Is there a....

[Blammer]

I went to the big Raleigh Gunshow this Sat and was hoping to find some moulds and other casting stuff...

NONE!

so it got me thinking, is there a swapmeet like a gunshow where there are lots and lots of bullet casters and vendors who sell stuff like at gunshows?

[madcaster]

Try the Meadowview Convention Center in Kingsport,Tennesse,sometimes there are a few.

[MT Gianni]

Sad facts are that most of us think sell rymes with h***. We accumulate and give to our unappreciative kids or let our widow get suckered out of it. Gianni.

[Blammer]

so I guess I need to check out some more estate sales... :D

[AZ Pete]

gun shows seem to be a hit and miss proposition. I begin to wonder if molds aren't slow movers for most vendors? I was at a show this weekend, one guy had a bunch of molds and three Star Lube/Sizers, but just had them priced way too high (slightly under new retail prices for good used stuff). The show before that (Crossroads at Phoenix) I was able to pick up a RCBS 44-250, with handles, and a Lyman 450 (new) for $20 each. By far the best bargains I have gotten in a very long time. I just think the two vendors didn't want to fool with casting stuff. Go figure. So, I just keep my eyes open for casting stuff on table loaded with the more common gun show fare.

[Bent Ramrod]

The easiest way to drive yourself crazy is to go to a gunshow (or a swap meet, for that matter) with the thought that there you will buy X or Y. I once went to a show where there was no Hoppe's #9 to be found, which was the one item I had planned on picking up. I'd seen it for sale at every gun show previous to that one and everyone of them afterwards, but of course I'd bought some in a gun store by the time the next show was happening.

All you can do is to maintain an general list of items "needed," and to keep your options open on anything else you might come across. I like going to the shows anyway; for me it's a "cultural experience." Whether I find that certain something, or anything at all, is at least somewhat incidental anymore.

The show at Costa Mesa is getting quite good. The number of buildings keeps increasing, and some of the kind of stuff that used to show up at the late lamented Great Western Show in Pomona is now starting to show up there. Last time I found a table with several moulds on it and bought an Ideal 311284 as new in box for $7. I cruised by later and there was still an Ideal 308284, very same design but old designation, used but pristine, in a double-cavity 358495 box. The table owner, remembering me from before and knowing he had me hooked, had raised the price to $8 for this one, but I bought it anyway, even though its "collector status" had been severely compromised.

If the cast diameters of these boolits don't live up to the numbers on the blocks, of course I'll be terribly disappointed, but I probably still won't demand my money back:mrgreen: .

[Scrounger]

I sure do miss those Costa Mesa shows. There is a guy comes there that has nothing but molds on his table, dozens of them. Can't remember his name but in real life he's a bus driver in Los Angeles.

[USARO4]

I cant help but think us bullet casters are a rare breed even amomg the reloading fraternity.

[1Shirt]

USAR04 has it right I think! We are oddities even amongst reloaders. I think my son in law and I are the only cast rifle shooters in our local clubs, and the percentage of cast hand gun shooters I woul estimate at not more than maybe 25-30%. Maybe that is good, as the competition for molds, particularly the old no longer made ones is already tough enough. And MT Gianni is right about selling molds. I will occaisionaly trade one that is a dupe, or that I no longer have a rifle to shoot it in, but have never sold one. Am always amazed at the looks I get from other shooters at the range when they see I am shooting cast. When they find out I cast them, they are even more amazed. Then when they see targets that I have shot they are even more amazed. Maybe we live in a far to tech world that lacks realization and the ability to try something out of the norm.
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[Blammer]

Heck, at the range I just get gawks from people looking at my target with the ammo I hand load, and that's with normal jacketed bullets... They'd probably fall over with some of my cast bullet stuff...