Hamilton gun show this weekend. I needed to move a bunch of the guns I got out of the estate sale and managed to move a few. And, unfortunately, I brought one home. Specifically a CZ452. Its a lovely open-sighted carbine that just has some nice charm to it. And the price was reasonable – $300. So, it came home with me to share a space in the gun closet with my other CZ .22. Wonderful guns.

I also got my Marlin .45-70 back from my buddy who did some work on it for me. The previous owner removed the original sight and replaced it with a Remington 700 rear sight. Well, that ain’t what the Zero wanted. My buddy removed the sight, cleaned up the holes that had been drilled and tapped, and put a sight blank in there:

And, since I was at the gun show it seemed logical to go hunting for a receiver sight. And….

The next and final bit of modification is to remove that outrageous cross-bolt safety. Fortunately, I have some experience with Marlin surgery. The safety delete will be here next week and that’ll put the finishing touches on this grizzly grabber. Although, come to think of it, I should pick up a sling tomorrow.

Other than that wonderful CZ452, I didnt see anything at the gun show worth spending money on. Which is good.

Well, I just dropped a metric buttload of money on a piece of property, why not head to a gun show and inflict further financial damage? So, off to the Hamilton show we went.

First up was a Thompsen Contender with a 14″ .223 barrel with rings, frame, pistol grip, stock, and one of those older 10″ .45 Colt barrels that had a removable choke. No paperwork. Alright, I’ll take that.

(I took the .45 barrel and gifted it to a buddy, kept the .223 barrel.)

Also from the same guy, a Thompson Encore frame and stock with one 7mm Rem Mag barrel with Leupold Vari-x IIc 4-12x, and a muzzleloading barrel with a Leupold Vari-X II 3-9x on it. Again,no paperwork.

I have no love of the 7mm Mag, nor was I keen for an inline muzzle loader (although I am looking for a traditional one to take advantage of late season antlerless elk tag next year). What I was keen on , though, was the frames, stocks and the two Leupold scopes. I’ll unload the barrels somewhere and pick up a .308 barrel (or, Crom willing, a 7×57 or 7-08).

Did I see anything else of interest at the show? Not particularly although the same guy that sold me these Thompsons also had a night vision scope and a thermal scope that I was rather tempted by. But….one thing at a time. I really didnt wanna spend the money but couldnt pass up the deal. I need to show a bit more restraint since I have a rather lengthy list of things to spend money on next spring.

But….good show. If youre down Hamilton way, stop in at the fairgrounds.

Plans for this weekend? Well, the Hamilton gun show is today. I didn’t really see any guns at the show that I really really wanted, but as is my custom I stopped by the gun shops between here and Hamilton on the way back ‘just in case’. Stopped in at Frontier Guns which is becoming my favorite gun shop rather quickly, in terms of getting some deals on things. Walked in and saw a pair of Eotech 512 holosights for sale. Seeing a pair of them used together was a little odd so I asked the obvious question:

• Me: These are police trade-ins?
• Him: Yeah, the Hamilton PD swapped them out.
• Me: Really? What’d they swap to?
• Him: <Embarassed look> Holosuns.
• Me: <Thoughtful pause>..Seriously?
• Him: On their Palmetto Armory’s.
• Me: <In the same voice you console a friend with cancer> They, uhm…They don’t have much of a budget, do they?
• Him: No. No, they do not.

So, I asked him to make me a deal for the pair. He knocked $50 off each one and I got the pair for $275 ea. With box-n-docs.

One of them is going on my MP5A3-clone and the other…haven’t decided yet. And while I was there I found a box full of HKS speedloaders for k-frame Smiths. Now, when I carry a revolver its usually either a j-frame like my 642 I carry at work or an L-frame-ish gun like the GP-100. I seldom carry around a k-frame .38. However, I do have a Ruger Police Six which is .357 and has the same dimensions as a k-frame. This means the speedloaders will work just fine in it. And, since it’s identical to a k-frame in terms of dimensions, it fits juuuuuuust fine in this El Paso Saddlery holster I found in a used holster bin at the gun show for $40.

I need some square-butt Pachmayr Grippers if anyone needs an idea for a Paratus gift. 😉

Also picked up a Bianchi 7L holster for one of my Berreta 92’s ($40) as well as a Safariland 6280 ($20) holster for my Glock 34. First gun show where I walked out with holsters and nothing else. The fellow selling the holsters had a few other El Paso’s at similar prices but they were for guns I don’t have. However, I must say, those EPS holsters are some fine pieces of work. Theyre expensive, no two ways about it, but if you can find a used one you can save some major coin.

Off to do some ‘boots on the ground’ tomorrow at the potential property purchase. I wanna see exactly where that polypipe goes and I need to eyeball some of the grown over entry points on the map. Also wanna get some dimensions on the buildable area that is there. So…into the woods tomorrow.

The big Missoula gun show this is this weekend and its a little…underwhelming. But part of that is because, frankly, theres not much left I need and even less that I want. But, I have people visiting me this weekend and we’re making a gun safari of it…hitting the gun show and all the gun shops up and down the valley. Interestingly, it wasnt at the gun show but at a shop in Hamilton where I spent the most money. This is the same shop that, back in February, I got a decent deal on a Trijicon dot. Well, they had another. And they also had an Eotech XPS-2 that was used. Wound up buying both f(used) or a good discount. Its an interesting gun store…not a lot of old stuff, but alot of used stuff. And theres some pretty interesting oddballs….for example I saw a Ciener Mini-14 .22 kit which I almost bought until I remembered Cieners reputation with his AR .22 kits. Its a pretty good shop and I highly recommend it.

