What is your favorite gun collecting or gun show memory?

[Muley Gil]

Back in the early '70s, I was introduced, via magazines and books, the .44 Special cartridge and revolvers. In 1973, I met a fellow student who had a post WW II transitional .44 3rd Model HE. Over the next 30 plus years, I looked for a 3rd Model. The few that I saw were waaay out of my budget as a poor cop.

In 1976, I had a M27-2 converted to .44 Special, but I still wanted a 3rd Model.

Fast forward to 2007. I planned my leave from Afghanistan so that I could attend the big gun show in Chantilly VA. After I flew in, I rented a car, checked into my motel and went to the show. I walked the show and then made a quick pass down one side. In a glass case, I spotted a large nickel S&W revolver. It was a 5" 3rd Model! I dickered a little bit and the dealer dropped the price $50. I picked up a few odds and ends and went back to my motel room.

I called tennexplorer and started telling him about the odds and ends i had bought. Then I casually mentioned the 3rd Model. He just about shouted in my ear.

The first 3rd Model was #28358. Mine was only five numbers higher.

 

[RobertJ.]

No outstanding deals come to mind at the moment, except for this: Around 1997, I bought an old Marlin Model 60 at a swap meet for 30 bucks, took it home, cleaned it up, then took it to the next gun show that came to town. I traded it straight across for a NIB Sheridan .20 cal. pellet rifle. And he thought he got the better end of the deal!

 

[doublesharp]

I've been setting up at NGD over 20 years and have at least that many stories. Some of my best memories have nothing to do with guns but are about the characters I call friends.

Charlie Sherrill and I were sitting behind my table and Hank Jr looked at my wares and we never even looked up. Hank came back and borrowed my bore light and said I've been buying guns from you for 20 years (he hasn't) I laughed and said yeah and you bought/sold from my uncle 20 years before that, (he did).

Dave Keith bought something that cost about $500 and he laughed and said "hell, I've paid more than that to see the next card" and I'm sure he has. Ol 44special always livens things up!

rburg doesn't come around here much anymore but he is a walking S&W encyclopedia and always has some good bs stories. He can spot a babe 3 aisles away but he'd be like a dog chasing cars - what would he do if he caught one

gf is my table pard and he and Rand Paul struck up a conversation. Fast forward 6 months and Rand sees gf in the aisle and greets him with a big "Hello Mr Smith & Wesson"

Used to be a good ol boy from western Ky who had a protruding hernia so naturally his nickname was 3 teat. He always pinhooked good guns. One show I'd been buying but not selling much and he came by with a 5" mod 27 for $600 - I was short but I'd just turned down $500 on a 6" mod 28 so I told him to watch my table and I chased down mod 28 guy and asked if he was still interested - he was. deal worked and I've still got the 5" 27.

Same guy down at Cave City. 3T has a 4" 617 no dash w/combats. Sitting at liar's club table in concession area and I asked how much? $475 and not a penny less. I offer $425 and he laughs. I didn't say another word - just pulled out 475 and bought it. still have it

Found a 4 screw 29 w/cokes at an 80 table National Guard armory show for 575. I'd never seen cokes in person and wasn't particularly impressed. Offered 550 and got it for 560. still have it

I'd recently read the story about Jack Puglisi buying the Parker Invincible for $250,000 at a Julia's auction. Jack hung around my neighbors endcap and during a slow Sunday when there were several around shooting the breeze I asked him about the auction. Man he lit up and really relished telling the tale. Said you could feel the air go out of the room when his first bid was $250,000.

 

[Fishinfool]

When I was a young man in CT, there was an annual gun show at the Stratford Armory. Going to it always seemed like an adventure, walking the isles, talking guns with the guys behind the tables, getting to see stuff I had only read about (was a gun magazine fanatic back then), and can't forget the obligatory sausage sub.

Second year I went, I was in the market for a slug gun. CT had just announced a limited, lottery drawing only deer season, slug only. (Shows how deer numbers have increased since the 1970's)

Found a guy who had a couple tables of guns, and had set up a small gunsmithing booth. He had a new Mossberg 12 ga pump with a 20 inch cyl choke. I think I paid like $100 for it, and that included him D&T the receiver for scope mounts. Ended up putting a Weaver 2.5 scope on that shotgun, and killing 4 or 5 deer with it over the years. Still have it. Considering how liberal / anti gun CT has become over the years, I doubt they still have that show.

Larry

 

[bigmtnman]

Buddy at our table says to me "I can't believe nobody is even picking up this shotgun to look at it" (vintage double barrel). The next show he has the same shotgun on the table at the same price. I tell him to double the price and "I think your price is too low and people think there must be something wrong with it" ..... 10 minutes later - SOLD (full asking $)

Oh yeah .. almost forgot. The biscuits and sausage gravy at the Laramie Wyoming show.

 

[Golddollar]

This story starts with my undergoing a botched heart procedure in 2016 that was intended to open up a blocked coronary artery. Fully anticipating having to undergo another heart procedure, I was totally surprised when my regular cardiologist told me that since I never had any symptoms, if I ate better, took my medications, exercised more and lost weight I'd do just as well or better than further surgery. This sounded too good to be true so I made an appointment with the Cleveland Clinic for a second opinion.

So on the appointed day, my brother and I went to the Cleveland Clinic where I got checked out, and the doctor I saw backed up my cardiologist's opinion. My brother and I were in a joyful mood, so instead of taking the freeway back to his house, we took the old federal highway, US 322.

It wasn't long until we passed a little strip plaza with a gun shop in the middle. We found a place to turn around and went back to that gun shop. At the second handgun case, I looked down and saw a Heavy Long Slide Government Model .45 that had been built by the late Jim Clark. I never thought I would ever see something like that. The proprietor was a gentleman about my age, and we got to talking about the old time pistolsmiths that I knew from my studies, i. e. Jim Clark, John Giles, Bob Chow, Austin Behlert. My brother anticipated that the conversation was going to take a long time, and asked what the cash price would be on the gun. The price was right, I put a Golden Dollar down to hold the deal, and my brother and I went down to the bank to get the cash. I ended up as the proud owner of the Clark gun and that was the start of a great relationship that my brother and I have with Mayfield Guns. My brother said the shop owner needed a mop from me drooling on the floor when I saw the gun.

 

[dsf]

I don't know about favorite but it's my funniest.

At the Reno Gun show about 15 years ago I happened across two young types dickering with a seller at his table. They were passing a Ruger Mini 14 factory folding stock back & forth between one another. While telling the seller he was asking too much. I stood back, didn't want to interrupt the deal, such as it was. They pronounced the price too high, laid it back on the table and walked off.

I hustled over, picked up the stock and checked the tag, then handed over the asking price - actually gave him an extra buck for a rounded off $100.00.

I spent the rest of the show walking around with it and being asked "you selling?" about every 30 seconds. At one point I went to the restroom, doing my business with the folder on the urinal. Guy came up to me and asked "excuse me - is that thing for sale .....?"

Mmmm no, neither.

 

[lawandorder]

The wild tales that Sellers will tell you have............

.........always been a great source of entertainment for me.

One of the best was at the Little Rock show about 20 years ago. A fellow from over Memphis way had a table filled with what looked like the contents of a pawn shop from the late 1800s.

A very unusual lever action rifle caught my eye and I asked about it.
He launched into what seemed like a well rehearsed spiel about the manufacture and ownership of the rifle.

He told me the "rifle" was built in the territorial prison in Indian Territory by an inmate, in the penitentiary hobby room I guess.

He then began the tale of the fellow who built it, the noted Cherokee Outlaw, Ned Christie. Now there was a small bunch of folks listening to his story. He said that Ned took it with him when he got out of prison (paroled, escaped quien sabe?) and used it the rest of his life including his final shoot out with Deputy U. S. Marshals.

Now as a rule I don't call out BS but could not resist this one. After he told me the asking price was a mere $5,000 U.S. dollars my mouth ran away before I could rein it in.

Asked him if he knew the Ned had never served time in the Territorial Prison at all. How do you know that? Well Oklahoma never had a prison until it became a state in 1908. Prior to that criminals would have been housed in local, federal or othe state jails and Ned was killed by the lawmen on November 3 1892.

Close but no seegar. Ned was a Blacksmith and Gunsmith but owned and used a Winchester that is believed to be in the National Park Collection @ Fort Smith. He was arrested once in 1885 for Manslaughter but was found not quilty. Had he been incarcerated for this it would have been in the Cherokee National prison in Tahlequah.

Interesting fellow and his story is also. Probably innocent of the crime the Feds were after him so hard for, the murder of U. S. Deputy Marshal Dan Maples. He was the only fellow I have heard of that the government used a cannon against to attemp an arrest for a crime.

Some of the provenance of a gun is better than others.

 

[s&wchad]

Gun show memories??? I could write a book!

I started going to gun shows when I was 18 years old. This is one of my favorite stories and got me interested in old Winchester lever guns. There was a local venue called Gibraltar Trade Center that had regular guns shows. They opened on Friday evenings, so I went there after work one day.

I spotted a Winchester 1894 rifle that was like nothing I had ever seen before. It had a checkered pistol grip stock, a 20" half-round barrel and was a takedown. At the time, I didn't know Winchester ever made anything like that and had no clue when it was produced! Old lever guns didn't really interest me back then, but this one caught my eye. The finish was fabulous and unlike other modern guns. I don't remember exactly what I paid, but it was somewhere around $300. That was about all I had in walking-around money at the time.

A few weeks later, I took it to the Michigan Antique Arms Collectors show to try to get some information. Two Winchester collectors/dealers literally chased me around the show trying to buy it. I'm on a first name basis with both of them now. One of them stutters when he gets excited and he was stuttering up a storm! The offers hit $2000, but I turned it down and took the gun back home. Someone else at the show suggested I get a letter from the Cody Firearms Museum, so I ponied up and paid for a letter.

Here's the letter:

Here are a few photos of the gun:

Within the next 15 years, I had become a contributing member of the Cody Museum, had a shelf full of reference books, a fair number of old Winchesters and two custom made display racks!

 

[CH4]

Many great gun show memories, but the one that stands out the most is a Cal Expo show in Sacramento, 1991ish.

I brought with me a beautiful Sako AV in 300 WBY, which didn't make it past the first table - traded it for something, don't remember what. I then proceeded to trade my new acquisition for another rifle, and that rifle for yet another and so on. After 4-5 trades I started to feel seller's remorse so I headed back to the first table where my Sako was still forlornly resting. Sensing my remorse and liking the gun I was currently carrying, the seller agreed to swap me back for my Sako. Not a single $ was exchanged; they were all straight trades. Cheap entertainment.

 

[CLASSIC12]

Back in June 1999, a good friend and shooting buddy sends me a fax (yes a TELEFAX) with the copy of a newspaper ad for a forced auction after a private bankruptcy.

I wrote to the bankruptcy office and asked for a detailed list of the guns offered for sale.

When I saw the Beretta 93 R, having already a 92 F from 1986 which I adored (and still have), I knew I should try to buy it.

I asked the LGS what price would be reasonable, in order words where do I stop bidding. He told me that the normal value was abt. 1000.- Swiss francs (abt 670.- $ back then), but that would have been if you could have bought one new from Beretta. However they sold in very limited quantities, mostly to police and/or counter terrorism forces, and only in batches (like 10 guns or so).

So finding one in the private market was extremely rare and a price of upto 3000.- Swiss francs (2000.- $) would be reasonable. I went to the bank and created a dent in my savings account, took 3 grand out.

Despite the listing number, they sold the special objects (full auto) last (the Beretta 12 MG, the 93 R and the 1928 A1 Thompson). It was the main event.

At first Tom Dick and Harry were happily bidding, increments of CHF 100.-. After a while, nearing two grand we were only two left truly interested in this gun (others were saving their pennies for the Tommy gun or spent them on the 12 MG). We kept increasing by 100.-, 2200, 2300, 2400, when the other guy showed he was running out of oxygen: he started bidding by 5.- increments, like 2405.-. So I kept increasing by 100.- to discourage him. At 2605 I decided to slow down, offered 2650.- (US$ 1770.-). He gave up, lot number 37 was mine.

Recently I saw three being sold locally at abt. 5000.- CHF (about the same in US$ today). Another LGS sold one for 6'000.- a couple of years ago.



A few recent pictures

And I dug out the original box

 

[petepeterson]

Not a great memory, but a lesson learned.
I found a 6" Colt Diamondback in .22LR for $600. Asked him if he would take $550, and was refused.
Like I often did, I figured I'd get it next time around and pay full price. You see the same stuff there show after show. 3 months later, same show, same guy, $750 price tag.
Figured if I didn't pay 6 for it, I certainly couldn't pay $750!
It was gone the next time I walked by.

 

[TXBryan]

Gun shows have changed hereabouts over the last 10-15 years. Austin once hosted some very large and interesting shows but that's a no-go anymore for political policy purposes.

Ft. Worth had big shows and back in the mid-90s I attended them regularly. I fondled a Ruger No.3 in .375 Winchester at a dealer's table two shows in a row and tried to get him to deal with me to no avail. The third show I gave him what he wanted for it. Silly in retrospect because if all my investments appreciated like that one I could retire.

Some smaller town gun shows have proved interesting lately. In a nearby town of about 30K people I chanced across a Marlin Model 28 pump-action shotgun in wonderful shape. Manufactured in either 1915 or 1916 my proportionately reduced 12 gauge loads make this shotgun a dove hunter. The table tag was smudged so I quoted the price I thought was on the tag as a query to clarify his asking price. He immediately replied he'd take $200 for it which was $75 less than the tag. To me it's worth more than that as a wall-hanger.

I wasn't looking for an old Marlin shotgun but always try to keep an open mind at a gun show. Turns out I needed that shotgun. I absolutely love using a 100+ year-old firearm for its intended purpose.

 

[quikdraw67]

Syracuse at the NY State Fair 1997.

Best buddy was living there at the time.

His wife and daughter went to her parents house for the weekend. Let the party begin!

I didn't buy anything, but saw stuff that I never saw again. Mint M1903A1, Singer M1911A1, Stg44 with the curved barrel. Lots of cool stuff.

Plus, they served beer, and we cabbed it all weekend.

Then there was the "gentleman's club" incident after the gun show, but this is a family friendly forum, and I can't afford another ding

 

[pharmer]

My best "gunshow memories" happened 1982-1995 when I had an 01 FFL. I used to go out to RSR when they were on East Colonial (or shop the Shotgun news) and buy a boatload of "oddballs", guns on closeout. $59 H&R 929's, $159 S&W's (520's were $189!) $69 SKS's, $189 Colt's MKIII's etc. There were so many revolvers at dirt cheap prices during the "transition" over to autos. I had shows where I emptied my shoulder bag and had near $1K more than I left the house with. The last great gunshow moment actually came from my bud, "the doc"'s guns. Near the end of the Lakeland show being at the Lakeland Center Doc had 4 guns he deemed "surplus." He wanted $1K for all. Walk in the door and a dealer bushwhacks us, quick hunker-dicker and then he walks off at the $1K (guns were worth way more). So we walk in, I'm torqued and the next guy I raised the price to $1200. He had to borrow the last $100 from his table pard. Felt much better. Thanks for the trip down "gunshow memory lane."
Here's a pic of a $189 "RSR closeout" Yugo .223 Mini MKX

Joe

 

[rubiranch]

Acquiring this 4" pre-27 shipped April 22, 1957 to the H.H. Harris Co from George Dye, Salt Lake Collectibles.

