Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Awesome Gun Show find!

I helped with a mini estate sale at the local gun show and war surplus market yesterday and today and was yet again complimented on my over-pricing skills.

Blubbergut "PPfffffttt Ppfffftt, harrump grunt. $20 a bag!!!!"

YoursTruly "Well yessir, but it's new Starline 10mm. A hundred count bag"

Blubbergut "A HUNNERT!! That's it??!"

YT "Yeah, but like I said, it's new prime brass. Unfired"

Blubbergut "Well just other day I got 2000 for $30!!"

YT (blank stare)

BG "Yep, course it was fired"

YT "That's amazing. You don't hardly see that much 10mm fired brass."

BG "Yeah...well...it was forty brass...but that's bout the same thing"...."twunny dollars a bag...ppfffttt.."

YT (smh...smh...smh...) Thanks for stopping by....

16bore,

I went to that gun show Saturday also. Plan was to let the wife handle a Ruger LCR and a S&W Shield with the EZ Slide. She like the revolver best.

I had not been to a gun show in many years and now I remember why. I spent $11.00 each, plus an 2 hours out of my life, for us to go in a look at a lot of junk that was overpriced and what was not junk was way overpriced. The Roanoke gun show has always been poor but if memory serves me correctly the last time I went to the Salem show it was not as good as in years past.

It appears that Tacticool has taken over the shows today.

My little one shouldered a few things and made me realize she could handle and normal stock. Ended up going to SW and getting a pink Hougue for her 10/22. Then shot all morning Sunday. I reckon that was worth the $11.


Those shows are the same old guys in the same old chairs telling the same old stories trying to sell the same old crap.

It's like a time warp.

I wonder if most gun shows are like that. I've seen some of the same rifles show after show after show.

That said, I have found a few good and a few very good deals over the years. I figure it is like elk hunting - time in the field count for a lot. You rarely shoot elk from your campsite at the KOA in town.

That said, I've pretty much stopped going to gun shows unless I need something specific like powder that I can't find elsewhere. Back when H4350 was $225 at the local gun shops I found it for $180 at the Tanner show. (Denver)

I believe they are all the same, unless possibly it is the big one in Tulsa which I have never gotten to go to. I have gone to 3 here in the state of LA in the last year. Of course, I look mostly for an oddball M77. Doesn't matter, in the 3 shows I have seen exactly 1 used 77 and it was a MKII in 270 Win if I remember correctly.

Two months ago, I decided I would take my 700 Classic in the Swede in case I ran across an old Tang safety International in decent shape and I would probably have swapped. No sweat, NO 77's in centerfire used or new that I found. And every one who asked what kind of rifle I had looked confused...not sure if it was the 700 Classic part they were confused about or it being a 6.5 Swede. Looked at me like I had fallen off the turnip truck.

As I went back to one of the 1st tables I had visited and returned to buy some ammo they had I wanted, a black gentleman approached me and asked if my rifle was a Classic and if so, what caliber was it? When I told him it indeed was and was in the Swede. He asked if he could see it and how much I wanted for it. He said he had one in the Swede but wouldn't mind having another one. He had a 77 in the Swede I would have probably swapped him for except he lived over an hour away opposite the way I was going to be headed home. Got his phone # and one day might contact him about it if I go back that way.

But I'm probably through with them unless I'm really bored or can get geared up to go to Tulsa.

If you wanna spend the time, you can sometimes find a deal from someone walking the floor trying to sell a rig. Looneys drool and can be easy to bargain with. But I reckon it can be a pig in a poke too.


I do like digging through the "bargain boxes" of crap, never know what you come across.

Been to a couple, never again. Time's better spent cruising back-road gun stores, IMHO.

Got my favorite rifle, a Ruger M77 .257 Roberts just that way. Literally backed up a step and into a guy with the rifle over his shoulder. $400 and it included a Leupold M8-4x in the rings, so gently used there were no scratches in the bluing under the slide safety. Had just sold a shot-out Savage .22-250 for $250 and had purchased an M8-4x a month earlier for $100, so i figure the swap to .257 Roberts cost me $50. ($400 minus $100 for the scope minus $250 for the Savage I sold.)

Found a stainless Walther PPK/s at a price I couldn't pass up. Now I see them on Gunbroker for 2x and up from what I paid.

Picked up a stainless Ruger Blackhawk in .357 Mag for $275 and some stuff no one else was interested in buying and I needed to get rid of. It had a minor problem, which Ruger fixed for free.

Also got a NIB Ruger Scout .308 for $200 less than I've seen one anywhere else. Handy rifle, especially with the quieter synthetic mags in place of the factory steel.

And a Savage FXP3 .243 Win for $295 out the door. It shot bugholes with the first load I tried.

My first .30-06 wA gun show purchase, a used 1984 M77 purchase in late 2006 for a pitance. Shoots great.

So were my Marlin 375 (.375 Win) and Marlin 336C (.30-30). Purchased cheap and I'm very happy with both.

My Interarms Mark X action was a gun show purchase that is now my custom 6.5-06AI. Picked up 5 clay pigeons off the 600 yard berm with it about 3 weeks ago. Got two in a row twice. Hit rate was about 40-50%. Glad I bought that action.

There are gun show deals if you can find them.

Been to a few. Probably 20 or so. Large and small. Over the years have found a good deal on beef jerky, a fishin pole, an old 22, an older miltary Mauser carbine, a few boxes of ammo, and had a knife custom made from one of those medieval vendors. And bought a slip on recoil pad for two dollars. Good place to sell a used collectible shooter at a fair price and fast.
Some really good deals on new stuff, and usually some older rifles and pistols that you don’t see every day if your looking for something particular and you don’t mind paying an extra fifty bucks that you would’ve probably spent on gas making the rounds to every Tom-Dick-and Harry’s gun and pawn.
I’d say unless you have unlimited amount of time, or a job that enables you to see every gun store and pawn shop around, it’s a good place to shop for that elusive item. Even though some of the used gun dealers price their stuff on the high side. There’s still some deals to be had.

I like the medium sized shows best. Ones that don’t take all day to walk around or you have to walk a mile just to get to the door. But not so small that you can see the whole thing before you get through the door.