Yep. I remember her. And now I remember that SW Shooters was in a tan brick building with a small parking lot on the south side of the street too. I’m pretty sure that blond lady owned the joint. I don’t know if there was a husband involved or not. I bought a well-used Makarov pistol from her there back around the mid-nineties, before the SDA Law went into effect. It was a real POS. Barely functioned, but I liked tinkering with it. I tinkered the damn thing to death eventually. As best I recall, it found it’s final resting place in Lake Hefner, spread out over several hundred feet. Bought my first brand new PPK (see pic below of long retired but still owned PPK with genuine Lou Alessi Pancake) about that same time frame at Fred Baker’s old place for my first CCW piece too.
Back then, the PPK or the Sig P230 was considered to be the absolute best of the bunch of .380 pistols, along with the mythical Seecamp, (but I think it was actually in.32ACP at that time) which I was first able to actually see, fondle, and lust over over at Masburn Arms. I wanted that Seecamp too, oh yeah, I wanted that thing bad! But the damn thing was way outta my price range at somewhere over a grand. I thought real hard about buying it, and that such a purchase would barely leave me enough money for either food or booze. I figured I could always go to the soup kitchen for food...
But while I was trying to rationalize my purchase of the Seecamp, some old guy with a fat wallet came in and bought it! I sure am glad he did, in retrospect. I would hate having to live on handouts and soup.
I liked going to those old joints; man, Bakers place, the Outdoor America Store, had it all. That was the go-to LGS then. At the time, H&H was about 1/10th the size it is now and they didn’t have diddly-squat for guns to sell. But they did have a decent gunsmith then. I took a Ruger MK I in pieces in a brown paper bag in there and discreetly dropped it off...for a friend of course, you know, I was just too busy (busy not looking for a job) and all to put it back together and my ... uh...my friend had given me the money for the gunsmith to put it back in one piece.
There was also a big Sporting Goods Store up on N. May at about Britton that had a decent gun section... it was in the same strip as El Chico’s and that fancy Woodcrafters Store is now. I think that place is now a Homeland Grocery Store...
And since this thread is about Tyler T-Grips, Melvin Tyler’s Shop was over east of that on the south side of Britton Road. I bought a couple T-Grips, and several sets of fancy grips for that PPK from the man himself. He always wore a big heavy canvas shop apron. He had one set of grips that he made out of something called Ivorex that sure did yellow nicely with time. It, Ivorex, is mentioned in a post above. Good stuff it was too. I got a set of grips from him that looked like gray pearl for the PPK too. He told me they would probably break if I shot the pistol with them mounted. They did.
But back to the blond lady at SW Shooters, her son used to, and might still, work over at H&H. I think his name was Dan. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that was it. Dan. Nice fella. He had a genuine interest in customer service, and he was quite knowledgeable about a things that go bang. Mom probably taught him all about guns. She was pretty cool, as was old Fred, and Mr. Melvin Tyler, who was both well-known and respected nationwide for his T-Grip innovation which eventually led to the birth of Craig Spegal’s design, the excellent Boot Grip for round butt J-Frames.
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The big store was Jumbo Sporting Goods. Bought my first ‘real’ deer rifle there. Didn’t have a pot to pee in so I put it on lay a way. My son still hunts with that gun.
Melvin’s shop was tiny. There were things laying everywhere. I remember when your j frame wasn’t complete without a t-grip
Melvin’s shop was tiny. There were things laying everywhere. I remember when your j frame wasn’t complete without a t-grip
Yep. At Melvin’s, you could root through stuff, he had those PPK grips in a cardboard box. And you’re right. If you didn’t have a T-Grip back then, you were not cool. I wonder if that El Chico is still up there?
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I first went into Southwest Shooters around 1988 or so. I had a friend (really!) that lived just up the road on Park Place.
As I recall, SWS didn't have time to spend with the long-haired rip-snorting Harley scum I was back then.
Not that I really had much money to spend. I'd buy my pound of whatever powder, a few hundred primers and bullets, drool on the used rack, and go about my way.
As I recall, SWS didn't have time to spend with the long-haired rip-snorting Harley scum I was back then.
Not that I really had much money to spend. I'd buy my pound of whatever powder, a few hundred primers and bullets, drool on the used rack, and go about my way.
As long as you got the coffee brewing....we will need it. I have a few stories about that crook myself.
I use to really enjoy Southwest Shooters, still have my 94 Winchester Wrangler that I got for my HS graduation, believe it was $275 new! The old time gun shops were you could did through boxes for parts and what ever are about gone the only one I can think of is R&S gun service in downtown Moore it still has the old ''feel'' to it! I've wanted a real Art Mashburn rifle for years but there really expensive now if you can find one, the last one I seen for sale was at Bakers when there were selling out and I think it was around 5 grand.
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