What is your favorite gun collecting or gun show memory?

[TheHobbyist]

I'll start. Nothing to do with me, although I have a number of tall tales. One of my best memories was going to a large gun show years ago with a childhood friend. We grew up together from elementary school an onwards; continued to be good friends in college and to this day.

Shortly after college, we would go shooting on occasion and I would bring out various Smith's or Colt's and he didn't have much experience. After about a year or so teaching/help directing, he wanted to go and buy his first revolver.

We get there early, long line, he has a good sense of what he wants (S&W...I may have influenced that to be fair). Walking around with cash in our pockets, I can't recall what I bought now but he bought a 2.5" nickel Model 19 with all the goodies for $450.00. Smile on my long-time friends face was priceless. We shot for many years, both got married and still managed to get to the range. His excitement and joy was really something; good memory. It's been around 15 years since then, he still has the gun, and we keep in contact. It's really a good memory and was excited for him on his new purchase...there have been a few since, too.

 

[walkin jack]

Every time I went just to look around and not in the market for anything in particular and stumbled across a really great deal on a really great find.

After all...happiness is a new gun.

 

[lihpster]

When we lived in central Oregon at the tail end of the '70s, there was a local, dawn to dusk, AM radio station. Being in a small town they did alot of things other than play music. Coordinating searches for lost livestock for example. One of the things they did was called "Tradio on the Radio". Sell, trade, offer free stuff, whatever. So one day, my father and I are driving along, going to a nearby lake to go fishing, when a little old lady comes on and says she wants to get rid of her husbands old double barrel shotguns. She wants $50 for the pair. Now this was in the days before cell phones and the nearest pay phone was 10 miles away and back the way we came. My father ANCHORS the brakes, right on the highway, whips a u-turn and flogs that old Chevy back the way we came. We're doing 90 trying to get to a phone. That old pickup was screaming. We get to the store where the phone is and as we are pulling in, someone calls in and takes the shotguns. Shoot. Oh well, let's go fishing. As we get back to the spot where we hit the brakes, obvious from the black streaks on the road, my dad says, "Damnit! I forgot my buddy lives about half a mile up that road." If we could have used his phone, he might have got the guns. Didn't get any fish either, IIRC.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I had a table down at the Ruidoso Gunshow.
Somebody is watching my table so I can cruise around.
Oh my Goodness! It's a 629 no dash, P&R.
No tag. Trying not to act too excited, I ask, how much?
'It's not for sale. I want to trade it for a Browning Citori.'
Confused, you bet!
I don't have one of those!
'That guy over there does.'
You telling me you'll trade this 629 for that Citori?
Yes!
Did you ever read the Jack London Story about the Huge Pearl?
It was once in a lifetime find and the South Pacific Family who found it knew that.
So they refused a money offer from the Pearl Buyer and demanded a list of things including a House and a Sewing Machine.
So we stumble over to the Citori and I buy it.
Hand it over and get my 629.
This one right here.

 

[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.

 

[pasound]

Gun shows are maybe gone in my area, as the local retail venue was sold a few months back. But, a few years ago, saw a 617 on a dealer table that piqued my interest. He growled at me when I picked it up to look (he had a do not touch sign - I didn't see it at the end of the table), and it turned out to be one of the early ones with an aluminum cylinder. The cylinder was worn out - deep grooves in the cylinder locking cuts and a heavy turn line. I said no, and he actually said "go away." That one person made me skeptical of dealers at shows, at least in my area.

 

[TheHobbyist]

There's good with the bad. Thanks for sharing. TH

 

[Muss Muggins]

Pick up gun his sign to not touch. Then don't buy or even make an offer. I understand his issue . . .

Gun shows are maybe gone in my area, as the local retail venue was sold a few months back. But, a few years ago, saw a 617 on a dealer table that piqued my interest. He growled at me when I picked it up to look (he had a do not touch sign - I didn't see it at the end of the table), and it turned out to be one of the early ones with an aluminum cylinder. The cylinder was worn out - deep grooves in the cylinder locking cuts and a heavy turn line. I said no, and he actually said "go away." That one person made me skeptical of dealers at shows, at least in my area.

I just like going to shows and looking at guns. My favorite moment? The next one . . .

 

[paplinker]

Gun shows are maybe gone in my area, as the local retail venue was sold a few months back. But, a few years ago, saw a 617 on a dealer table that piqued my interest. He growled at me when I picked it up to look (he had a do not touch sign - I didn't see it at the end of the table), and it turned out to be one of the early ones with an aluminum cylinder. The cylinder was worn out - deep grooves in the cylinder locking cuts and a heavy turn line. I said no, and he actually said "go away." That one person made me skeptical of dealers at shows, at least in my area.

Especially at a gun show I ask first before I pick something up thats not mine.

I rummage through parts boxes any chance I get lol

Your going to get one of two responses,

They most always say yes and you are forming a great first impression that sure helps if he has a gun you want.

 

[pasound]

If the sign was in front of his display, I would have complied. A year later, I bought an all-stainless 617 at the local chain store, and glad I did. Most accurate .22 I own.

 

[Xfuzz]

I said no, and he actually said "go away." That one person made me skeptical of dealers at shows, at least in my area.

If that had gone down at a Texas show I can only imagine the
ensuing fistfight.

 

[Rustyt1953]

My first. In 1967 my dad took me to my first ever gun show at the Old Cincinnati Gardens which was six blocks from our house. It was massive. We were there for hours and only covered parts of it. It was crowded and I could never have imagined that many guns in one place.

Dad bought a few things but I can't remember what. It was a lot for a wide eyed 14 year old to take in.

