Well I've been in the 'older' Gander mountain in Rochester and the Syracuse and Watertown ones in the past couple of weeks. The Watertown one is right in the mall in Watertown and is visible from 81. The Syracuse one is actually in Cicero, north of Syracuse just to the east of Route 81.

The selection of long guns is okay for "huntin' stuff" but at least they have pistols. With Galyans bailing on the pistol market GM is a godsend. The selection of pistols varies from store to store.

Unfortunately I think they'll kill off more of the local gunshops, my ffl already says he's seen in a dip in sales.

Supposedly there is not really a gunsmith at each location, I heard Cicero is transporting guns back and forth to Watertown for work, but I wouldn't trust them to do anything more than the basic stuff like mounting scopes, boresighting and maybe easy trigger jobs.

There are "specials" that vary from store to store. Cicero has a pile of youth Remington 870 20 gauges while Watertown has a rack of Howa rifles with butthole stocks an some unknown (to me at least, I'm guessing Chinese) scope for $ 600 in various calibers.

There is a sign that guns have to be unloaded, but that that does not apply to CCW holders, so their heart is in the right place. I'm pretty sure the kids in the archery section saw my 45 while I was testing out a bow (no one else was in the room) and they did not fleee in panic.

My fleeting impression is that the salesman are not overly knowledgeable, or only know one thing, like shotguns but not handguns. They do seem helpful and the managers on the floor are aggressive on getting the salesmen out talking to the customers and at least they are honest about what they don't know v. the usual gunstore BS.