Life in the time of Wuflu, Part 24: A gunshow miraculously appears

Well…yeah.

The Notorious RBG kicks off and there is finally a gun show-how much better can my weekend get during a pandemic, I ask you.

This weekend was the Salisbury Gun and Knife Show, held at the old Salisbury Mall. It was held in one of the old department stores, and was honestly the best digs for a gun show I’ve ever seen. The mall is owned by Rowan County now, and while their genius plans have mostly failed to materialize (Seriously, county offices? WTF?), bits and pieces of it are rented out for various sorts of private enterprises. Like gun shows.

I was there on Sunday. What did I note? A lot of things.

Masks were required. Not that most people, including the sheriff’s deputies and the local cops, wore them, either properly or improperly. A superspreader event for sure. Yawn. 

I did see people who probably should be wearing a mask with them on. Maybe, being 60 and overweight, I should have been one of those folks, but I have this thing about not getting lung infections. Yes, that article is from 2015, conveniently before the Wuflu, and I’m sure it will be memory-holed any day now. I have a PDF copy.

The event was quite well attended. It felt like January. There were enough people you actually had to say “excuse me”. As I have noted in several gun show reports, the crowd was mixed, with plenty of females and all races represented. Oddly enough, we all got along.

There were plenty of guns. If you wanted an AR, they were available, starting at about $750. There weren’t many, but they were there. If you wanted what I call a “modern self-defense pistol”, meaning a polymer something, there were a very few. There were a lot of shotguns, just in case Joe Biden put in an appearance, I guess. I did not see one self-defense shotgun, however. There were a lot of what I’d call collector guns, and a lot of hunting guns. There were no long range competition rifles.

Ammo was scarce, but available if you wanted to pay the price. I saw 1000 rounds of 5.56 in an ammo can for the low, low price of $895. At least it was available if you really needed it. I bought 2000 rounds about 6 weeks ago for $500, and right now I’m feeling rather proud of myself.

300BLK was nearly unavailable, with 4 boxes of supersonic in various bullet weights and no subsonic at all. I wasn’t surprised.

I saw a few 160 round battle packs of South African 7.62×51 for $160 each. I remember when a full case wasn’t much more than that. Those cases of that look real good on that shelf in my basement. .22LR was available, ranging from CCI Stingers at $15/100 to white box stuff at $60/500.

Pistol ammo was high for the most part, and self defense ammo was nearly non-existent. I did luck into 2 boxes of 135 grain low recoil Federal HST 9mm for $25 each, and a box of 240 grain HST .44 Magnum for $20. That was it for ammo buying.

I picked up a couple of Gadsden stickers and a Gadsden shirt from Grunt Style, along with a magazine carrier for my Sig P365 XL. Prices on all that was reasonable.

There were plate carriers, but no plates. Fortunately for me I’m not in that market. There were plenty of packs and some web gear of various sorts. And 2 ALICE packs. {{{shudder}}} PASS!

There was one table of various medical goods, ranging from CAT tourniquet knockoffs to expired Celox gauze. They did have some decent bags one could use to hold your own, custom IFAK.

Lots of nice knives, but I’m already blessed. Tables of cheap LED flashlights and cheap scopes, red dots and “holographic” sights. A little jewelry. No jerky. A few books, some of which were interesting, but I passed on those too. I did buy a Mopar sign for Son as a Christmas gift.

Plenty of magazines, including Magpul, at decent prices (30 rounds, $15). No M1A mags, which I could use a few of. A lot of parts. AR lowers and uppers, including one 300BLK that tempted me. In the end, I passed on it as well. No Magpul AR furniture, but a lot of knock-off stuff.

Some military collectable stuff. I was shocked to see how the prices have come down. You could almost afford to get in the game now. I may see if I can pick up a stahlhelm to take the place of the one my Dad sold. I’d love to replace all the medals he sold, but that’s beyond my means and needs. And really, they’re not the same as the ones he brought back. I’ll never understand why he sold those-it isn’t like he needed money.

It was a nice afternoon, and a pleasant break from the pandemic. It felt nearly…normal. You know, like 2019.

Edit, 9/21/2020 1247: A comment by Stuart reminds me that I forgot to discuss reloading supplies. There was some powder, 1 and 4-5# sizes. Prices struck me as a bit high, but it’s been a while since I priced powder. I found some primers at $60/1000. No bullets. Fired brass in a number of calibers, price seemed reasonable. No reloading gear of any kind-no presses, no dies. Ditto bullet casting gear-none to be had.