The general consensus in most gun forums seems to be that gun shows just plain stink. Well, I have certainly visited some stinkers but when it comes to shows these days, I have a serious ace up my sleeve because I'm lucky enough that I get to regularly attend a FANTASTIC show.
So I'll recap some of the more interesting guns that I saw. And keep in mind, I'm merely listing what was interesting to me -- there were countless guns that folks on this forum would totally love that I tend to look right past.
Smith & Wesson 1-2-3rd Gens and PC are my absolute favorite, so I'll start there. One 4566 TSW, a couple 645's, not a single 4506, two 659's, two 439's, a couple of 5906's and a DAO 3rd Gen here and there, 9mm & .40cal. Saw a 3919 LadySmith, good looking pistol. Was one CS-45. There was a completely gorgeous non-IPSC marked 745, about as close to mint as I've seen, with the original box. $750 was the price on that, not outrageous for the package. There wasn't a single Model 52 at this show today. This show had more 39-2 pistols than I have ever seen in one place and they ran the gamut from "re-import and stuffed under a camel's saddle" to fresh/mint, in the original box. Who doesn't love a 39-2? I have two, so I wasn't buying.
In PC pistols, only two. A Shorty.45 that was in nice shape but not dead mint that was tagged at $1,050. The other was an early blued PC-1911, too much at $1,800 I thought.
The kicker in S&W pistols: a no-dash Model 39, steel frame. I thought it was odd that someone had colored the lettering in as you will occasionally see. In this case, they didn't "white letter" it, it was a yellow color. Could have been white years back that morphed in to a yellow. Man, you'd sure want to get that out of there if you had a safe method. Pistol was otherwise in fine shape, and price tag said $2,800.
Saw an older Wilson Combat 1911 that was tagged at $1,500 which is the lowest price I've seen on a used Wilson in years. I'm not much in to high-buck 1911's but my buddy is, so he checked it out but didn't get excited over it. In what I thought was at least a bit odd, this Wilson had no front strap checkering whatsoever. In other semi-autos, one each of an Auto-Mag and a Wildey.
Now this show is loaded with historic, extremely collectible and valuable firearms but I've seen these many many times and I'm not in that market. So if you are in to Mauser Broomhandles, Luger pistols, Colt and S&W revolvers and GI Colt 1911's, you'd collapse before you counted all of these up. Yes, I think they are fantastic, but I don't have any intention of buying things like this, so I don't spend a lot of time looking at them. With that said, there was certainly an interesting one worth telling about...
The dealer said that it was a Colt 1911 in .38 AMU and that it wasn't commercial, but rather an issued gun. He said they were rare either way, but a non-commercial issued one that was originally made in .38 AMU was exceptionally rare, and he had this tagged at $14,000. I know basically zero about collectible Colt, but I think this was neat. Oh, and since I'm talking GI stuff, there was one Liberator pistol. Neat thing. I don't recall the price. Boy I'd love to shoot one but I doubt anyone would ever let me and I can tell you that I sure won't ever buy one at their price, heh.
Last but not least was an oddity that I have heard about and seen in magazines, but at this show was the first one I had ever seen in the flesh -- a Randall Portsider. It didn't have a price tag on it.
Fun show. I bought a 39/59 complete top end... slide with rear sight & extractor, spring, guide rod, decocker, firing pin/spring, barrel and bushing. The left side of the slide was eaten up pretty badly, the dealer told me that he had a 59 tucked between a waterbed and it's frame and the mattress apparently had a small leak, it sat jammed in there and wet for some time. He had gotten a new top end somewhere and all of this went in to a bag decades ago. He just wanted it GONE, so when he offered it to me at $20, no way I could turn it down. I hope to use the slide to surprise a buddy that managed to crack his 39-2 slide where metal is the thinnest at the bottom of the milled area, left side of slide where the decock lever swings. He'll probably sand and Cera-kote the slide. Beyond that, I got a good deal on some old stock primers. I love to have a good supply of primers.
