Gun Show Bummer

[getsome]

My son and I went to the Eastmans show yesterday and what a disappointment it was....It has been a while since I have been to a show and was hoping to score some ammo but after paying 20 bucks just to get in there wasn't anything worth looking at and the prices were crazy high...The going rate for a decent AR is $1200.00 to over $2500.00 with a few in the 6-7 hundred dollar range for brands I never heard of....

I found one guy with some older used no lock smith revolovers but he wanted $1200.00 for a 2 1/2 inch mod 29 .44 mag and $1000.00 for a very well used model 66 3 inch .357...Didn't even ask to look at um at that price....I was looking for some .22 LR but the best I could find was a 500 round brick for $80.00 and a few 50 round packs for $9.00......I found some 25 round boxes of regular Hornady (not even Critical Defense) .40 and .45 carry ammo for get this $48.00 or almost 2 bucks a pop.......Thats crazy.:eek:....I was also looking for a magazine for my M&P .22LR as it only came with one and I did manage to find one but the guy wanted $75.00 for a stupid magazine which looks like it belongs in an airsoft pistol....Told him to keep it for that price and I'll do with one....

I did spy one PM9 DLC night sight for $699 and several CW40's for $569 and 1 CW380 for $489 which were the only Kahrs I saw....Mostly Glocks and Rugers and a few XD's all WAY over priced....I spent a Ben Franklin including admission and only came home with a 500 brick of .22LR for my money......:confused:

I think this will be my last gun show and am pretty bummed because the one sport I truly love has now priced me out of the ability to participate in practice range shooting any longer....Looks like Airsoft practice will be all I can afford from now on.....THANKS ADAM LANZA!!!

[wyntrout]

Dang! Ammo was more plentiful and some "reasonably' priced at this past weekend's show and the one two weeks ago. I could buy CCI/Blazer .22LR for $50 0r $55 a brick and I saw ammo that I had just bought online for about what I paid.

WE didn't sell any ammo, but I almost bought some more. :D

You could still find stuff that was way overpriced, though.

I bought almost as much as we sold, but we did make enough actual profit to pay for our table.

I bought a bunch of like new Glock 36 mags... 6 and 7 round ones and a BUNCH of decent +2 bases for Glock... not the cheap Asian ones, from a guy who had sold his pistol. Anyhow, I INCREASED our inventory or magazines... still need to replenish some of the better sellers... 1911 and Ruger .22 non-22/45 ones.

We have 4 different shows here and there are none coming in May, so far, but TWO on June 7/8... gun show wars! We can only sell at one!

Wynn:)

[Longitude Zero]

getsome I hear ya loud and clear. The only gun show I go to anymore is the HUGE Wanenmacher Show in Tulsa each fall. Ammo prices are still crazy and gun prices are a bit more moderate since there are so many sellers. Sadly you have a lot of ripoff artists who really do not want to sell but gouge customers. The price on that Model 66 you saw was a RIPOFF/HIGHWAY ROBBERY pure and simple.

[Bawanna]

I also went to our local monthly show yesterday. I seldom buy but I look really hard. Last month my son scored two rifles, my much sought after Scout Squad M14 and a little Mossy 22 rifle. I'm still trying to talk him out of the Mossy, sweet old bolt 22.

I enjoy looking and going every month, I know most of the table holders and most of the table holders know me by sight at least.

I find that when I stumble onto something that I really want to haggle on, much better numbers are forth coming right out of the chute. Some of course are all for the buck and don't want to budge or rip ya on a trade. I got those guys pegged. I still look but I don't haggle with them, must look and move on.

Kind of struck with the Black Powder bug again for some reason. Kind of hunting for a small caliber, probably a 36 long rifle. One of them 4' barrel beauties. In just a bit of looking I see Black Powder stuff has gone up near as much as everything else.

[jocko]

yup Terre Haute, had it quarterly gun show. cost e $5 to get in and I was outta there in 30 minutes. Only good buy was hooters down the road after I left. Just sayin

[Bawanna]

On the subject of gunshows and my just looking, I stumbled on an incredible thing yesterday.

I was looking at a muzzle stuffer at a table where the guy is a regular, son bought a rifle from him last month, good guy.

Anyhow he whips out this little light maybe 2 1/2'' long and super thin, maybe 1/4", 3/16" diameter. Turns it on and hands it to me. I point it down the barrel and can't see squat. He explained, turn it around so the light is pointing up and just drop it down the barrel.

Holy great ideas batman, it was amazing and it lit that barrel up incredibly well. He says most people want to look down a bore and rather than cutting the ties every time and opening an action or removing a bolt he just drops that light down, works super slick. I guess it's a known deal and they make a similar light specifically for muzzle stuffers. But most only go to like 45 caliber.
I found the same light at an auto parts store, I haven't went and got it yet but it shows they have them. Word has it if you can get one with a green LED that shows up the best over other colors. His I believe was just white light but it worked very well.

My major learning aha moment for the month for sure.

When I get it in hand I'll let everybody know the brand and stuff and how it works on other stuff.

[AJBert]

I haven't been to a gun show since just before all the mess started early last year. Even before the mess I found most vendors where overpriced. Now days they are almost all WAY, WAY overpriced. I'm sure there are still a handful of honest vendors but as we all know, they are all out to make a profit. I have no problem with an honest vendor making an honest profit. It is the gougers that will ruin gun shows, IMHO.


As far as the .22lr debacle, as soon as folks stop paying these grossly inflated prices, the same folks selling the .22's will stop standing in line each time a store opens to buy up all the bricks to turn around and resell them. Believe me, I see them out there every morning hoping we got bricks and they bring their buddies as .22's are the only ammo that has a purchase limit.