About Gallenson’s
Some gun stores are older than the guns they sell. We’re older than most of the companies that make them.
1916 — The Tailor Who Sold Guns
In 1916, a Russian immigrant tailor named William Gallenson opened a small shop with his uncle, William Paver, at 128 Regent Street in downtown Salt Lake City. It was a tailor shop, technically — but from the very first year, the two also bought, sold, and traded firearms, watches, gold, and silver, and repaired saddles and boots. The guns kept winning. In 1925, the tailoring ended and Gallenson’s formally became what it’s been ever since: a gun store.
A Century Downtown
Salt Lake City grew and rebuilt itself around us, and we moved with it — from Regent Street to a storefront across from the Capitol Theatre, through the 1930s and ’40s downtown, then 42 years at 220 South State Street starting in 1948. When redevelopment came through in 1990, we landed where you’ll find us today: 166 East 200 South, still downtown, where we’ve been for 35 years.
Four Generations Behind the Counter
William’s son Nate ran the shop for decades, with his brothers Leo and Marvin working alongside him. In 1991, Nate sold the store to two men who’d grown up in it: his son Steve Gallenson, who’d been stocking shelves since grade school, and Dave Boulton, who Marvin recruited off the firing line at the Salt Lake Gun Club in 1976. Nate kept coming to work anyway. Today the shop is run by the next generation of that same crew — the Boulton family — same counter, same philosophy: as the equipment and technology changed over the last century, we changed with it. A competitive price only gets you so far; mixed with personalized service, that’s the winning combination.
The Biggest Little Gun Store in America
That’s what The Firearm Blog called us in 2020, and we’ll take it. Behind our doors is one of the deepest inventories of any privately owned gun shop in the country — thousands of rifles, pistols, and shotguns, wall-to-wall ammunition and reloading supplies, optics, suppressors, and NFA items, plus a Silencer Shop kiosk for the fastest Form 4 in town. If an obscure cartridge exists, there’s a decent chance we stock both the ammo and the dies for it.
A Working Museum
A century of buying and trading means some remarkable iron has passed through — and some of it stayed. Ask to see the collection: beautifully preserved 1911s, an 1873 Springfield Trapdoor carbine in .45-70 identical to those carried at Little Bighorn, and a Winchester Model 64 once used by Salt Lake County for execution by firing squad. History you can hold.
Come See Us
Find us at 166 E 200 S — the shop with the murals — Monday through Saturday, 9am to 6pm. Questions? Text or call 801-769-6969, or check our FAQ and Transfers Information. 110 years in, we’re just getting started.