Went to the Ft Worth (Premiere) Gun Show Today 28AUG21

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CapnMac

CapnMac

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Was a crowded parking lot right at noon--about a 10 minute wait to get in. Then as long as it took to get a space.
A line to get in the entrance as well.
But, then, the venue--as Will Rogers often does--just swallowed the throng.
It was hard to tell where the attention was, too.
There were tables with pistols and no gawkers, and other tables of pistols and they were three-deep.
There were a reasonable number of people filling in 4473, but not a huge number.
AR-specific vendors seemed to be equally mixed for traffic.
Almost no trinkets & salt crystal sellers, either.
Easily a third of the tables had ammo. Some of which was selling.
The variety of ammo was pretty good, not just oddball bulk boxes of NeverHeardOfIt, Inc. ammo (though there was plenty of that, too).
Prices were up again from the last show, things that were $25 were back to $30.

Interestingly, after the runs last week, combloc calibers (even combloc produced) were readily available, if not cheap.
SKS were tagged at $750 pretty typically. PSA AK variants were $1200-1500; some RPK clones were on display for $2K & up.

My benchmark for magazine crazy: Magpul Gen III no window 30 round, were right at $15, up a clean dollar from the last show a couple of months ago.
Now, SIG 365 mags, in SIG packaging, really common at right at $40 (which was cheaper than the $45 plus s&h SIG wants online).

Was not a horrible day, really, and I spent more than I was expecting on fiddly bits--but, that's life. Since I was in FW, treated myself to lunch at Mercado Juarez for a most excellent comida.
 
Nice. That takes me back. I lived near Trinity Park downtown for a stint around the early 2000's. I think I was at WRC's twice a month for a show. Lots of jerky and beanie babies back then but a great way to spent some time table shopping on a weekend.

There was a nearby "shanty" with a 4 stool bar, COLD tap beer, and the best BBQ. If Hockey was playing, it was on the TV. One can get the same guns up here in the great Midwest but not the same leather and definitely not the same food. ...I need to head to the kitchen.
 
Speedo66 said:
What do you figure the percentage of people wearing masks were?
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Maybe 5%, call it one in twenty. Texas is not as awash in infections as the popular press has been insisting. It's higher than in, say, June, but reported new cases (Tarrant County) are only 1100 out of a population of a million-plus.

FROGO207 said:
What was the general age of everybody.
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It was kind of all over. From young folk in the 20s to older folk in 60s--no one group stood out. Sity folk about equal to country folk, too. Lots of family groups, too. Now, the Premiere-sponsored show in Ft Worth is typically that way, too.

Boomholzer said:
There was a nearby "shanty" with a 4 stool bar, COLD tap beer, and the best BBQ.
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The "West University Area" is now jam-packed with joints, restaurants, music venues, all sorts of places (and a ton of brand-new high-density multi-family housing). Hard not to find a place to eat or drink around WRC (free parking--well, that's not a thing in Downtown any more).
 
CapnMac said:
Maybe 5%, call it one in twenty.
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Not surprising. The kind of people that go to gun shows tend to include a higher-than-average proportion of COVID-deniers. That's the main reason I haven't been going to gun shows during the pandemic. Any event with so many people jammed together can be a super-spreader.
 
AlexanderA said:
tend to include a higher-than-average proportion of COVID-deniers.
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It's a fair gripe--but, mind, Tarrant County is over 70% vaxxed, too. Was not crowded like a full bus is crowded, either. To use a poor analogy, it was "gun show" crowded. Not, we're all in the restaurant lobby waiting for a table crowded.
And, to be entirely accurate, while there were a number of people in masks, the number who were "nose out" was pretty high, too.

Back on topic, one of the things that struck me a tad odd was the scarcity of Moisins. And, really, had a person been shopping for milsurp, it would have been a lean day over all. There were a couple of 1903, one very nice 03A3, the dude who has several tables of .303 variants, but not much more than that.
 
CapnMac said:
It's a fair gripe--but, mind, Tarrant County is over 70% vaxxed, too. Was not crowded like a full bus is crowded, either. To use a poor analogy, it was "gun show" crowded. Not, we're all in the restaurant lobby waiting for a table crowded.
And, to be entirely accurate, while there were a number of people in masks, the number who were "nose out" was pretty high, too.

Back on topic, one of the things that struck me a tad odd was the scarcity of Moisins. And, really, had a person been shopping for milsurp, it would have been a lean day over all. There were a couple of 1903, one very nice 03A3, the dude who has several tables of .303 variants, but not much more than that.
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Mosins have all but disappeared from both shows and shops here. Dont remember seein a one over the last year or so....but to be fair I aint seekin one out either.
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
Mosins have all but disappeared from both shows and shops here.
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I think the mil-surp craze (except for American guns) has run its course. The main factor is that low prices are no longer to be had. But also, the obsolescence of bolt-action rifles is becoming more apparent. A good analogy is the collecting of film cameras (another one of my interests). A few years ago, there was a fair bit of interest in collecting high-end film cameras, even as digital was taking over the market. Now, digital is so entrenched that film cameras are just ignored. In some cases, you can't even give them away. I can foresee the day when the same thing will happen to Mosins. (When the value drops to zero, perhaps there will be a resurgence of interest.)

As an indication, in the pictures coming out of Kabul, I haven't seen a single bolt-action rifle in the hands of the Taliban. Thirty years ago, they would often be seen with Lee-Enfields.
 