Not at all gun shows are stun guns, beef jerky and beanie babies. And I didn't mention even one revolver, there were thousands of them present.
So I'll recap some of the more interesting guns that I saw. And keep in mind, I'm merely listing what was interesting to me -- there were countless guns that folks on this forum would totally love that I tend to look right past.
Smith & Wesson 1-2-3rd Gens and PC are my absolute favorite, so I'll start there. One 4566 TSW, a couple 645's, not a single 4506, two 659's, two 439's, a couple of 5906's and a DAO 3rd Gen here and there, 9mm & .40cal. Saw a 3919 LadySmith, good looking pistol. Was one CS-45. There was a completely gorgeous non-IPSC marked 745, about as close to mint as I've seen, with the original box. $750 was the price on that, not outrageous for the package. There wasn't a single Model 52 at this show today. This show had more 39-2 pistols than I have ever seen in one place and they ran the gamut from "re-import and stuffed under a camel's saddle" to fresh/mint, in the original box. Who doesn't love a 39-2? I have two, so I wasn't buying.
In PC pistols, only two. A Shorty.45 that was in nice shape but not dead mint that was tagged at $1,050. The other was an early blued PC-1911, too much at $1,800 I thought.
The kicker in S&W pistols: a no-dash Model 39, steel frame. I thought it was odd that someone had colored the lettering in as you will occasionally see. In this case, they didn't "white letter" it, it was a yellow color. Could have been white years back that morphed in to a yellow. Man, you'd sure want to get that out of there if you had a safe method. Pistol was otherwise in fine shape, and price tag said $2,800.
Saw an older Wilson Combat 1911 that was tagged at $1,500 which is the lowest price I've seen on a used Wilson in years. I'm not much in to high-buck 1911's but my buddy is, so he checked it out but didn't get excited over it. In what I thought was at least a bit odd, this Wilson had no front strap checkering whatsoever. In other semi-autos, one each of an Auto-Mag and a Wildey.
Now this show is loaded with historic, extremely collectible and valuable firearms but I've seen these many many times and I'm not in that market. So if you are in to Mauser Broomhandles, Luger pistols, Colt and S&W revolvers and GI Colt 1911's, you'd collapse before you counted all of these up. Yes, I think they are fantastic, but I don't have any intention of buying things like this, so I don't spend a lot of time looking at them. With that said, there was certainly an interesting one worth telling about...
The dealer said that it was a Colt 1911 in .38 AMU and that it wasn't commercial, but rather an issued gun. He said they were rare either way, but a non-commercial issued one that was originally made in .38 AMU was exceptionally rare, and he had this tagged at $14,000. I know basically zero about collectible Colt, but I think this was neat. Oh, and since I'm talking GI stuff, there was one Liberator pistol. Neat thing. I don't recall the price. Boy I'd love to shoot one but I doubt anyone would ever let me and I can tell you that I sure won't ever buy one at their price, heh.
Last but not least was an oddity that I have heard about and seen in magazines, but at this show was the first one I had ever seen in the flesh -- a Randall Portsider. It didn't have a price tag on it.
Fun show. I bought a 39/59 complete top end... slide with rear sight & extractor, spring, guide rod, decocker, firing pin/spring, barrel and bushing. The left side of the slide was eaten up pretty badly, the dealer told me that he had a 59 tucked between a waterbed and it's frame and the mattress apparently had a small leak, it sat jammed in there and wet for some time. He had gotten a new top end somewhere and all of this went in to a bag decades ago. He just wanted it GONE, so when he offered it to me at $20, no way I could turn it down. I hope to use the slide to surprise a buddy that managed to crack his 39-2 slide where metal is the thinnest at the bottom of the milled area, left side of slide where the decock lever swings. He'll probably sand and Cera-kote the slide. Beyond that, I got a good deal on some old stock primers. I love to have a good supply of primers.
Not at all gun shows are stun guns, beef jerky and beanie babies. And I didn't mention even one revolver, there were thousands of them present.
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