A visit to the gun show

I almost didn’t make it to the gun show last weekend. I was planning to attend to help the blackpowder club with their tables and to try and sell a revolver my wife no longer uses. It was snowing when I got up Saturday morning to get ready and by the time I was leaving visibility with the heavy snowfall was down to maybe a quarter mile. My wife questioned my sanity for still planning to go.

The roads, while not great, were actually better than I was expecting. Folks were driving slower, which was good, and traffic was moving right along. Frankly, I was surprised at the amount of traffic on the roads for a Saturday morning. The volume was like a normal weekday for the time.

When I arrived in the parking lot where the gun show was happening and looking at the number of parked cars, my first thoughts were that the turnout, so far, was lighter than normal. I was expecting that since a lot of folks would avoid unnecessary travel under the snowy conditions. After entering the building and getting to the tables I was helping with, the turnout did appear to be less than normal, but there was still a good number of folks browsing the show.

One reason I enjoy going to a gun show and sitting at a table is that I usually see several friends and acquaintances passing by and I get a chance to say “Hi” and chat for a minute. This show was no different. In fact, I was able to chat with several friends whom I hadn’t seen in some time. I hadn’t chatted with Larry and Eileen since we bumped into each other a couple of years ago in the grocery store. I was glad to get caught up on doings since that chance encounter.

Several other ADF&G Hunter Education (HE) instructors were there, and I enjoyed chatting with them in the informal environment of the show. One guy is a very active instructor, and I was able to congratulate him on receiving an award for contributing over 1000 hours of time in instructing classes. That’s a big accomplishment today. He also told me his daughter (also a HE instructor) had her baby, making the sixteenth grandchild for him. He was proud of that achievement, maybe as much as his award for hours taught!

I was especially glad when my friend with the crane hunting experience stopped by. He introduced me to his father, and we proceeded to have probably a 45-minute discussion about sandhill crane hunting near Delta Junction. They both showed me pictures of some of their previous hunts and answered a ton of questions I had about hunting cranes. As I’ve said before, I’m really looking forward to this hunt coming up this coming September.

One of the items that was on the club’s sale table was an unfired muzzle-loading rifle one of the club members’ wives had bought and never used. The gun was in brand new condition. She was asking what she had paid for the gun at the auction where she bought it. Her asking price was about half of the current discounted retail price of the rifle. The gun was a brand name gun, and if I would’ve had the dollars, I would’ve bought it. Several people looked at it and one guy, after his third trip back to the table to look, commented that that rifle was the best deal at the show.

A little later another guy was looking at the rifle when I mentioned what the other guy had said about the deal. The current looker reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills and counted out the cost. The gun was sold!

I never did sell my wife’s revolver, but not for lack of trying. I only had one semi-serious “tire kicker” couple looking. I even tried to sell the gun to a couple of Palmer Police Department officers walking by the table. When they asked me how they were supposed to carry the small revolver with all the other gear on their belts, I immediately suggested using an ankle holster for the back-up revolver. They both got a chuckle from the “back-and-forth” conversation we had and my “used car” sales approach. They were nice guys with a good sense of humor!

The next gun show I know about is the Big Lake show around the end of April. I plan to be there!