Had the opportunity to visit a large sportings goods store today and overheard the oddest things... a customer was dropping his Bushmaster Shorty off for the gunsmith to 'check out'.  I started a conversation up with the AR owner and he was telling me he was having failures to extract occasionally and he'd heard from someone in his National Guard unit Bushmaster had a problem with barrels over-torqued so he wanted the barrel 'done right'...

Looked at the Shorty and the sights are as centered as any you'd ever find... 'Shoot where the sights are set?', I asked... 'Yep'...

I started to explain FTE's and AR's in general, wrote down the web address for AR15.com, tried to explain the different possible causes for the occasional jam, but he just replied, 'I'd rather pay someone $300 to fix it than try to figure it out'...

He turned over the AR to the clerk who told him it would be a few weeks before the 'smith called him with a cost estimate.

I guess I can't understand people who have absolutely no interest in the firearms they own or aren't even willing to spend a few minutes doing research that could save them a bundle in gunsmithing charges...

So no, I didn't recruit a new AR15.com member today... If I'd been thinking I'd have offered him the $400 cash I had in my pocket... betcha I'd have another Bushmaster Shorty if I had...

I'm to the point of pointing and laughing at folks like this.

Damn, it must be nice to have more money than sense.

OTOH, I'm pretty lucky to have a LARGE local bunch of people to draw on if I had problems like that--who, more to the point, instead of just fixing it, would SHOW ME what was wrong, and how to keep it from happening/repair it in the future.

If you're going to invest in a hobby (or self-defense, if that's your primary goal) it doesn't make sense not to know as much about it as possible!

[whacko]

sounds like you live in the metro detroit area.

Hmmm....my guess is he went to Cabela's in Dundee. When are we Metro Detroiters going to have a shoot? I am starting to wish I was living in TX...

when i heard that, cabela's or gander mountain in taylor popped into my head.
i live in monroe,about 15 min from cabela's.

wolfamongsheep, look up the thread about the "pit crew" some of us are getting together next weekend in lapeer.

Man, I wish I would have known that sooner!! I am stuck working next weekend. It would have been great to get together with some of the other board members. I will keep checking the posts and see what comes up. Thanks for letting me know that they are shoots going on in my area.

Actually it was at Jay's in Clare... Today was the first time I've been there since I'd moved to Florida 10 years ago... Nice to be back home again.

A shoot would be a great idea... I'd drive down to Detroit or Flint for that... [;)]

you off on the 30th?
about 5 or 6 of us are getting together in lapeer.
see the post titled "pit crew".

Ahh, the home of the world famous Beef Jerky Outlet.

hell's yeah!!!!

DarkStar,

You tried, that's the best you can do. You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. Some people are more willing to open their wallets than learn something. His loss.

coyote3

Jay's is a nice place. I figured it would be your general hunting/fishing store, til i found Armalites and Bushy's on display racks. My kinda of store [:)]