Jaquas Fine Guns in Findlay Ohio

[wildcatfan.62]

Paid a visit to Jaqua's today. They had a used browning over/under I was looking for since my 19 year old son has appropriated my other browning white lighting for his own. Normally I'd be mad at such a transgression by my son but I've picked up a new sporting clays buddy. If you get a chance I'd highly recommend stopping at jaqua's. While I was there I got to ogle and fondle some really high $ shotguns. On the used one I bought they were very fair on the price.

Here's a to their website if you've not heard of them.
Jaqua's Fine Guns

 

[Leo]

That has been a great place for trap and skeet guns for years. Always heard good things about them. For those who don't know it is pronounced "JAKE-WAYS" .

 

[kaveman]

One of my favorite shops to visit. I used to be a regular back when I worked out of Toledo,.....I'd drive down at least once a month. Now it's been six years since I've made the trip and hate to think of all the deals I've missed. Probably purchased nearly a hundred guns from them over the years. Yes, they're primarily a high end shotgun store, but they take in all sorts of good quality firearms on trade. I've probably only bought a couple of shotguns there but since handguns and rifles aren't their normal stock they tend to sell that stuff pretty cheap. I've bought guns there I've never even seen anywhere else and I have never been anywhere else that you might find an $80,000 shotgun sitting out on a rack where you can reach up and handle it without getting thrown out of the store. That's Jaqua's.

 

[Bigtanker]

https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/long-guns/404674-$80-000-purdy-double-rifle.html

I stop there every time I'm in Findlay.

 

[CCC]

Findlay is an easy drive from Fort Wayne. About 1.5 or 2 hours. Beside Jaquas, Buffalo Trading Company is only a mile or two to the east (a bit nicer gun shop). TNT is on the south side of town just off I75. And if you are in Ottawa Ohio be sure to stop at Cherry's (on US 224). Might as well go into Ottawa Ordinance while passing through.

 

[Twangbanger]

I have good memories of Jaqua's, both shooting there, and shopping in the nice air-conditioned gun vault room (and it is a vault!) between 100s. They had the ATA Central Zone shoot various times, and even their "regular" shoots were well-attended in the day. You needed a 200 to win a monthly shoot, with some of the big names that were there from Ohio & southern Michigan. I bought my first trap gun there; 20 years old, wrote them a check, and Neal Kathrens didn't blink an eye, just treated me just like I was any other customer. I love places like this; they're always pleasant & reasonable because they move a ton of material through there, and places like that always know their stuff. I used to have their paper gun-list mailed to me in the pre-internet days (all 5 or 6 pages of it, legal-sized and both sides, single-spaced), and I cannot believe the STUFF I have seen pass through there over the years! Unbelieveable. I read every line of that list, because you never knew what would pop up. If you could think of some kind of high-grade shotgun, Jaqua's usually had 2 or 3 of them, and / or they could put you on the call-list and they'd call you when they got one in (which usually wasn't long, since they did a lot of estate buys). In the decades before the AR-15 craze, gun guys spent their money on something, and if you read that gun-list over the years, you saw what it was. Old shooters would pass away and the widows would sell the collection to Jaqua's...high grade engraved shotguns, custom rifles, multiple-gun sets, European stuff, London stuff, and all kinds of stuff you never heard of. It was also neat because they were one of (if not "the") largest long gun dealers in the country, and they would get "buys" on things when a manufacturer was closing something out. Winchester Diamond Grade shotguns, Remington 90Ts, Browning anything...when the distributors wanted to move something, Jaqua's was where they sent it (or Jaqua's and Guns Unlimited out west). I agonized over buying a 90T the first summer they brought them out, with the promotion of two cases of shells free to each buyer. I held off. A few years later, Jaqua's got tapped to fire-sale the remaining inventory when Remington discontinued the guns. They kept getting marked down, and eventually, what was originally a $2395 gun ended up selling the last several dozen for $1795. I was pleased with my judgement. That is a steal; that same gun still sells for the same money today, with decades of heavy use by several owners. It got to be sort of a "sport," seeing how bad Browning would screw buyers of a new shotgun model for a few years, before eventually dropping it for something new & doing a fire-sale on the remaining stock at a several hundred dollar discount.

And as Indiana Gun Club would no doubt attest...running a gun shop on the grounds of a shoot is a real good racket. Many shooters showed up for a shoot with one gun...and left with a different one.

Good memories!