Springfield Show @ BigE - Dec 13 + 14

Zappa said:
One thing about the Springfield show that I always found quite strange is they don't allow any ammo inside the building. The ammo sellers are working from tents set up in the parking lot. They usually have a couple hundred cases of ammo inside the tents with a few propane heaters to stay warm. Oh yeah, that's seems a LOT safer than bringing ammo in the building. [wink]
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The Big E is a commercial concern that hosts lots of different shows through the year. IIRC, it's one of their rules so you have to deal with it.
 
I can't go - have to take my wife to a horse sale at the PA State Farm Complex in Harrisburg. Not too much of a hardship though - there's a 1200+ table gun show running concurrently in the same complex! You can't see it all in 2 days.
 
What's the process for getting into the show if you're carrying? I remember last year when I went seeing a cop at a table, but I wasn't carrying so I didn't pay too much attention.
 
Adalan said:
What's the process for getting into the show if you're carrying? I remember last year when I went seeing a cop at a table, but I wasn't carrying so I didn't pay too much attention.
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IIRC, carrying concealed on your person is not allowed at a gun show, unless you're a PO. At every gun show I've ever been to, on the way in, the cop at the door asks if you have any guns on you. Usually my answer is "no, but I may go home with one". They also ask you on the way out if you have any guns on you. If you have one that you're bringing in to trade, they check it in and put a tag on it. On the way out, if you still have the gun you came in with, you have to show them that the tag is still attached. If you buy a gun at the show, the dealer puts a tag on it that you must show on the way out. If they catch you leaving with an untagged gun, then you have a lot of explaining to do........
 
guywithglasses said:
Have officially seen it all...

...saw a Romanian WASR marked $695.95 [rolleyes]
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I saw a few WASRs for $450.

I could have scored if I felt like being dirty by buying them and selling them for a hundred bucks higher in the classifieds. [laugh]

Oddly enough prices weren't bad at all for the most part. Of course there were some items priced too high but thats been the rule of thumb for Mass gun shows for years now.

I saw a ton of guns I would have either bought if I didn't already have them, or just plain didn't have enough money for.

I found an all matching what looked like a been there done that Sino Soviet SKS marked as a "Vet Bring Back" but after I pointed out the CAI import stamp to the seller, he offered to sell it to me for $250. He was a CT. dealer and Fred (50 BMG) and crew we're going to do the transfer for me but as I examined the rifle closer I saw a ton of rust and pitting below the wood line so I passed.[sad]

The ammo tent was slim pickings with the only 7.62x39 available in cases being Wolf at over $200. I think the price was $250, I can't remember. There were also cases of Golden Tiger 5.45x39 for $225 but I don't have anything that shoots that round.

All I got was some jerky and an AK47 world tour t-shirt from the Russian vendor.
 
Show was busy today, more so than previous one. For the most part the usual vendors. AR's and related tables were busy.

One guy had 20 and 30 round mags for $15.00. Bought a couple of Stoner 20's the 30 were all adventureline, parsons and okay and reportedly preban but all looked new. supposedly came out of an armory down south. He had a bunch of them
 
colt preban 30rd mag w/ green follower, and 100 rds of 7.62 golden tiger is all that followed me. I did see the exact YHM AR I want, marked at 1400.

anybody no what the colt 30rders should go for?
 
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there were also quite a few lowers. A complete SW lower w/ m4 stock for $310. Essential Arms stripped lowers I think were 140. Another brand was 160 (SW or Stag I think). and YHM were $200. I have no idea on the going rates on any of those though.
 
The WASRs that were marked lower than 499 were all single stack. One I saw was at 459 (six mags) and the other at 400 (one mag) . Considering you would need a new pistol grip and rear stock, the double stack WARSs looked like an ok deal at $500 from two different vendors. The six mag could have had the mags sold off to Cali or somesuch and converted by hand and be at about the same price as the other single stack.

Two of the Saigia (sp) shotguns there at $598, one mag and no extras available. Was temped but ran out of cash after buyign some misc parts.

Damn, missed the AR mags.

Postban Uppers, with brake and Rail, no rear BUIS for $440 BCG included. Was almost ready to do this when he mentioned they were not chrome lined. Decided to wait. Missed a Stag lefty with rail front gas block for $499 I believe. After I asked him if that was all the uppers he had, the guy next to me asked about a left hander. One available. (son is a left hander) he was crushed as he assumed that I would buy the lefty since I told him I wanted a Stag.

