Report from Valley Forge Gun Show

[jaybet]

This past weekend I went to the Valley Forge Gun Show in PA. My wife and daughter had a ballet trip planned and a baby shower following, so my son in law and I went to the Gun show to balance things a little. I had a gig that night in Wilmington DE so I didn't have a WHOLE lot of time to scope things out, but we got there and made the rounds quickly. I was looking for reloading supplies, and s-i-l was looking for parts for his Serpa duty holster.

The show is fairly large, but it was jammed into a tighter space than I remember it. Combine that with a HUGE crowd, and you can imagine the fun of pushing your way through between tabels. Everyone was quietly unagressive, but not overly friendly.
The VF gun show is interesting because you see all types...regular folks, people who look like hilbillies, people who look like gangbangers...they're all there. I was happy to see many of the vendors had signs up with rules...#1 was always, "SPEAK ENGLISH" or you get no service.

The massive lineups of weapons were, of course, missing. A couple of vendors had serious lineups of AR type weapons, but most had only a few and the prices were all $1200 on up. AKs were available from many vendors, but it was the same thing...lesser value models for high prices. I saw Saigas in 223 that were $750...I had seen them at one of my usual shops at about $440 a few weeks before.

Most of the weapons were old bolt action of every type. There were M-1s, a few VERY expensive Garands and what not, and some interesting M-1 carbines that would have been illegal for me to bring back into the great state of Misery....er...New Jersey.
I went to see the "Old reliable" ammo guy...I picked up 500 rounds of .45acp but struck out on primers...They would only sell one 1k box of primers to any customer, so I did get 1k small pistol primers. NO pistol powder left, NO large primers, and he wasthe ONLY guy who had primers.  THis is really getting nuts.

There was a whole lot of "old" stuff...I say that because I'm no expert, but I know there's a lot of fake "old" stuff floating around out there. I was able to pick up a Fobus paddle holster for my new Taurus 745 for $20. Nice deal and it fits like a glove with adjustable retainage. There was one dealer who had a ton of smithing tools, misc. dental tools, etc. Very cool selection.

Other than a whole lot of camo sleeping bags and old army coats that was about it. Miscellaneous handguns, and I did see a lot of bolt action rifles being purchased...I don't know the pricing on them but they must have been reasonable because it was obviously a big sales category.

Not a very exciting gun show, but like I always say, an afternoon at a gun show is better than a stick in the eye any day.

[1911 Junkie]

but like I always say, an afternoon at a gun show is better than a stick in the eye any day.

Or a day at the ballet or baby shower.
We know where you reeeeeeeeaaaaaally wanted to be.

Did you explain to the guy that when speaking of primers 1 box=5000. They come that way for a reason.