New gun shop opens in Weiser

Weiser now has its own dedicated gun shop.
 Scott and Tammy Wyke have their new shop stocked and are now open for business. Their new store, Hammer Down Arsenal is located at 438 State St.
 The shop has a firearm to suit just about any interest, as well as antique guns, including several makes from a variety of manufacturers and countries.
 Hammer Down has everything from hunting rifles to pistols, sporting rifles to unique firearms and muzzleloaders, as well as a full stock of accessories, including magazines, cartridges, clips and holsters. The shop also has parts for AR’s and other guns.
 “I have more than any other shop I’ve been in,” Scott said. “I have a little bit of everything. We still aren’t built out; we’re working on shelving and waiting for stuff to come in.”
 He also has plenty of ammunition, which has become hard to find over the last several years.
 “I have lots, although it probably won’t last around here, from what I hear,” said Scott, who added that at some point he plans to also provide repair services.
 Scott, 63, owned an auto repair and transmission shop, complete with a separate “Hotrod” shop where he restored classic cars, in Bend, Ore. for 32 years.
(If you see a two-tone orange and black modified 1966 Chevelle wagon rumbling around town, that’s Scott.)
 Within the Hotrod shop was a “tiny” gun shop he established to stay connected to one of his favorite hobbies.
 “It was a place I liked to go when I felt I needed to get away,” Scott said.
 Meanwhile, thoughts of moving to Idaho kept percolating in his head, one day triggering a road trip that led he and Tammy to visit small communities in Idaho.
 “It was kind of a dart throw,” he explained. “We just went right down the freeway; I wanted to be on the other side, so we checked out a few towns and we liked Weiser.”
 They ultimately purchased the property on State St., which was once a U.S. Federal Reserve Bank that housed a money-printing operation in the basement, according to Scott.
 Back in Bend, Scott was offered a deal he couldn’t refuse.
 “I happened to walk into the biggest [gun] shop in town and the guy said he wanted me to take over,” he explained. “The deal was way too good to pass up, so I took it and then the pandemic hit, and I had already bought this property, and the house I live in here in Weiser and a rental here in Payette, so I had to rent those places out because I couldn’t pass up this deal.”
 Scott planned on running both shops in Weiser and Bend, traveling between the two stores, but received an offer to buy the gun shop in Bend, which is currently pending.
 Scott, a long-time gun enthusiast, had a lot vested in Oregon, but began increasingly feeling the urge to leave.
 “When I moved to Bend, it was a tiny town, about 14,000 people, but now there’s like 120,000,” Scott said. “They are building and expanding everywhere. It was time to get out. I was there 33 years – that’s long enough.”