Did anyone hapen to see any AK drums while there? I did not and was curious.
 
When I left home our power was out (since Friday about 2am), and when I got back it was on. So that was good. WMECO had told us to prepare for ... Monday.

I saw a WASR-10 for $450. I also thought of buying it for a quick profit, but I had my 12yo son with me, and didn't want to be a total whore right in front of him. Wolf 7.62x39 was $250 a case. No bargain there.

My son bought some funky currency from one dealer there. He had a $10 budget, and the guy saw him carefully eyeing the Japanese Occupation bills, and cut him an on-the-spot half-off kids price special. Decent of him to do that. The boy now has a big addition to his numismatic collection ... some occupation bucks, Russian bills, WWI era German Marks.

Me ... I bought 3 AK mags. Didn't really have much to spend anyway.

Had a good time with the kid though! [grin]
 
I got a decent deal on a Microtech Socom Elite and a Surefire E2D Defender...I was hoping to get some Federal .45 HST +P from the screwball in the ammo tent,but there was none to be found,so I got the knife and light instead.

Funniest thing was the bin full of FAL mags marked "pre-ban" for $20 ea.Is there such a thing as a post ban FAL mag ? [wink]

Good thing you didn't buy that WASR Gringo,I'm pretty positive I seen the same thing, and it was a single stack.I'm sure someone bought it and it trying desperately to force a 30 rd AK mag in it. [smile]
 
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Greg said:
Good thing you didn't buy that WASR Gringo,I'm pretty positive I seen the same thing, and it was a single stack.I'm sure someone bought it and it trying desperately to force a 30 rd AK mag in it. [smile]
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I can't swear to it, but I thought it had a 30-rounder in it. I didn't take as close a look as I should have. But it was the one that came with six mags, so I guess you're right. That would be too much for a single-stack WASR, fo sho!

Tombstone had a couple of Tec-9s up for sale, which lead me to believe I might get $600 or better for mine. That would be a good start toward and AR. I might take it in to them for a look see.
 
I would wait for the prices to come down a bit on the AR's, Stag stripped lowers for $180 is insane,double the price.Judging by the amount of lowers available there I would say the supply has caught up with demand and the prices should come back down to reality soon.
 
guywithglasses said:
Have officially seen it all...

...saw a Romanian WASR marked $695.95 [rolleyes]
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A WASR listing for that much its not uncommon . If a distributor has them , and that is a big if, they have tripled their prices to the dealers. Look at the latest edition of Shotgun News. J+G has POR now. Used to be $345. Last week, $525. now POR[crying]
 
Well Mrs. Magnum was there all day working the GOAL table and I joined her at 1:00, it was pretty slow all day. I had a nice long talk with Art over at Tombstone, he said they did pretty well even though it was slow.

Didn't run into any NESers this time.
 
Mikey said:
Well Mrs. Magnum was there all day working the GOAL table and I joined her at 1:00, it was pretty slow all day. I had a nice long talk with Art over at Tombstone, he said they did pretty well even though it was slow.

Didn't run into any NESers this time.
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Hey, I saw you guys! I got there about 1. But I hadn't showered in a couple of days due to our power outage and even with a hat on I looked pretty ... well, I just didn't feel pretty. I don't think I was really stinky, though. But I avoided a couple of people I vaguely knew, and didn't dare introduce myself at the GOAL table. I wanted to buy a hat, too! [sad2]
 
Damn man we don't care, we would have just thought it was standard Western MA tradition to go to the gun show dirty.[wink]

We wanted to give you the secret pickle location too.
 
hollewud7 said:
colt preban 30rd mag w/ green follower, and 100 rds of 7.62 golden tiger is all that followed me. I did see the exact YHM AR I want, marked at 1400.

anybody no what the colt 30rders should go for?
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7 years ago I was paying 19.95 for the Colt 30rd's. I've had trouble finding them lately. Most places I've been to in the past 2 weeks have laughed at me. However, just like I thought there were plenty to be had today.

I picked up 2 Colts 3rds for 25 each. I saw them for 30, 35 and even 40 on the tables.

I also picked up 2 cheapo Okay's for 12 bucks each. I'll probably never use them but I like to have a stash of magazines. I saw another vender have what looked to be brand new ones for 15 bucks. There were a few makers in there.

