Finally, I’ve found a shotgun that seems to fit me. Son and I drove down to Raleigh and the Dixie Classic Gun and Knife Show, and this is what I brought home:
(Click for the big picture)
This is the Franchi 720 Upland Field. Yes, I’m dying to take it to the range. No, I can’t; it’s dark right now. Tomorrow if the weather cooperates. No, I’m not taking my new gun out in the rain. No, I don’t care if it is made for that.
From what I can tell so far, it’s light, it points well for me, and the trigger feels a bit gritty, but I suspect I can deal with that. I got it for a bit better than a fair price (cash speaks). Nice people to deal with.
As far as the rest of the show, there were plenty of black rifles at reasonable prices (and a few dealers who apparently have not gotten the memo that the gold rush is pretty much over). Plenty of pistols were also in evidence, with the exception of the elusive Ruger LCP–I must have heard 5 people who were looking for that one. There were also plenty of long range sniper rifles hunting rifles, but the shotgun selection was a bit light.
Ammo availability was good–there was even .380 in quantity. Prices were about what you’d expect to pay these days–a lot higher than before the Gun Salesman of the Year took office.
Powder and primer availability was spotty. Some powders were available in quantity, some weren’t–I left without the Hogden Clays International I wanted. Primers were available, but pricey. A good price for pistol, rifle and shotgun primers was $36/1000; the high end was $43/1000. I did see pretty much every sort of primer, from small pistol to 50 BMG, available.
There were plenty of political items–flags, stickers, buttons, bumper stickers and t-shirts. The Gun Banner in Chief still can’t make friends on the gun show circuit.
As usual, the crowd was well behaved and polite. Lots of women and kids at this show as well, and they were buying. You couldn’t tell the economy was bad from the amount of money changing hands, although the high end guns did not seem to be selling.
Food was good, serving sizes were large. Prices were “captive audience”, but drink refills were free. I thought that was pretty cool.
And most amazingly, no guns took it upon themselves to massacre anyone.
