Tom and I  managed a sneak peek of the new store at the Cabelas media day today.

Located out by the IKEA in South West Winnipeg there’s 70,000 square feet of outdoors gear, amazing wildlife displays and the classic Cabelas fudge shop.  I was excited to see such a huge selection of camping and fishing gear along with footwear and apparel.  Ultimately my main interest is firearms and I spent most of the tour in that section.

They didn’t have all their stock in place yet as Cabelas takes great pains to ensure that their firearms inventory is tracked and accounted for.  On first glance there seems to be at least double the amount of counter space for the ‘gun desk’ including a fantastic local ‘Gun Library’.

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, the Gun Library features examples of collectible firearms along with some of the ‘big ticket’ guns.  I spotted a nice old Cooey, side by side with a few ancient octagon barrel lever guns, a Colt revolver and some Sig custom shop pistols.  It’s a beautiful presentation and in my opinion a must see on any trip to the store.

Ammo was in abundance including bulk pistol, rifle and shotgun ammo.  Most is self serve although there will be a staff person on the floor to assist with ammo purchases.  I was a little disappointed by the reloading section as I was hoping to see a good stock of bulk projectiles as in the US locations.  To be fair they did triple the display for premium rifle and pistol bullets, but as a high volume shooter I was hoping for bulk packs of Berrys or other pistol bullets which are always hard in demand.  It’s possible I missed that stuff as the overall size of the store was a little overwhelming!

If you’re not a fan of the big box experience you might want to take advantage of their ISP (in store pick up) plan.  Orders will be waiting at a desk in the store for quick and efficient service.

The new store opens at 11am on May 9th.  Thanks to the staff at Cabelas for the sneak peek!