[Hawkeye6]

I can remember Herters years ago. They had a store somewhere in NE Iowa that I drove up to one time. I was in college at ISU and I think I went there to get a graduation presetn for one of my nephews, I think. I don't know where or when they fell off but like Nulle said, they don;t seem to have much in their catalog these days except waterfowling stuff.

Gander Mountain -- I used to do mail-order from them and got some nice stuff with good deals. Apparently, they ran into some expansion/money problems and sold off their mail-order division to Cabelas (IIRC). Right before that, their customer service and order fulfillment really went to crap. That was around 1995-1996. Since then, they've greatly expanded their retail stores. Sometime in the early ninties they opend a store in Merrillville, IN that I went to very occasionally. Now we have a store nearer to us (NW side of Fort Wayne, IN) and I like it. I go there from time to time. Thsi particulaar sotre is way overcrowded so I kind of dislike it from that standpoint.

Cabelas stores are great, but there aren't any near me. Teh closest is about a 4 hour drive.

Another store that I used to really like when I lived in Indy was/is Galyans. They were a locally owned chain of around 5 sporting goods stores. Deifnitely full line wiht a great selection of camping/outdoor/hunting/shooting stuff. They sold out to the Gap in the early to mid ninties as tehey were trying to fund their expansion in the midwest. With that they keps their excellent customer service and stocking. I understand that they have now been sold to Dick's Sporting Goods. We have a Dick's in Fort Wayne. OK, but I'm not impressed. I'll have to wait and see what they do with Galyans.