AlexanderA said:
I think the mil-surp craze (except for American guns) has run its course. The main factor is that low prices are no longer to be had. But also, the obsolescence of bolt-action rifles is becoming more apparent. A good analogy is the collecting of film cameras (another one of my interests). A few years ago, there was a fair bit of interest in collecting high-end film cameras, even as digital was taking over the market. Now, digital is so entrenched that film cameras are just ignored. In some cases, you can't even give them away. I can foresee the day when the same thing will happen to Mosins. (When the value drops to zero, perhaps there will be a resurgence of interest.)

As an indication, in the pictures coming out of Kabul, I haven't seen a single bolt-action rifle in the hands of the Taliban. Thirty years ago, they would often be seen with Lee-Enfields.
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The thing is when you keep collecting a old bolt gun of every country simply because they're cheap, at some point it just becomes a heap of obsolete war horses. Although they're cool as individual rifles, as a whole they're just remnants of a by-gone era.
The best approach to go about collecting them is if you have a theme in mind. Maybe you enjoy German or Italian military history and that Carcano is a good asset to that. Or you have a thing for Mosins because you also have a AK, an SKS and Makarov.
As a reloader I early became alert of the dangers of collecting too many different rifles. Imagine trying to reload for each milsurp you add to your collection.
 
CapnMac
Back on topic, one of the things that struck me a tad odd was the scarcity of Moisins. And, really, had a person been shopping for milsurp, it would have been a lean day over all. There were a couple of 1903, one very nice 03A3, the dude who has several tables of .303 variants, but not much more than that.
Click to expand...

When I use to go with a friend of mine to a private/members only gun collectors show, I use to notice at times there wouldn't be say any M1 rifles on the tables; or else they were few and far between! Then at the next show there would be M1s everywhere, as if some huge amount of some particular gun suddenly hit the market. And it use to change from one show to the next what the "Gun of the Show" was. It could be Broomhandle Mausers, then at the next one Winchester Model 94s, or M1 Carbines, or maybe it was Browning Superposed shotguns; always something different and nothing you could plan for either. It was like a some time feast or more like a long famine for certain guns.

Always thought it was a bit odd.
 
bannockburn said:
Then at the next show there would be M1s everywhere, as if some huge amount of some particular gun suddenly hit the market.
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My guess is the people running the show purchase any M1s they see and find, then wait for a particular gun show to sell them all above regular price.
 
Not so fortunate in "California East", New Mexico, where all gun shows in State facilities are hereby forbidden. That means the Albuquerque Gun Show will no longer be held in Albuquerque at the Fair Grounds. Hotel/Motel owners, vendors, restaurants, and other places of business are of course ecstatic that they will no longer have to take money from gun owners. However, the town of Rio Rancho said they were most happy to take those "kind of people" and make a venue for a Gun Show there.

FWIW: Reason there are so many Hurricanes in Louisiana and so many Californians in New Mexico is that Louisiana had first choice!
 
bannockburn said:
And it use to change from one show to the next what the "Gun of the Show" was.
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Yeah, I've seen that, too. At least in the last couple decades.

Probably just the elastic nature of the market at work, mixed in with being able to watch larger trends online--something that has vastly increased over the last two decades, too.
Which triggered a memory--there were plenty of people with phones out, and not all were just gabbing or texting, a number were checking prices and availability.

Heir Kommt Die Sonne said:
My guess is the people running the show purchase
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Well, remember that the show promoter and the dealers at the show are different entities. The promoter books the venue, buys the ads (term-of-art in the industry is "exploitation"), deploys the ATMs, hires staff and security, then rents out the tables.
It's down to the vendors to decide what heavy stuff they are packing into trailers to haul to the show then lug on to tables to try and sell. So, they have to try and "read" potential demands in advance. Which probably explains why there was so much ammo and so many magazines offered.
 
It has been quite a few full moons since I have attended a gunshow. We have one in San Antonio monthly but quite expensive, you have to pay for parking, than the entrance fee. Now I only go when I have friends or family visiting from out of town or when I am looking for a specific item or parts. Seldom have I purchased a used firearm as there seems to be a trend of pricing them as new instead of used.
 
AlexanderA said:
I think the mil-surp craze (except for American guns) has run its course. The main factor is that low prices are no longer to be had. But also, the obsolescence of bolt-action rifles is becoming more apparent.
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Hence the unpopularity of black-powder firearms over the last 120 years.

Their obsolescence (and historical significance granted by the time that made them obsolete) is kind of the point.
 
commygun said:
Hence the unpopularity of black-powder firearms over the last 120 years.

Their obsolescence (and historical significance granted by the time that made them obsolete) is kind of the point.
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Fair enough. But I think that the "mania for Mosins" (has a ring to it, don't you think?) was driven largely by the fact that they were cheap shooters. Since both the guns and the ammo have become expensive, that is no longer the case. The collector interest in Mosins was sated long ago.

Regarding the popularity of black-powder firearms, that was made possible by reasonably-priced reproductions. People would not be shooting originals very much.
 
AlexanderA said:
Regarding the popularity of black-powder firearms, that was made possible by reasonably-priced reproductions. People would not be shooting originals very much.
Click to expand...

That’s a solid point. I guess in some ways these arsenal disgorgings are similar to reproductions, suddenly making available what was previously scarce. But, yes, in finite quantities.
 
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