mu2bdriver
NES Member
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- Jan 7, 2009
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My travels have taken me to the heartland again and I thought I'd give a recap of what the free-state people are buying. I haven't gone to a northeast show in a while and I was looking forward to this one.
$15 entry fee and free parking at the fairgrounds. Whatever. The place is huge and costs money to maintain.
No concealed weapons and no loaded magazines. The Sheriff was the first table where you could zip tie your gun and carry it through the show in your hand if you were carrying. They were not asking people if they were carrying and it seemed like the honor system. Plenty of people with slung long guns and guns in hand walking around.
It was a mix of private vendors and FFLs, maybe 200-ish tables of varying size. Private sellers were distinctly marked and were as busy as the dealers.
People were spending money and the dealers regularly had 2-3 people waiting filling out 4473s.
There was only one gun there that really stood out (more on that later) and the overwhelming number of stuff was the same old, same old. Glocks (an $825 gold-plated one and $500+ LEO trade-ins), Tauruses, Tsias, Caniks, Girsans, old M&Ps, some Springfields, Rugers, old revolvers, etc. When I was down here before, there at least was a Staccato dealer who had some stuff but this wasn't a Staccato or Atlas crowd. One dealer was telling someone looking visibly overwhelmed that "Kimber makes the best 1911 hands down" and he was eating it up.
The Chinese knife factory must have put on an extra shift just to supply the dealers here. I'm not very knowledgeable in knives but you could practically watch them rust as you walked by.
When the people from the knife factory got off work, they must have done overtime at the Chinese optic factory. I have never seen such an assortment of no-name Trijicon/Aimpoint/Eotech/Nightforce knockoffs. $100-150 seemed to be the target price point. The glass looked alright but everything else felt cheap about them. The seller was sure to tell me that it had a lifetime warranty but couldn't tell me where I would have to go for fulfillment. One lady told me that her $200 Ching Chong 5-20x was just as good as a Nightforce.
Used stuff looked like it was dragged from the back of the pickup truck to get here. Used Glock 19/17 magazines for $15-20. Pmags from $10-15/ea. I asked a guy if he had any AK74 mags and I got a look like he just say an alien. There were some old Colt AR mags (5 for $75) but the floorplates were busted out on most of them and they looked rough. A big bin of OKAY aluminums (used) for $17-20/ea.
AR uppers from Bear Creek, Aero Precision, Colt, and other names. All different calibers with prices from $500 and up. 80% AR lowers (raw) for $100 and I was told that if I passed, I would regret it.
A guy selling WOT Hard Reset triggers for $350 who was working his ass off to get people interested. Didn't see him sell one.
Skinny young black kid in a covid mask walks up to me and asks if I'm buying as he flashes me his chrome revolver.
People were buying these things up like it was going out of style. Great to see but it was ridiculous to watch.
Ammo prices were nowhere near Mill or TSUSA prices.
No militaria, no jerky, there was some homeopathic healer, a fortune teller, a cheesemonger, a convention of states person who didn't believe that I knew what that meant and started quizzing me.
There was one private seller who had a lot of M1s and Garands and related stuff which was nice to see among a sea of ordinary stuff.
I did like the PSA Rock 5.7 pistol. They were selling them for $600 complete with two mags. That was the only thing that really interested me.
It was a nice way to burn a few hours but nothing exceptional.
I've gone to a reasonable number of shows and shops in free states and I can really only remember one or two places that I was really impressed with in terms of selection, staff, and value.
$15 entry fee and free parking at the fairgrounds. Whatever. The place is huge and costs money to maintain.
No concealed weapons and no loaded magazines. The Sheriff was the first table where you could zip tie your gun and carry it through the show in your hand if you were carrying. They were not asking people if they were carrying and it seemed like the honor system. Plenty of people with slung long guns and guns in hand walking around.
It was a mix of private vendors and FFLs, maybe 200-ish tables of varying size. Private sellers were distinctly marked and were as busy as the dealers.
People were spending money and the dealers regularly had 2-3 people waiting filling out 4473s.
There was only one gun there that really stood out (more on that later) and the overwhelming number of stuff was the same old, same old. Glocks (an $825 gold-plated one and $500+ LEO trade-ins), Tauruses, Tsias, Caniks, Girsans, old M&Ps, some Springfields, Rugers, old revolvers, etc. When I was down here before, there at least was a Staccato dealer who had some stuff but this wasn't a Staccato or Atlas crowd. One dealer was telling someone looking visibly overwhelmed that "Kimber makes the best 1911 hands down" and he was eating it up.
The Chinese knife factory must have put on an extra shift just to supply the dealers here. I'm not very knowledgeable in knives but you could practically watch them rust as you walked by.
When the people from the knife factory got off work, they must have done overtime at the Chinese optic factory. I have never seen such an assortment of no-name Trijicon/Aimpoint/Eotech/Nightforce knockoffs. $100-150 seemed to be the target price point. The glass looked alright but everything else felt cheap about them. The seller was sure to tell me that it had a lifetime warranty but couldn't tell me where I would have to go for fulfillment. One lady told me that her $200 Ching Chong 5-20x was just as good as a Nightforce.
Used stuff looked like it was dragged from the back of the pickup truck to get here. Used Glock 19/17 magazines for $15-20. Pmags from $10-15/ea. I asked a guy if he had any AK74 mags and I got a look like he just say an alien. There were some old Colt AR mags (5 for $75) but the floorplates were busted out on most of them and they looked rough. A big bin of OKAY aluminums (used) for $17-20/ea.
AR uppers from Bear Creek, Aero Precision, Colt, and other names. All different calibers with prices from $500 and up. 80% AR lowers (raw) for $100 and I was told that if I passed, I would regret it.
A guy selling WOT Hard Reset triggers for $350 who was working his ass off to get people interested. Didn't see him sell one.
Skinny young black kid in a covid mask walks up to me and asks if I'm buying as he flashes me his chrome revolver.
People were buying these things up like it was going out of style. Great to see but it was ridiculous to watch.
Ammo prices were nowhere near Mill or TSUSA prices.
No militaria, no jerky, there was some homeopathic healer, a fortune teller, a cheesemonger, a convention of states person who didn't believe that I knew what that meant and started quizzing me.
There was one private seller who had a lot of M1s and Garands and related stuff which was nice to see among a sea of ordinary stuff.
I did like the PSA Rock 5.7 pistol. They were selling them for $600 complete with two mags. That was the only thing that really interested me.
It was a nice way to burn a few hours but nothing exceptional.
I've gone to a reasonable number of shows and shops in free states and I can really only remember one or two places that I was really impressed with in terms of selection, staff, and value.
