How much money do you take to a gun show with you?

[D-Day]

Obviously, we don't always have a choice in how much we'd like to take very often, due to job, spouse, etc. Besides looking for a specific thing (say you have $800 and you want a new M1A, you're out of luck) and you have the money for something like a used Glock or a used AR15 (insert your own examples), what's a decent amount of money to have to you? Be reasonable, now. Not lottery numbers. I bet the really lucky here will have something like $3,000 to spend on special occasion.

Unless shooting for a particular item (pun intended), and you just wanna take a good chunk of change for those potential deals you might run into, what's your base number? I at least like to have $700 saved up. I know without at least $1500 I'm not gonna be taking anything like good M1A's or FAL's home with me, if I even see any. $700 can sometimes get me an AR15 if you do a little haggling, a 1911-A1 variant (which is always a good purchase to me), maybe an M1 Carbine or something similar...pick your examples.

Obviously, even if we don't have money for a gun, we can always spend it on ammo, parts, mags, or anything else like that we run across, but if you're going to a gun show, it's probably likely that you're going there primarily for guns; and if you don't find anything that fits your budget, you take home some sort of consolation prize (ammo, parts, mags), and save the rest for the next show and hope you have more.

<$500 - Probably won't even bother with a show. Even if I see a handgun I like, probably won't be able to afford it.

$700 - Little more leeway here. Some more options.

$1,000 - Now we're talking. I can afford the majority of handguns I'll find appealing.

$1,500 - Into quality semi-auto rifle territory. This is where the serious buying begins.

$3,000 and beyond - The show belongs to you. Find what you want and take it home with you.

 

[Treo]

I don't take money ( per sé) to gun shows, I take my wife. If I pick up a gun and she pops me on the head I figure it's over the limit. So the first 20 minutes or so I walk around & randomly pick up guns and take not of when she pops me and when she doesn't, that's how I figure out how much money I brought to the gun show

 

[Conqueror]

I take whatever gun money I have at the time that hasn't been earmarked for specific purchases. If I only have $200, that's fine. I can always find some ammo or some AR accessories or something.

 

[possom813]

According to your chart, I'd say every time I've gone to a show it belonged to me.

But I've only been to 3 or 4 shows, and it was usually right after income tax time. The most I've ever spent at a show was around 2k, but since I've learned about all the online vendors, I just don't have much use for shows.

 

[Seven©]

Enough to pay a reasonable price for whatever I am in the market for.

 

[tinygnat219]

Depends on what I am looking for. If I am looking for a S&W 3913, then I will take 450-500 dollars, or something like that for the gun and extra ammo/mags if I can find them.

Generally though, it's a couple of hundred so I can pick up something that falls into the "that's neat" category.

 

[kingpin008]

I rarely have more than $500 earmarked for "fun" purchases at one time, so the OP's chart is a bit off for me as well. I've only been to one show so far, but in the future I'll be going to more looking for nothing in particular, but a good deal on everything. When I find a good deal on something that I can use, I'll pick it up if my mudget at the time allows. I don't feel obligated to buy anything - I'm perfectly happy to walk around and window shop and hang out with other gunnies.

 

[mgregg85]

I tend to take more than I can afford.

 

[22-rimfire]

I take what cash I have available. That is the best I can do. It is either that or not go. Sometimes I don't go even to local shows due to funds.

The minimum I take to a show is $1000 cash if I go unless I have something specific in mind. That allows me to wander around wondering what if?

 

[Neo-Luddite]

Whatever money my wife will permit me.

Sometimes, most times, a hundred bucks or so. Most often, it's entertainment, too--like going to a football game.

I go with my Wife's Dad. One time it was $1500--I was looking for (and bought) a sweet cherry late '55 M-1-
something of a 'dream gun' for me.

I have plenty of fun with 100 bucks; MANY bargains on little things I would never order online or from the mail. Sometimes, oddball things like almost-'expired' real-deal cyanamid lightsticks that my girls (and I) love to play with for a buck a pop. Or that 'thing' you see that you suddenly NEED

It CAN be a mission, and it CAN be fun, and it CAN be social, too.

And it's an excuse for me to spend time with my Father-in-law.

This is maybe the part that the morons who speak of 'loopholes' miss--gun shows are fun.

