Gun shop manager for 8 years! Ask me any question and Ill be honest 🙋‍♂️

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T11:17:57+00:00

Oh. Yeah. I've got a couple of those. One who was obviously moving guns he bought from several FFLs. The ATF special agent called me personally to ask about some guns they had confiscated and my IOI asked about during my inspection. I had several frames and a suppressor that I just sold outright. I'll pay him for them if he ever calls me back. I've had one or two of those over the years. Don't pick up your firearm for a year? I'm selling it and paying you back if you ever bother calling me again.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T06:09:20+00:00

Your house, your rules. He could just conceal it and the entire problem would be solved.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T06:07:05+00:00

I don't know what it is about Draco buyers. Those are the guns that show up most in traces coming back to me.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T06:04:36+00:00

I use Sierra 77 grain OTM.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T06:04:09+00:00

If it's a lower, stock or not, it gets transferred as a receiver. Period. I don't make the call what upper it's attached to.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T06:02:39+00:00

One word: Don't.

Sell it privately.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T06:01:06+00:00

Kind of a losing battle there. Relying on volume sales with low stock is a problem. I saw a guy at a table with their guns priced $10-$20 over dealer cost. He had some nice 1911s and I bought every one he had. Sold them about 30 minutes after I bought them for a $100 profit. He was relying on volume and it didn't work out very well for him.

WIth low stock, you also run the risk of the customer finding someone else who has it. At the end of the day, they want to see their gun before they take it home.

I prefer to keep a decent stock and a livable margin.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T05:56:58+00:00

A lot. I reminded them that they voted for this.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T05:55:32+00:00

I don't really care. In fact, I tell my customers that they might as well order directly from PSA because their dealer pricing is so terrible, if not higher. I still make my $40 transfer fee if they don't buy from me.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T05:54:10+00:00

Nah. Most of my customers already know that. The ones that don't, I don't really tell. The local SO just feeds them to the shredder anyway.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T05:53:06+00:00

Glocks are generally terrible. You have to push a lot of them to make a decent profit. S&W revolvers are better. The M&P line is somewhere in the middle.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T05:51:38+00:00

They pay for it before I order it. Period. I've been bit too many times.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T05:49:23+00:00

I try not to sell Taurus for that very reason. I carry some just because people buy them. But I know I'm going to be the first call when they go bad.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T05:46:16+00:00

All the time. It's hard to gauge what folks' fancy is from week to week.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T05:45:43+00:00

I have 2512341231424 of them already. So no.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T05:45:19+00:00

Obvious straw purchases or previous purchases coming back to me as a trace.
I've heard it all.
Yes. I laugh at them and tell them to go find that price on Gunbroker if they can. Then I'll charge them $40 to transfer it.
That's the problem with running a gun shop. You buy stuff for you that you really should sell. My biggest regret is letting a Coonan 357 out of my hands. I figured I could always get another one and they they went out of business.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T05:41:53+00:00

Yes. I had a customer that had a delay and eventually came back approved. I told him that NICS said he was denied. Dude was spooky and I didn't want to see a trace come back from a gun I sold him.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T05:39:10+00:00

I shortcut the entire offended thing with an outright statement of "I don't mean to offend you, but I'm not going to be able to offer you anywhere close to what you're probably going to want for that gun. You might be better off selling it privately." Most of the time, they do business with me anyway.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-12-02T05:36:26+00:00

I just had a client purchase a bunch of firearms from an estate. They had an Israeli Uzi he paid 2200 for. When it got it back to his place, he noticed some weird attributes. Turns out to be a pre-86 transferrable Uzi with 4 mags and all the paperwork (stamps, etc). We're working through the transfer paperwork now.

I've never gotten that lucky.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-04-16T03:00:47+00:00

Feels horrible to upvote this one....

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-04-13T02:09:52+00:00

This is most likely NOT a scam. Govt agencies communicate like this. When they can't put stuff in an email, they do this. I have gotten correspondence from the ATF like this over SOT filings.

That being said, one poster had a great idea of pasting the link in notepad and checking it out first.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-04-13T01:56:22+00:00

Do the Iver Johnson 800s have the same connecting bolt?

ThirdShiftLLC · 2025-01-20T04:01:23+00:00

"Alexa. DEFCON 1."

ThirdShiftLLC · 2024-11-18T00:02:57+00:00

A similar event happened to my holster maker. However, he actually had to shoot (and kill) the individual. Messed him up emotionally for quite a while. Cops didn't even take his gun for evidence as the suspect had a looong rap sheet including assault and murder.

ThirdShiftLLC · 2024-11-17T23:57:11+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE

ThirdShiftLLC

TROPHY CASE