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Big E gun show worth it?
- Thread starter Goliathan
- Start date
yes it's a big show plus springfield is growing; casino downtown. the storrowton tavern on the grounds is worth a visit. the student prince hoffbrau house are nice german restaurants
HorizontalHunter
NES Member
The Hofbrauhaus is closed. The Munich Haus in Chicopee center is an option but it isn’t as good as the Hofbrauhaus IMO.
Bob
boilermaker
NES Member
This^^^
Marlboro is next week I think so I would just wait and go to that if you want to go to a show.
Dennis in MA
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I used to go. Then they closed Chi-Chi's. 
. If I'm driving at least an hour, there better be food I can't get elsewhere. Which is why I don't race to Sturbridge anymore. BT's is great, but Kinfolk is 3 min from my house. But I still can't beat the meatball lasagna at Linguine's in Marlboro. That area is a nightmare for traffic by the time you get out on a Saturday as well. Considering how many Massachusetts cities were cruelly bisected by the interstate system, you'd think that 91 and 90 would intersect RIGHT AT the fairgrounds.
I was never real impressed with Springfield. Although I think I bought one of my Glocks there back in the day. One guy had a pile of pre-bans, full-auto and good black striker-fired guns 15-18 years ago. He was against the back wall. I think I bought a Glock from him. I THINK. As I go through the #'s that I've owned, I can't for the life of me figure out which one. LOL. Maybe it was just a cool booth.
ATF used to have a table at the show to answer questions. Most of the answers to questions were, "Well, that's on a case-by-case basis." Hey dummy - no one is gonna ask you the easy questions here. I did finally pin him down on an answer. (Some guy was selling a whole lot of 500 or so old MA-manf. revolvers from 100 yrs ago. It was something like $10,000 to get rid of them. All C&R. I was asking about what was considered "in business". I guess 500 revolvers were "in business" no matter what you sell them for. LOL)
. If I'm driving at least an hour, there better be food I can't get elsewhere. Which is why I don't race to Sturbridge anymore. BT's is great, but Kinfolk is 3 min from my house. But I still can't beat the meatball lasagna at Linguine's in Marlboro. That area is a nightmare for traffic by the time you get out on a Saturday as well. Considering how many Massachusetts cities were cruelly bisected by the interstate system, you'd think that 91 and 90 would intersect RIGHT AT the fairgrounds. I was never real impressed with Springfield. Although I think I bought one of my Glocks there back in the day. One guy had a pile of pre-bans, full-auto and good black striker-fired guns 15-18 years ago. He was against the back wall. I think I bought a Glock from him. I THINK. As I go through the #'s that I've owned, I can't for the life of me figure out which one. LOL. Maybe it was just a cool booth.
ATF used to have a table at the show to answer questions. Most of the answers to questions were, "Well, that's on a case-by-case basis." Hey dummy - no one is gonna ask you the easy questions here. I did finally pin him down on an answer. (Some guy was selling a whole lot of 500 or so old MA-manf. revolvers from 100 yrs ago. It was something like $10,000 to get rid of them. All C&R. I was asking about what was considered "in business". I guess 500 revolvers were "in business" no matter what you sell them for. LOL)
Dennis in MA
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Waitwhat???? A double-Marlboro Winter??? Or do you mean Plymouth? Plymouth is the 23rd.
boilermaker
NES Member
Well I have the wrong date, Marlboro is scheduled for March 30 & 31
KMM696
NES Member
+1 - excellent museum, something any shooter with a feel for the history of firearms needs to see.
For me, the Big E shows are the only ones I regularly go to, but largely because it's only a 45 minute drive instead of 2 hours to Marlborough. I like wandering around and seeing what I can see, and will occasionally find a deal. It might not be anything I need, and is usually something used. The ammunition sale at the show will not be cheaper than TargetSports, most of the new firearms will be priced at or above what the local shops offer. I'll stop at the Guns & Gun Parts tables because they don't raise prices for the show, which is why most of the guns I've bought there were from him. However, I drive by his shop on the way to the Big E, so I'm not getting anything special from being at the show. There will be some C&R stuff, but it will be priced higher than I could get them from distributors or Gunbroker. I'll have fun looking through used parts and reloading equipment, some of which I'll come home with but the parts prices on the whole will not beat ordering from somewhere.