Since Im playing host to out of towners from a place that doesn’t believe in freedom, theres a big range day planned today. Might take some pictures, might not. But….thats the weekend.

Went to the Hamilton gun show this last weekend. Didn’t really see much that jumped out at me. Really, I’ve got everything I need and most of what I want. At this point, it’s just gilding the lily to pick up another AR or Glock. And, honestly, I’d rather take that $400 and drop it into something that’ll generate a consistent return down the line.

Prices were fairly reasonable at the show. Primers were in the $75/brick range whcih, to my pre-Covd mind, is still an amazing ripoff. Plenty of ARs and AKs out there, as well as mags and ammo. There were the usual tables of ‘survival gear’ but, sadly, no Johnny Trochman. I guess if you go to a gun show and don’t see him it means were going to have another six weeks of nuclear winter.

I also swung by Trader Bros. on the way back to see  how their massive storage food acquisition is going. It had definitely been whittled a bit, but any sales were offset by additional pallets (yes, wrapped pallets of buckets of food) that had been added since my last visit. Apparently they hit the PPE part of this guys stash because there were N95 masks, Tyvek suits, goggles, and gloves aplenty. I gotta hand it to the deceased survivalist….he definitely was walking it like he was talking it. I didn’t pick up anything because, honestly, I’m pretty squared away and don’t really have room for more.

Speaking of space, I’m still looking for that chunk o’dirt. I found a place that ticks off a great many of my little tickyboxes except…it’s too bloody far away. But, oh, its got some sweet features…biggest of which is that it butts up against BLM/state land which, in turn, butts up against a million acres of national forest. If only it wasnt so bloody far from here. So, the search continues on that front.

Was up in Kalispell for the gun show today. I don’t know whats going on but there were more FAL’s on dealers tables than I have ever seen before. Mostly DSA’s and STG-58’s, but I must have seen at least a dozen, including a couple para’s. You know what I didn’t see? A whole lot of FAL magazines.

Other things I saw were a couple grossly overpriced Uzi’s. Look, I know they haven’t been imported for darn near 30 years, but a bog-standard 9mm is not worth $4k.

Other notable guns were a couple Steyr .50’s, again at stratospheric prices.

I was pretty pleased with myself because I didn’t buy another gun. I spent a total of $35 on flares and smoke from Johnny Trochman and he even kicked in a 5-pack of 26.5mm flares for my HK P2a1‘s.

Prices for everything, it seemed, were ridiculous. I am rather pleased that, from a realistic standpoint, I have everything I need in large quantity. If there is anything I actually do need, the level of urgency is low enough that I can afford the time to order it online from someplace at a better price.

All in all, though…its always fun to wander the gun show and see stuff. In fact I saw some stuff I have not seen in decades….including one of these rare birds:

Thats an M1 Carbine that has been converted into a mag-fed pump-action .44 Magnum. I last saw one of these in the very early nineties. The guys that put these together also did a .256 Win mag version which was quite interesting. These were NOT the same guys who did the ill-advised .45 Win Mag conversions in about the same time period.

Never know what someone is gonna drag outta the closet and bring to the show………..

SO, just got back from the Missoula Gun Show.

It’s always a good show with lotsa interesting stuff. First thing I want to say is, if I were selling a brick of small pistol primers for $110 I would be ashamed of myself. Yes, I want to make as much money as possible, and I won’t tell you that you’re wrong for doing it…but I couldn’t do it.

For the first time in a couple years I ran into Johnny Trochmann, the in-your-face ‘leader’ of the Militia of Montana back when stuff like that was all over the news. He’s a nice guy, friendly, polite, and waaaaaaay out where the buses don’t run. Conspiracy du jour was blue helmeted UN types being hired for law enforcement roles here in the US. Ok, John….whatever.

However, Johnny T. has always treated me right since we both wear the same brand of tinfoil. (Mine is shiny side out, though.) He had several hundred rounds of once-fired commercial .50 BMG for sale and I got it at a little discount of $0.90 each. Good guy, that Trochmann.

And, by the way, even empty that .50 BMG stuff is heavy. My hands were cramping trying to carry two 100-rd bags of the stuff to the truck.

As for .50 BMG primers….well….I guess $0.80 each is a bargain in some circles these days but my brain could not reconcile paying that kinda money. No doubt I’ll regret this down the line when they either $1.50 each or completely unavailable. A good case for the .338 Lapua whcih does a decent job of being a ballistic Pareto’s Law example compared to the .50.

All in all a good show. Saw some familiar faces, got a deal or two, saw some nice stuff, and didn’t go too overboard on spending. (Although I might go back and pick up a Ruger M77 in 7×57 that looked pretty sweet.)

Still gotta drop the money and get the BMG presd and dies. That Barrett is an expensive mistress.

The big Missoula gun show is this weekend. I…can’t think of much I need. Really, about the only thing I need is some BMG optics and BMG reloading gear. Thats about it.

On the other hand, sometimes you never know what you need until you see it.

Regardless, it’ll be fun to wander around and see familiar faces. If you’re in Missoula this weekend, I highly recommend swinging by the show. It’s at the Hilton Garden Inn on Reserve St, across the bridge from CostCo.