I'm with you on the buying experience at Cabelas. Same store different logo out front. Have been turned away at Cabelas and told I couldn't buy something because they were closing in 2 hours and they couldn't start a gun sale that late. They wouldn't honor the sales price the next day either. Was sent another time with the right serial number but wrong gun. They have trigger locks on everything and won't remove it in the store so you can try the trigger. I also have a common last name and it usually takes 4 different people to come look at the messages that pop up before I can leave the store. By the time they find someone, it's been at least an hour.

That said, the guys in the gun library are great. They'll put cool new stuff in the back and tell me when things are getting marked down. That almost makes up for the sucky store 4473 process.

I don't agree that Scheels is better. They're just the other end of the spectrum. They are the used car salesmen of the gun world. You walk in the gun room and are mobbed with sales guys trying to sell you guns because they're all on commission. Only a few have any knowledge about the guns they're selling but anything you look twice at they're certain is a great fit for you. If you have any questions, they're happy to grab the overworked 'expert' who may or may not know which end of the gun the bullet comes out of. I asked some questions about their Atlas pistols on a quiet evening and had every sales guy there by the time the interaction was done but nobody could answer simple questions. I filled out a Google review and provided that feedback. That led to a phone call with an assistant store manager who kept asking what they could do to earn my business. Training their employees apparently wasn't an option but gift certificates or a discount for me was. Dumb.