I will also run into, and spend a third of the time I'm there talking to people I've met from various shooting venues and events in W. Mass. Plus talking to whoever I go with, because going to shows by myself I find pretty boring. I'll get to see new products in person instead of on a screen. Summed up, I think of it as a show, not a sales venue. I'm looking for entertainment value, and if I happen to find something I need it's purely a bonus. If you're strictly looking for a buying opportunity, I'm pretty sure W. Springfield is going to disappoint.
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Used to be that that Springfield show was the be-all-end-all for us here in CT since there were so few other shows. They regularly had about 1000 tables, too and I had my C&R and would browse to see if there was anything new I could buy. Now they're down to 700 with a bunch of those tables being taken up by the "Winchester Club Display". Don't get me wrong, I love Winnies but I'd prefer vender tables.....not that I can buy much anyway. Being from Connecticut all we can typically do is browse, buy literature and jerkie and that's hardly worth the parking cost and the $12 entrance fee.
If any of you ever get a chance to visit Louisville, KY on NGD (National Gun Day....no kidding). Last time I went they had over 3000 tables and reenactors dressed like Patton and other famous WWII heros. ! That's a gun show.
If any of you ever get a chance to visit Louisville, KY on NGD (National Gun Day....no kidding). Last time I went they had over 3000 tables and reenactors dressed like Patton and other famous WWII heros. ! That's a gun show.
The only reason to go to this show is you live close to it. Or you have friends out there you're planning to hang out with after or something. Otherwise its an (expensive) waste of time. (getting charged for parking? wtf?)
Back in the day, around 2004/5? or so, this show used to be a big deal , now its a rotting hulk of its former self. Hell the building they put it in, the show only takes up like half the building, unless they've moved it. I remember one year a couple of the vendors kids were tooling around on wheeled toys/scooters in the back part of the venue, and they weren't anywhere near interfering with the show, that's how much dead space is in there. If you are a skilled shopper you will be in and out of the thing in like 20 minutes tops, the only reason you would
end up spending more time in there is if you ran into someone you knew...
-Mike
Back in the day, around 2004/5? or so, this show used to be a big deal , now its a rotting hulk of its former self. Hell the building they put it in, the show only takes up like half the building, unless they've moved it. I remember one year a couple of the vendors kids were tooling around on wheeled toys/scooters in the back part of the venue, and they weren't anywhere near interfering with the show, that's how much dead space is in there. If you are a skilled shopper you will be in and out of the thing in like 20 minutes tops, the only reason you would
end up spending more time in there is if you ran into someone you knew...
-Mike
HorizontalHunter
NES Member
Do they still defang you at the door?
Their advert says that “All federal, state and local firearm ordinances and laws must be obeyed.”
Bob
Their advert says that “All federal, state and local firearm ordinances and laws must be obeyed.”
Bob
Mudflap621
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Was At the big e last weekend for sportsman show and they had huge signs saying no firearms allowed on the fairgrounds wtf?
If you're bored, do it... but figure out someplace cool to eat lunch/dinner or something afterwards, so even when you leave the show with nothing you don't feel like it's a total let down.
Dennis in MA
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Oh gosh. I forgot about that. The first two LOOOONG rows dedicated to old people trying to peddle old unwanted Winchester lever-guns at prices that NO ONE was willing to pay. It was every Winchester collector in the Northeast converging on one spot wondering why no one ELSE was buying them. If everyone is selling, no one is buying!
At the time I went with a guy that had to look at EVERY table. We spent an hour looking at what appeared to be the same $1,000+ gun 500 times.
