Would like to hear the truth, lies or whatever.

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Sure you did

me to, come on guy's!!!!

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George Jamison

I saw a lot of nice S&Ws, some were priced rediculously high, but there were some good buys too. I try not to concentrate on handguns, because being out of state makes it to difficult to make a purchase. I saw a very nice K-22 combat masterpiece, pre 18 that I wanted very badly. However the dealer was from Illinois and I was from Kansas and it just wasn't worth the hassle. I did buy a couple pair of nice grips and a Winchester 69A junior target .22.
It's worth the trip just to see the enormity of that show. everybody needs to go at least once.

I got a nice hand made holster for my 3" 624, a T-shirt, and a box of 9 mm Rangers. Lot's of nice stuff there, most of it too high. David Carroll was there with his usual "museum." I enjoyed looking at the engraved registered magnums he had. I ate a $13 cheeseburger. Jr. found a nice WWII Mauser and Machine Gun Mike found another 5" Victory. My feet still hurt and I'm down in my back from the six miles of walking. I didn't hear any guns go off this time.

Just got back after an 11 hour drive home. Good show and picked up quite a few items. David Carroll had an amazing amount of fine items for sale as usual. Saw some cool guns including a round butt 5" M&P target (3rd change), some nice pre 17's, 18's and quite a few pre war 22 outdoorsman's. Pre 29's, 29's and 57's were few and far between. The one's I did see that were in high condition sold quickly (especially cased N frame -2's). There were deals to be had, yet prices remained healthy for higher condition guns. Either way, it seemed people were buying more than a year ago but with an even higher degree of focus on condition. A buddy of mine who is a dealer sold about 20% of his inventory and had his best show yet (all higher condition collector guns). As always, a good time.

I was there all day Saturday. Met some of our fine forum members and apparently missed some more. I kept looking for an orange root beer hat, but never saw it. Picked up a Remington 760 in .270, an H&R .22 revolver, a couple of K/L speedloaders, some knives and some ammo. Went to the Southwest Bunch get together and saw some more forum members and some more nice guns. All in all, I was at it from 8:30 AM to 9:30 PM. I saw almost all of the upper level. I just didn't have the energy to go back yesterday. I'll do the lower level next time.

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Insert short witty words here

Glad to hear you guys had a NICE time, sorry we missed it but,oh well....as to the pre 18's, what kind of prices were they in?? also see any boxes for them?? been watching for one ourselves,ala 1952 vintage.
Thanks for the info........

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dan
NRA Benefactor,PMA

2nd MOdel 44 HE 6 1/2 blue 97% 1/2 price. Bought a Browning takedown gun case with 10 invector plus choke tubes...mostly high end specialty chokes for $750, and got a Browning 802 ES with factory ports, etc for free.

My dealer gets a table at the show and I was able to get an exhibitor’s badge from him, so I got in at noon on Friday. Since the aisles weren’t crowded and a number of the tables were still not set up, I was actually able to get through the entire building in about five hours, which is a record for me. Unfortunately I didn’t find anything that struck my fancy enough to buy.

I skipped Saturday so I could let my feet recover some and went again on Sunday. I did find a few items to buy but none were firearms. Prices were simply too high on anything that I might’ve been interested in. That seems to be a chronic problem at the Wanenmacher show – vendors jack up the price, figuring that with the thousands of people walking buy, there will be a sucker in there somewhere. There can be bargains but they are that much harder to find.

I had better luck at the Grand National show in Tulsa at the end of February. There I found (at good prices) a Texas Commemorative M-544, a 4” M-586, and an oddity – an M-15 that a gunsmith had rebarreled and converted to .22 Hornet. It doesn’t look like factory Hornet ammo will work because overall length is too great for the cylinder. However it came with a partial box of handloads, put together with Hornady .22 Jet bullets that result in a shorter overall length. I haven’t had a chance to shoot it yet.

My stepson and I went on Saturday. I really wasn't looking for anything as I am trying to focus on finishing projects and feeding the guns I already have. I hadn't been since the Fall 2008 show. Maybe I'm just getting grouchy in my old age, but it seems to me there is a general lessening in manners at the show. I understand it's crowded and it's tough not to bump into people. That goes with the territory, but I had a sense of disregard in general for common courtesy. I was taking a break and smoking a cigarrette near the main entrance. Had an individual who was probably close to 70 (I'm a little short of 60) walk up behind me almost unseen, and without saying a word, picked up a catalog off the few purchases I had made setting right next to me. He started to take it with him when the people he was waiting on got there. Had he asked , I'd have had absolutely no problem with him looking through the catalog. You'd think someone in that age group would have learned some manners. Whine is now over.
I looked for a hunter orange Barq's Root Beer hat and didn't find it. Charlie, we really need another of your stories. I also noticed prices at or above going rates. I finally came home with a medium size bag and a few knife blanks to finish.

Good Lord Charlie, that must have been an awfully big cheeseburger.

dant,
pre 18s were scarce at least from me prospective did look at one 5 screw in k239xxx ser range got him down to $685 otd but no box about 90 to 92% but I passed... started at $750. The other 2 I saw were $800 and $900 they both had boxes and about 95%. Didn't see any individual boxes for k22 combats but I could have missed seeing about anything smaller than a Volkswagon....

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Bob Giese

appreciate the info, we know they can easily be overlooked as a
pre 18 or even a model 18, being the shorter barrel.........
sounds like it was a pretty 'full house' at the show........

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dan
NRA Benefactor,PMA