The gun club I belong to here in beautiful southern Oregon has an indoor range where they host a gun show in the spring and fall.
I had the privilege of volunteering to help out with raffle tickets and entry fees, and then got to go scope things out.
Turnout seemed great, there was a constant stream of people in and out, some bringing guns for sale, a fair number bringing their kids, of a variety of ages.
Building was full of tables, and all tables were full that I could see, including the entry ways. Tables were piled with guns and knives, and ammo and cleaning kits, and everything else under the sun. Luckily, no food, no jerky.
For me personally, it was quite interesting. Lots of revolvers, old ones, not really as many semi's as I would've thought, and of them, it was pretty much all Colt 1911's, or original GI's. One table was selling new guns like M&P, Sig, etc, but his prices were higher than the out-the-door prices at the local gun store, and I really didn't see him doing that much business, even though he had a ton of stuff... But I'm sure people were buying something, or he wouldn't have put it out.
There were more rifles than you can shake a stick at. Lots, and lots, and lots, of makes, models, colors, ages, you name it. THere wasn't really a lot of milsurp, which is what I was interested in, although there were a reasonable amount of AR/AK stuff, and of course, cammo/tactical was strewn everywhere.
In general, most of the tables had maybe a 10/22, or 2, a few other low end stuff, and then the price escalated rapidly as you moved down the table. Conditions ranged from used to new, lots of antique-looking stuff that I wouldn't recognize.
THere was one huge table of shrink-wrapped books, and while the titles were interesting, since I couldnt' look at them, I didn't spend much time there, as it seemed pointless to spend 80 bucks on a complete book of marlin firearms, only to find out that it was printed in some guys basement. There were lots of home-made looking stuff like "The complete takedown guide to ..." where ... was a wide variety. All looked homebrew, but since you couldn't look at it, it wasn't of interest.
One thing I did note was really a complete lack of .50 BMG. Perhaps because no range around here allows it, but there were only a few 50 caliber weapons of any kind. I have no intention of buying one, but they are cool to look at. There was one guy with a whole pile of .308 cailber looking tactical/sniper-looking gear, but there was such a crowd around his table, I gave up waiting to actually ask him what he was selling, or even ogle it.
One guy was selling this really cool, really sturdy looking fold up varmint benchrest thingie, that was very sturdy. I'm 300 lbs, and it felt solid as a rock, compared to some of the lawn-furniture looking benches, it was the cadillac.
OK, that was the general overview.
A few personal comments.
I don't know the prices of every gun out there, but there wasn't anything tha tlooked even remotely like a good deal. I didn't go there expecting half-off specials, for finding some "lost-relic" museum quality one-of-a-kind piece, heck, I probably wouldn't recognize it if I did. But everything that I did recognize was at or higher than retail, and I think most was MSRP. Even the local gun store marks OTD prices on their guns, and these guys wanted retail+ and the fee. XD's were 539, for the couple they had, M&P 500 as I recall, etc.
I did find one half-way decent deal on some 9mm reloads, by a guy that supposedly reloads for a bunch of th epolice departments around here. 1000 rounds in an ammo box for 100 bucks. Once-used brass according to him, I didn't poke through it much. SO not bad, but I've seen 9mm at 6 bucks a box, so it wasn't a steal. He was doing .45 for 9 bucks/50, which isn't bad, so I did get a package to try, and then I"ll see about getting more.
The vendors spent more time jabbering with each other, and since the room volume was so loud, in my opinion, customers were getting ignored. I had to interrupt many conversations to get answers to questions, and finally, I just stopped being polite, and just butting in.
Most of the vendors were real pleasant, but man, there were some major buttheads. Rules were that *all* weapons had to be checked by security, and one guy just blew his cork that his NIB rifles had to be inspected, and make sure the action was tagged open. It's not like it was a mystery that they needed to be, it was righ tthere on the door, on the signage, and in the agreement. Just was annoying. You're volunteering your time to help this butthead sell his retail-priced product... Grrr. WIth any luck he dropped the one with th emonster glass, and ruined it. Cosmic karma.
There was a single concession stand in a separate room, it seemed to do a steady business, but it was nice that there was no jerky everywhere. And nobody selling seasoning. Aaah....
Personally, there were 99% adult males, some women, but not many, and a lot of kids. I think the vendors or show promoters are missing an opportunity to entice the youth, as there was nothing youth oriented. One guy had some crickett 22's on a rack up behind him, and that was it. Nobody had coloring stuff, or promotional material, or hunter safety material, or anything out. Maybe they tried it and it didn't work. But the average age of the people there was up there...
It was interesting that *none* of the gun stores showed up. We probably had 200 people show up in the first hours, how many of them get that concentration of potential customers at one time? Oh well, NMP.
(I did find out that gun show dealing is much like pawn shops. Some guy was bringing in a bersa thunder .380 lnib, wanted a hundred bucks for it. I caught the guy on the way out, asked him if he was able to sell it to the dealer. He said yes, for 70. So then I went and checked the dealer table, and he wanted 200 for it. Go figure.
Anyway, presumably I will be happy with my ammo, I did get to see a lot of guns that I'd never see in the normal course of my day, and if you're in the area, it'd be worth it to stop in, or catch the fall one.
I had the privilege of volunteering to help out with raffle tickets and entry fees, and then got to go scope things out.
Turnout seemed great, there was a constant stream of people in and out, some bringing guns for sale, a fair number bringing their kids, of a variety of ages.
Building was full of tables, and all tables were full that I could see, including the entry ways. Tables were piled with guns and knives, and ammo and cleaning kits, and everything else under the sun. Luckily, no food, no jerky.
For me personally, it was quite interesting. Lots of revolvers, old ones, not really as many semi's as I would've thought, and of them, it was pretty much all Colt 1911's, or original GI's. One table was selling new guns like M&P, Sig, etc, but his prices were higher than the out-the-door prices at the local gun store, and I really didn't see him doing that much business, even though he had a ton of stuff... But I'm sure people were buying something, or he wouldn't have put it out.
There were more rifles than you can shake a stick at. Lots, and lots, and lots, of makes, models, colors, ages, you name it. THere wasn't really a lot of milsurp, which is what I was interested in, although there were a reasonable amount of AR/AK stuff, and of course, cammo/tactical was strewn everywhere.
In general, most of the tables had maybe a 10/22, or 2, a few other low end stuff, and then the price escalated rapidly as you moved down the table. Conditions ranged from used to new, lots of antique-looking stuff that I wouldn't recognize.
THere was one huge table of shrink-wrapped books, and while the titles were interesting, since I couldnt' look at them, I didn't spend much time there, as it seemed pointless to spend 80 bucks on a complete book of marlin firearms, only to find out that it was printed in some guys basement. There were lots of home-made looking stuff like "The complete takedown guide to ..." where ... was a wide variety. All looked homebrew, but since you couldn't look at it, it wasn't of interest.
One thing I did note was really a complete lack of .50 BMG. Perhaps because no range around here allows it, but there were only a few 50 caliber weapons of any kind. I have no intention of buying one, but they are cool to look at. There was one guy with a whole pile of .308 cailber looking tactical/sniper-looking gear, but there was such a crowd around his table, I gave up waiting to actually ask him what he was selling, or even ogle it.
One guy was selling this really cool, really sturdy looking fold up varmint benchrest thingie, that was very sturdy. I'm 300 lbs, and it felt solid as a rock, compared to some of the lawn-furniture looking benches, it was the cadillac.
OK, that was the general overview.
A few personal comments.
I don't know the prices of every gun out there, but there wasn't anything tha tlooked even remotely like a good deal. I didn't go there expecting half-off specials, for finding some "lost-relic" museum quality one-of-a-kind piece, heck, I probably wouldn't recognize it if I did. But everything that I did recognize was at or higher than retail, and I think most was MSRP. Even the local gun store marks OTD prices on their guns, and these guys wanted retail+ and the fee. XD's were 539, for the couple they had, M&P 500 as I recall, etc.
I did find one half-way decent deal on some 9mm reloads, by a guy that supposedly reloads for a bunch of th epolice departments around here. 1000 rounds in an ammo box for 100 bucks. Once-used brass according to him, I didn't poke through it much. SO not bad, but I've seen 9mm at 6 bucks a box, so it wasn't a steal. He was doing .45 for 9 bucks/50, which isn't bad, so I did get a package to try, and then I"ll see about getting more.
The vendors spent more time jabbering with each other, and since the room volume was so loud, in my opinion, customers were getting ignored. I had to interrupt many conversations to get answers to questions, and finally, I just stopped being polite, and just butting in.
Most of the vendors were real pleasant, but man, there were some major buttheads. Rules were that *all* weapons had to be checked by security, and one guy just blew his cork that his NIB rifles had to be inspected, and make sure the action was tagged open. It's not like it was a mystery that they needed to be, it was righ tthere on the door, on the signage, and in the agreement. Just was annoying. You're volunteering your time to help this butthead sell his retail-priced product... Grrr. WIth any luck he dropped the one with th emonster glass, and ruined it. Cosmic karma.
There was a single concession stand in a separate room, it seemed to do a steady business, but it was nice that there was no jerky everywhere. And nobody selling seasoning. Aaah....
Personally, there were 99% adult males, some women, but not many, and a lot of kids. I think the vendors or show promoters are missing an opportunity to entice the youth, as there was nothing youth oriented. One guy had some crickett 22's on a rack up behind him, and that was it. Nobody had coloring stuff, or promotional material, or hunter safety material, or anything out. Maybe they tried it and it didn't work. But the average age of the people there was up there...
It was interesting that *none* of the gun stores showed up. We probably had 200 people show up in the first hours, how many of them get that concentration of potential customers at one time? Oh well, NMP.
(I did find out that gun show dealing is much like pawn shops. Some guy was bringing in a bersa thunder .380 lnib, wanted a hundred bucks for it. I caught the guy on the way out, asked him if he was able to sell it to the dealer. He said yes, for 70. So then I went and checked the dealer table, and he wanted 200 for it. Go figure.
Anyway, presumably I will be happy with my ammo, I did get to see a lot of guns that I'd never see in the normal course of my day, and if you're in the area, it'd be worth it to stop in, or catch the fall one.
