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I was at a local sporting goods store last night. Their was a young lady and her bf or husband trying to buy a gun for her. The sales man was giving out all sorts of wrong info. the main thing the lady kept saying she wasnt strong enough to push the slide lock down with her thumb to release the slide. the sales men and her bf kept telling her that is the only way to release the slide properly.

Does anyone say anything when someone is giving out such bad info?

I felt sorry for the lady because she was getting frustrated with the whole thing.

As a general rule, I try to not butt into the conversations of other people, so I wouldn't have said anything either.

On the other hand, I've heard some interesting info of questionable reasonableness at gun counters before as well. Once I observed a family obviously new to handguns handling a Sig P238 and a Glock 26 at a gun counter in a local store. The "expert" behind the counter was obviously pro-Glock and even made the statement: "And the G26 doesn't even have to be cleaned - ever - because, well, it's a Glock."

I started to say that both Glock and Sig have reputations for being accurate firearms with excellent records for reliability and while it is true that with powders used in modern ammunition and materials of construction used in modern firearms, the need to be overly obsessive about keeping the firearm spotless at all times is probably not what it used to be, I also don't know anybody that would trust their life to a firearm that they have practiced with enough to be confident in, but never cleaned.

Then I remembered that it was not my conversation and moved on...

I would've probably said something in both scenarios. It's not rude to help out our neighbors. Just be friendly about it.

texanron wrote:I would've probably said something in both scenarios. It's not rude to help out our neighbors. Just be friendly about it.

Yep, it could start with something like, "Please excuse me, I couldn't help overhearing. May I...."

...or something like that...

Two things I will ALWAYS at least try to correct (especially from incorrect salespeople) are bad info about firearms and cameras. No need to be rude about it, start off as oldgringo mentions above. Or wait til salesman goes elsewhere for a minute and then casually/quietly offer suggestion to customer.

With cameras I've kinda become an old coot about it though. Everytime I hear some kid at Best Buy say the equivalent of "this camera is better beacause it has 10 megapixels and the other only has 8" I wait until he turns away and then politely tell the customers

"Hi. I couldn't help overhearing what he said. I was a semi-professional photographer for 4 years. The naked human eye cannot detect the difference between 8 mp and 10 mp. Furthermore, I've printed and sold for hundreds of dollars images as large as 3 foot x 4 foot from a 4-megapixel camera. Any amount of pixels available in any camera in this store is more than you'll ever use or need. Go with the features you like best and don't worry one bit about megapixels. It's a meaningless camera sales gimmick."

With guns I'm more deferential, but would correct an obvious mistatement, especially if it is related to safety like "never cleaning a Glock"

If fact, I would *hope* that someone would step in with the correct information if I was being told something that was not true. I think that if I had been that woman and a nice stranger interrupted politely and gave me information that made me feel better and more confident about my purchase, I would have been very appreciative. There is a big difference between being nosy, butting in, and being a know-it-all...and politely assisting a fellow brother or sister.

I agree that it's good to be helpful, but I have struggled in similar situations in the past to immediately come up with appropriate wording that is "not rude" and that has great potential to generate more trouble than my butting in is worth. So, I generally just opt to follow that old Chinese proverb, "A closed mouth gathers no foot".

edmart001 wrote:As a general rule, I try to not butt into the conversations of other people, so I wouldn't have said anything either.

On the other hand, I've heard some interesting info of questionable reasonableness at gun counters before as well. Once I observed a family obviously new to handguns handling a Sig P238 and a Glock 26 at a gun counter in a local store. The "expert" behind the counter was obviously pro-Glock and even made the statement: "And the G26 doesn't even have to be cleaned - ever - because, well, it's a Glock."

I started to say that both Glock and Sig have reputations for being accurate firearms with excellent records for reliability and while it is true that with powders used in modern ammunition and materials of construction used in modern firearms, the need to be overly obsessive about keeping the firearm spotless at all times is probably not what it used to be, I also don't know anybody that would trust their life to a firearm that they have practiced with enough to be confident in, but never cleaned.

Then I remembered that it was not my conversation and moved on...

