Jump to content
SASS Wire Forum

Gun show musings


Rye Miles #13621

Recommended Posts

I know ya'll got stories about gun shows so I'll start it off with something that happened today.

 

I was a gun show today and a private dealer that had a few guns and a bunch of old and some new ammo and other misc. stuff. I spotted a blue clear ammo box marked .44-40...$60.00!!!! I aksed if it was factory ammo or reloads, he said, "I don't know" Wow!! So I told him I load .44-40's for CAS for about $5.00 -$7.00 a box not counting the brass because I use it so many times. He said, "There's no way you reload it that cheap". I said, "You don't believe me? I've been reloading .44-40 for about 10 years or more and it did cost me more when I was loading BP but with Tite-Group it comes to $7.00 a box MAXIMUM depending on how I can get the components for". He just shook his head!!!!

 

I wanted to say are you calling me a liar??? :huh: I decided to just walk away!

 

What's your story???

Edited by Rye Miles #13621
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have found that , at gun shows, if the item is on the aisle side of the table, it is junk, if it is on the inside of the table, it is a treasure and priced accordingly. I just don't go to any of them anymore. You see the same crap, just at a different dealers table, at a higher price than last time it surfaced.

My musings

Al

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been buying my 45 pills for roughly $75- $80/1000. A guy at one show wanted $90 for 500 and asked why so much and he tried hard to convince me that was cheap and couldn't believe I was gettin' 'em for $75/1000. He was still sold out by the end of the day of all calibers he had. Go figger. Just like the guy on E-Bay paying $475 for a used/corroded Dillon SDB when the listing above it was for $399 brand new!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can drive farther .

But you will Never Pay More !

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I go to visit with former co-workers who enjoy the shooting sports. I'm on a first name basis with several vendors and will visit with them when they are not making sales. At the next major show in February I'm taking the electrician who worked on my alarm system over the holidays and his son to shop for used reloading equipment. I promised I would teach the fellow how to reload. He only needs a single stage press for the small lots he will reload.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The gun shows that I have been to lately have turned out to be exactly what they are called "Gun Shows".

It seems that prices are too high on everything. So its like a "show"...not a place to buy.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nothing to do with pricing, but one memorable gun show story stays with me...

 

About 20 or more years ago I was wandering through a gun show enjoying the sights when I saw a display with a Savage Arms banner.

 

Oh, cool!

 

So I wandered over, and started browsing through two tables covered with a variety of 99's, 10's, 110's, and miscellaneous other gaspipes bearing the the fierce Savage Indian logo.

 

After a few minutes of watching me, one of the guys manning the display asked if I was lookin' for anything in particular...

 

"Well, actually, I was lookin' to see if you might have a Model 20 or two!" sez I.

 

"A what?" he asked.

 

"Model 20."

 

"Model 20...?"

 

"Uh huh..."

 

Fella looked at his partner, they looked at each other, then gave me a sympathetic smile and told me that I'd been mislead... Savage never made anything called a "Model 20." And they were Savage experts.

 

"Okay. Thanks." and wandered off, as the two city dudes grinned and watched the rube walk away.

 

So after the show I went home and took a couple of Savage Model 20's outta the safe and lovingly cleaned 'em and fondled 'em and smiled... :blush:

 

When he grew up I gave this one (250-3000) to Sassparilla, and still have a .300. Meanwhile, the kid's rebuilding another .250. Anyone know where a fella can find a stock for one of these mythical rifles? :rolleyes:

 

100_4621.jpg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know ya'll got stories about gun shows so I'll start it off with something that happened today.

 

I was a gun show today and a private dealer that had a few guns and a bunch of old and some new ammo and other misc. stuff. I spotted a blue clear ammo box marked .44-40...$60.00!!!! I aksed if it was factory ammo or reloads, he said, "I don't know" Wow!! So I told him I load .44-40's for CAS for about $5.00 -$7.00 a box not counting the brass because I use it so many times. He said, "There's no way you reload it that cheap". I said, "You don't believe me? I've been reloading .44-40 for about 10 years or more and it did cost me more when I was loading BP but with Tite-Group it comes to $7.00 a box MAXIMUM depending on how I can get the components for". He just shook his head!!!!

 

I wanted to say are you calling me a liar??? :huh: I decided to just walk away!

 

What's your story???

 

Here's the deal. He's got a lot more in that box of ammo than he cares to admit and he's not budging.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can find more experts than you can shake a stick at. You don't even have to ask. GW

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have seen the same guy with the same gun at several shows. He has it labeled as a 1873 Cadet trapdoor - except it is full size! Talked to a couple of others who were perusing his table and all were totally confused how he could have it labeled as such. Oh and of course the tag also read "RARE".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I traded a Stevens 235 16 gauge for a Hopkins and Allen hammer 12 gauge at a show last fall. Before the first of the year I saw the vendor and the old Stevens at a show. He saw it caught my attention and shoved it onto me to look at it. Went on about how tight it was, on and on. I agreed and reminded him that I was the one who traded it to him. He had $400 on it. I saw him again today at a show. He still has the Stevens. I walk on past.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was at a show awhile ago one of those one room deals. I saw a model 94 in the rack and looked at the tag to see if is was anything other than a 30-30 it wasn't but I stepped back and kind of laughed. The dealer asked me what the problem was a I replied that the price was pretty high. He got insulted and told me that since Winchester was out of business the gun was very rare. My answer was yeah they only made 5 million of them and there are at least a dozen in this room.

Another guy was selling 40 S&W once fired brass for more than the local store was charging for loaded rounds.

Some of these guys are really smoking some funny tobacco

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Howdy,

I think expert is a frame of mind.

One friend of mine always talks like he absolutely has no doubt about

what he is saying. He isn't actually right, he just SOUNDS right.

There is a website called snopes that is devoted to sifting out false info.

And just lately false news has become a big deal.

Nothing new, just being noticed.

Some folks make a lot of money with false news.

Best

CR

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm convinced some dealers are there to snag people bringing in guns to sale.

 

I once took a nice old 1894 Marlin into a show to show a vendor whom I thought could tell me more than I knew about the gun. It took me a good bit of time to make it to his table for all the people that wanted to see it, ask how much I wanted for it and so on. I'd politely tell them it was not for sale only to have the next guy ask to see it and how much I was asking for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

. It took me a good bit of time to make it to his table for all the people that wanted to see it, ask how much I wanted for it and so on. I'd politely tell them it was not for sale only to have the next guy ask to see it and how much I was asking for it.

I get that all the time, about the gun holstered on my hip!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gun shows around here (central Virginia) are mostly tactical guns and gear. Some reloading supplies, but all at high prices. I did pick up a Ruger LC9s at a very good price one time. I only go once every couple years, have too much other stuff going on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At a large show around 2005, I went to the show in the last two hours looking for a deal on a used vintage scope for a Savage Model 23 in .32-20. At one table I saw a very clean Iver Johnson copy of the Colt Woodsman amongst about 40 pistols. The owner said that I was the first one to pick the gun up that weekend. Habits kick in as I rack the slide to verify an empty chamber. Flying about 8 feet up and very visible is an unfired .22 LR round. The table was quickly surrounded by about six other table owners and show workers as they went through all of his guns.

 

There are real experts at the larger shows, but their n6mbers are dwindling. I do not visit smaller shows. Armslist, Gunbroker, Gunsamerica and others are replacing the gun shows, in my opinion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The reason I don't go to gun shows is because I'm a gunoholic and although I'm completely cured now, :rolleyes: I don't need the temptation. :huh:

Not too worry, most of the prices at gun shows scares away even the most addicted of us!!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

some days , ya will get lucky , and find a deal , getting fewer and farther apart ,

 

I have scored parts and part guns to fix , other finds

 

but like others , I got boxes of parts , that have been here for years , and will probly be here when I ain't :P

 

know lots of the vendors , very well ,

 

pay your money and take your chance

 

CB

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

There are real experts at the larger shows, but their n6mbers are dwindling. I do not visit smaller shows. Armslist, Gunbroker, Gunsamerica and others are replacing the gun shows, in my opinion.

I agree, but I suspect many of the bidders on those websites are buying the guns just to resell at gun shows. I don't have a problem with that, but it might explain why those websites sell guns at much lower prices than those sold at gun shows.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree, but I suspect many of the bidders on those websites are buying the guns just to resell at gun shows. I don't have a problem with that, but it might explain why those websites sell guns at much lower prices than those sold at gun shows.

Yep I agree and don't forget the vendors have to rent those table, around here it's about $50.00 a table per day and hardly anyone only rents one table.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a gun show dealer explain to me in great detail why my search for a Ruger Red Hawk in 41 Mag was an impossibility because no Ruger of any type had ever been made in a 41 caliber.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gun shows are still popular here in Missouri. Was at a local show yesterday and it soon got too crowded to move or to see anything. There was another larger gun show about 50 miles south.

 

For some reason, gun shows attract people that shop at the big and tall man store. I'm not small but well below average size at gun shows.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was at a gunshow in Nashville many years ago, was standing just inside the door waiting for a couple of my pards to meet me. There was a class III table directly in front of me. I watched a middle aged couple come in, wife in tow and already bored. As they moved down the aisle passed the clIII a stainless. pistol gripped, short barrel pump shotgun caught her eye, traffic had stopped so the guy at the table engaged her in friendly conversation. Eventually traffic moved on, Hubby went to other tables and eyeballed lots of stuff. He got nearly to the end of the aisle when he realized the wife was nowhere to be seen. When he got back to the class III table she had Id and credit card out. He led her off by the hand, all the time she was looking over her shoulder like a kid in a candy store.

Lately the shows have turned into just what yall have described. I seldom go anymore.

my $.02 Imis

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm with Warden Callaway regarding the attendees of these shows being big people. I often wonder if in their own minds they still think they are skinny...and then they strap an oversized tactical backpack on and bang into people all day with them... :blink::)

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not a small guy and at one time weighed a hair under 300 pounds, I am just over 200 now, but I was and am aware of my size and have always tried to be courteous to others, especially in a crowd...until my claustrophobic tendencies kick in and then I need to get away from them. I have left heavily attended shows shortly after getting there due to crowding.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hardly ever see any "cowboy guns" at gun shows and if you do the level of knowledge about them is laughable!!! :lol:

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A few years ago the Mosin Nagants were all the rage here. I think it was because a local store sold a few hundred of them at $70 a piece. I still have mine and love it. Surprisingly accurate and ugly enough that I don't worry about banging it up against something. A week or so later there was a gun show. There were at least a dozen dealers reselling the same rifles for $270 and one took a wire wheel to his and sold them one at a time as a "rare" stainless steel version. He was asking $500, I saw at least 5 of them leaving in other people's hands.

I got kicked out when I mentioned that I just bought 2 for $70 each and ended a sale. I laughed all the way outside.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm amused at the prices they ask for guns that I paid 1/10 the price when new. Back in early 70s, I bought a Remington Mohawk 600 brand new for less than $90. I had an FFL and local distributor was always trying to pawn something off on me. One time it was Ruger Bearcats because Ruger had disconnected them. $38/each they were asking. I passed but did buy a pair of Colt New Frontier 22s at good price.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What's your story???

 

I had an old man tell me once, and quite belligerently, that I could not load black powder into shot gun shells..........

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got lucky a couple of times, picked up an unfired 1894 Marlin with 20" octagon barrel in 44-40 for $550. Special run done for Davidson. Next time I went I picked up an unfired 1894 Marlin Classic in 33-20 for $500. But have not seen a deal since.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.