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.