I’m glad I at least got a small taste of what a big store, fine gunroom was. I’m too young to have experienced all the fine gun sections of the big sporting goods stores of yesteryear.
Omaha in the early 2000’s, both Cabelas and Scheels maintained very nicely stocked fine gun rooms, and Guns Unlimited usually had a few nice guns as well, what a treat!!! I can only imagine that it was mildly reminiscent of what the old gun counters of places like Abercrombie & Fitch, Griffin & Howe, etc. were like. My kids still talk about going in those gun rooms and checking out all the cool stuff.
It’s extremely sad that all of that seems to be history now. One of my favorite stops heading east from Utah, back to the Midwest to hunt birds was stopping at the Sidney Cabelas and checking out all of the nice guns. I bought a few too. On one trip, we got to handle 4 different Fabbris, a few rare Purdeys, a few Boss & Co, H&H’s, best grade Scotts, Churchills, Harkoms, Dicksons, even a matched pair of Westley Richards best sidelocks made for an Indian prince….all of this in one visit.
Stopping in there now is so depressing these days, I usually just drive right on by.
Sad.