What I couldn't find was a lock for an AR I have been looking for. It's the one that looks like a magazine but has a key lock on the bottom. I used to have one, but couldn't even find anyone who had even heard of them.

As for people stinking, there were alot of them. @ 10 am it was more crowded then I have ever seen it.
 
I know one of the WASRs I saw for under $500 was indeed a high cap WASR10 because I picked it up as thoughts ran through my mind.[laugh]

I'm sure it went fast though and don't doubt that single stack mag models were going for the same price.

One thing I didn't expect to see was the number of Romaks there. Even though they were all $800 - $900, the fact that I saw more than 2 surprised me.
 
I haven't been to a Springfield show in a few years so I was psyched to go to this one, especially because I actually had some to money spend this time [grin]
I arrived there about 10:00 to a very full looking parking lot and a line of about 50 people in front of me to the ticket booth. I expected it to be packed, but found out otherwise once I got inside. There were a lot less vendors than I remember in the past, and the crowd wasn't as thick as I anticipated. I'm not complaining because it was unusually easy to navigate through the crowd, and no need to elbow my way up to the tables to get a good look.
I walked around almost all day and saw everything 3 or 4 times. I found most of the items on my list, lead bullets, primers, powder, cleaning brushes, books and a new pair of BDU's, but couldn't get an extra magazine for my Tommygun [sad]. I did manage to blow $50 bucks at the beef jerky table......mmmmm jerky [smile] and I also went home with a new toy. I had my eye on a few Browning Hi-Powers that were reasonably priced, but ended up with a good deal on a 1963 vintage Walther P-38. This one was in very good shape and came with two mags and a nearly new flap holster. I had a P-38 about 20 years ago, which I liked a lot, but beat the snot out of it and cracked the slide. Nice to have one back in my collection again [grin]
I know there were a bunch of NES'ers there, but never actually met any of you in person. I'm sure some of you probably saw me, but didn't know who I was either. I wore my 1999 Ted Musgrave #75 Nascar Jacket. It's easy to spot because it's black with tan sleeves and has a really nice gold REMINGTON logo embroidered on the back. I've actually had people offer to buy this jacket from me, but you can't get them anymore. I got mine in Homestead at the inaugural Cup race, at clearance no less, because that was the last year Remington sponsored a car.
 
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graftyman said:
7 years ago I was paying 19.95 for the Colt 30rd's. I've had trouble finding them lately. Most places I've been to in the past 2 weeks have laughed at me. However, just like I thought there were plenty to be had today.

I picked up 2 Colts 3rds for 25 each. I saw them for 30, 35 and even 40 on the tables.

I also picked up 2 cheapo Okay's for 12 bucks each. I'll probably never use them but I like to have a stash of magazines. I saw another vender have what looked to be brand new ones for 15 bucks. There were a few makers in there.

What I couldn't find was a lock for an AR I have been looking for. It's the one that looks like a magazine but has a key lock on the bottom. I used to have one, but couldn't even find anyone who had even heard of them.

As for people stinking, there were alot of them. @ 10 am it was more crowded then I have ever seen it.
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I saw the 12 dollar ones but they looked beat.... a guy in front of me was gropping the whole lot for 10 minutes anyway... Saw some decent mags selling for 25, then saw the colt green followers in very good condition for 30 and grabbed just one. Didnt know if that was high or low, so figured if i grabbed one i wouldnt be kicking myself either way [thinking]
 
I was blown away to see the parking lot. WOW!!! I go to every show and never has it been that full. However as said before when I got inside, it was not that bad. Saw a lot of friends there so it was nice to chat and see all the guys. Basically I was happy. I got mags for the,

Mac10 .45
AK47 (polytech)
Mini 14/AC556

thats all I really needed so I am happy. Gotta git the mags [smile]
 
ateamrob said:
I was blown away to see the parking lot. WOW!!! I go to every show and never has it been that full. However as said before when I got inside, it was not that bad. Saw a lot of friends there so it was nice to chat and see all the guys. Basically I was happy. I got mags for the,

Mac10 .45
AK47 (polytech)
Mini 14/AC556

thats all I really needed so I am happy. Gotta git the mags [smile]
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There was some sort of soccer game going on,that's why the lot was so full.
 

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