Black Friday is the traditional day of the shopping binge, and it looks like the deals are already leaking out. bfads.net has an advance copy of an ad for Dick’s advertising a Remington 700 varmint, INCLUDING a scope, for only $349.98. The Varmint series comes in everything from 17 Remington Fireball to .308 Winchester, making it just about the perfect cheap-o hunting rifle. No, seriously, this deal beats out the rest of the competition. While it lasts, that is.
I won’t be purchasing anything from Dick’s.
The nearest Ohio store is farther than I’m going to drive and the closer Indiana store informed
me that Dick’s will NOT sell to out of state buyers on AR type rifles. I would have bought one.
The Remington 700 rifle mentioned has calibers with more power than an AR 5.56 and yet I can buy the 700.
Does that make sense to anyone but Dick’s???
Here in the Portland Oregon area, our Dicks stores just finally started selling AR-15’s about six months ago, and they only sell them with 10 round low capacity magazines… Oregon has no magazine capacity laws btw. I was glad they started carrying AR-15’s, but thinking about it later, it really pissed me off that they are imposing, and basically showing that they support, magazine capacity restrictions. Maybe their trying to sell more of the Troy Battle Mags that they carry, I don’t know, but I have not shopped their since. Am I being unreasonable?
Mean while a local Fred Myer Grocery/ deparment store (Kroger and QFC in other parts of the Nation) just started carrying firearms. They have AR’s from Ruger and Del-Ton (with normal capacity magazines I might add), Tactical shotguns, and Handguns, many of which were small CCW type handguns which Dicks does not carry, and probably never will. Needless to say, I have been shopping at Freddie’s a bit more than I usually do as of late.
I like companies that aren’t afraid to support my right to defend myself and my family, those that do not, or are to scared too, or are just a bunch of Elmer Fudd’s, I will have a really hard time giving them my money and patronage.
Damn, I want to purchase firearms from my grocery store. @_@
Half of Dick’s bottom floor is jogging accessories… figure it out.
We have a chain called Sports Authority that is the same way. Rifles and shotguns only, no hand guns, sells some ammo but it is all locked up behind the counter (and prices are high), and they act like they don’t want to do business. They’d rather sells sports equipment and golf clubs.
Note to Mark – We’ve got Sports Authority in Houston as well. Used to be a nice second-generation family-owned chain of stores called Oshman’s and they sold a nice slection of handguns as well as long guns. Then it became a part of the Bain Group. Another triumph of Romney’s take on the free market.
I was in the Portland Dicks located off 82nd Avenue @ Johnson Creek Blvd a few months ago. The gun department staff and I had a good laugh at management’s policy of displaying long gun ammo on the floor displays where anyone could grab it. However, corporate policy requires the handgun ammo to be stored behind the counter where only the staff are allowed. We laughed that management must consider handgun ammo buyers less honest than long ammo buyers. It makes you wonder about the mindset of the people who run their organization.
FWIW…clothing and shoes account for 80%+ of a sporting goods store’s gross income. In other words, fishing, firearms and many other departments are tolerated because it gives customer’s the perception of it being a “complete” sporting goods retailer.
That deal might be the first thing to get me off the couch on Black Friday in, well, ever.
+1
Damn that’s a good value!
I agree good value. I might just have to pick up one in 308 or 30-06.
This is really quite tempting. I’ve been thinking about getting into the .308 game for a while now, and they just opened up a new Dick’s near me that sells rifles.
Only thing that’s stopping me is that it seems like .308 milsurp is now completely gone online, and I’m not sure I want a rifle that costs 60c a round to feed.
Ah, but does it come in 300 Blackout and is it Leghorn approved?
Hmmm. Isn’t this the rifle that likes to go off on rampages and randomly shoot people, even when the safety is on? That’s what 60 Minutes said, if I recall correctly. Maybe I need to buy one and put it on guard duty at the front door.
I’m boycotting the Freedom Group (Remington, Marlin, etc) since I do not support their business policies of cheapening the gun companies that they buy. I’m open to buying an older used gun (pre-Freedom Group era) made by those makers.
@ Aharon: The policyat Dick’s might make some sense – not too many gangbangers toting around .30-30s and .223.
True. They might have access to stats about ammo that has been stolen and I was being unfairly critical without knowing the details. Then again, it probably isn’t just gang bangers stealing handgun ammo. Dicks, being a chain, might also simply have passed that policy because another store located far away is having ammo shrinkage problems.
Also consider that it’s unlikely that you could conceal a long gun or shotgun into the store, load up on ammo, and try to rob the place. The same cannot be said for a handgun.
