[41mag]

I went to the local show yesterday.
What a crock!
They could have sub-titled this show as the all AR upper & jerky show!

Geez!
Here's my list:
Tokorov-any just get a feel & buy if right
CZ52-buy if not broken(don't forget ammo!)
Makarov-same as Tokorov
8x56R ammo for Steyr 1895 *only if in stripper clips*
Colt 1900 & 1905 look only.get a feel for $$$

It didn't seem like too hard a list but how did I do?ZERO!Nothing!Ziltch!
['cept the Colts-I wasn't holding my breath on those.]
Put another way,there were more Spencer rifles than mil-surp handguns at the show.

Oh, and the 'coup de grace was the Barrett 82a1 for the princely sum of $9800.There's one on Gunbrocker NIB w/case for$6995.00.

 

[RIKA]

Gun shows are getting to be disappointing with more flea market junk than guns. T-shirts, bogus watches, junk jewelry, magazines & paperback books. There are quite a few good guns but the ones on the tables are way over priced. I lucked out and got my Russian MAK at a good price - private sale. As much as anything I enjoy watching the people. Theres usually several big ammo dealers so I can at least load up on ammo at a good price.

RIKA

 

[krept]

Fortunately, the gunshows out here in Phoenix are still pretty good. IMO, we've become a little jaded by pricing online. Some of the big gunshops out here set up tables at the bigger shows and they don't jack their prices up... some even discount them a little. Yes, there are still the BS peddlers and the guys that bring in 8 guns and mark them up sky high. There are also the guys that sit in the hallways with one gun offering person to person transfers... guys walking around with rifles that have a big banner attached to them with the selling price on it. Interesting stuff.

IMO... at least out here... gunshows are the BEST place to check out how well various models fit hands... for you or a friend.

cheers

 

[Rich Z]

Well to be honest, it is all subjective. If you go to any gun show and find what you were looking for, or even find something you didn't know you needed until you saw it, then you will perceive it as a "good" show.

We have a local show here in Tallahassee, FL that is rather small and most people will say it sucks. But I have found some REALLY nice things there on occasion.

But yeah, the junk does get old. But look at it from the perspective of the promoters. It's not their fault that the government has driven nearly all of the FFLs out of business and made it so that the private seller is nervous about getting popped by BATF for dealing without a license. So the choices they have are to try to fill up some tables so they can make ends meet for the expenses and hassles of running a show, or just shut down and do something else with their time. Which choice would YOU prefer that they pick?

The anti-gunners absolutely HATE the idea of gunshows. So anything they can do to shut them down they will do. Yeah, I don't want to waste my time walking past tables filled with beef jerky, jewelry, beanie babies, and the rest of the junk either. But if that is what it takes for the gun shows to still exist, then I have to just grit my teeth and bear it. And let's face it, if those people with the junk on their tables aren't making money being there, then they won't be back. So if you see them time and time again at the shows, then that means that SOME people at the shows DO appreciate them being there.

 

[Aslan]

I know some people poo-poo the stuff that isn't gun related strictly, but I do tend to pick up things like ammo cans, hard to find BDU patterns and the like at gun shows.

If you are slow, and take your time to check everything out, there still are bargains to be had. Some times the private sales are the best.

Sometimes it pays to laugh at the ridiculous prices that some guns are labeled with. A friend of mine picked up an FAL for fairly cheap, after we laughed at the asking price...

If you know what you are looking for it helps.

And Rich is right, we probably should be happy that we can even go to a gun show, considering what some people would like to see happen....

:devil:

 

[Wylycoyte]

I find less and less of interest at shows. Private sales are occasionally good, but I'm more often disappointed than happy or even neutral.

 

[Terry G]

I still enjoy the gun show's. Thre's not that many in my area, but I still check them out. You never know when that one pearl may show up. There is one yearly one, fairly large, that a good friend and I use as an excuse to get together drink a few fermented beverages, and share old war stories. It's in his home city, so it's only a couple of minute's drive for him. He has this thing about overpricing. If he see's something priced too outrageously, he'll race home, get an identical model from his collection, race back and offer to sell it to the dealer for the same amount. It's embarrasing, but really funny, too. I remember one dealer selling run of the mill MKIII SMLE's for $370.00, Australian, as I recall. My friend raced home and came back a few minutes later and put three SMLE's on the table and said (loudly) I'll let you have all of them for a $1,000.00. The dealer didn't accept the offer.

 

[andy]

pre 1968 GCA, shows were FANTASTIC, even in smaller towns. In 1984, I went to one at the Pamona (LA, CA) fairgrounds. They had EIGHT huge buildings full of vendor's tables. I spent 3 full days there, and never got to the 5th one. I've been to shows in DAllas TX that were great, too, but that was in 1980. It's been twenty years since my friend has made much of a change in what he wanted for a "battery" of guns, so the shows mean nothing to him.

 

[Magnum88C]

Gun shows are a love/hate thing for me. I hate the asshole dealers that won't even let you pick up a weapon in order to see if it fits your hands or not. Or the guys peddling worthless junk like it's gold.
But on the other hand, I love going to a lot of the old-timer's tables and looking at the milsurp stuff, and the non-gun militaria. Sometimes I find good buys on books and stuff, or hard to find parts, that you can't find unless someone sticks them on eBay.
I don't know about y'all's shows, but we usually have a contingent of guys from WWII (a lot less of them lately), Korea, etc, in uniform, that like to chew the fat and tell some damn good stories (true or not) about those German bayonets and helmets you happen to be looking at. . .

 

[Piemaster]

Things I liked about the last show I was at

$875 for a pre-1994 Springfield M1A Winchester barrel and TRW bolt and oprod

$300 S&W Model 27 6"

$630 HK P7 (refurb)

$25 per 180rd can of Malaysian 7.62x51

Bulk .357 158gr JHPs for reloading. Shipping kills on the heavy stuff.

That was just one show, there are pearls amongst the turds.

Always ask, never assume that the price marked is the real price.

 

[brass hammer]

i agree with all of thee above posted!




let's just say, i won't break a leg, getting to any show in particular, the w.w.2 german vendors kinda work on me[a little, as , i have a set of waffen
ss collar tabs,taken off the dead ,back shot german, ol' 'don furman' 'drilled'
he 'popped' him late in the war at a 'concentration camp'...[don furman died drunk, but i can't ever recall him with out a smile on his face]

i guess ,....it's just the mass, of wannnnnbes, that creeps me out!


:wavey: