Gun show terminology

[JSnover]

The ones I really hate are the guys who try to sell you something else. "Here, you'll like this one a whole lot better!" Not likely, since it's totally different from what I'm looking for. What he really meant was "I don't care what you want, just buy this one."
You always have to watch out but if the show isn't too crowded you can usually take a few minutes to talk to them, get to know what they're up to. Along with all the other characters I've met some pretty good folks at some of those tables.

[higgins]

"It's worth 800, but I'll take 500" No, it's not or you wouldn't take 500 for it, and it can probably be had for somewhere between 400 and 500.

[Tom W.]

I had a friend and his wife who went to gun shows all of the time as dealers. The best thing I ever saw that he had was a Savage Model 99 that was overpriced. Once he was selling a man a water buffalo mount and had the guy convinced that it was a Cape buffalo. I had to bite my lip and walk away..... I did get free entrance to the show through him because I'd sometimes watch his table if he or his wife wanted to wander around a bit.

The last gun show I went to I bought some True Blue powder and a box of .38 Special loaded wadcutters. I have yet to shoot one.

[condorjohn]

I've been the show director for a local collectors club (non profit) for 15 years. I believe I've seen or heard every claim, cliche, scam or hustle described in this thread. It is very entertaining to say the least.

Something to keep in mind about gun shows is the very big "commercial" shows have all the same stuff. It's the club shows in smaller venues that are usually the better shows. Look for the shows that have been around for a while.

Gun show vendors (not dealers) are mostly a very good group with the usual suspects on the fringe.

There are still some good deals and hard to find stuff you just have to look around. wvaca.org

[StratsMan]

It's getting harder and harder to find tables with folks who are "thinning the herd"... I look for tables that look like a reloading bench clean-out... they're getting to be as rare as some of the guns we used to swap back and forth 20 years ago... but occasionally there is a treasure worth taking home... the "Treasure Hunt" is the reason I keep paying the admission fee, and I do find items somebody is selling because a buddy died recently (huge Texan 12ga progressive for $50), or somebody bought an entire shop that was going out of business (bulk bullets and powder)...

But the guys who want to sell a mixed inch/metric FAL with a no-name receiver, and ask $way too much$ because "you never see these any more" will only see my back as I walk away...

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I thought of another, " yep, it's a real tack driver". He has never fired any gun he has.

[waksupi]

I'm one of those that would set up at gun shows, to try and get rid of guns. I kind of quit doing it, as I found that although I sell some guns, I usually come home with at least three more than I started with.

[nvbirdman]

98 Mauser wartime treasure - Thrown together by slave labor in Germany near the end of the war.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I like the `prowling floor sharks` that will offer to buy that old lever Winchester you have for $75 since nobody else will want to buy it.Robert

[snowwolfe]

Is it accurate? Sorry, I don't know as I never shoot it.

This means it will not shoot worth a hill of beans.

[trapper9260]

The last gun show I went to , the things I looking to get was too high price. I went to the sporting goods store that is not that far from there had it a price alot lower. and to top it off met up with some guys outside the store when I walk out with what I wanted said you where at the gun show where you ,I said yes the things was too high price .They said we seen that that is why we came here also.

[Tripplebeards]

I stopped going to them years ago in my area. The local gun shows in my area reminds me of when I use to go to the junk yard when I was a kid. 99.% of the stuff that's for sale in my area is the same old stuff that gets hauled there every year since I was a kid and nobody buys it. It's more of a social event with little sales. The only difference is a few of the local thieves"pawn shops"bring in their modern inventory and mark it up hoping to find a sucker. They were fun to go to when I was a kid like the boat show but When the inventory doesn't change from year to year it gets boring.

[Texas by God]

It's almost dealers only now- so sad. The glory days of gun shows are gone. I'll go to maybe one a year. Someday I'll go to Tulsa!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[rockrat]

There are some deals at gunshows, you just have to be lucky. Been on both sides of the tables. Never could figure out why someone would buy a gun on another table when mine, also new, was priced about 15-25% less. Maybe they thought it was too cheap, so something might have been wrong with it?
Last gunshow here, ended up buying an RCBS powered case trimmer, almost new, with pilots and shellholders, for $100 and some 25-35 brass for $20 a bag, same with the 357max brass!!

[jonp]

Old thread but something that burns me for some strange reason is people that add a "y" on the end of stuff to demonstrate their coolness and being in the know.
Like "shotty" (shotgun), "Winny (winchester). Not sure why that makes me grind my teeth so much

[jonp]

There are some deals at gunshows, you just have to be lucky. Been on both sides of the tables. Never could figure out why someone would buy a gun on another table when mine, also new, was priced about 15-25% less. Maybe they thought it was too cheap, so something might have been wrong with it?
Last gunshow here, ended up buying an RCBS powered case trimmer, almost new, with pilots and shellholders, for $100 and some 25-35 brass for $20 a bag, same with the 357max brass!!

Few deals anymore around here as most are just brand new stuff or used from gunshop dealers. Occasionally you run into something. I got some surplus 5/10 pants for $10 a pair off one guy and a box of lead for about .10 lb off another that didn't want to cart it home.

[Alan in Vermont]

a place people rent tables to try to take advantage of dummies, and to spew their wealth of BS

Sounds like the genius who had a few loose rounds in 38 Sp. on his table. Sure looked like they had a cast, powder coated, SWC of somewhere in the 150 gr. range.

I picked one up and he lit into a spiel about them being "armor piercing, depleted Uranium" projectiles.

OK, maybe, but I kinda had to doubt just how much armor they could pierce at 38 Sp. velocities. I don't much like being treated as if I'm dumb enough to actually believe their BS and I won't do business with someone who might be dumb enough to actually believe it themselves.

[texasnative46]

To All,

Around The Alamo City, I find LITTLE of interest at the shows as 80-90% is composed of "black guns", which I have no interest in, BUT what keeps me going back are the occasional REAL collectibles like the 1909 Colt's Police Positive Special that I recently found in near mint condition for 250.oo or the .22 Banker's Special for 350.oo in near new shape & the Model 760 Remington in .244REM for 100.oo (from a YM, who was "walking around the aisles" & didn't know that the 6mm/.244 Remington cartridges are EXACTLY the same cartridge up to 95 grains. = I bought my FIRST Model 760 in "as new condition" in .244REM from a pawn shop for 60.oo in 1966. - In the last half century, it's taken a LOT of deer/hogs using my 80/90 grain JSP handloads.).

I have a theory that a considerable percentage of D-frame Colts & J-frame S&W revolvers are bought by non-shooters who "- - - just think I should have a gun", loaded it & put the handgun into a bedside or desk drawer but never (or at least very seldom) fired the revolver, as I find a considerable number of such "little" .22, .32 & .38 revolvers that show little/no use & often include the factory box.

just my opinion, tex

[merlin101]

I go to the big show around here but rarely bring anything home, it's fun to look and listen and sometimes (rare)I find a deal on a box of old ammo or something like that. Mostly its the same tactacool stuff and old overpriced junk. How a bout a Lee double banger mold with scratched and burned handles and misaligned blocks that's a "rare collectors item"!
I do go to some small local shows where guy's are moving their own stuff and are willing to trade or sell.

[marek313]

Old thread but something that burns me for some strange reason is people that add a "y" on the end of stuff to demonstrate their coolness and being in the know.
Like "shotty" (shotgun), "Winny (winchester). Not sure why that makes me grind my teeth so much

Oh so you know that guy too. Hes the same annoying guy with a Remy and a Smitty