Has Covid killed the Gun & Knife Show?

Arkansas Paul said:

I'm still seeing advertisements for them here in Arkansas.
I'm sure there are rules requiring masks and social distancing, but at least we're having them.

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G&S sponsors most of our shows and have them about 2 times a year locally. They require mask, but it is not enforced and social distancing is impossible without limiting entry, which they don't do. It was shoulder to shoulder at the last show.

There are still plenty of Gun Shows in Georgia. The vast majority are totally maskless and packed with people.

My concern is that the Shows are not what I have been accustomed to. Not as many guns. The shows have soap, glasses cleaning vendors, jewelry, T-shirts, patches and what I consider "gizmos" of all sorts. The guns, when you find them, seem to be the same. AR's of every ilk and fashion. Glocks, and S And W.

There may be one or two guys trying to deal in old military weapons, and one or two with classic hunting firearms. But quite frankly, not much in the way of what I would be interested in.

I did sell an entire case of 7.62 x 54 Russian rimmed military ammo I had for years. The vendor that bought it was happy since I sold it cheap, and I had it so long that I actually made a profit so a win-win.

The vendors can't seem to keep .38 snubbies, or .380 autos in stock, yet the ammo is almost not to be had!!!! I saw old .38 ammo going for absurd prices. Ladies seem to be gobbling up the snubbies and small autos. Men seem to go for the Glocks. AR's and AK's are always in fashion. I have to admit I do subscribe to the mantra, "A man can't have enough AR's".

I might risk going off topic with this, but one of the hottest items is the gizmo that turns your Glock into some sort of rifle/pistol brace/star wars looking thing. After buying their Glock, the next stop is this vendor. They are literally flying off the shelf at the shows here. It is a gadget that you drop your Glock into and turns it into an SBR; that is somehow not an SBR. I talked to the vendor at length about it, and even wrote and talked with the CEO of the company.

I guess I just must be lucky. There have been a few times when I’ve not been happy with the effort and time spent at a gun show, but there have been a lot more times when I found something really awesome at a reasonable price. I am nowhere near the point that I will swear off shows altogether. There are some locations I’m not willing to drive to, and some shows that are too small to make the drive, but before the Covid I would almost always attend the show within an hour’ drive of me.

I went to a show in Shelbyville at the beginning of last year that probably wasn’t 100 tables. I walked out with a JM Marlin 45-70 and a Leupold 1-4x scope and 12 boxes of factory ammo for $600. So the deals are out there…

I think that gun shows in my neck of the woods are dead and buried. I am not disappointed either since half of the tables were something other than firearm related anyway.

Commader47 said:

I might risk going off topic with this, but one of the hottest items is the gizmo that turns your Glock into some sort of rifle/pistol brace/star wars looking thing. After buying their Glock, the next stop is this vendor. They are literally flying off the shelf at the shows here. It is a gadget that you drop your Glock into and turns it into an SBR; that is somehow not an SBR. I talked to the vendor at length about it, and even wrote and talked with the CEO of the company.

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I've seen them there and considered buying one but decided against it. Didn't think it was worth the money to do so. Are there any posts in Handgun accessories forum that might shed some light on their utility?

It appears that the Internet might have reduced much of the demand, years before the Chinese Virus was secretly allowed to ferment and spread..

Hearing so many half-truths and lies at our shows (or playing dumb/mute about "...shooting new .308 in a Spanish small-ring, Formerly 7x57 mm Mauser".....eye contact with Seller abruptly lost...) is also a factor. At least you can see that so many sellers on Gunbroker have 200-3,000 A+ feedbacks.

Not possible for the curmudgeons at local shows, and milsurps dried up years ago, other than a Century- "produced", or IO "AKM" (no longer manufactured ).

Before these milsurps increasingly dried up (only a few exceptions), our shows allowed us to try out ergonomics of rifles which some of us had Never handled, such as M-1 Garand, SKS, AKM, Czech Mauser, Enfields, true P-38, Luger, Makarov etc.

I don't go to gun shows anymore, but the Plan-demic didn't kill them where I live. It did, however, kill nearly everything else that I enjoyed doing.

Here's hoping and praying that we gun owners will not allow gun shows to be erased by the heat of internet competition or the evil of the Flu. I LOVE GUN SHOWS. Where else in the world can you go and be surrounded by guns, ammo, and the people who buy them? Where? And to be able to legally lay cash on the table and walk out with a firearm is, to me, nothing short of amazing. I particularly love the Tulsa Gun Show. These days you can't buy dinner for the price of admission; you can still go to the Tulsa Show for a measly $10. I've lost track of the all the stuff I've bought there__guns, knives, ammo, slings, pistol grips, gun cases, powder, primers, reloading equipment, hat, gloves, flash light, scope rings, game calls, knife sharpener, spotting scope; that's most of it. I've enjoyed hours and hours talking to fellow gun lovers and have learned a ton about firearms. The entire Tulsa Community welcomes us with open arms. Where else in the world can you walk in to a hotel lobby with a long gun over your shoulder, a pistol in your back pocket, and be welcomed with a big smile? Where? Do not let them die my friends, do not let them die.

