Opinions : Academy Sport & Outdoors ....

I like Academy. They seem to have better prices on firearms in my area than the other large sporting goods stores. They are not as fancy.

I'm buying my first pistol at academy when I get home from work in a few days... S&W SD40VE for $299

I have 3 Academy stores near me.

We shop there often for my kids sporting equipment.


Also, none of the weapons I tried had trigger locks, and there was only one small sticker on the display case that disallowed dry firing

I'm really not too fond of either of them. I find I can get almost anything they sell elsewhere.
Sometimes I'll get some targets from one or the other, and now and again some MA related items like
gloves or shin guards from Academy, but that's about it.

Both would go out of biz if they depended on customers with my particular tastes.

Don't particularly care for them, unless you don't have any other good alternatives. For ammo, I handload the vast majority of my range ammo, and most of my defensive factory ammo comes from SGAmmo.com. For guns, my LGS's are much better than Academy Sports on selection, allowing dry firing, MUCH more knowledgeable, and easier to deal with. LGS usually has better selection and competitive prices on cleaning supplies. Perhaps I am lucky to have one particularly good LGS, and three others that are pretty good.