To all,

I bought a brand new Bushy from Benson's here on Long Island. The two guys who were working there that afternoon were cool, knowledgeable, helpful, and friendly. That's why I could never understand all of the bad stuff I've heard about them over the years.

Till yesterday.

I went in there with my 2 1/2 year old daughter on my shoulder and asked this guy I had never seen before to show me a few semi auto pistols. Things went down hill from there. Even though I was a past customer...and showed my pistol license, the guy kept making "duh" faces at me every time I'd ask a question about a Glock, Sig, whatever.

Here I was looking to drop $600 on a pistol and he treated me as if I had tracked dog crap into his store.

Very weird. Not cool.

Ya I hear ya man! I don't live in LI, but I can never figure out why some of these places hace to treat there customers that way. We are all supposed to be together on this. We are loseing are 2nd amendment rights all the time, and u always hear the dealers saying how much it affects them with prices going up and all the regulations. You would think they would be glad to make any kind of sale. I think it is just that gunshop guru mentality kicks in sometimes, and 99% of the time you will have more knowledge the they. Thats why I have learned to do most of my gunsmithing myself. I wish it wasn't such a pain to get an ffl, or I would do all my buying myself too.

Bensons really depends on who helps you. I don't think they're overtly bad people, but across the board they have a tendency to.... tell you what they think you want to hear.  And to fill in the blanks in regards to their actual knowledge of certain things?  (Then close their eyes to the obvious to back it up. I suppose that's the difference between someone who tells lies, and someone who tells lies and believes them.)


Example.. some years back I bought a rifle from them which they claimed was all original. The barrel and fore end were all wrong a clearly fairly new. But because the caliber was right, and the barrel was half round half octagon, what's his face there (the guy who stutters) to whom they referred to as "our firearms historian" (lol) proclaimed it all original. I pointed out a good six or seven OBVIOUS ways you could tell it wasn't original. (To be honest I could have grabbed any kid off the street and asked him and he would have known it wasn't original. "Does this part look 100 years old to you? Does this half match that half?")

They had it listed at a "pie in the sky" price, and sold it to me for $1100 less than they had it listed for. A lower price they set, not one I offered.

Plus for me and for knowing what I was looking at.

I suppose plus for them for willing to come down, (though they were only willing to come down so much because it was a consignment gun (their own words)

But shame on them had someone unknowingly paid the first price. As it was, at $1100 less than the first price, it was a "fair" deal. Not good, not awful. The first price would have been criminal.


I can't say I've ever experienced what you did though. I've always found them nice enough and willing to play along.  ('cept maybe for the mom (if she even still works in store) I always found her to be bit of a...

Never heard of the place.  Where is it?

Benson's Gun Shop, Inc. 35 J Middle Country Road (Rte. 25) Coram, New York 11727

Right by where the 6th precinct used to be.

It's funny you should mention that story about the rifle of dubious origins. The Bushy I bought from them had to go back to the factory to get the feed ramps polished (no big deal) but it came back with a new rear site. I remember when I bought the gun, I pointed out to the salesmen that the rear site looked sort of brown...that it didn't quite match the rifle. "Oh, that's normal..."

It might very well be, but the guys at the factory must not have thought so 'cause it came back with a site that looked just right. Just as you'd think it should look.

A black market in used sites?! Will it ever end?!

Back to my original post, in all fairness, there's a cool guy named Steve who works there. He witnessed the poor service I was getting from the other guy when I asked pistol Qs...and I could tell that he was embarrassed by it.

There was another great guy there besides Steve when I bought my Bushy.

No big deal. I guess I finally met the dude who's giving them a bad rep.

A friend of mine who owned (notice the past tense) said with the Internet, potential buyers come in take up 20-30 minutes of his time asking touching bargaining about some firearm - say they want to think about it and never come back.

Could they be serious buyers? Perhaps.

Are they "grilling" him for info and edjewmuhkayshun? Possibly.

Did this drive him from the business? Uh, yeah!

His margins in NJ with all the bullshit of overhead (insurance (liability AND medical), rent, electric, water, gas, salaries) the quibbling over transfer fees - just tip the scales in favor saying fuck it.

So perhaps this story explains a little of the attitude seen in many walk-in firearms/sport's stores.

steve is the stuttering guy. andy is the guy with all the bad attitude. acts like he's an ar15 expert when he doesn't know anything. you should hear some of the things he's told me that were so wrong.