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Went to a local gun show this weekend, the prices were ridiculously high. Everything was out of touch with reality, even magazines were ten dollars per more than one could get locally in a retail store. I guess they were counting on pre-election hype to cause folks to panic and want to rush out and make a purchase. I saw a few folks buying but most of the concession tables were were well stocked with bored dealers. Even the "floozy flash" was looking extremely unhappy just like that olympian McKayla Maroney did on the medal stand. Anybody else see this in your area?

R,
Bullseye

There was a local show last weekend. I've skipped them going on two years. Prices and selection don't make it worth the admission, unless you're on the hunt for a specific older gun.

It does seem to go in cycles at these shows. Yesterday if you were looking for an AR anything it was available, all at a mere $1,000 plus. Most of the other rifle platforms were slim and none, even the AKs and their variants were few and far between. There have been other shows were the AKs ran the event and all others were lacking. Handguns were a plenty, lots of variations available. I even spied a new Hi-Point 9mm Carbine sitting on one vendor's table; ugly gun!

I did see one AK with a quad-rail tactical foregrip; that must feel like holding onto a cactus when shooting it. The foregrip on an AK is so short where do you place your hands if anything's mounted on one of the rails? It didn't have any vertical mounted grips to go with it. Some wise vendor just took off the cheap wooden furniture on a WASR and put on polymer stock and the rail grips and wanted a little more than twice the normal going amount for that little gem.

It seemed to me like there were more tactical beef jerky and "prepper" meat in a can sellers than there were firearms dealers. At least I didn't see a single MRE vendor. I still don't get the ladies jewelery tables. Lots of ladies and kiddies yesterday in attendance. I even saw one of those tandem side-by-side strollers navigating the narrow isles. Another good thing was only one "Zombie Killer" table there too. Even G.I. Surplus ammo cans were on the other side of ridiculous price-wise. Oh well, it is good to go out and see how the traveling carnival show set lives once in a while just to get an appreciation for what you have!

R,
Bullseye

I do a shift for Virginia Citizens Defense League as my excuse to go to almost all the Richmond gun shows. Last one was a couple weeks ago, next one is next weekend.

Black rifles seem to be the going fad at the Richmond shows. Anything you want any caliber you want and at mostly high prices. Most vendors are in line with the LGS and one vendor is almost always lower. They claim to do cost +12%. I got a fairly good price from them on my DPMS and the price hadn't increased as we got closer to the election.

Ammo was not bad with Georgia Arms and a couple others. PMC Brass .223 had gone up about $25/1000 except for Dark Sun who was holding prices. even at $380/1000, it's better than you can do locally for brass. Wolf, TULA steel was under $300/1000.

My reloading guy was there with reasonably good prices and selections.

We even had the Zombie booth:http://www.zombie-defense.com/index.html. These guys are not far from my house.

Saw what you mean about the quad rail AR's. You need your combat gloves to hold them and slings to steady the weight of all the gitteritous you can stick on them.

Best deal I saw at the last Richmond show was the Marlin 39A for $450 I missed.

The fun part is sitting at the VCDL booth so you can watch the folks come and go.

To me, a gun show is not a place to buy anything significant, it's a place to go with a friend or two just to bs and look around. The prices are ridiculous, and much of the stuff is not what I want anyway. Back in '08 a gun show was charging $80 for a box of 100 380's. To me, it's sort of a social event with friends.

I've only ever been to 1 gun show, and everything seemed a bit over the prices I could get it elsewhere, and I had to pay to enter the gun show. Since then, I have not been compelled to go to another gun show.

With the then election, and the now results of said election, I think you are probably right though, Bullseye. Hopefully it wont end up as bad as '08 though.

I've found some deals at gunshows, and I've found some inflated prices. Just like anywhere else as long as you do your homework and know what stuff is actually worth, you can make out ok... One thing that gunshows are great for is finding cool stuff or looking and handling guns you don't see at the lgs, or just wandering around folks just with the same interests as you. Besides a small entry fee is assay less than shipping would be for most things.


I've heard it said that if you ignore gunshows (or gunshops), they will go away.

at the last show I went to I picked up a used ultra dot 4 dot for 75$ but it did not come with rings bought some at show for 16$ put it on HS Victor now if I could just find some magazines for Victor.

The last GS I went to my wife was shopping for her carry gun, which was also her wedding present. She she had an idea of what she wanted and worked with my principle "if it doesn't feel right, don't buy it" . 1k later with an EMP in hand she is shooting excellent groups. GS prices are variable, got a good deal the same day on some 30-40 Krag

The deal that my wife and I have is that I buy a gun or two, she buys jewelry, knick-knacks, pretty rocks or whatever at the gun show.

Works for me!