Bobs Shooting Range Salisbury MA permanently closed

Over the last few years it seemed they made some attempts to improve. I know they had renovated the shop and it looked better and they worked at improving safety. Guess they could not overcome the reputstion they had as a shit hole.

My worst sales experience there was when I heard they had a couple of older model 36 revolvers that were in excellent shape. I drove there with cash in my pocket. Clerk took one out for me and I asked if I could dry fire it (I buy guns to shoot them not let them sit) and the clerk said ok. I pointed it in a safe direction after inspection and cocked the hammer and dry fired......some other clerk came from the back and started yelling at me "hey we don't allow dry fire of collectible guns in this shop"......and I mean he yelled at me! I asked him first buddy! I gave the gun back to the clerk after I opened the cylinder and inspected it and left. I never went back. I was actually going to buy it too like I said I had the cash.

I hate to see shops close......but from my experience there they earned the reputation of an unsafe range and not a pleasant experience to shop at.
All it takes is one douchebag behind the counter. There's a place in Mason NH I haven't stepped foot in since 2012. Having a bad day? Stay the F out of retail
 
That’s a bummer, I went there for some gunsmith work once but ended up just shooting at the range there. Good place, good people.
 
I pointed it in a safe direction after inspection and cocked the hammer and dry fired......some other clerk came from the back and started yelling at me "hey we don't allow dry fire of collectible guns in this shop"......and I mean he yelled at me! I asked him first buddy! I gave the gun back to the clerk after I opened the cylinder and inspected it and left.
Wait... you dry fired it then did a cylinder check?
 
My wife still has her original boobs. And there is no obvious recent issues to affect them. LOL
My wife's got her original boobs too, but gravity's been taking it's toll.

Bob's has been for sale for some time. After Jack left, Bob's son Aaron took over.
Aaron grew up in the business, but is a Heavy Equipment Mechanic by trade.
Bob's was a sketchy looking place back in the day, but Aaron revamped to store.
I think they should've done more updating the range, but that's me.
They used to do a lot of Milsurp too, that was kind of phased out.
Aaron went back to turning wrenches a year ago and kind of managed after hours.
I've bought dozens of guns there over the years. Just over two years since I went to Jack's wake.
Only time I've been able to wear my AR-15 Tie Clasp.
I've haven't spoken to Steve since last Fall, but I knew things were tough.
 
Didn't some fellow named Jim Ballou own the place at one time? He wrote an excellent book about the BAR. A must-read for WWII buffs.

Jim and my Dad where friends.
Jim was a good dude.
He would call up when the place was dead and say "Hey you guys want to come up and shoot the full auto's'?
Never had to ask twice.
After my Dad passed I brought up a bunch of stuff to give them that they might be able to make a few bucks off.
I didn't realize he hadn't heard about Dad and was so shocked he broke down in tears .
Got me freaking started too.
The one he had that Dad really wanted to shoot but the backstop wouldn't handle it, was that BAR he had on the wall.
He carried one in the service and loved that gun.
It was pretty quiet there back then with mostly regulars coming in.
 
I think it was State Line. The retailer basically called me a retard for questioning if a .45 ACP could take down a grizzly.
The "guns are like cars and the law requires you to pay MA sales tax if you buy them out of state and use us for the transfer" State Line, I assume.
 
On a scale of 1 to 2012ish AFS how dangerous was this place?
If you got good situational awareness you would be ok. I went in there with my girl once and there were like 7 non English speaking dudes ( don’t give a shit if I’m profiling ) backed up behind the rent a gun counter with 3 lanes opened. I asked the counter guy how long for a lane and he said he could get us right in, I mentioned that I thought all those dudes were ahead of us and he said they were all sharing two lanes. Needless to say I walked right out. Outside of that potential shit show I always had positive experiences there.
 
I used to shoot plate matches there years ago, fun.
Jim was a really good guy, loved to talk with him.
My dad still has a Bob's pinup calender on his workshop wall that I gave him sometime in the 80's.
 
I used to go there alot way back in the day, first time i went there it was a little sketch, but then Jack started talking and i was all in!
bought my first SP1/AR15 from Jack waaay back in the day! I used to do pin and plate shoots there every week waaaaay back in the day,
i lent Jim my AR so he could load his dead buddies ashes into .223 and fire him out of it!! In return he was gonna let me use his Glock18, i never got the chance!! Bummer
Bob let me shoot his full auto Sig 551? (I believe) a couple times as well as suppressed HK pistols.
Looong time since i have been and things have changed, but a shame for any range to go under.
 
I think it was State Line. The retailer basically called me a retard for questioning if a .45 ACP could take down a grizzly.

Well, now old glory. There is now only one Stateline (the original, predated even the other one, not related) in Plaistow.

Admittedly old glory has changed hands/management etc since then. Different building, even.
 
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On a scale of 1 to 2012ish AFS how dangerous was this place?

Bobs was always "go in when few people were there and its safe" otherwise you were potentially looking at a shit show if it was crowded. Admittedly I hadn't set foot on that range in a long ass time, but there was no active RO presence at the time, I know they remodeled it and it changed ownership like 3 times since then. (or at least it felt like that) .

I'm surprised they just didn't sell it to someone else, but what I am thinking is in between healeyban, the post-trump drought and the stupid f***ing MA corona sales ban, that trio of bullshit might have been enough to pick them off. Evil ugly c*** and tall deval have killed more than a few shops in this state. It does seem kind of bizarre to give up now,
though... but if they haven't been buying shit with distributors during corona ban, they're pretty much f***ed in terms of gun/ammo sales.
 
Sorry to see the shop close, they were good guys. I used to go there a lot more years ago, bought my first pistol there and would occasionally shoot at the range. Definitely have seen some crazy stuff in the range area.
 
All it takes is one douchebag behind the counter. There's a place in Mason NH I haven't stepped foot in since 2012. Having a bad day? Stay the F out of retail
Part of the blame is on customers as well.
We have all been waiting behind the douche that has to handle EVERY SINGLE gun on display, but that is not enough, he also has to share a story of how he shot one in a farm 15 years ago, followed by another story about the gun or manufacturer quality, then dry fires it a few times, gives it back and moves to the next gun. Then eventually leaves and purchases one small box of .22LR ammo.

Sometimes I feel like smacking those people.

So, a lot of times, you are just the lucky one that happens to show up when one of these dudes leaves and the employee is aggravated.
 
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