Nowadays, their kids are grown and the oldsters hang out at gun shops. Life goes on. The city where I live, Maryland Heights, has a few remaining auto parts stores, we've lost our CompUSA (it's now a Gold's Gym) and we have a new gun shop, a spin-off of a Belleville outfit. Metro Shooting Supplies sponsors a shooting-sports show each Sunday on KTRS.
They're my home-town gun shop and I needed a gunsmith's services, so I decided to try them, especially since it seems that there are only a few experienced 'smiths in the region (it looks like it's a dying breed of specialists) and the next closest one is in House Springs and for me that's a road trip.
The good news is that Kent, Metro's young gunsmith, is wise to his craft beyond his years and has serious experience in exactly the rifle I need work on: a 7.62mm AMD65 carbine. He diagnosed the problem quickly, went online to find the part and, when that proved fruitless, let me know that he'd been thru 'smithing school with another guy and the two of them had paid their tuition doing US-legal builds of my rifle!
He'd get on the phone that night to start issue resolution. Kent will call me this week to let me know the story. I have faith that he'll do it right. He also, at my request, ran through the mechanisms on the carbine and declared them well and useful. Kent owns 4 AK's himself.
While I was there, I watched what gun owners call a FUDD (as in Elmer, the wabbitt hunter) getting seriously upsold. The 30-something West County wannabe wanted a Glock 30, a 10-round .45ACP, for self-protection. Dunno if he has his CCW license yet. No G-30's in stock here, but the salesman (who had previously told me to never use Wolf ammo - yes, I know it's dirty and you must clean your gun after use) sold him several mags, some parts and ammo and a concealed carry holster for a gun the FUDD hadn't yet bought! Brilliant! Hopefully, his Glock 30 is on order.
I'll let ya know how my experience there works out. And I'll listen to their show on KTRS Sunday PM.
And Metro has a tasty-looking .357-.410 Taurus Judge in their showcase I'd like to make my own...
