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I work in a mom and pop hardware store here in our little town. The other day we had a customer notice our display case with a small amount of shotgun ammo. He commented that he never new we had 12 ga ammo. My co-worker told him that we have no. 7 1/2 and no 8 shot. The customer replied that he would have to check his gun because he "didn't know which one of those his gun would shoot"......

We're not all 'gun' guys and gals.

I'm sure it would embarrassing for some customers to have the particulars of shotgunning/shotgun shell sizes and applications explained.

I for one would be hesitant to explain...unless asked.

For some reason I thought this was going to be a Joe Biden article....

rbwhatever1 wrote:For some reason I thought this was going to be a Joe Biden article....

I agree with Abraham, not everyone is a gun expert. Your co-worker should have taken the opportunity to explain and educate the customer. Now instead of a "Scary" shotgun owner, you have an "Educated" shotgun owner. And hopefully a better and more frequent customer. Now if he refused to be educated then I'd call him scary...

We all have to start somewhere. His reasoning to go home and find out "Which one his gun would shoot" is also a statement saying he is going to investigate and learn a little bit.

Dick Chaney was a pretty good shot.

rbwhatever1 wrote:For some reason I thought this was going to be a Joe Biden article....

Now, there's a scary shotgun owner for certain!

I remember way back only a couple of years ago on this very forum me asking a not too dissimilar question about slugs.

I had only shot #7.5 and #8 birdshot for trap, skeet, and 5-stand and was about to shoot my first 3-gun match. One of the stages required two slugs. When I went to the store to get some I found rifled and non-rifled. I panicked. I didn't know which ones to get for my shotgun. So, I asked here and found my answer and learned.

Outside of this forum, within my family and most friends, I am considered the go-to guy for all things gun related. Scary, right?

However, it was something I had never come across yet and hadn't learned until I needed to.

So the guy is scary for checking to make sure he purchased the correct ammo because he doesn’t know? I mean really? At least he was smart enough to check. A missed opportunity for education.

Yes it's scary...First of all I was tending to another customer nearby. The lady that was checking him out probably doesn't know any better either since she is basically anti-gun.
Second of all when he "checks" his gun all he is going to find is it says 2 1/2 or 3 stamped on the barrel.
If I had been working him I would of asked what he wanted to use the shot gun for and explained the different shot sizes and their purpose. But I didn't get that opportunity.

Sorry I brought it up

2farnorth wrote:Yes it's scary...First of all I was tending to another customer nearby. The lady that was checking him out probably doesn't know any better either since she is basically anti-gun.
Second of all when he "checks" his gun all he is going to find is it says 2 1/2 or 3 stamped on the barrel.
If I had been working him I would of asked what he wanted to use the shot gun for and explained the different shot sizes and their purpose. But I didn't get that opportunity.

Sorry I brought it up

I for one am glad you brought it up. This was an excellent teaching point to me that the education of others should be ever forefront in my mind. This also would include my religion. I was also glad to see all the other's response that they too were not fully educated on all gun platforms. Many of us fail to remember that we too were not always as knowledgeable as we are today. Many folks only are fully educated on their primary platform. Even after a lifetime of being exposed to firearms, I continue to learn a lot from not only this forum but also on other firearm related forums. For instance, I never knew until after my retirement from the Army about grains of bullets versus grains of powder. Never cared, just purchased rounds available to shoot, and only had the rounds the Army gave me, while on the job. Killed many Deer while hunting, but I couldn't tell you the grains of the bullet I dropped them with. I did understand expansion, but not in relation to bullet speed. While in the Military I could tell you the characteristics and specifications of the M16A1/2 rifle and the M1911A1/M9 Pistol and their maximum effective range and what type of ammunition we were issued with. But I couldn't tell you the grains of powder involved and really didn't understand what the 55 grain versus 62 grain bullet really meant. I just needed to regurgitate this information at call. Thanks again for bringing this up, so that I could at least recheck myself when a similar opportunity might come up.

2farnorth wrote:Yes it's scary...First of all I was tending to another customer nearby. The lady that was checking him out probably doesn't know any better either since she is basically anti-gun.
Second of all when he "checks" his gun all he is going to find is it says 2 1/2 or 3 stamped on the barrel.
If I had been working him I would of asked what he wanted to use the shot gun for and explained the different shot sizes and their purpose. But I didn't get that opportunity.

Sorry I brought it up

Don't be sorry for bringing it up.

"Scary" might be a little overly dramatic. A little funny maybe, but scary? Eh.

However, what we didn't get until now that you didn't mention in your OP is that you were willing, but didn't get the opportunity to help educate this person.