Business, Wimborne | Posted on June 4th, 2026 | return to news

Wimborne gun shop to close after 49 years

John March Firearms Ltd in West Street, Wimborne Minster, is to close after 49 years of business.

By Marilyn Barber

Having been in business for 49 years, and during that time only having had one week’s holiday, at the age of 84 John March certainly deserves to retire.

Initially working five-and-a-half days a week, for many years he has been doing a six-day week.

However, now John March Firearms Ltd in West Street, Wimborne Minster, is closing down.

I must confess that it is one of the few shops in the town centre that I had never visited, but on the day I popped in, it soon became clear from the customers who were looking for a bargain that he is very well thought of in the shooting community.

And they love his two dogs too, who add to the ambience. At one time, John and his wife Dianne — a former mayor of Wimborne Minster — had 10.

John told me that his father had firearms and that at the age of seven he was allowed to use an air pistol.

“We lived in Cobham in Surrey, and my father used his .22 rifle for shooting rats,” said John, who added that the village was surrounded by open countryside and woodland.

Whilst at school in Lyme Regis, he joined the cadets.

“We used rifles, machine guns and submachine guns,” he said.

When he left school, he went to work for London County Council as a trainee surveyor.

In 1976, he and his family moved to Witchampton, although he commuted to London for work.
A new career beckoned.

He had always shot at Bisley Shooting Ground, and he got talking to a man who had opened a gun shop.

“I learned all I needed to know from him and I was determined to find a shop. Fortunately, the man whose company at that time owned the Tivoli Theatre was a friend, and he rented an adjacent shop to me. It opened in May 1977,” said John.

The shop later moved to its present site.

In addition to firearms, ammunition and gun sport accessories, the shop also sold clothing and walking sticks.

I say sold, because by the time this article appears the shop may have closed, such has been the demand for goods as his customers come from far and wide, including the continent. What isn’t sold will go to auction.

John admitted that there are now fewer gun shops in the country.

“Parents don’t want to encourage children to have firearms,” he said.

John still shoots at Ferndown Gun Club, where he has been a member for 45 years.

And what does he plan to do in his retirement?

“I haven’t decided, but I’m not a lover of going on holiday,” John said.