For that matter, forget robbing the place. Salesdroids are usually pretty scattered in Dick’s, so you could come in, load up your gun and a couple extra magazines (concealed), and walk back out. Again, not likely to do that with a long gun.
I snagged a loss-leader Remington 700 at NW Armory in Milwaukie for $250. That was 15 years ago, though. $350 is a fantastic price today.
I can’t find this gun on Remington’s website. Is this the SPS Varmint, or some other version of the 700?
It appears to be an SPS Varmint, but with a Realtree stock pattern. Perhaps this is a Dick’s special item, as companies often do, or perhaps Dick’s used the wrong picture. I was gonna head over to my local store tomorrow to see if they had any that I could fondle before Black Friday. If I learn anything of substance, such as the picture shows camo but the real rifle is actually black, I’ll report that back.
As planned, I went over to my local Dick’s this afternoon to check on these. They had three near-identical rifles on the shelf. Two were labeled Varmint, one was labeled ADL. All three had Mossy Oak Brush camo stocks and heavy profile barrels. The two labeled Varmint had no scope mounted, while the one labeled ADL had a 4-12×40 scope mounted. All three were priced at $550.
At this point, I’m not real sure exactly what’s going on. The one labeled ADL was the correct rifle, with the correct scope, for the ad listed here. Perhaps it was just mislabeled. The two labeled Varmint were the correct rifle, but the salesman indicated they didn’t include a scope. I can’t find a listing for an ADL at all on Remington’s site. Nor can I find a listing for the exact rifle shown in the ad on Remington’s site, but did find a listing for it on Dick’s site, located here, where it indicates that it’s a Dick’s exclusive. I think you’re correct that it’s effectively an SPS Varmint with a unique stock.
The good news is that with three of effectively the same rifles on the rack, and a statement that “there are more in the back,” it seems that they are not just a “special for Black Friday” item, that there won’t just be one or two per store, and it’s likely that they will be available for those who choose to show up.
For the record, Dick’s is opening at midnight Thursday night, not 3 or 4 am Friday like a lot of retailers. I have mixed feelings about this. Staying up ’til 12 and knowing I can be home in bed by 1 am is better than getting up (or staying up) to be there at 4 am. On the other hand, being earlier means there may be more competition, which means showing up earlier to ensure a spot in line.
If you decide to go, good luck. I’ll let y’all know if I end up with a new toy, or just a sad face.
How about some advice? I don’t have a specific use for whatever rifle I get, though if I do end up hunting with it, it would probably be for deer, possibly for hogs. Assuming availability, what caliber should I get? I was thinking .308, but the post about Dan’s deer got me thinking about .243 Winchester.
Any recommendations?
You can’t beat a .243 Win for whitetail / blacktail deer and/or hogs. With a typical .243 Win, you can shoot evetything from 55 grain bullets (coyote, etc) up to 100 grain bullets (hogs). I’ve put down a 350 Ib hog with a .243 Win. It dropped that hog in its tracks. The lighter polymer tipped bullets can push out at close to 4000 f/s., which makes the .243 Win a very versitile round. The only reason I would want a .308 Win over the .243 is for longer range stuff.
Just FYI. I went to Dick’s this afternoon to see how many they had in stock. I decided to ask if there was any way to buy the gun now, and get the price guarantee on Black Friday. YEP!!!! Bought a .308. Saved me a cold night in line.
So you paid $550 today, to get $100 back on Friday? I may try to do that tomorrow.
Yes. 550 today. Have to go back in ON Black Friday to get my 100 back. I will also get a remington rebate form to get another 100 rebate. All they can do is say no. I actually talked to a manager to confirm what the gun counter guy said. I was just scared that I would sit in line for hours only to find that the guy in front of me bout the last 308!
Yeah, I’ll be sure to talk to the store manager, and make sure we exchange names, before I lay my money down. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for the tip, Scott. I’m now the proud new owner of a Remington 700 in .243 Winchester. Just gotta go back between midnight-2 p.m. on Friday to get my $100 back. The manager wasn’t happy about it, and made it clear, but he agreed to do the price match.
I tried to go in and buy it for $550 today and while the manager said he would refund me the $100 if I came in on black friday he also said the rebate wouldn’t apply because the receipt would need to be dated for black friday to be valid. 🙁
Guess I will try and pick one up on Friday
That’s curious, about the rebate. The manager I spoke to just told me I could get the form on Friday when I did the price match.
I’ll get a look at the form before they do the paperwork, and if it says something about the date, I’ll simply ask them to ring it as two transactions, a return and a sale, as opposed to a single-receipt exchange.