 

[Simson-Suhl]

1963 or '64, I attended a Gun Show in Edmond OK with a friend, I gave the seller two dollars, ($2.00 was all the money I had at the time), to hold the sell until I could go home to get my check book. He kept his word and I made the purchase, a mint and I do mean mint O3A3! Price $20.00!
Firearms were cheap in those days, and so were my wages.

PS Gun Shows were free in those days.

 

[rbmac52]

The year was 1973. I was 21 years old. Only recently had I begun my interest in and love for Smith & Wesson revolvers. At the time, I was a proud owner of three; a Model 14 with 8-3/8" barrel, a 2" Model 60, and a Model 17 with 6" barrel.

It was a close high school buddy who nurtured my interest in revolvers and he also kindled my interest in reloading. Target shooting became my passion and I wanted my target guns to have white outline rear sights so I made the drive to Monrovia, California (about an hour from my home town of Fullerton) to the west coast authorized warranty service center for Smith & Wesson, known as Cheshire & Perez, to buy the parts for the conversion from the standard black rear sight slides.

The place was about as non-descript as a gun shop could be; a concrete block walled building with no windows and no gun related signs outside whatsoever. Inside were racks of police related accessories, leather goods, and such. Just a sales counter where customers waited in line for their turn.

I noticed that almost all of the customers were plain-clothes police officers. When I came to be second in line, the copper in front of me was looking over a beautiful brand new blue Model 29 6-1/2 incher in the presentation case. I was familiar with the model because my friend had one that he had purchased second hand from the owner of the local gun shop in Fullerton for a whopping $350 and, of course, the Dirty Harry movie that was all the rage at the time.

As the officer decided he wasn't going to purchase the 44 Magnum, I couldn't wait to get my chance at it. When the officer was finished with his business and left, it was my turn and I asked the counter man, Henry Perez himself, if I could take a look at the gun. He pulled it out from under the counter and I asked him what the price was. He told me it was the MSRP of $203.50. I didn't hesitate one minute before I pulled out my wallet and did the deal. Of course, at that time I was still a few years away from becoming a copper myself, so I had to live through the mandated 10-day waiting period before I could take it home with me. My high school buddy was pretty jealous of my good fortune, as you might imagine.

I kept that gun for nearly 20 years before I was talked out of it by one of my colleagues in law enforcement. It wasn't too long thereafter, though, that I acquired two more Model 29s, a 4 inch nickel and a blue 8-3/8 inch model to take the place of my original.

I made many more trips to Cheshire & Perez for parts and guns for work, but never had another experience quite like that one.

 

[AJ]

The most fun at a gun show that I have ever had was at the big L.A. gun show. The little show was billed as 7 miles of tables. The Big show was billed as 14.5 miles of tables. I do believe it was as it took us three days to see it all (Fri., Sat., & Sun.). To bad it does not exist anymore. Now our big show here is 600+ tables once a year in Lakeland. Locally about 250 tables in two different towns about 8 times a year.

 

[SAFireman]

I have two...both with my dad.

First one was when I was pretty young....we used to go to a show that had antique military vehicles on display (in addition to guns, knives, and other fun stuff). I remember climbing all over those jeeps, trucks, and everything else - I can still remember the smell of the old machines and the OD canvas that covered the crew areas and sensitive tools, bags.

Second one was quite a bit more recently. We had been hitting the local shows pretty hard. I had gotten my dad involved with this forum and his gun collecting interests had drifted to S&W. Both he and I were on the hunt for all things S&W.

Neither of us had owned (or seen in person) a Registered Magnum or Triple Lock. While at a local show, one of our buddies who has a table had a nice RM. I was a good son, and called my dad over to look at it. He bought it after a succession of phone calls to the boss lady to make sure that it was OK, and had to return the next day with a check.

We had a deal, I would be his 'eyes' and help him find and acquire his first RM.....BUT, I got to shoot it first

We have since 'bird-dogged' several very nice guns for one-another and still continue the tradition. Occasionally, he sneaks one by me, but that's OK.

We have a big show coming up later this year, and I can't wait to walk through the wares and see what we can uncover.