Bain & Davis Gun Shop

Great group of men and women behind the counter. Everyone is educated and they won’t Dick you around. Straight to the point, if they got it and it’s not sold, its yours. If they don’t have, they’ll order it call you when it comes in and it’s and it’s yours. I really value this small shop customer service. Thank you guys! Dave Doorman and the rest of the crew.

Never visited old store (but will) … I had gunsmithing (sights installed, parts replaced) and cleaning done in the past; sometimes you end up with dings such as a ding on my HK when tritium sights were installed so maybe they didn’t have proper HK sight remover tool but was not charged for this and Peter automatically didn’t charge w/​o me saying anything when I noticed the ding upon inspection or scratches on revolver cylinder (I guess they used some clamp to hold the gun in place). But Peter also goes the extra mile such as bought a sling for shotgun and he installed it on the spot free of charge. So I got some good customer service from these guys, esp. David, he’s calm, good mannered, and patient.
Prices for cleaning, gunsmithing, guns and DROS not the cheapest, the prices are just ok, but they gotta pay their rent and make a decent living.

Feel a bit mixed about giving them only 3 stars since this was the first gun shop I ever visited, where I got my FSC and where I bought my first gun. However they get –2 stars because their customer service is at best a crapshoot and at worse horribly inefficient. Case in point, taking the written test for my FSC and going through the DROS process, then picking up my gun was relatively smooth. However, I had to wait for almost a month to get my gun back after I took it to them for repairs that didn’t require replacement of any parts. Never received an update and had to call. myself, even though they themselves said they would call for updates.
Also, several times I found myself just standing in their store awkwardly waiting for help. This happens when it’s busy or when it’s essentially empty.

(minus 10 stars)
18 months for 3 pistols to be repaired. They only repaired one successfully. They lost my guns in a pile of repairs and after 16 months: 1 certified letter and multiple unreturned phone messages, they promised to email me the bench test results on the one repaired gun. That was a lie, they never did. I had to drive one hour up the fwy to retrieve my guns (which I sent them a return paid UPS label btw) and my email was attached to the box! This store repair area is an absolute mess and is a total joke. I would rather go an be treated badly at Martin B. Retting than go here EVER AGAIN. BEWARE !!!

Great new location! Honestly, the ONLY gun smithing shop I’d ever trust. I’ve been a weapons aficionado for 30+ years, I drive a long way to drop my arms off and get worked on because I know they have the means and knowledge to get it done right the first time. Not the cheapest, but getting quality and sometimes custom work done will always cost money so why trust yourself or have someone that has no idea what to do and risk damaging your investment or even worse risk your well being.
Congrats on the new spot ! Please tell Dave I said hello
Marlon Coto

Their gunsmith is a joke. I had them mount a scope for me on good quality Leupold steel rings and after a few shots the scope started slipping. They failed to lap the rings. I ended up buying a lapping kit and did it myself the proper way.

I was very empress that a local gun shop had in stock ammo I needed. The DOJ and ATF gives me clearance to just have the gun shipped to me. So was a little disappointed when they cancel my order and offer me a refund. I contacted my resources and the issue was resolved. I really enjoyed the customer service and there knowledge of guns.

Went in there looking for some cleaning stuff, and browse around a little at the guns on display. There was no one in the shop except for the two guys behind the counter. Not one said «hello» or «may I help you». Went to Turner’s instead. My son went in there a month later and got the same treatment. I recommend Turner’s, Ammo Bros, better prices and much better service.

Great place with friendly and knowledgeable staff. I bought my first pistol there and I always find myself going back to see what they have in stock.
The in stock selection may not be the greatest, but they can order whatever they don’t have. I would always refer friends who are looking to get firearms to this store.

DANGEROUS
I went in with a friend who wanted to go there. In front of me was a man and his young daughter. He told the gunsmith that he was firing his Glock 19 when the «shell burst» and now it was stuck. The gunsmith pulled the weapon from a case. It had a magazine properly seated and it was in battery, meaning that from outward appearance you cannot know if this weapon is loaded or not. Sooo, the gunsmith tries to pull the slide back but is unable to do so. In the process, he first puts his hand in front of the muzzle then struggles with trying to pull back the slide, all the while pointing the weapon at myself, my buddy, the man and his child. When my friend and I move out of the way (quickly) he sees us and half heartedly points it away from us towards some other customers. After taking the weapon in the back, the gunsmith comes out with the live round and the pistol. Turns out the whole time he was waiving the weapon around with a live round in the chamber. Everyone who has done real training with this weapon system knows what happened, a combination of heat, cheap ammo, and dirt caused the weapon to lock up. No biggie, you just use as much force as you can to pop that slide back and eject the round. I’ve done it several times for my friends when their Glocks locked up, the weapon will be fine. It took the gunsmith 90 seconds to do this. He charged this poor guy $ 35.
Better men than I came up with 4 universal rules for gun safety. Rule 1 is to treat all guns as if they are loaded, NO EXCEPTIONS! Rule 2 is: never allow a weapon to point towards something you’re not willing to destroy; that means hands, customers, or that little girl who came in with her dad. There is no «gun store exception» to these rules. I’ve had the honor to train with some of the best firearms instructors in the world. If they abide by these rules and the guy at the corner store thinks the rules don’t apply to him, what does that tell you? Gun stores have negligent discharges with weapons that people swear are «unloaded,» until they go off and realize they were wrong, especially when dealing with a weapon someone has brought in off the street. Do NOT go to this store. These morons are going to get someone hurt. Plus they ripped that guy off…

