rburg
Member
Hey, today was a really good one. The best in years as a matter of fact. I didn't hold out a lot of hope for it. The last few have bordered on terrible for any of a number of reasons. The other ill omen was that it was in what they call the "north" hall. Kind of wedged out past the south wing and the other buildings. It means it has no dedicated parking, you just force your way to share with the other buildings. Worse still there was a home improvement or home decorating show in the South Wing. Our only advantage was we started earlier.
So we shuffled across the huge parking lot into the even bigger reception foyer. Never hard to tell where the gun show is, all kinds of crazy hillbillies hauling artillery and dressed in odd camo. But once inside things seemed to pick up. We had a good table off to the right of the entrance. Fairly good guys around us and not too far from our friends. I even entertained hopes of seeing and buying a new Model 69. So I started walking. Just a lot of good stuff. Some priced high, but thats just how things are these days.
Some of the prices kind of scared me (I scare easily). All the powder was through the roof. 8# jugs were over $200 with the CFE223 being at $220. Ug. Lots of bullets, but .30 match were up around $41 a box and the guy wanted tax on top of it. There were some private tables selling really old ammo (just not antique). It looked like my fathers closet shelves from the 1960s. And I was a jerk and didn't buy any. Somebody wanted a couple of old guns I'd been dragging around for way too long, and my table partner Joe sold the kit gun he'd been campaigning forever. He was ready to leave before noon (he felt rich.) We had lots of tire kickers, too. Doublesharp had a pair of well worn K22s, but fairly priced (a miracle from him). I have no idea why those don't sell.
Blake was there with a nice M&P, but Joe wanted to bask in the wealth of selling a gun. No sale. We also didn't see GF. The rumor was out that he was working. He's not old like some of us, and still slaves with his nose to the grindstone. I sure hope he's going to buy his nephew's some ammo with all that money.
.22s are in abundance, but it looks like the old $55 price is just a fond memory, like finding 22s in Walmart or a gun shop. The new prices seem to have settled in at $60 up past $75. There was a lot of other reloading components there. All priced high enough to support the $1 a shot price level that centerfire factory ammo is bringing. If this doesn't settle out, we'll end up killing our sport.
And the Fugates were there. Well, the brothers and the really pretty girl. No sign of the big guy and the short old guy. They were buying guns, too. I guess in their line of work, you've got to keep buying to support the sales. They seem to be willing to pay fair prices for good to great guns. The guess was they'd already bought a couple of dozen and the weekend was young still. Blake came buy our display and I offered him the contents of my display case for his K22 2nd model. He said too bad, he didn't bring it along. I'm thinking he wants to keep it.
The knife folks were out and about, too. I managed to buy a pair of brand new unused Randall sheaths. One was for a 1-7 and the other for a 2-7. No, I don't own either knife. But they're pretty works of leather. I think we also need to coordinate with Dave Keith a little better. I have no idea if he was showing up or not. The food was a lot better than average. They had a pizza display for the first time. It was packed. And the ice cream stand was inside. Along with the Kentucky Pork producers. They sell a huge pork chop sandwich. My wife and I settled for the chicken place. I had a chicken tenders basket and she had chicken and dumplins. The fries that made mine a basket were awful, but the chickies were pretty good. No, I didn't sample the cat fish. At a show with 3000 tables and probably 10,000 folks inside, having decent food to select from was a real change.
Better still the promoter wasn't on the PA all the time. The first time I heard him I realized it was almost noon. Could be he was talking and we were all ignoring him. The hall has a really high ceiling. It could pass for a hanger for jumbo jets. Looked to me like nearly everyone was having a good time. Aisles were wide enough. Folks still stopped to contemplate their next move, holding up a lot of others. I think there's a art or skill involved in selecting the aisle to go down and then getting past the road blocks.
Over on the far side, where the civil war junk is often deposited there were actually open tables. We had a bunch of guys wearing camo, and Charlie Sherills son was actually wearing a Vietnam era army outfit. And just so everyone is comfortable, we had some clown all dressed up in a Nazi uniform! Its lost its shock value and we ignored him. I'm guessing he's an idiot.
