Gun show shopping

kozak6 said:

So, I've decided that gun shows are actually fun shows, and are to be regarded as mostly entertainment with the possibility of interesting purchases. I've paid more to see movies that I've enjoyed less, so it works out.

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That's a great way of looking at it.

ive been to a few gun shows and liked looking around especially if you see a gi bringback samurai sword that's hundreds of years old but the prices are lower at my lgs.

the High Thread count sheets are a good purchase sometimes..

.308 Norma said:

I have a beautiful and loving wife. But at gunshows, she’s an enabler that sometimes encourages me to buy guns I’m only mildly interested in.
She’s not fooling anyone though. I know the only reason she’s encouraging me to buy another gun at a gunshow is because she’s feeling guilty about buying yet another piece of agate jewelry off some other table.

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And my wife said she was an only child.

I'm an impulse buyer, so many times I have left a g(f)un show empty handed.
Now most of my purchases are handloading supplies. 1000 cast lead 240grain 44 bullets are almost as much to ship as to purchase. So, maybe I save on shipping or the hazardous shipping expense.

P5 Guy said:

I'm an impulse buyer, so many times I have left a g(f)un show empty handed.
Now most of my purchases are handloading supplies. 1000 cast lead 240grain 44 bullets are almost as much to ship as to purchase. So, maybe I save on shipping or the hazardous shipping expense.

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Shipping is under $20. That's a medium Flat Rate Box. https://missouribullet.com/details.php?prodId=241&category=20&secondary=12 Bullets would be $115. No Hazmat on bullets.

FlSwampRat said:

So, has anyone gone to a gun show and not bought one single thing?

Asking for a friend.

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Well I always have to buy the ticket for admission. But yes I've gone in and bought nothing. Plus I've gone back later in the afternoon to see if theres any packing up deals and bought nothing.

Lately I've been very specific in what I'm looking for so been home empty handed the past few shows. For instance I'd like to pick up another Ruger MKII, but the few I see are priced way too high. Other times I'm not really looking to buy just to touch some new gun I've read about and get a feel for price and demand.

Back when gunshows were a fount of great deals I always felt a little disappointed if I left empty handed. Now that prices are absurd and cool surplus guns rare, I feel virtuous and smart leaving gun-less. Like the OP, I'm more interested in the oddities (hyper-inflation Deutschmarks at the last show) and surplus ammo (bandoliers of Radway Green .303 last time) than in the guns. Of course, you never know when that could change, which is why I keep going back.

Never............I alway buy something guns, knives, ammo, powder, primers, flashlight, spotting scope, rifle slings, holsters, scope rings, knife sharpening tools, reloading tools, gun cases, varmint calls, targets, gun cleaning supplies, art work, wood carvings, furs.............that's all I can think of at the moment....oh, and a few liter bottles of vanilla. Yeah, I've been going for a few years. And by the way, I always find bargains or at least reasonably priced items.

Really what I buy at shows anymore is stuff that costs too much to ship....think primers and powder. The prices are really the same (at least around here) as they are online or in stores I have to drive an hour (one way) to pick up....so if I am at a show I will grab the parts I need.

As to buying a gun, once and a while I will look, and grab something....last thing I got was a camp carbine and 357 Marlin lever for 600 for the pair....the camp needed a new plastic thingy....think model 60 plastic thingy....and the lever was fine. It was a pretty good deal. I had been looking for an early 357 Marlin/Winchester/Rossi....you all know my feelings on Henry, and they are stupid priced IMHO. So at this one show they had both a winchester and marlin....went with the marlin over the winchester because I am likely to load it a bit on the warm side and the Marlin is a stronger action, but the winchester is much more smooth.

But you guys are forgetting the best part of the gun show....people watching....this is really fun.

Texas10mm said:

Shipping is under $20. That's a medium Flat Rate Box. https://missouribullet.com/details.php?prodId=241&category=20&secondary=12 Bullets would be $115. No Hazmat on bullets.

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Yeah I tried that the box broke open and the bullets were rolling around somewhere.
Hazard shipping is primers/powders, and isn't there a limit on how much can be shipped per address?

P5 Guy said:

Yeah I tried that the box broke open and the bullets were rolling around somewhere.
Hazard shipping is primers/powders, and isn't there a limit on how much can be shipped per address?

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There's a 48 lb limit per package on Hazmat.

You must have ordered bullets from someone who didn't know how to pack them. Back before I started casting I ordered bullets all the time. Most of the top tier suppliers have figured out how to pack them. If the box breaks and you get the apology slip just contact the shipper and the good ones will reship.

Yep. Not much at local shows.

milemaker13 said:

Yep. Not much at local shows.

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I know your pain.

I haven't bought anything in awhile at a gun show. I've been tempted several times though, and my financial position is slowing improving.

I go to my local show ( actually all the shows in my general area are run by the same company) mainly to see and check out guns that I never get to see at my lgs.

