TexasCHLforum.com

gemini wrote:hmmmmm. Just goes to show how experiences among individuals can vary. I've bought and sold at gun shows, and
have never been ripped off. You have to know what you're looking at/for.... just like a used car, as is where is. Most
dealers will cut the tie off the gun so you can inspect, then replace the tie as soon as you're through. You have to ask.
I often attend the Dallas Gun Shows at market Hall. I find the crowd at the show to be very polite. If bumped, it's almost a
contest to see which party can say "pardon me" or "sorry" first. Market Hall parking lots are free.
Although smaller, the Mesquite Gun Shows sport a similar crowd (the parking is free there too). I hope you have a better
experience if you ever decide to attend another gun show.

There's no doubt in my mind that there are plenty of wonderful people there both as vendors and lookers. Like being anywhere in a public venue if a person is at that place at that time there are those few though. I really didn't mean it as an indictment of all or even most vendors but rather as admitting my own lack of confidence in making an on the spot eval and decision. He or I didn't know about having the tie cut at the show, I just figured that the "once a tie, always a tie" rule would be in place.

They show on the Fort Worth Gun Show web page they're charging a $3 or $5 parking fee, depending on which lot you park in.

If you know what you are looking for and have price shopped, you can find some really good deals at the shows. I personally have bought many of my firearms at shows or from individuals over the years, and very few in shops.

i will the guy sooooo addicted to gun shows that he will bring his 4 month old daughter with him. (i'm babysitting this weekend, wife has weekend rotation)LOL
also i almost forgot, i will be the guy wasting my breath @ bachman pawn and guns, trying to tell the owner that i will never buy a gun from them......

I sure plan on going. But it will be on Sunday. The youngest grandson is having his first birthday on Saturday. We're doing the Fort Worth Zoo for that, and I wouldn't miss that for the world. So Sunday it is.

I'll be there with Hawaiian shirt, blue jeans, TSRA hat(tan with blue bill)...just like the Tea Part earlier this month at QuikTrip Park. Hope to see you there!

Oh...and this sounds odd... to be on the safe side, I'll probably be open carrying in my IWB Don Hume holster with my shirt tail tucked in...just to be on the safe side. I'll hang the holster on my belt outside the jeans.

Now how weird is that?

TexasGal wrote:All guns must be zip tied and unloaded at this little shingding. And once you see the way some people handle them, you will be soooo glad

That is probably an understatement....I took my wife to a show just a few weeks after she had taken the NRA Basic Pistol Class - she was shocked to see the way many of the people there were waving around the guns . Took about a year to get her to go back to a show.
Most people were sighting on the people walking one aisle over... I like the quote that something along this line...."I like loaded guns - because you know that they are loaded, It's those unloaded ones that I'm afraid of! They seem to be the problem - they tend to shoot a lot of people for being an unloaded gun."

Teamless wrote:

JNMAR wrote:I'm not convinced a gun show is the place to find a good deal on a good weapon.

I am very new to gun shows, as I have been to 3 - ever.. and all in the last 3 months.
All 3 were at Pasadena Convention Center.

1st was a "High Caliber Gun Show", where after looking at various stores (like Academy) for my to get a weapon, we picked up a NIB Glock 19 for about $480 (including tax), which was about $50 or so less than at Academy.

2nd was another "brand" of Gun Shows, and it was a lot of trinkets, and a lot fewer guns, and the prices seemed quite high, much higher than Academy and others.
Even like my Sigma, brand new is $329 and with a $50 rebate [edited to add: taking it to $279] or 2 extra mags, they were selling them at $359.

Then I went back to the next one, a "High Caliber" again, and lower prices, better selections.

So I have decided that I will only go to the "High Caliber" brand gun shows.

It used to be that way here at Ft Worth but it has turned just the opposite. More vendors, better prices, etc... at the Ft Worth Original show than the High Caliber show.

Note: the other gun show in Pasadena is "The Real Gun Show".

The guns shows at the George R Brown Convention Center (right next to Minute Maid Park) is significantly larger than the Pasadena shows (about double), and the Houston Gun Collector Association shows at the Reliant Center are larger than that.

In entering parking lot today before setting up DCSA table today there were people at entrance passing out a new brochure. It seems that yep, effective May 1, all of the garages and lots will be $5 to park, $3 for one of em if willing to hoof it even further.

A "Safari Charlie" Gun Cleaner/Lubricant rep friend will have his stuff at DCSA table (Y-55, I think) both days. I did hang the TX CHL forum banner on the front of our table and put out the same flyer used at TSRA show.

I have a CHL class to conduct Sat., so will not get back there until Sunday, maybe even in the p.m. And, ya, with my $5 bill for parking. Once inside, I will be the clean-shaven guy with the grey beard.

Man, that was sooo irritating to pay for parking this time!

On the other hand, I got an early Mothers' Day Present! A crimson trace for my 642 Smith and Wesson!
And, I traded in my XDsc for an XDm 3.8. I love it! Thanks to Terry at Shooter's Shotgun Shack for my new gun. He is wonderful to deal with. Ya'll visit his table at the next show. He will treat you right.

I've been to 3 or 4 of the Fort Worth shows since moving to Texas, and the TSRA show last February. I don't really know or care if the Fort Worth promoter was the same one each time or not. I had a good time regardless, because I didn't necessarily go looking to buy a gun. That said, I've now bought 3 guns at 2 of those 3 or 4 shows I've attended there. I did buy a full sized S&W M&P 45 with night sights at the show previous to this one, and I paid $599.00 for it. MSRP is $790.00.

Now, I know that nobody pays MSRP for a gun, but all the same, $191.00 off MSRP is a good price for that gun, whether you found it at a gun show, a Cabela's, or your local mom & pop gun store. In this case, the vendor was S.A.W., Inc., and their website displays the exact same model of pistol for $621.60 ($168.4 off MSRP). So, by buying from him at the gun show, I saved myself $31.60 off his store price, and I didn't have to drive from Grapevine to Sunnyvale, all the way over on the other side of the Metroplex from me — an 83 mile round trip, and need I mention the price of gas these days?

I am fully aware that I might have missed out on a better deal for the same gun from some other vendor, but if I did, I'm blissfully unaware of it, so it doesn't matter to me. On that day, for that gun, I got a pretty good price, and I had fun at the show. In the grand scheme of things, a $3 parking fee and an $8 admission is pretty small potatoes, balanced against the convenience of not having to drive all the way across the Metroplex to get a gun. Plus, on the day I bought mine, I had a great conversation with Don from S.A.W. about a matched set of right and left handed 1911s with sequential serial numbers he has on display in his shop. How cool is that?

I don't pay much attention to the camo commandos, I don't collect relics, and I think that with cheap optics you get exactly what you pay for, so I generally don't give those booths more than a casual glance. I always make a stop at the Jerkey Hut and spend a little money there. I always stop at the NRA booth and say howdy. I have a good time.

always make a stop at the Jerkey Hut

You and me and a few thousand others. That's some good stuff! I like the Habenero myself, keeps me crying all day. YUM!

I didn't have a problem paying the $5 to park in the Western Heritage parking agarage. Heck even at the $5 parking and $8 admission fee, it is still cheap entertainment for a few hours. Plus if you and a buddy or 2 carpool, then you can split the parking fee.