My dad and I were driving around one day and stumbled upon this store. Immediately we were greeted, the employees were professional and very, very helpful. They took the time to answer and listen to every question I had and answered in a non-​BS type of way. We’ve talked to just about everyone in there and they’re all helpful and courteous. I’ve experienced other guns stores and have been met with very poor reception and help. They have very fair pricing compared to other places *cough Turners cough*. Their selection may be limited by you see on the walls but if you ask, they can probably get it. Definitely worth checking out. I will continue to go there and support their business.

I was looking to purchase my first firearm and I had a LOT of questions. After about and hour and a half of questions to the salespeople about many different types and models of different firearms I felt both very informed and comfortable with my purchase. Everyone was knowledgeable and patient with my beginner’s questions. They gave me the firearm safety test and handled all of the paperwork to make my purchase.
I will definitely make my next purchase here again.

Very professional staff. The selection is not the greatest but the gunsmithing and customer service is great.

The men in it are really nice and friendly-​although I could not buy it yet，they introduced a lot warmly. I really enjoy toughing those new and complex «artwork”！also you can take pictures freely

I am a security officer and I require a firearm for duty. I don’t like shopping around I was told to go there.
Very poor choice when I walked in there. i saw a gentleman behind the counter which was showing a firearm to a customer .I was looking around in the showcases tried to find the group of firearms that I’m mostly interested in. to my surprise not much of a selection also a man from the back peeped out and I saw that he saw me .a man walked in with a dog .the man that was helping the customer already when I walked in acknowledged the dog and said what a cute dog I still was not acknowledged. after waiting about 8 minutes no one had even said hello to me .yet then I felt it was time to leave because of poor. very poor! customer service and very unfriendly attitude from the workers. here as I left before I hit the door a man from behind the counter yells out which I thought was very tacky And asked me if anyone had helped me yet? I answerd to him it’s too late would I recommend this place hell no I’m going elsewhere. This place sucks dont recamend them at all. they act like they are doing a customer a favor.

Relaxed atmosphere with knowledgeable staff on hand. Was afforded the opportunity to mull over several handguns before deciding upon a Sig .40S&W Many common rifles and handguns available.
Handgun safety certificate available anytime for $ 25.

I went here with a couple of my buddies and had high hopes after reading all the glowing reviews here on Unilocal.I have to say I was greatly disappointed. The employees seemed nice enough, the woman behind the counter held a part for us and we came in and picked it up.
The problem is with the older balding Caucasian man. I simply asked him if he could work on my 1911 range officer trigger, since I knew they did gunsmithing. Instead of answering me he lectured me in a, know it all patronizing way, about how SSE is illegal (even though it’s not) all it takes is a quick Google search to see that SSE is still legal in California til January 1^st, 2015. What really bothered me was his derogatory remarks to me and my friends about how «you people» are modifying guns and that we are the reason California is banning single shot exemption.
What did he mean by you people? Me and my friends are younger Asian males like most of the demographic in the area. I left there feeling offended, and honestly I felt like I was harassed. If you are not an old white guy, then don’t go here. That one guy is not only a racist jerk but he doesn’t know anything about gun laws. If you want a chill, knowledgeable staff go anywhere else like gun effects in hacienda or even Turners. Even though Bain and Davis is right down the street from me and I really wanted to like the store, I couldn’t take the harassment. I was about to purchase a case of 223 ammo but left since it was so bad.

Been to this shop 3 times in my life. First time I was in the neighborhood and I have a really hard time driving by a gun shop without stopping. Wasn’t impressed, but I’d rather support small gun stores.
Second time was to do a PPT which went smoothly except for the employee just had that cocky arrogant gun know it attitude. Most gun owners will know what I’m talking about. But I’m used to that.
Third and last trip stopped by to try and find some 10 mm ammo or brass. Stood there for about 10 mins listening to some guys talking about a porche that was totaled while the other sat there on the phone talking about a kimber Montana. Not a word was spoken to me except by a pretty young lady that said hello on her way to tell the porche salesmen someone was on the phone for him. Maybe if I would have called the store while i was standing there someone would have helped me since he answered the phone pretty quickly. Live and learn. I’ll never step foot in this place again.

