The 'fever' appears to be off. Gunshow today had plenty

by John Meeker , West End of Lake Erie, Sunday, May 12, 2013, 19:34 (4157 days ago) @ Hobie

of 600-800-1000-1200$ new AR's. There were a few 'walkarounds' with price flags in barrel, but nothing like the Forest of them during the panic, with four-figure tags .

I took my sweet time, as the early morning aisles were pretty open, and visited with old friends. Carried the Rock River Coyote with the Hi-Lux scope, JIC somebody absolutely had to have a "sniper rife". At least that's what the professionally interested police-check-it-ins at the door called it. Mostly drew admiration. Found a couple of under-appreciatted vintage knives for the collection. The older Scando blades have just dried up, since they became known. Kinda miss the 10 & 20 bucks buys on those fine implements.

By noon, the crowds had thickened to 'normal crowded gunshow' status. Not any real bell-ringing handgun buys, new or vintage. Lots of nice upper-end SxS's, with the usual suspects. About 35-40% 'tactical' tables - with some big vendors. Lively trade at the bigger ones [better prices]. The 'good gun collectors' table were well stocked with the world history of guns, worth haggling over. There appears to me that there was more flexibility in the pricing overall, around the show.

There wasn't much that caught my eye in Western guns, but a late Victorian, plain un-embellished 'gunmaker', Lee-Speed pukka-Sahib Sporter was languishing unappreciated for a mere 2500.00. Lovely slim trim svelte Classic, but even with my most hypnotic bargaining powers, it's unlikely I could lower the price into my toy fund range. A few years ago I would have offered to trade him a Glock and The Coyote straight up for it, but alas, common sense appears to have returned to the gunshows.

Happy Hunting.