 

[wally]

I take as much as I can afford to spend, and shop accordingly. Sometimes I'll save to afford better next time if I don't find the right gun at the right price.

--wally.

 

[jaholder1971]

Usually a couple hundred buck.

Everything else gets Master Card.

 

[Hardtarget]

You mean you actually take money!? I've only bought one gun at a gunshow. A .22 single shot intended for my grandson...and the trigger spring broke after I fired 100 rounds. Had to test it!

I've picked up a replacement already...I just need to install it (already). The little gun shoots good, but he will probably want a slick little semi auto instead.

Back to the OP. I seldom carry much cash and rarely buy anything. I just like looking and talking to people I see there. I will see 5 or 6 friends every time I go.

Mark.

 

[Zedo]

Last gun show I took fourteen $100's, four $50's, five $20's, a couple $10's, a couple $5's, and a fist full of $1's.

Nothing annoys a vendor more than haggling the price down from $75 to $17 and then asking him if he has change for a hundred dollar bill.

I bought a Ruger No. 1 in .458 Win. Mag. -- got a decent price because I had cash and it was the getting toward "pack up and let's go home time." Not a whole lot of call for a .458 Win. Mag. in this area. We buy this caliber for the same reason we buy Corvettes when the speed limit is 55 MPH.

(And the local elephants are shakin' in their boots.)

 

[cliffy]

Monies to a Gun Show?

I regularily carry $12 cash average. My credit card capacity represents another matter. I constantly battle impulse buying, and having no cash aids my weak impulses. I owe, I owe, so off to work I go . . . yes, I finagled a recent credit card purchase of $512.00 for the rifle scope I believed I NEEDED. My wife doesn't yet know about this important purchase, and won't till next month's bill . . . cliffy

 

[evan price]

If I have a couple hundred bucks, that's great, for everything else, there's Discover. The last three guns I bought were paid for by Discover. I figure the 1% cash back is a rebate on the gun.

 

[mio]

just depends on how things are going at the time. if im lucky i have a few hundred bucks. right now the job situation is very scary there are lay offs every week so im not spending much money on anything.

im going to a gun show on saturday ill have a 20 in my pocket and a couple guns for trade. ill wander around a bit drool over the guns i wish i could own and if i make a trade great if not its a great way to spend your morning.

ill use the 20 to buy my wife a box of 410 shells since small game season starts in a few weeks and myself a 6 pack on the way home. should be a good day im really looking foreward to it.

 

[Gunnerpalace]

I tend to take more than I can afford.

I do that too.

 

[Kman]

rarely enough, just when I think the summer shows are crap so I won't need much,,,then in walks a late sixties diamondback NIB, the guy needs five and I just spent 350 on a gun I would gladly sell for the 200 I'm short. Race to the car to get first purchase, running back into show, people staring, frantically looking for guy with little colt box. You sold it? of course you did, I'm going to go over here and throw up now.

 

[TAB]

I normally have $20 on me... if I need to buy something, there is check, debt, AMX, and visa.

 

[nwilliams]

I usually take a gun or two that I want to try and sell and a little extra cash on top of that. If I sell anything I use the money from that plus the extra cash I brought along.

I don't think I've ever been to a gun show where I bought something without selling something as well. The last gun show I went to I sold an AK and SKS in the parking lot before I even walked through the entrance of the show.

 

[Kind of Blued]

The same amount that I would take to a casino: Not so much that if it all goes bye bye, I would be screwed. Although it seems that by the last four or five gun shows, I've *just* spent all of that money, so I don't even end up going.

 

[Leanwolf]

When I lived in Los Angeles, and when the L.A. Gun Show was a "real" gun show, before all the communist fascists in Sacramento and Los Angeles, passed laws making gun shows almost sterile, I knew a couple of collectors. Very serious collectors.

They never went to the L.A. show without at least $75,000.00. They were looking for guns that had names like "Purdy," "Holland & Holland," "Rigby," etc.

I wasn't in their league.

L.W.

 

[Bubbles]

How much I take depends on what I'm planning to buy. If I'm only there for ammo and reloading components, $500-1000. Double that if I'm there to purchase a gun.

 

[kentucky bucky]

As much as I can sneak out of town without my wife getting suspicous!!!