Green Top Sporting Goods - Virginia

[Alfred Houde]

For those who may be interested, Green Top in Ashland, Virginia currently has three different CSMC RBL's for sale. All are 20 gauge. Two are color-cased and the other coin finished.

I only gave them this cursory look because they are not for me, but I know others like them. Just thought I would pass along.

[Steven Groh]

I have not been there in 30 years!
But it was a great place!

[Dave Noreen]

Bought a few guns there during my nearly 30 years in The Old Dominion. Probably best of them my "Bill Clinton gun." The government always gave us feds Inauguration Day off to ease traffic in D.C. for the festivities. For Bill's second inauguration I rode down to Green Top and scored a fully optioned NID No. 4E Skeet Gun.

133429

[CraigThompson]

I got a Pre 64 Model 70 Varmint in 220 Swift from them back in the 90’s . They only made 902 I think it was Varmints in the Swift all with stainless barrels . Also got a NIB Browning Citori 16 gauge Upland Special from them . A bunch of other stuff as well but those two stick out . When WIN first brought out the WAA16 wad I got a bunch of them from them , from previous threads I think Mr. Noreen and I pretty much bought all they had .

[CraigThompson]

I used to say I lived in the middle of a gunshop triangle ! There was GreenTop in the RVA area , Clark Brothers in Warrenton VA and the now defunct Hassetts Gunshop in Waynesboro VA . The only Westley Richards I’ve ever had was bought at Hassetts , there’s not enough time for me to list all I’ve bought in Clark Brothers over the years .

[CraigThompson]

I have not been there in 30 years!
But it was a great place!

They’re in a different location now ! But maybe less then four miles away .

[Alfred Houde]

The customer service has always been outstanding. It doesn't matter how busy they are or how many people are there, someone will ask you if you need help with anything.

When then Gander Mountain opened a new store literally across the road, many thought it would hurt Green Top. Gander Mountain is no longer around and Green Top expanded and now occupies the old Gander Mountain building.

Bass Pro didn't make a dent in them either.

[Garry L Gordon]

Thanks for the reminder. This Virginia boy spent quality time at Green Top years ago, and there’s still a star grade NID 12 in my safe that works nicely on ducks.

[Bill Murphy]

I have probably missed hundreds of great guns from Green Top and Clark Brothers over the years. However, one Mister Clark had a pristine, never gone hunting, Prussian Lindner Daly, Krupp barrel eight gauge that had been hawked at a five figure price in the store and at shows for some time. One day, on a whim, I packed the truck with some Winchester shotguns that, I thought, would be of interest to one of Mr. Clark's employees. Sure enough, after a brief parking lot transaction, I owned the big eight and two of my surplus Winchesters went to Virginia. I never understood how my average at best, Winchester skeet guns could trade even for the rare and beautiful German duck gun. Apparently, Mr. Clark had a very generous employee discount policy.

[Steven Groh]

They’re in a different location now ! But maybe less then four miles away .

Glad to know it. I will have to stop by to peruse the next time I am back home. I may reside in Colorado, but I was born and raised in Virginia, and it will always be home.

[Jerry Harlow]

Greentop is twenty times bigger than the store that started out as a service station trading guns. The Hopkins boys were from down the road a few miles from my family, and my dad knew them for the whole community got drafted during WWII. One day we went into the old location and he saw them for the first time probably since the war. They started another small gun shop in Mechanicsville with the Hopkins name which is now out of business per the web, but the current Greentop was opened by investors. They rely on buying a lot of collections when old codgers die and their widows don't know what they have and want them out of the house.

[Garry L Gordon]

Interesting, Jerry, about the history of the store. We lived just outside of Mechanicsville, and did business with the gun shop there. I remember it as DeGoff’s. Does that sound right? Pop bought my Mom a nice little 20 gauge Citori there that still sits in my safe, destined for a great nephew or niece someday… hopefully not too soon.

[Jerry Harlow]

Interesting, Jerry, about the history of the store. We lived just outside of Mechanicsville, and did business with the gun shop there. I remember it as DeGoff’s. Does that sound right? Pop bought my Mom a nice little 20 gauge Citori there that still sits in my safe, destined for a great nephew or niece someday… hopefully not too soon.

