AndreusMaximus
Master
About three and a half years ago was when I purchased my first firearm. My parents had never owned guns, so growing up I hadn't learned a single thing about hunting or firearms. I hadn't the slightest idea what I was doing, so I walked into the Rural King store on the southwest side of Bloomington, thinking, "Oh, the people they have behind the gun counter will probably know their stuff. At least enough to help me pick out my first firearm, right?"
I get in the store and start talking to one of the employees behind the gun counter, explaining that I'm looking to buy my first gun; I don't want anything fancy, but would like something versatile, that I could use to shoot varmints like groundhogs and coons, but would also work for home defense in a pinch. So he hands me a 12ga Mossberg Maverick 88, and tells me it's probably just the gun I'm looking for; loaded with different sizes of shot, you could kill varmints with it or hunt birds such as waterfowl, and loaded with 00 buck it would make a decent home defense gun, plus you can even hunt deer with it using rifled slugs. So far so good, right?
So I go ahead and buy the gun and take it home, and as I'm examining my new purchase as an excited first-time gun owner, I notice something inside the barrel that starts the gears in my mind turning (this was looking at the inside of the barrel from an angle; I was pretty ignorant, but fortunately not stupid enough to start pointing the business end of a gun at my face first thing after buying it.) So I figure out how to disassemble the shotgun, at least enough to get the barrel off, and looking down the barrel now, I can see that, yes, there is definitely rifling in there. I thought to myself, "That's funny. I know that guns normally have rifling to make the bullet spin, but surely that's not going to help with a load of shot? Well, what do I know..."
Anyways, long story short, I found somebody who actually knew what they were talking about with regards to guns, and he broke the news to me that the Rural King employee had sold me a slug gun, and that yes, I technically could fire shot out of it, but it wasn't the best idea. I ended up finding a used Mossberg 500 at a LGS, with a smooth barrel and all three chokes still with it, for less than $200. Then during the gun buying panic of 2020, I was able to sell the slug gun on Armslist and break even on what I spent on it. So there was happy ending to the story, and overall, a pretty easy way to "learn the hard way" not to always trust what the guy behind the counter says.
Though I guess at the end of the day, what he told me was sort of true, in a technical sense. So maybe this story doesn't belong in this thread at all? You be the judge.
I get in the store and start talking to one of the employees behind the gun counter, explaining that I'm looking to buy my first gun; I don't want anything fancy, but would like something versatile, that I could use to shoot varmints like groundhogs and coons, but would also work for home defense in a pinch. So he hands me a 12ga Mossberg Maverick 88, and tells me it's probably just the gun I'm looking for; loaded with different sizes of shot, you could kill varmints with it or hunt birds such as waterfowl, and loaded with 00 buck it would make a decent home defense gun, plus you can even hunt deer with it using rifled slugs. So far so good, right?
So I go ahead and buy the gun and take it home, and as I'm examining my new purchase as an excited first-time gun owner, I notice something inside the barrel that starts the gears in my mind turning (this was looking at the inside of the barrel from an angle; I was pretty ignorant, but fortunately not stupid enough to start pointing the business end of a gun at my face first thing after buying it.) So I figure out how to disassemble the shotgun, at least enough to get the barrel off, and looking down the barrel now, I can see that, yes, there is definitely rifling in there. I thought to myself, "That's funny. I know that guns normally have rifling to make the bullet spin, but surely that's not going to help with a load of shot? Well, what do I know..."
Anyways, long story short, I found somebody who actually knew what they were talking about with regards to guns, and he broke the news to me that the Rural King employee had sold me a slug gun, and that yes, I technically could fire shot out of it, but it wasn't the best idea. I ended up finding a used Mossberg 500 at a LGS, with a smooth barrel and all three chokes still with it, for less than $200. Then during the gun buying panic of 2020, I was able to sell the slug gun on Armslist and break even on what I spent on it. So there was happy ending to the story, and overall, a pretty easy way to "learn the hard way" not to always trust what the guy behind the counter says.
Though I guess at the end of the day, what he told me was sort of true, in a technical sense. So maybe this story doesn't belong in this thread at all? You be the judge.
. Also it is possible to have been convicted of a felony and still have it on your record, but legally able to own/buy firearms. There are some federal financial felonies that aren't disqualifies, and a person can be convicted and have their rights restored but still be a convicted felon.
