FAIRBURY — When a tour bus emblazoned with Hank Williams Jr. hit town in 1979, it turned some heads for sure.

Bocephus? In Fairbury?

Hank was way too big of a name to play at the fairgrounds. He wasn’t stopping for fuel or food, nor was his driver asking for directions.

The brash country singer found what he came for near the corner of U.S. 136 and E Street — Bedlan’s Sporting Goods.

Williams, a gun collector, had bought several firearms from Bedlan’s over the phone. Now he wanted to meet the store owner, Felix Bedlan.

After he chatted for a while and posed for a photo, Williams bought a Winchester Model 12 shotgun and climbed back onto the bus.

“It was a little bit different,” Bedlan says with trademark understatement as he recalls the celebrity encounter, “but I appreciated that he stopped to see us.”

For most folks in Fairbury, Bedlan’s is simply the local gun shop. Motorists rolling past the north edge of the community of 2,400  may think it’s a throwback, the kind of sporting goods store small towns used to have but no longer do.

But for many of its 58 years in business, Bedlan’s has been highly regarded among serious Winchester and Colt collectors across the country. While most of them never made a dime shilling for Monday Night Football, they share one thing in common with Hank — they know about Bedlan’s Sporting Goods Inc.

And in an era when Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops and Scheels All Sports run outdoor superstores  where guns are just one product line, Bedlan’s has stayed in business by selling firearms and hunting equipment in a 3,600-square-foot store. But with Felix Bedlan behind the counter, customers know they can tap a reservoir of American firearm knowledge matched by few others anywhere.

“I would call him the dean of Winchester collectors,” said B.C. Kinsey, who formerly owned a firearm store in Lincoln and has managed the gun library at the Cabela’s in Kansas City for six years.

 “Felix has probably touched more really fine Winchester firearms than anyone in the world.”

The store’s 80-year-old patriarch would never assess himself in such terms. When asked to describe what talent he brings to the job, he simply said: “Just being around for such a long time.”

A long time ago, Felix Bedlan owned just one gun, a Stevens single-shot .22-caliber rifle. Like most kids growing up in Depression-era Nebraska, he used it to hunt cottontails and jackrabbits on his family’s farm near Milligan.

After graduating from high school in 1947, he briefly worked at a gas station in Milligan. The same year, he made one of the smartest business decisions of his life — he married Jean Meyer of nearby Ohiowa.

In 1948, the couple moved to Fairbury where Bedlan bought a Mobil dealership. He spent the next two years filling tanks, washing windshields and fixing flats.

In 1950, Bedlan traded a tire for a customer’s used rifle. Sometime later, he bought a gun from another customer hard up for cash. He put both in the service station window, where they practically sold themselves.

And that’s how he got into the firearm business.

“We sold gas at five gallons for a dollar, if you can believe it,” he said. “You might say that’s when a dollar was a dollar.”

Meanwhile, a new Winchester Model 12 sold for about $100, which is the equivalent of  $760 today. So it’s not hard to see how guns could do better than gas.

Over the next decade, he and Jean filled their service station with firearms and outdoor gear. In 1960, they bought a former drive-in restaurant across the street for more space.

But even before the move, Bedlan was establishing his name in the collector’s market.

Early on, he also gravitated to Winchester and Colt, two brands that hold an almost mythic status as guns that settled the West. Through reading, attending collector gun shows and using the guns to hunt pheasants, quail and deer, he gradually increased his expertise.

Over the years, the couple attended dozens of collector shows from Las Vegas to New York, developing a network of customers and making friends with other dealers around the country. Gradually, Jean said, her husband was no longer picking the brains of others, but was the one being picked.

Word-of-mouth, as well as advertising in gun magazines and collector journals, helped get new customers. The Bedlans also maintained a regular mailing list.

Although they haven’t kept a map with thumb tacks marking sales, they’re confident they’ve sold guns in all 50 states. Some of their guns have appeared in photographs in books documenting the history of firearms.

They’ve kept customers with prompt service and accurate descriptions of their inventory. When doing business over the phone, nothing kills a customer’s trust like a gun that fails to live up to its billing.

“You can’t stay in this business for 60 years without a stellar reputation,” Kinsey said. “Felix’s reputation has always been top-notch and absolutely beyond question.”

 And while the Bedlans might have made more money by moving to a larger city, Fairbury was where they wanted to raise their three sons, Larry, Dan and Bruce.

In 1971, after Dan graduated from college, he joined the store.

“They’re a very highly regarded, a family-owned business that supports Fairbury,” said Jan Klaus, who owns a floral shop in Fairbury and serves on the Chamber of Commerce.

When asked how he’s managed to keep his store open for nearly six decades, Bedlan didn’t hesitate to answer.

“I’ve been blessed with a good wife,” he said. “And a son that put a lot of his talents to work here and is very dedicated.”

Although he no longer puts in 12-hour days like he once did, Bedlan spends time at the store nearly every day.

Sitting at his desk in a corner of the store’s walk-in vault, he is surrounded by dozens of vintage firearms in his personal collection. Displayed on wood-paneled walls under soft track lighting is a virtual history lesson of America’s most well-known gunmaker.

There’s an 1860 Henry rifle, a forerunner of Winchester, engraved with the name Christian Handel, who fought in the Civil War with the U.S. Veteran Volunteers in Pennsylvania.

There’s an 1866 Winchester, the first style of rifle manufactured by the company. The distinctive brass receiver of the 1866 earned it the nickname of “Yellow Boy.”

There’s a Model 21 Grand American, which Bedlan called the Rolls Royce of American double-barrel shotguns. Hand-made with beautiful factory engraving, the gun took 400 hours to build.

And there are glass display cases housing an assortment of rare Colt revolvers.

As Bedlan pointed to a gun, he rattled off unique facts as if he were reading from an encyclopedia. But every piece shares one thing in common — impeccable condition.

“I’ve always collected condition,” he said. “Originality and condition are important to the collector.”

The vault stores 1,500 guns, including both those for sale and those in Bedlan’s personal collection.

While lots of people sell guns, a relative few cater to collectors and shooting enthusiasts interested in modern firearms. Bedlan’s has appealed to both by keeping the business focused on firearms, Dan Bedlan said.

Felix Bedlan may have spent 60 years collecting firearms, yet he said he still wants to collect more knowledge about them.

Every day he learns something new, he said.

It’s what makes the job interesting.

So does the possibility of acquiring another treasure in gun-metal blue.

Lately, he’s sold a few pieces from his collection. Not out of necessity, but to make room.

“I’m looking for more,” he said with a smile.

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.