This is what I like about small-town newspapers, they report news that would not be news in other places.
ZANESVILLE — As a child, while his friends were off at basketball camps, Justin Scheffler was in his grandfather’s South Zanesville gun shop rebuilding antique military guns.
It was there, at Maysville Discount Guns, that Scheffler’s lifelong appreciation of firearms was born.
Scheffler had always talked about opening his own gun shop, but it took his wife Tonya’s hypothetical business model she created in college to turn Scheffler’s Straight Shooters into a reality. Last November, the Crooksville couple converted a largely unused shed into a business, serving a niche market of gun lovers.
“It works on two levels,” Scheffler said of his store name. “We do gunsmithing, so we’ll get it shooting straight. But we also don’t want people leaving here feeling like they just left the mechanic’s. We want to be the person who’s giving you a great deal.”
In addition to his federal firearms license, the 29-year-old Blue Rock native received a gunsmithing degree from Ashworth College last year. But the majority of his learning happened long before the classroom. Scheffler’s favorite part of owning his own gun shop is meeting with older people who share the same nostalgic feel for guns.
Recalling one of his favorite moments since becoming a small business owner, Scheffler described a 70-year-old man who came into his shop with a rusty bolt action .22 rifle. The gun hadn’t been used in decades, but the man wanted to give it to his grandson as a memento — the same gesture the customer’s grandfather had made more than 60 years before.
“He’d had that gun since he was 5 years old,” Scheffler said. “He wanted to carry on a family tradition using a gun that was more than 100 years old, and I was able to help him do that. … That’s what I love the most about this job.”
Growing up in the middle of Blue Rock State Park, Scheffler has been making modifications to guns since he can remember. The newest trend he’s seen in the gun retail industry is the push for Doomsday Preppers materials. Doomsday Preppers is a television series that focuses on people who are preparing to survive circumstances such as societal collapse, terrorist attacks, nuclear incidents and war. Scheffler tries to accommodate, offering survival straws (instant pocket-sized water filters), squeeze-charged flashlights, machetes, knives and a variety of other tools.
Scheffler is a fan of up-and-coming businesses. One of his favorite brands, and one he said very few gun dealers are selling, is a Turkish company called Canik. Although new to the market, Scheffler has shot the guns, taken them apart and put them back together several times. As far as he can see, they’re a quality gun sold at a good price.
Specialty tools and retail gun sales are important to Scheffler’s business, but he insists the most interesting part of his day is modifying older guns. During a recent project, Scheffler turned a World War I bolt-action Russian rifle into a sniper rifle. In another, he refurbished a side-by-side shotgun found on a gun auction site to resemble the buyer’s original bird hunting gun. All guns are test fired before sale.
“These are weapons people can’t find anywhere else,” Scheffler said. “When you talk about custom weapons, this is it.”
Nothing bothers Scheffler quite as much as false advertising. The price his customers are quoted is always the price they walk out paying.
One hour of labor is $30, and customers will frequently look through catalogues with him to reach a price both can agree upon. Scheffler frequently deals with customers who pay in $50 to $100 increments, and he said he’s all for people who want to customize on a budget. It’s “about as small time as you can get,” and Scheffler said he hopes to keep it that way.
“You see the places that say one-stop gun shop. I want to deliver on that promise,” he said. “When it’s turkey season, deer season, I want people saying, ‘I need to go see Justin.’
Knowing the people I’m working for is important to me.”
Source: http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/article/20140327/NEWS01/303270008
I couldn’t find this website but you can Friend him on Facebook.