Saturday, January 5, 2013

Sunday Reading - The Bright Spot of Gun Control


So I spent the best part of today (Yesterday if you are reading this on Sunday) at the regional gun show held in Columbia, Missouri about three times a year.

All I can say is WOW.

Wow at the prices, which were totally outrageous for anything having to do with or connected to 5.56, 7.62 by you name it, .308, 9mm, ,45 or .40 S&W.

Absolutely insane is all I can say. I saw price tags for 30 round Pmags for the AR's for as much as $65.00. I kid you not I was getting them for 12 bucks each last Summer. Simple aluminum US mil. surp. with black followers (maybe they were green under the dirt)  and no remaining black coating left on them were priced for as much as $35.00 each. Even the plastic Canadian Mil.surp. 30 round mags that I used to see occasionally for $10.00 or less were selling for $30.00 each.

$90.00 Nagants were now priced at $130.00 and the ammo for them has skyrocketed to more than double the going rate for the canned corrosive stuff.

I saw an old model 80's era AR. One of the long M-16A1 models with the triangular hand guard and regular butt stock without a cleaning compartment in it. No rails, Very worn with I would say at least 60% of the coating worn off with a sticker price of almost two grand. Seriously 2 grand for something that wouldn't have fetched more than 500 bucks a few months ago in my opinion.

The crowd was immense. I arrived at around 10AM and stood in line outside for almost 30 minutes to get in. Something I have never seen before at this particular show. By noon the crowd had died down some and you could actually move around a bit inside and browse for the few good deals available. I took a few phone pics of the line to get in but can't get them sent to my computer now for some reason.

I was very relieved to not be in the market for anything in the AR or AK/Russian Military line of items.

Oh ya I almost forgot. An early 1950's era Russian SKS. Badly beat to hell, most of the blueing gone, bayonet still there but had obviously been sharpened with a grinder and it's protection gone and surface rust starting in along with some rust pits on the receiver. Guess how much? Would you believe a price tag of $990.00. I am not kidding.... Really.

By the individual box both 5.56 and 7.62x39 was priced at double what it was in August or September.I saw 15 bucks a box for the American 5.56 ball that comes in the black box and boxes of the 20 round Bear ammo in 7.62 for as much as 10 bucks each.

There were some good deals if you knew where to look or how much things typically go for. I managed to snag a new bullet mold for basically a few dollars cheaper than ordering one. I cackled in glee when I saw the price for .38 brass and estimate I am sitting on about $1000.00 of .38 brass easy. Not counting the ones I have already reloaded. I did pick up a couple of boxes of .303 Brit at a slightly less than fair price and managed to pick up another box of ammo for my Nagant pistol that I will never fire again just cause it is so hard to find sometimes.

I didn't see any Ammo cans to buy at all and if you watched the private sellers or were interested in the non-military guns there were some good deals to be found. I didn't spend much time looking very close at the firearms as I was more interested in reloading supplies and a few extra accessories for my own weapons but I saw a couple of good deals on some "sporterized" Enfields and a nice clean New England Arms 20 gauge single shot I almost bought for 100 bucks. I also noted an extreme lack of M1A1's.

So by now you are asking yourself "whats the bright spot"?

Well let me tell ya my friend.

As I stood there looking out over the sea of camouflage in every shade and pattern imaginable all crowded together shoulder to shoulder it hit me. Not one harsh word could be heard. People stopped and allowed the lines to flow without needing a government official or LEO to direct them. Conversation would just happen between perfect strangers as if they had been friends for years.

At one point I was looking at some cheap little scope. Just Chinese junk but I noticed right off it had an amazing eye relief for a small cheap scope. At arms length I could see through the thing perfectly and it had an illuminated reticle in it as well. I was seriously thinking about buying it because I really like long eye relief low power scopes when some guy standing next to me asked me why anyone would want such a thing and what sort of rifle it would work on. I showed him the eye relief and explained how it would be beneficial especially in thick brush like we have alot of around here and he thanked me for it. Just perfect strangers but the commonality between us put us right at ease.

No hooting and hollering. No one harassing the few cute women that were around when they walked by or yelling at people 10 yards away. People were aware of and considerate of those in line behind them and those passing by. Shoppers would move over to make room for others interested in looking and relied on the advice of perfect strangers for their purchases. It was glorious to behold.

AND EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM WERE PISSED OFF AT THE LAST ELECTION AND THIS GUN CONTROL CRAP.

You liberal enemies of liberty better keep one thing in mind. There is no group of people on this earth who can organize, cooperate and come together putting all disagreement aside like a bunch of white boys wearing camo and browsing firearms and those same talents have manifested themselves repeatedly since civilization began. And it WILL happen again.

I felt right at home and at ease but the sense of power was over whelming. 

Stir that power at your own peril is all I have to say.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!





8 comments:

  1. You can only fling crap at us good ole boys for so long, and then we will start flinging back, but it won't be crap we will be flinging at them!

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  2. In my neck of the woods, an outdoor shooting range in a rural outlying area was turned down after public complaint. Given the politics of the area it was suburban Republicans who were doing the complaining not "liberal" democrats.

    The gun control issue is a life style issue more than a political one. Rural Democrats are the actual last line defending gun rights.

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    1. Russ - Maybe you live in some kind of last hold out reservation or something but around here a Rural Democrat is about as rare as a government spending cut. Even the old Democrat families are declaring themselves Independent these days at very least and most have pulled a Dick Morris.

      The Democrat party has turned on their old school rural population long ago.

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    2. Rare is not nonexistant. Recall our discussion of the strange voting patterns in rural areas in the last election. It is one of the reasons Obama shut up about gun control for so long - it was viewed as a no-win position by a lot of Democrats including many in North Carolina.

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    3. The only rural areas that are strange to me anyway as far as voting is that belt of Iowa along the Mississippi that always goes Democrat. I never have been able to figure that one out. Otherwise almost every rural area of the country went Republican. The rural Democrat is an almost extinct animal IMO.

      The few rural counties outside the Iowa ones I mentioned made sense when you looked close due to Indian reservations.

      Gun control still is a no win situation except now they have enough city dwellers that they don't care.

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  3. I just spent Fri & Sat "working" my table at the local gun show. Friday was nuts! I sold a couple of dozen mags and ended up paying for about $1000 worth of primers and other gear I needed/wanted. Our prices were not what yours were, however there were a few that wanted to retire on Monday, if their prices were to be believed. My gun-buddy picked up a nice looking SKS just before closing for $325. The ammo table was surrounded most of Fri & Sat. I watched the "90%'ers" basically waiving cash at vendors, and begging to be relieved of their cash at 2-3x what they could have gotten it for 4 weeks ago.

    JP in MT

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    Replies
    1. JP - Thanks for that update from your area I love hearing how things are going elsewhere.

      From what I saw most of the buyers were not the regulars I used to always see so in that aspect it was the same here. Basically they were fleecing the late comers.

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