Both need to be cleaned but the glock can be cleaned by running it through a cycle in the dish washer. I wouldn't try that with the sig.

jmra wrote:Both need to be cleaned but the glock can be cleaned by running it through a cycle in the dish washer. I wouldn't try that with the sig.

Yeah, but then how do you clean the dish washer? And how do you convince SWMBO to let you out of the dog house 3 months later?

austinrealtor wrote:

jmra wrote:Both need to be cleaned but the glock can be cleaned by running it through a cycle in the dish washer. I wouldn't try that with the sig.

Yeah, but then how do you clean the dish washer? And how do you convince SWMBO to let you out of the dog house 3 months later?

Knew a guy who used to clean his glocks like that all the time. Of course he was single and it was the only thing he ever put in the dishwasher. Must say the glocks were always clean and worked flawlessly.

austinrealtor wrote: "Hi. I couldn't help overhearing what he said. I was a semi-professional photographer for 4 years. The naked human eye cannot detect the difference between 8 mp and 10 mp. Furthermore, I've printed and sold for hundreds of dollars images as large as 3 foot x 4 foot from a 4-megapixel camera. Any amount of pixels available in any camera in this store is more than you'll ever use or need. Go with the features you like best and don't worry one bit about megapixels. It's a meaningless camera sales gimmick."

Good advice. Also, the megapixel mania ignores lenses. A 10mp camera with a junky lens can have a worse picture than a 4mp camera with a good lens.

The megapixel mania has even invaded pinhole "spy" cameras. There are some out there with 640x480 (0.3mp) resolution, but the image enlarged (data interpolated) so they can claim 1mp or more for marketing.

Unless I know the person, or they ask my opinion, I usually don't get involved in those kind of conversations unless there's immediate risk to life or limb. Or, like you say, the salesman leaves and I can help their victim covertly.

edmart001 wrote:As a general rule, I try to not butt into the conversations of other people, so I wouldn't have said anything either.

On the other hand, I've heard some interesting info of questionable reasonableness at gun counters before as well. Once I observed a family obviously new to handguns handling a Sig P238 and a Glock 26 at a gun counter in a local store. The "expert" behind the counter was obviously pro-Glock and even made the statement: "And the G26 doesn't even have to be cleaned - ever - because, well, it's a Glock."

I started to say that both Glock and Sig have reputations for being accurate firearms with excellent records for reliability and while it is true that with powders used in modern ammunition and materials of construction used in modern firearms, the need to be overly obsessive about keeping the firearm spotless at all times is probably not what it used to be, I also don't know anybody that would trust their life to a firearm that they have practiced with enough to be confident in, but never cleaned.

Then I remembered that it was not my conversation and moved on...

I don't have to clean my Glock? I clean ever time I shoot it.

If I overhear a conversation like that, I try to catch the customer at a later time when the salespeople aren't around and quietly explain my point of view. It's pretty rare that I hear advice bad enough to do that, though.

alvins wrote:I was at a local sporting goods store last night. Their was a young lady and her bf or husband trying to buy a gun for her. The sales man was giving out all sorts of wrong info. the main thing the lady kept saying she wasnt strong enough to push the slide lock down with her thumb to release the slide. the sales men and her bf kept telling her that is the only way to release the slide properly.

Does anyone say anything when someone is giving out such bad info?

I felt sorry for the lady because she was getting frustrated with the whole thing.

If she wasn't strong enough to operate the slide release, she might as well not be strong enough to pull the slide far enough to the rear to properly chamber a round. In this case, I side with the advice. That is what Kahr, for example, states is the proper way to chamber a round.

She sounds like a revolver candidate.

But I do agree that you hear so much bad advice/incorrect information from gun counter people, that it would drive you nuts trying to correct it. Look at it this way, the people getting the advice have just as much opportunity as you to seek proper advice, from the Internet, books, magazines, etc.

Are you going to be the person/stalker who waylays them on the next aisle, and tells them that the counter person was wrong, and here is how it really is?

Sometimes, you just have to grit your teeth and thank fate that you are not that ignorant.