Back to the S&W model 69 thing. I stopped at Antique and Moderns tables and asked. They said they wish they could get them. They've got 3 or 4 guys who say they want one. I told them to up it to 4 or 5 guys.
So we shuffled across the huge parking lot into the even bigger reception foyer. Never hard to tell where the gun show is, all kinds of crazy hillbillies hauling artillery and dressed in odd camo. But once inside things seemed to pick up. We had a good table off to the right of the entrance. Fairly good guys around us and not too far from our friends. I even entertained hopes of seeing and buying a new Model 69. So I started walking. Just a lot of good stuff. Some priced high, but thats just how things are these days.
Some of the prices kind of scared me (I scare easily). All the powder was through the roof. 8# jugs were over $200 with the CFE223 being at $220. Ug. Lots of bullets, but .30 match were up around $41 a box and the guy wanted tax on top of it. There were some private tables selling really old ammo (just not antique). It looked like my fathers closet shelves from the 1960s. And I was a jerk and didn't buy any. Somebody wanted a couple of old guns I'd been dragging around for way too long, and my table partner Joe sold the kit gun he'd been campaigning forever. He was ready to leave before noon (he felt rich.) We had lots of tire kickers, too. Doublesharp had a pair of well worn K22s, but fairly priced (a miracle from him). I have no idea why those don't sell.
Blake was there with a nice M&P, but Joe wanted to bask in the wealth of selling a gun. No sale. We also didn't see GF. The rumor was out that he was working. He's not old like some of us, and still slaves with his nose to the grindstone. I sure hope he's going to buy his nephew's some ammo with all that money.
.22s are in abundance, but it looks like the old $55 price is just a fond memory, like finding 22s in Walmart or a gun shop. The new prices seem to have settled in at $60 up past $75. There was a lot of other reloading components there. All priced high enough to support the $1 a shot price level that centerfire factory ammo is bringing. If this doesn't settle out, we'll end up killing our sport.
And the Fugates were there. Well, the brothers and the really pretty girl. No sign of the big guy and the short old guy. They were buying guns, too. I guess in their line of work, you've got to keep buying to support the sales. They seem to be willing to pay fair prices for good to great guns. The guess was they'd already bought a couple of dozen and the weekend was young still. Blake came buy our display and I offered him the contents of my display case for his K22 2nd model. He said too bad, he didn't bring it along. I'm thinking he wants to keep it.
The knife folks were out and about, too. I managed to buy a pair of brand new unused Randall sheaths. One was for a 1-7 and the other for a 2-7. No, I don't own either knife. But they're pretty works of leather. I think we also need to coordinate with Dave Keith a little better. I have no idea if he was showing up or not. The food was a lot better than average. They had a pizza display for the first time. It was packed. And the ice cream stand was inside. Along with the Kentucky Pork producers. They sell a huge pork chop sandwich. My wife and I settled for the chicken place. I had a chicken tenders basket and she had chicken and dumplins. The fries that made mine a basket were awful, but the chickies were pretty good. No, I didn't sample the cat fish. At a show with 3000 tables and probably 10,000 folks inside, having decent food to select from was a real change.
Better still the promoter wasn't on the PA all the time. The first time I heard him I realized it was almost noon. Could be he was talking and we were all ignoring him. The hall has a really high ceiling. It could pass for a hanger for jumbo jets. Looked to me like nearly everyone was having a good time. Aisles were wide enough. Folks still stopped to contemplate their next move, holding up a lot of others. I think there's a art or skill involved in selecting the aisle to go down and then getting past the road blocks.
Over on the far side, where the civil war junk is often deposited there were actually open tables. We had a bunch of guys wearing camo, and Charlie Sherills son was actually wearing a Vietnam era army outfit. And just so everyone is comfortable, we had some clown all dressed up in a Nazi uniform! Its lost its shock value and we ignored him. I'm guessing he's an idiot.
Back to the S&W model 69 thing. I stopped at Antique and Moderns tables and asked. They said they wish they could get them. They've got 3 or 4 guys who say they want one. I told them to up it to 4 or 5 guys.
