The Internet has presented a great opportunity for people with an interest in firearms. For every local community that has overtaxed or generally discouraged firearms related sales, for every gun store that has taken price advantage of it’s customers or wouldn’t stock anything more imaginative than a .30-06 Remington 700 – there are many Internet online alternative sources. Of course, along with that opportunity comes a need to exercise a little bit of caution, and to do a little up-front research.
Some of the biggest firearms companies have the least developed sites and some of the smallest businesses have the best. Some of the firearms guys who pioneered Internet presence are looking pretty threadbare these days, while some of the late comers have the slickest sites running ? compareMidway USA with Brownells. Then there are those business that rushed onto the Internet, didn’t find the gold strike they were expecting, and subsequently abandoned site support. I’m sure we’ve all run into those sites announcing the “New! 1998 catalog”.
The print catalog which once defined a mail order company, has generally been replaced with an Internet web site. All it takes to establish an Internet presence is: a hosting service, a decent site design, an e-commerce software package and a few well chosen words. Behind that effort could be a well run Internet direct sales company or, just as easily, your crazy cousin Harold’s “Big Headed Helmet Pavilion” so, as a shopper, the trick is to be able to tell the difference.
It’s getting difficult to find standard product in California
This week I found myself with a need to locate a source for a specific type of rifle scope. I almost always buy Leupold scopes, and I get them from Premier Reticles Ltd, a company that sells only the Leupold brand. My last attempt at buying a non-Leupold scope on the Internet put me at the receiving end of a used and damaged scope that showed up 2 weeks late. As a measure of self defense, and because these are infrequent purchases, I began limiting buys for this these types of items to local retail, and paying a substantial price penalty. I couldn’t locate local stock for this specific scope, so I struck out to find an Internet source.
I had read a lot of good product reviews of the Simmons AETEC, specifically the 3.8-12×44 WA / AO. The product’s claims to fame is an aspherical lens system that creates a wide field of view, a completely flat image and remains bright from center to edge. The scope also offers long eye relief, fully multi-coated lenses, 1/4 minute of angle adjustments, and is waterproof, shockproof and fog proof. In short, a perfect overkill for the light weight, short barreled .243 that’s sitting next to my desk with empty rings, waiting for a scope.
The Simmons AETEC is roughly $300 less than a comparably featured Leupold, and $150 more than a low end, but similarly featured model from Bushnell, Weaver or Tasco. I wanted to see if I could identify the value of the specific features that were creating this price disparity. Was Leupold overcharging for what they put into their product ? Was Simmons just making an overpriced version of a low cost product ? Were there enough optional features in each model to account for these price distinctions ? So I set out to get a Simmons scope.
Looking for sources
I started at the Real Guns links page and made my way to the search engines. I looked under “Simmons”, found out a lot about mattresses, so added “scopes” or ”
optics” to the search string. Alta Vista and Goto.Com always seems to be the most productive, picking up the fewest false results and least number of obsolete links, but there’s still quite a bit to weed through. I eventually added “shooting supplies”, “hunting” and even “outfitters”, until I built a list I could screen through.
I’m sure there were a hundred sites that loosely qualified as a source, so I started tossing obvious non-starters: Price way too high, price way too low, no inventory, no phone number and/or address, AETEC model not listed, airgun sites, used equipment sites, located out of the U.S….. Shortly before my head exploded, I had narrowed my selection down to 10 companies. I sent each a tech support e-mail and asked for product availability, price confirmation, and verification of the product description. By the next morning I had heard back from 5, the other 5 didn’t respond and I didn’t pursue them. I couldn’t believe their support would get better in the future if I were trying to get help with a problem product.
The table represents some of the specific information I collected, then used as part of the selection criteria. I included Wal-Mart and Midway USA for reference only. Neither had inventory, acceptable prices or provided anything special in the way of support. Midway in particular really hasn’t been selling at competitive prices. I understand their practice of paying 48 state freight, but charging in excess by almost $40, in exchange for a $3 freight bill, is a hustle. I was reading through their “On Target” Pricing program, but I fell asleep halfway through the qualifiers and disclaimers.
| Company | Price | Inc. Shipping |
Total | % Over Least |
In Stock | Delivery Lead time |
Toll Free Order # |
E-mail Response |
Human/ Machine |
Online Order |
| Hawkeyes Intl | $199.95 | Yes | $199.95 | 3% | Yes | NA | 888-880-4884 | Overnight | Machine | No |
| TYKO Optics & Guns | $188.95 | $5.00 | $193.95 | – | Yes | 3 Days | 888-767-4867 | Overnight | Machine | No |
| PrecisionDelta | $212.13 | $3.25 | $215.38 | 11% | Yes | Same Day | 601- 756-2810 | Overnight | Human | Yes |
| Shooter’s Oasis | $199.95 | $13.95 | $213.90 | 10% | No | 1 Week | 888-762-2485 | Overnight | Human | |
| Wholesale Hunter | $222.00 | $4.00 | $226.00 | 16% | No | 3 Weeks | 888-900-4868 | Overnight | Human | Yes |
| Midway USA | $239.99 | Yes | $239.99 | 24% | No | NA | 800-243 3220 | NA | Human | Yes |
| Wal-mart Online | $226.96 | $3.00 | $229.96 | 18% | NA | NA | 800-966-6546 | NA | Human | Yes |
The results
Hawkeye International has a very clean site. I didn’t pursue placing an order for several reasons. There was a blurb under “Order Info” suggesting they did not offer online ordering because Hawkeye International felt secure servers might not provide adequate security. Unfortunately, on the site I found only a Florida P.O. Box for an address, no names, and I was never able to get past an answering machine. At least a certificate server requires the company or individual to provide some verifiable information, and an online merchant account requires a service to provide the card company with financial info and, frequently, personal guarantees. Hawkeye is probably fine, I’m just not that much of a risk taker.
TYKO Optics & Guns is another answering machine, no online purchasing site. I did leave a message and I did receive a return call. The individual indicated they had stock, however it would take three days to ship the unit, indicating the site was a part time job and they he was swamped filling orders.I think I was put off by the three days it would take to address a package and have a UPS pickup and if I were that busy, I’d probably get some help, even if to only provide an acceptable level of customer service.
Shooter Oasis didn’t have inventory, suggested they would on approximately the 21st, and offered to set a scope aside. I passed on the offer only because I had a project deadline and the delivery date was only an approximation. Human voice, 800 number and local address, online ordering and tech support.
Wholesale Hunter, division of Ammo Alley wasn’t very wholesale and would not have stock for three weeks. They were prompt in responding to e-mail questions, but they were 1 of 7 companies that thought the scope was black and not matte finished.
Precision Delta’s primary online business is sale of their own match and reloaded ammo for law enforcement personnel and agencies, and the retail sale of Simmons and Bushnell optical products. My order was taken by the same polite and professional person who responded to my e-mail questions, and the scope shipped the same day the order was taken. I got my scope for $15 lower than the Wal-Mart price, $25 less than Midway and $70 less than local retail. Being located in California I also saved over 8% in sales tax. It was well worth the exploration effort ,and I have another source to add to a growing list of quality Internet suppliers.
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