I know that there are members here that were familiar with the old place.

 

[delcrossv]

I recall getting Regulation Police targets. Got the first one by tracking down an expired ad. Never thought I'd see another. then two earlier ones pop up almost back to back- one mismarked on GB then the other one underbid at RIA.

 

[Truckman]

Especially at a gun show I ask first before I pick something up thats not mine.

So do I, but when I have a table at a local show, many people just finger the guns and walk away without saying a word...I fixed that at my tables by investing in latched glass top display cases...Now they have to ask......Ben

 

[Bro. Dave]

Back about 2014 or so, in a moment of weakness, I bought a stainless steel engraved SIG P226. Well, what can I say, I was enamored with SIGs. Anyway, I never could love it and it was a little too "cartel" for me and decided it had to go.

A small local gunshow was going on and I took the SIG looking for some kind of trade. After walking the aisles a couple times I spied an aluminum case on a guys back table with what looked like a 1911. Further inquiry revealed that it was a SW PC 945 compact. At the time I had no knowledge of what it really was, but knew it was something special.

We ended up doing an even trade and it came with the case and about 5 magazines. It is one of the exceptions to my typical "buy high, sell low" style and I still feel like I got a heck of a deal. I still have it and can't help but shoot it on occasions.

Without a doubt it was the coolest firearm at that show and nearly no one recognized it for what it is. I still feel lucky just telling the story again!

 

[rustythread]

Fondest memory is calling S & W around 25 years ago to ask about an early Combat Masterpiece I had acquired, and having Roy Jinks answer the phone. He was gracious and friendly, and spent about an hour educating me about S & W revolvers.

 

[robvious]

my favorite gunshow story was back in the late 1980's.. just old enough to buy something... went with my father and our associate pastor to a HIGH SCHOOL gun show.. a different time... pastor picked up a 2 1/2" Model 19... I found a Ruger Mini-14 NIB for a used price... had to run & drag my father over to ask permission... still living at home and in college.. I learned how to explain the "it was too good a deal to pass up angle" to mom... was practice for eventual wife negotiations.. lol.. with a priest in a high school made it special..

 

[Hair Trigger]

My favorite gun-collecting memory (so far), has to be my purchase of my ANIB M58 earlier this year. A gentleman had posted on the forum, wanting to know the value of it and several other guns he had inherited from his former LE partner. I was very interested in the M58, and through a PM we arranged a sale. He wanted to sell it locally, meaning within the state, so he didn't have to mess with shipping and all the FFL paperwork. I live over 4 hours away from him, but I drove to his home and we did the deal. We both have NC Concealed Carry permits, which vastly simplify a sale.

He is in his 80's but only looked about my age (67), and is retired from NCHP and a municipal PD, as well as working drug interdiction in the Caribbean through the US Coast Guard, so he had some stories to tell. I took my NCHP 50th Anniversary Commemorative for him to see, as well as my M57 that the M58 would be a companion for.

We had a very relaxed and enjoyable talk over coffee and guns for half the morning; he had a couple of other guns to sell that I might have taken if I'd had the moolah, but I got the one I wanted, and made a good friend in the bargain. One of the neatest aspects of our encounter were names. His LE partner (for many years) was named Smith, his last name is Wesson.

 

[Truckman]

I've had many moments over the years at gun shows and stores...One I keep bringing up is one of the old Saxet shows at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston in the early 90's...I always like visiting the single-table vendors who seem to have cleaned out their gun rooms and closets, and just piled everything on one table to get rid of it...One guy I had never seen before or since didn't even use a table cover, just had all his loose ammo, magazines, holsters, grips, knives and assorted paraphernalia laid out on the tabletop...

After asking if I could pick up a few items, and sorting through them I picked up an all steel folding lockback knife, the likes of which I had never seen before or since...It appears to be constructed of four pieces of machined steel, and assembled with all interference fit pins, the hinge pin being round on one end and pentagonal on the other...Whatever finish it originally had is long gone, but I've never seen a speck of rust on it...

I asked the old fellow how much he wanted for it and he said, "Oh, gimme seven bucks"...I whipped out the necessary cash and walked away with it...For the last 30 years I've shown it to knife vendors who say they've never seen one before...Of course they all want to buy it, I've even turned down a few hundred dollars for it because I can't replace it...

Mine is shown below in an old photo, but I have seen pictures of the identical knife on a site called Worthpoint, which won't let me see what it sold for unless I sign up on the site, something I'm unwilling to do on a foreign site...I used to think it was a one of a kind handmade knife by some machinist in his spare time, but the letters IAN are in the identical position on the knife I found in the above mentioned Brazilian site...

I'll keep browsing tables for its mate although I don't think I'll ever find another, it's the thrill of the hunt for me......Ben

 

[tdan]

I won't forget this episode at a Miami gun show back in the 90's. This one guy had a used Springfield Armory 1911 compact...... all stainless with 4" barrel with the Officers size frame that was LNIB. I had heard that Springers were a well made 1911, but I just had to check things out for myself. I pulled the slide back, pushed out the slide stop, and thought that I had trapped the recoil spring in my hand as I pushed that short slide off the frame. Not quite, as the short guide rod went flying to who knows where! The seller was in shock, and my buddy commented "Now you have really done it." We did look around on the floor, but no luck. I then said to the seller "How much for this gun now that it's missing a part?" He just stood there. I then told him that I had one of those parts at home and I would buy the gun. I'm thinking it was only 325 bucks. This guy finally came out of shock when my friend said you might get one of those transfer forms before this guy takes any more guns apart. I'm sure that seller was real happy when my background check came through, and I walked away with the "broken " gun.