I have attended numerous gun shows and never seen a hint of all of the mayhem and wickedness that some claim is happening at them. I just see a lot of older people, young kids, etc., having a good time. So, from my naive perspective, let’s look at what to expect when you go to a local gun show. But realize every gun show will have its own flavor.
I never thought about it until just now, but I don’t think that I’ve ever actually bought a gun at a gun show. I’ve sold some guns but never bought one so I guess, really, I just go to buy accessories and cool stuff. As I’m typing this article, I’m visiting South Dakota. I noticed that there was a gun show going on in the town that I am staying in so me and a buddy decided to hit it. It was not unlike most shows.
FORMAT
Vendors will rent tables to set up their wares. They can rent from one table on up to I guess as many as they want, but usually it will be one to three with a handful of the bigger vendors renting four to maybe six.
There will be a handful of vendors selling new guns. More than likely these will be a local gun dealer.
Then there will be quite a few tables with used guns. These are set up by guys that appear to hit all of the local gun shows. If you talk to them it sounds like they hit the Nampa, Caldwell, Marshing, Ontario, La Grande and Pendleton shows. To me, it seems like a lot of this group do gun shows almost as a hobby.
I don’t really see them selling too much. I think they like to hang around that group of people and hope to make enough to support their lifestyle.
Then there will be a few that specialize in brass. Most of these guys are into shooting and not really hunting. They just love to shoot, tweak their rifles and spend a lot of time at the gun range. This explains why gun shows can have a semi-high attendance even during hunting season when normal people ought to be up in the mountains hunting!
I couldn’t believe it but at a meeting at the SHOT Show last week, one of the speakers said that shooting is the No. 2 sport in America, ahead of golf.
KNIVES
And of course knives are always a big item. I write a weekly knife product review for AmmolandShootingSportsNews, which is the largest Outdoor website in America so as you can imagine, I love knives. Yes, half of the knife tables will have cheap imports but there will also usually be a few quality knives at every show.
And there will be a few tables with some old-school knives. I never tire at looking at them — like the old Case leather handle knives, etc. I met a guy last year in La Grande and he had a table full of knives made in Finland. The sheaths were made of reindeer leather and some of the handles out of their antlers. It’s always cool to find some new twist like this. I got a few and am testing them and will do some product reviews on them sometime in the future. It’s fun to find something new like that.
Then something that is cool to the old timers is that there is always two to three tables that have some World War II knives, bayonets (If you’re young and don’t know what a bayonet is, it is a knife that can be attached to the muzzle of your rifle for hand-to-hand combat in the trenches), rifles and pistols.
Some guy here today had a whole table of German Lugers which was cool. I’d love to own one of them. And while on old military gear, there will be one to two guys that has some old military clothing for sale.
AMMO
There will be a lot of ammo for sale. At every gun show I can find at least a few vendors that have a good deal on ammo. So, I always end up buying a few boxes to go plink with. If you’re looking to buy in bulk, a gun show is a good place to check out.
So, as we wrap up, if you’re in town when one of the (semi) local gun shows is going on, you might want to check one out. Who knows, you might become a gun show groupie!
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.
