that isn't made in the U.S.A because today that is impossible in a lot of cases. Which just shores up what I have said above.....O.K. I will quit now....

KIMBER: Pistol du jour