Our story
Thirty years on Badby Lane
A family gun shop in Staverton, run by people who shoot, mend and sell the same guns they sell you.
How the shop started
Martin started dealing guns out of a converted outbuilding in the early nineties, with a single cabinet of second-hand game guns and a workbench he had built himself. He was already known locally for putting other people's guns right, and word travelled the way it does in a shooting county: first the neighbouring farms, then the syndicates, then the keepers, then everybody's brother-in-law.
The shop grew slowly and deliberately. There was no grand opening and no borrowed money. Stock was bought as it came, out of estates, out of part exchanges, and out of the boots of cars in the yard. By the end of the nineties there were three cabinets and a proper counter; by the middle of the two thousands the workshop had moved into the building behind and Max had started on the bench, learning the same way Martin had — by taking apart things that had gone wrong.
Rachel took over the paperwork when the certificate regime tightened, and has run the register ever since. Jake grew up in the gun room, picked up the stock knowledge by osmosis, and now spends most of his day getting guns out of the cabinet for people who were sure they only came in for cartridges.
The trade has changed round us. Steel shot arrived, lead came under pressure, online listings replaced the classified pages, and plenty of shops our size shut. We are still here because we sell guns face to face and we mend what we sell. Our best week is still a week where three people drive an hour to see us because somebody told them to.
The four of us
- Portrait to follow
Martin
Founder & Registered Firearms Dealer
Thirty years in the trade and still the first one through the door most mornings.
Knows best: second-hand game guns, proof marks and what a gun is really worth.
- Portrait to follow
Rachel
Office & Certificates
Keeps the paperwork, certificates and customer records exactly as they should be.
Knows best: certificates, variations, transfers and the register.
- Portrait to follow
Max
Gunsmith
Handles servicing, repairs and stock work on the bench behind the shop.
Knows best: servicing, ejector work, stock alterations and anything on the bench.
- Portrait to follow
Jake
Sales & Gun Room
Knows the stock inside out and will happily get anything out of the cabinet for you.
Knows best: current stock, chokes, cartridges and matching a gun to a shooter.
How we choose what goes on the rack
Three standards, applied to every gun before it gets a ticket. We turn down more guns than we take.
Standard 1
It has to be safe before it is anything else
Every second-hand gun that comes in is stripped on the bench. Barrels are looked through and measured for wall thickness, the action is checked on the face, ejectors and springs are tested, and proof marks are read properly rather than glanced at. If a gun is off the face, thin walled, out of proof or has been sleeved without being reproofed, it does not go on the rack. It either goes back to the owner with an explanation, goes to Birmingham, or goes for scrap.
Standard 2
It has to be worth the money we are asking
We would rather have forty guns we can stand behind than a hundred we cannot. That means we turn down guns most weeks: tired budget over and unders that will cost more to put right than they are worth, badly re-stocked classics, and anything with a story that does not add up. The price on the ticket is the price we would happily pay ourselves, and we will tell you what we gave for it if you ask.
Standard 3
It has to be something somebody round here will shoot
This is Northamptonshire, not a saleroom. Most of our customers shoot driven and walked-up game, clays through the winter, pigeons over rape and the occasional roe or muntjac. So we buy 12 and 20 bores with 28 to 32 inch barrels, straightforward stalking calibres, and sub-12 ft/lb air rifles that hold a charge. Curiosities are lovely, but they sit in the cabinet for two years and stop us buying stock people actually want.
Inside the gun room
Photography of the shop is being taken this season. Until it lands, these slots are held open rather than filled with pictures of somebody else's gun room.
- Photography to follow — The long cabinet — game guns
- Photography to follow — Sporters and semi-autos
- Photography to follow — The rifle cabinet
- Photography to follow — Air rifles and chronograph
- Photography to follow — The workshop bench
- Photography to follow — The counter and cartridge wall
What customers say about us
Example content — to be replaced with real customer reviews
“Bought a 20 bore from Martin and had it fitted the same week. No pressure, no nonsense, just good advice.”
D. Harrison
“Max serviced a tired old side by side and it now shuts like a bank vault. Fair price too.”
S. Whitlock
“Drove an hour to visit and would do it again. They actually let you handle the guns properly.”
A. Pemberton
Come and see us
The kettle is usually on and nobody will rush you. If you are travelling any distance, ring ahead on 01327 705 497 and we will have the guns you want to see out of the cabinet.