Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Local gun show this weekend. About the only thing that I was looking for were some small rifle primers. No luck. Or, more precisely, no luck at less than $30/m. Sorry, Im not paying that. My usual vendor had primers at $25/m but no small rifles. Once I accepted that defeat it was time to look around for the stuff that I just absolutely needed to have but just didnt know I needed. First up, and this was fate having a laugh at my expense, was a Filson Double Mackinaw Cruiser for $125. Size? 44-46. Okay…shrug outta my jacket…try it on …and…..just a tad small in the shoulders. Dammit, a 48 woulda done the trick. And it didnt help that when I started trying it on the guy said that he’d take $100 for it. I called a buddy of mine whom I thought it might fit and told him about it. He said to pick it up for him but, alas, when I went back the next day I had missed it by just ten minutes. Not meant to be, I suppose.

Firearms-wise, I didnt see much I couldnt live without. There seemed to be less ARs and AKs than at previous shows and magazines were a little thin too. Plenty of hunting arms of various calibers and configurations. In a sign of the times, there was a fella walking around with an ALICE pack on his back and a cardboard sing taped to it that read “BUG OUT BAGS $20, $40 WITH FRAME”. I wanted to get a picture of it but its always a dicey thing to start snapping pictures in a gun show.

Johnny Trochmann wasnt in attendance which was kind of a letdown since I wanted to pick up a few parachute flares and some other specialty items. This was a smallet-than-usual show so perhaps he was attending a larger one elsewhere.

Ran into a handful of people who I knew from the shows. A lot of these guys are up in their years and invariably the conversation turns to ‘did you hear about…’ and I learn that onel of the old timers has passed on. Gun shows, at least attending them habitually, is an old mans game. A lot of these guys are retired and gor them its a fun social thing to do, travelling to a different town every weekend to sell guns and swap stuff with each other. I remember when I started doing gun shows I was the youngest person at the show with a table. That was …hmmm….about 20-someodd years ago. Of course, gun shows were a bit different then. For one thing ours was held in a Fraternal Order of Eagles lodge so, since they had a liquor license and bar, as the evening wore on the deals became more and more interesting as the constituency became more and more tipsy. Good times.

Totally absent from this show was the guy who was here last time with the FN-made FAL that he wanted $2500 for. Sure it was in great shape and all, but $2500 was pushing the envelope. Nonetheless, a friend of mine, who loves him some FAL action, offered the guy a 100 oz. bar of silver. At the time silver was right around $24.75 an ounce, I think. The dealer, who really was a bit of a jerk, declined. Had he showed some brains and accepted my buddy’s deal he would have about $4000 right now for that FAL that is still worth ‘only’ $2500. I was hoping to see him there so I could remind him of this but it was not to be.

Anyway, I wound up with an 8# keg of powder for $45, a new Safariland paddle holster for my Glock for $20, a few shellholders and some other sundry items. Anytime I get out of a gun show without spending more than $100 I chalk it up as a win.