Independent profile — not affiliated with Bud's Gun Shop
Bud's Gun Shop
Bud's Gun Shop is an online and brick-and-mortar firearms retailer headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, operating since 2003 under the legal name Budsgunshop.com, LLC. It holds active federal firearms licenses (FFLs) for its Lexington, KY and Sevierville, TN retail locations, and is BBB accredited (A+) since 2008. The company has an active BBB complaint history and a mix of positive and negative independent reviews, and has been named as a defendant in civil litigation, including an ongoing case connected to a 2022 mass shooting, with no final judgment against it identified.
Complaints & Reviews on USAComplaints
USAComplaints currently maintains 29 historical complaints about Bud's Gun Shop, published between 2009 and 2012. No approved complaints have been published on this site during the last three years. For a current reputation snapshot, see the independent sources below.
- Breach of 90day layaway contact
- DON'T DO IT-paid and 16 days later no shipment no good explanation
- Customer service
- Cz 550
- Poor business ethics
- Lack of service
- Delay in refund
- Repair Issues
- Terrible Service
- Once they have your money, you are on your own! 3-in-1 Guarantee is false! 100% Satisfaction not true
- Terrible Customer Service
- Online scam
- Buds service/shipping
- Lack of service
- Customer Service
- Slow shipping
- Poor Customer service
- Guns, poor service, poor policies, beware
- Trade
- Cannot get refund
Complaint Themes
Independent Sources
Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.
Contacts & Payment
- Phone: 859-368-0371 2 complaints mention this number
- Website: https://www.budsgunshop.com/
- Fax: 800-804-5569
- Phone: 859-368-0419
- Phone: 865-774-2007
- Payment URL: https://my.credova.com/identify
- Website: https://www.budsgunshopky.com/
- Website: https://www.budsgunshoptn.com/
- Email: [email protected]
Locations
| Type | Address |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | 1105 Industry Road Lexington KY 40505 |
| Branch office | 2270 Two Rivers Blvd Sevierville TN 37876 |
| Branch office | 820 N Main St Greenville KY 42345 |
Complaint Pattern Summary
Among the 29 historical complaints USAComplaints has on file for Bud's Gun Shop (published 2009–2012), each was assigned a single primary theme reflecting its central issue: 7 — shipping or order-fulfillment delays; 5 — refunds or returns; 4 — customer-service responsiveness; 3 — payment security or unauthorized charges; 3 — receiving a used or incorrect item; 3 — cancellation, order-change, or layaway fees; 1 — a removed or restricted review; 1 — a billing dispute after cancellation. That accounts for 27 of the 29. The remaining 2 fall outside this theme breakdown entirely: one report was later retracted by its own author after the company resolved the issue, and one was actually a positive experience rather than a complaint about a problem.
These are primary-theme counts, not an exhaustive tally of every issue a complaint raised, and they describe the pattern in USAComplaints' own historical 2009–2012 archive — not the company's current service, which independent sources below suggest has since changed. This is a factual count of what each complaint was primarily about, not a judgment on whether any individual complaint's allegations were accurate.
Overview
Bud's Gun Shop has operated since 2003; its current legal entity, Budsgunshop.com, LLC, was formed in Kentucky on May 17, 2007. It is headquartered at 1105 Industry Road in Lexington, Kentucky. It operates three physical retail locations — the Lexington headquarters, a branch with an indoor range in Sevierville, Tennessee, and an affiliated store, Uncle Lee's, in Greenville, Kentucky — alongside its primary online storefront at budsgunshop.com.
The company holds active federal firearms licenses (FFLs) issued by the ATF for both its Kentucky and Tennessee premises. It has been BBB accredited since May 2008 and currently holds an A+ BBB rating.
Is Bud's Gun Shop Legitimate?
Bud's Gun Shop is a real, licensed business: it holds active ATF federal firearms licenses for its Lexington and Sevierville locations, is registered with the Kentucky Secretary of State, and has been BBB-accredited since 2008 with an A+ rating. These are independently verifiable facts, not marketing claims.
Separately, the company has been named as a defendant in civil litigation, including a case connected to the 2022 Highland Park, Illinois mass shooting. These are allegations that have not been resolved by a court and should not be read as established findings against the company. Reported court activity in the Highland Park matter so far includes a denied motion to dismiss, not a judgment on the merits; the current status of other litigation involving the company was not independently confirmed as of the last-checked date below and should be verified directly before being treated as current.
On day-to-day service, independent review platforms show a mixed but generally positive picture (Trustpilot 4.4/5 from approximately 970 reviews; a Lexington-location Google rating of 4.4 from 8,000+ reviews) alongside a real, ongoing volume of BBB complaints (121 in the prior three years) and a documented history of complaints on this site, most concentrated in 2009–2012, largely concerning shipping delays, refunds, and customer service.
