Wal Mart Guns

[Hawkeye6]

I recently picked up a Winchester Model 94 Trapper in .44 Magnum thought Wal-Mart's special order system. Basically, you have to put 50% down when you order it and pay the rest when you pick it up, perhaps a couple of weeks later.

The store will call a distributor when you come in to do the Special order and start the ball rolling if the distributor has it in stock. Don't know what they do if the distribuotr does not have it ready.

You need to inspect the item really closely when you come in to pick it up as Wal-mart has a no-return policy on firearms. The first Trapper in had rust on the rear sight so I refused delivery. The second time, I had to insist on them taking it out of the box and looking it over thouroughly.

Why did I buy it from Wal-mart? Price and availablilty. And curiosity. I wanted to see how their special order system worked. And a friend of mine had tried to order a similar rifle from a local gunshop a year or so earlier and they could not come up with one through their network. Said it would be another 6 months or so due to Winchester's production schedule. (He later found one "close enough" at the right price in another local shop.)With Wal-mart, the whole process, including hte return and the re-order, took about a month.

Would I do it again? Probably. Thinking about a Marlin Guide Gun for sometime next year. Again, the Wal-mart special order price is about the best I've seen.

Over time, I have purchased about half of my arsenal from large stores such as Wal-Mart and Galyans. The other half half hss been from smaller shops. The process has been aobut the same ineither case. And the knowledge of the people working the gun counter has been pretty good overall as well.

H.