Our local shows have a few FFL dealers that have better prices than the best big box ones around for standard item guns. You can do better on-line sometimes but the show avoids the shipping hassles. I always wonder at the tables that have higher prices when you can get the same new gun for less, just a little bit away. Gun shopping is weird - we have LGS that are almost MSRP as are the big box name places like Bass Pro or Cabelas. Academy is much better. Some of the LGS folks do the ego stroke of the buyer or weirdly do the masochistic put down of the power who seems impressed that a gun expert will even talk to them. So strange.

A slightly different story about a gun purchase at a gun show was when my wife “didn’t” buy a 38 Special at a gunshow in Salt Lake City, Utah. Probably 20 years back, we were spending a weekend in Salt Lake, and there just happened to be a gunshow there. We sure didn’t travel all the way down to Salt Lake attend a gunshow, that’s a 150 miles, but it was going on while we were there, so we went.

Anyway, at the show my wife spotted a Smith 38 Special that she just “had to have” on one of the dealers tables. The trouble was, we are Idaho residents, so the dealer told us he couldn’t legally sell it to either of us.

However, we recognized the other guy behind the tables as a guy who owned a gunshop in Pocatello. And he told us that the 38 Special my wife wanted, along with several other guns on those tables, were actually from his gunshop. He’d brought them down to Salt Lake and did the necessary paperwork to transfer them to his buddy - a Utah gunshop owner. He also said that his buddy would transfer the guns that didn’t sell at that gunshow back to him, and he’d take them back to Pocatello on Sunday evening.

Long story short – the Pocatello dealer put the 38 Special under the table, and my wife went to his gunshop in Pocatello on Monday and legally bought it. It’s still her favorite EDC gun.

fpgt72 said:

But you guys are forgetting the best part of the gun show....people watching....this is really fun.

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True, that is fun. Be it the huddled up gang bangers trying to figure out which of them doesn't have a felony, the strangely dressed foreign nationals, i.e. striped pants, checkered suit jacket, and some bizarre shirt, who are amazed they can buy a gun, or my favorite, the guys dressed in camo head to toe just in case a war breaks out at the show. Saw some guy in camo in a wheel chair with an oxygen bottle. Be a little tougher for him to blend in.....

Anyway, sometimes there are other things I find which I wasn't looking for. Inexpensive but decent quality knives to abuse rather than a pricey one, small picks and tools, etc. Last show I came across a surplus 3 day battle pack for $10. I'd been thinking about assembling a small bug out bag and this will work fine. Also found a first aid pouch in the same pattern which will sub as an ammo carrier and attach to the MOLLE system on the pack. So the trip wasn't a loss. Local show lets retired LEO in gratis, so no biggie if I don't find anything.

More often than not, actually.

As I think of it now, 3 of the last 5 guns I bought were at various shows (2 of the 3 were at the FW show). Now, none of those were impulse buys, I knew what I was looking for, and what the going prices were.

And, there are some dealers that pretty much are only available on the show circuit. (And, I'd much rather put money in Lone Star Knifemaker's pocket than over at the custom hardwood dealer.)

One thing I miss, that, very probably, the intertuubs probably killed, were the "parts guys." They would have tables full of bins of GI parts for GI arms, and you could almost always find something useful to take home with you. The magazine guys are also handy for finding odd examples.

milemaker13 said:

Yep. Not much at local shows.

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Years ago, small rural shows were a treasure trove of collectible bargains. I remember, back in the 1970's, spending my Saturdays driving through Virginia, W. Virginia, Maryland, and south-central Pennsylvania, stopping at estate sales, flea markets, and small gun shows held at fire halls, VFW posts, etc. There were lots of elderly veterans of the World Wars in those towns, and as they passed away, their families would unload their bringback memorabilia for a song. Those generations of veterans are long gone now, and so are those small gun shows.

I pretty much always buy something, but it's usually not a gun. Reloading components of some flavor usually follow me home, the Tanner show here always has a couple of vendors with great prices on decent bags & gun cases, always on the lookout for uncommon magazines. Most of the guns that interest me are overpriced, but sometimes I get lucky. Last one I actually bought at a show was about a year and a half ago, a pristine Armalite AR-7 explorer with the Brown stock in the original box that also came with a black Charter stock to beat around with, talked the guy down to $225 including tax.

There's two "local" gun shows I've been going to since I was about 8 years old. Dealers have infested them within the last 10 years or so. No thanks. I'm not going to fill out paperwork, do the NICS check that I get delayed on every single time, then drive 3 hours to wherever this dealer came from 4 days later.

For components I go to a place an hour north of me that has everything (and cheaper) and we'll get lunch and make a day of it. Now, if and when I go, I go for nostalgic reasons and bring my son to let him pick up some knick knacks and get a hotdog, plus he loves looking at the guns and knives. Glad to hear other folks are finding stuff at the shows though!