What To Do
- Verify any contact claiming to be from Bud's Gun Shop against the phone numbers and email addresses listed above, sourced from the company's own official pages.
- Firearms purchases from an online retailer must legally transfer through a licensed FFL dealer in your state — confirm your receiving dealer's license before completing an order.
- Keep records of all order confirmations, shipping notices, and correspondence, especially for layaway or financing agreements.
- If you have an unresolved dispute, you can file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau or, for suspected deceptive practices, your state Attorney General's consumer protection office.
- File a complaint with USAComplaints if you have a current, unresolved dispute with this company.
Court & Public Records
| Case | Authority | Dates | Type | Outcome | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budsgunshop.com, LLC v. Security Safe Outlet, Inc. and Matthew Denninghoff Docket 5:10-cv-00390-KSF | U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Kentucky | — | Settled | Settled Budsgunshop.com, LLC was the plaintiff (not defendant) in this 2010 trade-secrets and customer-database misappropriation dispute connected to the online business's spin-out from a predecessor retail entity. Per the federal docket, all claims, counterclaims, and third-party claims were resolved by an agreed order on May 9, 2013, dismissing the case with prejudice as settled, with each party bearing its own fees and costs. | Source |
| Caldwell v. Budsgunshop.com, LLC, Bass Pro World, LLC, Standard Manufacturing Co., LLC Docket 0:25-cv-03253 | U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota | Dismissed | Dismissed A product liability lawsuit naming Budsgunshop.com, LLC as one of several defendants was filed August 14, 2025. Per the court docket, Budsgunshop.com, LLC was terminated as a defendant on October 15, 2025 (Bass Pro World, LLC was terminated the same date). The case continues against the remaining defendant, Standard Manufacturing Co., LLC, with a scheduling order entered March 5, 2026. The docket does not state the specific grounds for Budsgunshop.com's dismissal (e.g., settlement, stipulation, or a finding on the merits) — only that it was dismissed as a party. No judgment against Budsgunshop.com, LLC was identified. | Source | |
| Highland Park shooting victims v. Smith & Wesson Brands, Budsgunshop.com LLC, Red Dot Arms, Inc., et al. Docket 22-LA-00000487 | Circuit Court of Lake County, Illinois | Filed | Filed, no ruling yet Consolidated civil suits by victims of the July 2022 Highland Park, Illinois mass shooting name Budsgunshop.com, LLC as one of several defendants, alleging it sold and shipped an AR-pattern rifle that was later used by the shooter, transferred through an Illinois-licensed dealer (Red Dot Arms). These are allegations, not established findings. In April 2025, Lake County Circuit Judge Jorge Ortiz denied motions to dismiss filed by Budsgunshop.com, LLC and Red Dot Arms (and denied Smith & Wesson's in part), allowing the consolidated cases to proceed toward discovery. On January 28, 2026, the Illinois Supreme Court ordered the Second District Appellate Court to hear an interlocutory appeal of that ruling — captioned in part as Roberts v. Budsgunshop.com, LLC, No. 2-25-0275 — after the appellate court had denied leave to appeal in September 2025. As of this update, the appellate court has not yet ruled on the merits of that appeal. No final judgment against Budsgunshop.com, LLC has been identified, and the case's status after January 28, 2026 was not independently confirmed through an open, unauthenticated court-records source. | Source |
Company Relationships
- Affiliated with: Buds TN LLC
- Affiliated with: eGunner.com
- Affiliated with: ShipMyGun.com
- Affiliated with: Uncle Lee's (Greenville, KY)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Bud's Gun Shop a legitimate business?
Yes — it is a licensed firearms dealer with active ATF federal firearms licenses for its Kentucky and Tennessee locations, and it has been BBB-accredited since 2008 with an A+ rating. Separately, it is currently named as a defendant in pending civil litigation; those are unresolved allegations, not established findings. See the "Is Bud's Gun Shop Legitimate?" section above for the full picture.
Does Bud's Gun Shop have a mobile app?
No official Bud's Gun Shop app was found on the Apple App Store or Google Play as of this research. Note that a Google Play app called "Bud's Goods" (package org.springbig.budsGoods) exists but appears to belong to an unrelated cannabis retailer — it is not affiliated with Bud's Gun Shop.
How does Bud's Gun Shop compare to GrabAGun?
Both are online firearms retailers that ship orders through a licensed FFL dealer for legal transfer. At the time of this research, Bud's Gun Shop's Trustpilot rating (4.4/5, 971 reviews) was higher than GrabAGun's (about 3.2/5, 990 reviews). This is a general reputation snapshot, not a detailed price or product comparison.