Great small mom and pop gunshop.
I am a first time gun buyer and did everything here.
I took and got my Handgun Safety Certificate here for $ 25.
They price matched Turner’s pricing for my handgun, Beretta 92FS. DROS fee was $ 25.
They take credit card.
Only issue I had was waiting for my gun to arrive after I ordered it. They told me shipping takes abiyt 10 days. I would call for updates but they did not have any shipping information. You would think when getting a gun shipped to your store, you would get some tracking information.
Other then that, the staff was really nice and knowledgeable. They made this intimidating process quite pleasant.

Rating Bain & Davis in the context of their gunsmithing/​repair services, I would score the shop at ⁵⁄₅ stars. I have not had any cause for complaint with any of the work they’ve done for myself or my associates over the years. The work gets done properly, quickly, and at reasonable cost. On more than one occasion, they helped me fix minor issues (e.g. loosen a lodged locking block on a P225), and actually *declined* to charge me for it. I can’t help but appreciate little things like that.
As a gun shop, they have a fairly decent selection of firearms to choose from, considering the claustrophobic conditions of the store. Prices seem to largely be fair, and they used to charge a *very* competitive fee for incoming FFL transfers (I haven’t utilized that particular service at B&D since BoF initiated the CFLC program, so I honestly don’t know what their current fee is).
In addition to their regular new/​modern selection of firearms, they also often have really neat older and/​or rare firearms that you just don’t seem to ever see at most other shops. Noteworthy pieces I’ve seen show up for sale here include the «Red 9» Broomhandle Mauser, HK P9S Target 9 mm, No.5 Mk. 1 Jungle Carbine, SVT-​40, etc. Really, really cool stuff.
Unlike many other gun shops I’ve been to, the staff here appears to be mostly comprised of older guys (I’m talking middle-​aged to «eligible for Social Security» old). Sometimes you get service with a smile, other times you don’t. On the other hand, they generally seem to have a better-​than-​average understanding of more advanced technical aspects of firearms, compared to clerks at other gun shops.
The main obstacle that makes it completely impossible for me to give Bain & Davis ⁵⁄₅ stars as an overall rating is their policy on private party transfers: in the words of one of the clerks (or maybe it was the owner): «paying customers get served first».
The last time I came here with someone for a PPT, there were maybe 2 people in line in front of us. They were quickly helped and on their way out within minutes. When it was *our* turn to get served, we were immediately told that all the people that came in behind us would get served first, and that we would only be helped with our PPT apparently once everyone else was apparently done.
Well guess what? Other people kept coming into the store, and these people kept getting helped before us. Looking back, I’m wondering why the hell we didn’t just immediately leave and go somewhere else for the PPT (which was clearly the intent behind B&D’s PPT policy — to deter people from coming here for PPTs in the first place).
Dude, I timed that shit … from the time we walked into the shop, to the time we exited out … 2 hours. Two, freaking, hours. *Not* because there was a long line in front of us (which legitimately explains the wait at Turner’s Pasadena), but because for all intents and purposes, we kept getting sent to the BACK of the line. Peter, what on earth did we possibly do to deserve that from you guys!!!
I think the reason we stayed that long (like a pair of chumps) was because we kept telling ourselves «eh, they should be done soon, and then they’ll finally attend to us». Nope … people kept coming in and getting served before us.
It was almost like seeing your the price of some stock you hold steadily plummet, but you repeatedly assure yourself «it can’t keep dropping forever, it’s gotta rally back up eventually, right?», all the way until it drops to pennies per share.
I think the staff finally took a hint from our increasingly incensed aura of irritation, and allocated a clerk to help us start the PPT. He gave me the expected flowery speech about how they «lose money» on PPTs. Dude, I know the state caps the chargeable dealer-​end PPT fee at only $ 10, but if you have your shit together as a gun shop, you should be able to knock out PPTs in 5 to 10 minutes (Alamo is able to do it in that short span of time, why can’t you?).
I was EXTREMELY disappointed about the whole thing, but after some time had passed, I cooled off quite a bit, and now I can view the experience from a more clinical, and less emotional perspective. I completely «understand» that the PPT policy at Bain & Davis is not malicious in its intent, but it is still very alienating in nature — and as a result, ultimately counterproductive in the arena of generating profit …
… which leads me to the bitterly ironic part of the story … while waiting in line for the PPT that day, I saw a very nice SVT-​40 on the rack that I had both the financial ability and pressing desire to buy. However, after the staff decided to make an example out of me for having the audacity to attempt a PPT at their beloved place of business, I decided that the money in my wallet would be better off being spent at another gun shop, one that wouldn’t engage in such shenanigans with their customers.