Greentop was started in a service station on Rt. 1 when it was the old two lane U.S. highway near Ashland. Now Richmond has blown up like all cities to move out to what was wilderness. Not too far from Yellow Tavern where our General Jeb Stuart was mortally wounded.

[Alfred Houde]

DeGoff's was a nice little old style gun shop. They carried traditional muzzleloading supplies as well as hard to find handgun caliber ammunition. I was sorry to see them close.

[CraigThompson]

DeGoff's was a nice little old style gun shop. They carried traditional muzzleloading supplies as well as hard to find handgun caliber ammunition. I was sorry to see them close.

DeGoff’s was packed full of stuff like Clark Brothers was twenty years ago .

[Garry L Gordon]

Things change…but seldom get better.

[Steven Groh]

Greentop was started in a service station on Rt. 1 when it was the old two lane U.S. highway near Ashland. Now Richmond has blown up like all cities to move out to what was wilderness. Not too far from Yellow Tavern where our General Jeb Stuart was mortally wounded.

Be careful. There could be Yankees on this forum.

[CraigThompson]

Be careful. There could be Yankees on this forum.

Ya reckon :whistle::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf:

[Garry L Gordon]

Ya reckon :whistle::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf:

Speaking of which...to show how things have changed: I went to high school at Lee-Davis, home then to the Confederates (School Song -- Dixie). While attending art school at VCU in Richmond, I lived on Monument Ave., and walked by the many statues of Confederate honorees. All now gone. I'm not "stumping" the issues here, or promoting any side, as I know there is still a great deal of pain surrounding all sides of the war among Americans, but things have changed in my home state.

A change I do strongly decry, however, is the one that replaced the wonderful woods and swamps where I hunted squirrels and deer near my home of Williamsburg, is now Busch Gardens...and a heck of a lot more people than when I wandered the hills and bottoms with gun in hand.

[Steven Groh]

Ya reckon :whistle::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf:

Orange, Virginia.
Back in the day, we used to play Woodberry Forest, and I won a state wrestling championship there, when Hector was a pup.
Beautiful country.
I don't get back to Virginia enough.

[Kevin McCormack]

"When I was a boy, ducks darkened the sky."

(George Bragaw, the Sage of South Marsh Island, quoting Jay Tarheel's testimony at a c. 1070s MD DNR hearing on proposed waterfowl seasons and bag limits).

[CraigThompson]

Orange, Virginia.
Back in the day, we used to play Woodberry Forest, and I won a state wrestling championship there, when Hector was a pup.
Beautiful country.
I don't get back to Virginia enough.

I was enrolled in a prep school named Woodberry Forest back in 1975 . Maybe the same one :whistle::rotf: Which school in the prep league did you attend EHS perhaps ?

[Bill Murphy]

I lived in Virginia until I was three years old, so I guess I can't be accused of being a Yankee.

[tom tutwiler]

Greentop is twenty times bigger than the store that started out as a service station trading guns. The Hopkins boys were from down the road a few miles from my family, and my dad knew them for the whole community got drafted during WWII. One day we went into the old location and he saw them for the first time probably since the war. They started another small gun shop in Mechanicsville with the Hopkins name which is now out of business per the web, but the current Greentop was opened by investors. They rely on buying a lot of collections when old codgers die and their widows don't know what they have and want them out of the house.

Friend of mine who has health issues sold almost every gun he had to Green Top a few years ago. He had sent them an inventory of his guns with types and condition. They sent a buyer and a gunsmith to his house and went over his entire list and made him and offer on everything. He had done some internets searches and was fairly confident of the worth of each piece and said while some were a bit low in his mind a few were actually above what he thought they were worth. Bottom line is he sold them everything and they packed them up and wrote him a check on the spot. There are worse ways to get rid of a collection.

[Allen Peterson]

I made an impulse buy in Greentop last week. a nice 16 GA. VH . Tag asked $3450.00 they accepted $ 2800.

[Jerry Harlow]

Please join here as a member. You have missed many bargains as recently as a day ago. Some I would have purchased myself as gifts if I had looked at the site daily or more often.

[Jerry Harlow]

I lived in Virginia until I was three years old, so I guess I can't be accused of being a Yankee.

If none of your family lines was not a Virginian before the War of Northern Aggression, then I hate to break the news to you; Yankee. But not as bad as a scalawag. I am praying you are neither.

