What was the dealers reaction? Apparently there was no checking of weapons being brought in ?
Surprised, shocked, stunned,,especially after dumping the first rd into one of their hands and having them feel that that was it,,relieved that the gun was now unloaded and safe.
I then slowly worked the action again and another rd came up.
I said it's still loaded guys!
Then they really started to get nervous.
I had the rifle pointed upwards all the time. At that point I just depressed the slide latch and worked the action till no more rds came out. They were all over the floor and the glass topped display case. Lots of scrambling then.
When I thought the mag was empty, I pulled the tube and left the action open. There was no round on the carrier of course.
I could then peek down the empty magazine outer tube and you can see the shiny steel carrier. I was sure the tube and gun was empty.
I had asked them if they had any action proving dummy rds handy. I wanted to run one through the mag and back out the action and into my hand. That will prove that the entire system is clear of live rds. Dummy in,,Dummy out.
They looked at me like I had asked for something in a foreign language. Maybe they just didn't hear me , I speak rather softly most of the time.
Can't use a Sharpie marked up/blackened LIVE rd as a check,,I'd be placing a live round into the rifle,,then I'd be the bad guy.
So I did the mag tube look-see to confirm it was empty.
It can look odd to bystanders as you appear to be looking down the bbl of the rifle,,but I wasn't about to hand this rifle back to any of them with the chance it was still loaded.
Where would that leave me if it was.
The Table Holders/Dealers have their own side entrance to the building not unlike most venues.
Their guns are not checked at the 'door' by security, they just walk in with them,,and back out freely as a Table Holder.
Standard procedure.
Anyone coming in through the Public Entrance/paid customer,,if you bring in a gun, it must be checked in. You show your DL, the gun is checked to make sure it's unloaded,..Magazine removed if equipted.
Gun is tiewrapped closed and tagged with your ID and guns info.
I saw a lot of guns on tables that were not tie wrapped. That kind of surprised me.
It's been common practice at shows around here for yrs that every gun in the show, carried around or on a table is to be tie wrapped.
This rifle was not tie wrapped on the table. Not unusual at that particular event as I looked around.
But I am still glad I didn't let my guard down this one time and just pick the rifle up, work the action... and perhaps pull the trigger...it could have happened so easily.
