Actually, we tend to come in Feburary or March. Things just always pop up. Last year it was a wedding. but I'd love to be there Septemberish. As for one of the stores, I laughed and finally walked out after listening the one guy tell a customer the only stock he could use to replace the broken stock on his browning was $800. And that he should buy a .300 Ultra Mag instead of the Standard Winchester mag he was looking at because it's the only real mag. I keep a field journal of anything hunting and fishing related. I take it everywhere I go, for phone numbers and such. Part of my entry for Feb 18, 2006 reads;
"Some poor sap wen't in looking for a LH Browning .300 WM. The guy wen't on about a 6 month wait how crappy the browning is and tried to talk him into a LH Rem Ultra, saying it's the gun he shoots and it's the baddest gun out there"
As I said, I got a chuckle out of that. If I remember right, the customer was just a little guy, and I thought the WM would have beat the tar out of him. But I do like both stores. They have that little store, hoppes number 9 smelling feel to them.