Brubz said:

Does anyone know if there are any gun and knife shows scheduled for this summer in the Cincinnati Ohio region?

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Here in Oklahoma City we have had a gun show almost every two weeks I think and ammo is available at okay price for the current market if you look around and guns are average price I'd say.

Show producers, at least here in Florida, seem to be investigating new and perhaps smaller venues. We're having a show in my little town this month for the first time ever so far as I know. I'm speculating this may be a fall-back strategy against the larger towns and cities who have become hostile to the idea of having gun shows. Shows seem to be making a come back here.

You mean the beef jerky and Chinese junk show?

Haven’t been to a gun shows in years, not worth going.

Around here UBC's killed gunshows. The year before UBC's there were a lot of private sellers and used guns. As soon as UBC's reared their ugly heads, gunshows just became a $15/head entry fee into a building with nothing more than a gathering of local gunshops in the same building with 20% markups on all the same guns that I can go to their shops and see for free.

Other than beef jerky and paintings on velvet of Indian princesses and wolves, I'm not sure what there would be available to buy at a gun show these days.

Deanimator said:

Other than beef jerky and paintings on velvet of Indian princesses and wolves, I'm not sure what there would be available to buy at a gun show these days.

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The last 3 gun shows I’ve been to down here in SW Ohio were 95% guns and accessories and 5% other (political shirts, cigars and glass cleaners)

To answer the question has COVID killed the gun shows? It had certainly reduced attendance and the number of shows.
I would have attended the last two shows in Myrtle Beach (including this weekend's). I don't feel the risk of getting COVID to look at over priced stuff is worth it .

Long term the internet and Gunbroker has taken a lot of the fun out of gun shows. There is a virtual gun show going on 24/7.

WisBorn said:

I don't feel the risk of getting COVID to look at over priced stuff is worth it .

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Same here. THere's a smallish show not too far away this weekend and I would love to go but I know it will be a giant COVID-fest of people wearing masks under their chins coughing all over each other. There's nothing I need so badly that I can't wait a few more months to get it. The only thing I really want are small rifle primers and there's 0% chance anybody is selling them at a decent price right now. My college roommate (who doesn't reload) texted me last week and asked if I could get him 10K small rifle primers

silicosys4 said:

Around here UBC's killed gunshows. The year before UBC's there were a lot of private sellers and used guns. As soon as UBC's reared their ugly heads, gunshows just became a $15/head entry fee into a building with nothing more than a gathering of local gunshops in the same building with 20% markups on all the same guns that I can go to their shops and see for free.

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Last time I went to Tanner in Denver..and bought a gun, they had a table of 3 nice ladies with laptops doing nothing more than doing BGCs..took all of about 10 minutes. Yes, different now but UBC didn't make any difference. Were there still 'parking lot' deals going on? Yes...bad idea, IMHO..

Captcurt said:

G&S sponsors most of our shows and have them about 2 times a year locally. They require mask, but it is not enforced and social distancing is impossible without limiting entry, which they don't do. It was shoulder to shoulder at the last show.

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As a 76 year old with some underlying medical conditions, going to such a gun show would be practically suicidal for me. So, even though there are gun shows in my area, I'm not going until at least I can get vaccinated. The whole of 2020 and (probably) 2021 have been "lost years" in regard to many activities.

Elkins45 said:

Same here. THere's a smallish show not too far away this weekend and I would love to go but I know it will be a giant COVID-fest of people wearing masks under their chins coughing all over each other

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Of the last 3 packed shows I’ve been to 95% of the people keep their masks over their nose and mouth. Yes there are a few who tend to wear them incorrectly but I don’t feel as though it’s any different than going to the grocery store. To each his own I guess.

Has Covid killed the Gun & Knife Show?

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NO, they killed themselves, with table after table after table of chinese junk!!

DM

I figured (aside from shot show) that wood carvings, beef jerky, Indians and wolves painted on velvet, and WW2 uniform items from grandpa's attic were 80% of modern gun shows.

Lennyjoe said:

Of the last 3 packed shows I’ve been to 95% of the people keep their masks over their nose and mouth. Yes there are a few who tend to wear them incorrectly but I don’t feel as though it’s any different than going to the grocery store. To each his own I guess.

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I see you're in Southwestern Ohio. The show I was referring to is in Southeastern KY in the center of a hotbed of anti-mask sentiment and covid denial. If mask use approached even 50% I would be amazed. Geography and culture are intertwined.

From my experience the shows are/were overpriced before this dumb stuff. Not gonna waste my time or money to goto one. Im ok on ammo. Could always use more just not gonna pay out the ears for it. Patience is a virtue. Got my carry ammo for the same price I paid last year last week. Underwood defenders. 120 rounds will be here Tuesday. Would have had more if they dropped the ammo on Friday not Thursday.