I guess, at the time, they Winnie guys were trying to cash in on SASS. But having a super-rare half-round 25-20 Model 73 is NOT attractive to a cowboy shooter at $1,500 when they can get a repro in a decent caliber for $600 and a Rossi 92 for $400.
From where you are, probably not. I defend the Big E but mainly because I am local and it's about the only show out this way. There is one in Brimfield (I think) but it's pretty small from what I hear.
I had to drive close by Marlboro yesterday for work and the drive reminded me of why I don't go. Gas and time wasted driving more than offset the Big E parking fees.
Private property. Their property, their rules. We (gun owners) support and defend our firearms rights so it's a bit difficult to turn around and criticize their rights in this regard.
You don't have to like it, you just have to do it.
I’m gonna go for a couple hours and grab a bite to eat after with a friend. Sometimes they have cool stuff to look at there.....even if it is priced out the wazoo!
Coda
NES Member
I haven’t been in years but I think I am going to check it out. I am recently retired so at least it’s something to do. As others have said plan on grabbing lunch or something else since there are a lot of good places around there. Hofbrauhaus is now a barbeque place but the White Hut is still there.
As far as carrying I remember back in the day cops at the door asking if you had a firearm on you. If you replied “yes” they would have you empty your ammo into a container they had for different calibers. Then on the way out you reloaded. The problem I had with that was you rarely got back “your” ammo. You would get back a mixture of everybody else’s. I was worried about ending up with a reload that someone fuc@# up.
As far as carrying I remember back in the day cops at the door asking if you had a firearm on you. If you replied “yes” they would have you empty your ammo into a container they had for different calibers. Then on the way out you reloaded. The problem I had with that was you rarely got back “your” ammo. You would get back a mixture of everybody else’s. I was worried about ending up with a reload that someone fuc@# up.
There's also a car/motorsports show this weekend, in a different building on the fairgrounds, if anyone is interested.
Separate admission charge, obviously.
Barry
Separate admission charge, obviously.
Barry
I can't speak to this show in particular, but after the last show I went to in Concord last year, I've vowed to never step foot in a New England gun show again except that antique one in Sturbridge, haven't been to that one yet. Anyway, the gun shows here are just plain pathetic now.
$1200 for a used Ruger Old Army is insulting, especially after I paid $8 to get in. The most enjoyment I got out of going to that show was I brought a friend along and I was pointing out all the high prices to him in front of the vendors. That and how the new Colt Cobra looks almost like a Charter Arms, yet is three times the price.
The original point to gun shows wasn't so a bunch of FFL's could get together and sell cheap plastic guns, it was for private sellers and collectors to get together under one big roof, talk to each other... pretty much an IRL internet forum in the days the internet didn't exist. Now they're just FFL clusterf*ucks, same guns at every table, nothing for the collector, at least nothing you can't see at Shooter's Outpost in Hooksett and also not have to pay the entrance fee or parking.
The internet killed the gun show, but if you're looking for an excuse to leave the house and want to pay to see guns, then it's exactly what you're looking for.
$1200 for a used Ruger Old Army is insulting, especially after I paid $8 to get in. The most enjoyment I got out of going to that show was I brought a friend along and I was pointing out all the high prices to him in front of the vendors. That and how the new Colt Cobra looks almost like a Charter Arms, yet is three times the price.
The original point to gun shows wasn't so a bunch of FFL's could get together and sell cheap plastic guns, it was for private sellers and collectors to get together under one big roof, talk to each other... pretty much an IRL internet forum in the days the internet didn't exist. Now they're just FFL clusterf*ucks, same guns at every table, nothing for the collector, at least nothing you can't see at Shooter's Outpost in Hooksett and also not have to pay the entrance fee or parking.
The internet killed the gun show, but if you're looking for an excuse to leave the house and want to pay to see guns, then it's exactly what you're looking for.
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FIFY^
I live just outside of Springfield....I haven't gone to the Big E show in years....it's boring IMO....a lot of relic stuff and if you want something easier just to go down to the local shop....last time I went the number of tables had dwindled significantly from the first time....