[Daryl Corona]

Jerry,
I may not come from the great state of VA but I do live south of the Mason/Dixon line and ever since childhood felt an afinity for the Confederacy. :)

[Alfred Houde]

My recent Green Top impulse purchase. It was listed on their website as a 16-gauge Citori Lightning. I drove down to take a look at it and saw that it was an as new, Gran Lightning.

[Jerry Harlow]

Jerry,
I may not come from the great state of VA but I do live south of the Mason/Dixon line and ever since childhood felt an afinity for the Confederacy. :)

We had New Yorkers that fought for the South in my multiple family trees’ lines and the church I attend has Brigadier General McComb, a Pennsylvanian who had moved to Tennessee before the war. The war mostly depended on where you lived rather than your political views.

This was just a joke before anybody gets their panties in a wad but I was unable to put a smiley face on it from my cell phone. My Gr Gr Gr Grandfather is buried at Pt. Lookout, MD, as pro Southern of a county as any. But all the food, blankets, clothing, and medical supplies brought to them never made it into the prison. Stolen. He died in March ‘65 of “dropsy,” otherwise starved to death.

Off track above, but I’ve never found but one bargain at Greentop. The rest you have to start really low on an offer and they usually refuse.

[Bill Murphy]

I lived for 45 years in a house that sported a view of Virginia from the upper deck. I have lived for 79 years south of the Mason-Dixon line, 76 of those years in the most liberal county in the United States. I'm not at all proud of that.

[Ian Civco]

I lived for 45 years in a house that sported a view of Virginia from the upper deck. I have lived for 79 years south of the Mason-Dixon line, 76 of those years in the most liberal county in the United States. I'm not at all proud of that.

What county is that?

I resided in Virginia nearly 15 years and miss it.

[CraigThompson]

My recent Green Top impulse purchase. It was listed on their website as a 16-gauge Citori Lightning. I drove down to take a look at it and saw that it was an as new, Gran Lightning.

Nice awhile back I had a 28” Lightening 16 from when they first started making them as well as an Upland Special 16 24” .

[CraigThompson]

What county is that?

I resided in Virginia nearly 15 years and miss it.

I do believe if I was to move from the Old Dominion and still live in the USA , South Carolina might just be my first choice

[John Davis]

With the exception of Atlanta, Georgia is about as good as it gets, IMHO. To paraphrase Phil Sheridan, if I owned Atlanta and Hell, I’d rent out Atlanta and live in Hell.

[Bill Murphy]

Ian, it is Montgomery County, Maryland, reputed to be the most liberal county in the US. Ugh!

[Ian Civco]

Ian, it is Montgomery County, Maryland, reputed to be the most liberal county in the US. Ugh!

I worked in that county 1995 to 2004. I’m surprised that it’s that way now, I thought that distinction would go to a New England, New York, or California county.

I always lived in Virginia those years, however.

Liberalism is the downfall of this country but so many fail to realize it.

[Arthur Shaffer]

We had New Yorkers that fought for the South in my multiple family trees’ lines and the church I attend has Brigadier General McComb, a Pennsylvanian who had moved to Tennessee before the war. The war mostly depended on where you lived rather than your political views.

This was just a joke before anybody gets their panties in a wad but I was unable to put a smiley face on it from my cell phone. My Gr Gr Gr Grandfather is buried at Pt. Lookout, MD, as pro Southern of a county as any. But all the food, blankets, clothing, and medical supplies brought to them never made it into the prison. Stolen. He died in March ‘65 of “dropsy,” otherwise starved to death.

Off track above, but I’ve never found but one bargain at Greentop. The rest you have to start really low on an offer and they usually refuse.

Just saw this. "Dropsy" is a term that for a couple of hundred years was used by folk medicine practitioners to denote congestive heart failure. I read a book in high school 60 years ago on common remedies that were used for centuries before modern drug manufacture caught up. It contained a chapter on Foxglove and detailed how the flower was used to treat the disease and the detailed titration that was required to keep from killing the patient. It amazed me at the time as to how really knowledgeable some of those people were. Later when I spent quite a bit of time in genealogy research I read a lot of death certificates and I was amazed at how many deaths were recorded by doctors as due to dropsy. I believe in Appalachia in the period around 1900 that any death in a rural area in which the doctor had no clue, it would be attributed to "the dropsy", the term commonly used by country people.