Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Cousin Wallace goes to the Dallas Gun Show.


Sallied forth to the Dallas Market Hall gunshow yesterday morning with a couple of pals. Left my abode @ 05:00 & arrived about 07:45 to get a good parking spot.
 
Opened @ 09:00. Nice to be in such a big structure w/lotsa tables of goodies.
 
Wasnt particularly looking for anything specific. Kinda wanted something new to play with....maybe an affordable ( yeah, right) Browning Hi-Power, a long barrelled S&W 686, S&W M27 with 8 3/8", Something new in .45 Colt, some kinda match grade 1911.............who knows, just open to something interesting.
 
Well, I found a Hi-Power that I liked...$750...wasnt sure I liked it quite that much. Likewise with a S&W 6" model 687 seven-shooter...
 
My pal bought two 1873 Springfield Trapdoors, one is a beauty w/shiney bore. Also two ATI model 1911's....made in Phillipines, look to be of pretty good quality, $500 each. A M37 Ithaca w/long bbl & poly-joke and finally a .22LR copy of the German Stg44 Sturmgewher (sp). Neat looking repro...looking forward to trying that out! Also saw 2 real Stg44's on display, not for sale.
 
Saw two G43 rifles, neither as purty as mine and neither had a scope or scope mount. $2600 for one & $3000 for the other.
 
Kinda wanted to find some powder and/or reasonable primers. What powder they had was priced OK for these days but there was none in the medium burning rate popular for service rifle calibres (.223, .308 & .30-06). They either had too fast pistol/shotgun burning rates or too slow, magnum rifle types. Most was about $28/lb but saw some W760 for $25/lb. Only suitable burn rate I saw was BL-C2 & it was $48/lb. Most primers $4 to $5 box.
 
Plenty of .223 & 7.62X39mm ammo available....if you had the $$$! The cheapest .223 I remember seeing was $70/100 or seventy cents/rd. Some was higher. Even bullets were high....30 calibre 168gr match was common for $35/box (some higher).
 
Plenty of pistols available as well as ammo. Pistol prices wernt as high as one would xpect but ammo wasnt cheap! .22 rimfire was common but priced pretty high. Usually about $7/box of 50.
 
.45 Colt $50/box ( that's a dollar a round for those of you who couldnt figger that out.)
 
.44 Magnum $60/box ( $1.20/rd)
 
.45ACP avg about $40/box for 230 ball
 
9X19mm seems to be down a bit at about $30/box....saw some a bit cheaper & some a bit higher.
 
Lots & lots of AR15's.....prices coming down a bit....saw lots of tire kickers, not so many buyers. Plenty of magazines for same & they are coming down in price too. Off brand complete lowers w/collapsible stocks for as low as $225, not bad. Model one sales had a humongous supply of all types of uppers but they were priced way higher that what I figgered was fair.
 
Plenty of AK47 look-a-likes........$850 & up.
 
Quite a few M1 Garands ... avg about $995
 
M1 Carbines usually $995
 
M1903 & 1903A3 ...saw several $695 for beat up & up to around $900.
 
K98 Mausers....$450 - $750 depending on condition & markings.
 
Tons of other stuff....lots of accessories. Way too many knives for my taste. Gun cases, gun safes, optics of every flavor. Night vision, you name it......
 
There were lotsa folks there but getting around wasnt as bad as I've seen it in the past. It was rare that I had to wait to see something on a table.
 
After walking around for 5 hours, I finally bought an 8-rd Wilson Combat magazine for my 1911 for $29..........not disappointed but wished I could have found more stuff.
 
Wallace  

1 comment:

Old NFO said...

At least there are now options and more realistic prices...