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can you believe i found CHEAP ammo at a gun show???

2K views 13 replies 11 participants last post by  RODANTKING 
#1 ·
ok.. so this am I drove to a gun show.

I figured my good deal of the day was finding a walmart with 3 boxes of ammo ont he shelf at 8am while on the way to the show.

at that point. i already counted myself a winner. :)

anyway. at the show i passed oe table and guy said.. ' I got the cheapest ammo at the show'

I almost never buy ammo at a gun show .. not normal ammo anyway. I might buy components or brass. or even specialty brass or ammo to relaod. or odd or obsolete milsurp.

but run of the mill stuff.. I don't buy as it's 'normally' cheaper at ANY other place.

I'll be darned.

he had federal blue box hunting calibers ( all the twenty and thirty calibers ( 243, 270, 30-30, 308, 30-06 etc ) at 21 $ a box.. and white box 308 at 17$ per box.


well... that beats walmart by a dollar on the blue box stuff.. and 4.50$ onthe white box.

needless to say.. I broke my rule of not buying 'nromal' ammo at a show. If he had taken credit card.. I might be in trouble. as it was, the shows wifi was down so few had working internet and his cc machine was down.. so I had to limit myself to COH still bought plenty to get a hunting rifle or 3 thru season... or zombie apoc.. yada yada yada. :)
 
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#2 ·
From my reading in this forum, I've learned that Federal brass is crap, and not worth reloading - at least, not very often. That would be reason enough for me to pass on the great pricing. Since I started reloading, I tend now to spread the initial cost of the ammunition over my expected reloading lifetime of the brass I get to keep and re-use after the initial firing. If I can get three reloads out of a $20 box of Federal ammo, but 10 reloads out of a $40 box of Winchester, I'm ahead by buying the more costly ammo at the get go.
 
#3 ·
From my reading in this forum, I've learned that Federal brass is crap, and not worth reloading - at least, not very often. That would be reason enough for me to pass on the great pricing. Since I started reloading, I tend now to spread the initial cost of the ammunition over my expected reloading lifetime of the brass I get to keep and re-use after the initial firing. If I can get three reloads out of a $20 box of Federal ammo, but 10 reloads out of a $40 box of Winchester, I'm ahead by buying the more costly ammo at the get go.
I actually prefer federal brass. I get more loading from federal brass than I do remington or Winchester. I also don't have to run federal brass through the sizer die 10 times to get the pressure ring back to spec like I do with remington brass.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Soundguy,

By recent standards any ammo left at a gunshow is a good find, regardless of price. That is, for those who don't reload. I have given up on the gunshows here due to the rediculous prices, kiddie toys, jewelery and other scumbag vendors who turned our gunshows into flea markets. It takes $20 to park and walk through the doors around here. Too much for me to say I actually saved anything on a purchase in the show. I am both glad and a little refreshed someone out there found good in one of these events, sadly the internet has all but killed the "real" gunshows of years past. The remaining firearm related vendors have simply not caught on to the new ways of E-commerce and are a dying breed.
 
#8 · (Edited)
I cam back from the gunshow this past Sunday and I was pleasantly surprised overall, except for the price of 22LR. Parking was free, but admission was $8, so not a big issue. Reloading components were to be found at cheaper than Cabela's or Bass Pro pricing, but the overall theme was a huge markup on 22LR ammo! I found plenty of other ammo at semi normal prices, but the 1k box of Winchester M22 I found last week for $50 plus tax at Wally, I saw marked at $145! I just looked at the guy straight in the eye, pointed at it and shook my head with a look of (hopefully)digust before walking away. I ended up getting one of these for $175 with tax:
http://www.archangelmanufacturing.com/new-products-2013/
 
#9 ·
Soundguy,

By recent standards any ammo left at a gunshow is a good find, regardless of price. That is, for those who don't reload. .
even though i relaod.. i still look for obsolete stuff.. or sometimes commercial out of production stuff i neeed to get some brass.

often it is cheaper to just buy a box of some hard to find commercial, than to special order a small lot of the brass for relaoding.

it's real hit or miss though.

I walk in with blinders mostly. i don't stop at any of the new 'black gun' vendors. no knife vendors. jewlry..e tc..
 
#10 ·
For the past few months I have been peddling my products (which are licensed, taxed and insured) at shows in the southeast (Fla. to Tenn/Va.). An associate recommended this endeavor, "Go to the trade shows" and so I hit the larger ones every weekend and rented a table. Noticed I said one table, most weekends I ended up with anywhere to 3-4 tables for free because not enough vendors were in attendance to fill the venue. But then again, who could blame the vendors for not coming, the crowds were just not there. But it seemed to me the vendors that were there did not belong. One weekend I had a table next to me selling hot dogs, donuts and cotton candy, another weekend I had a scantily clad young lady selling t-shirts- no one even glanced at my stuff, the next weekend there was a family set up next to me doing a private gun sale....you could get anything from a $25 derringer to a .30 cal Browning mounted on a tripod from them. But the best was the baptist preacher, who was running a special on black rifles and 1911's. He was running a one day sale- no background checks, no paper work and no tax. Next thing you know he is showing me pics of his two daughters, one who wins all the daisy duke shorts contest on tuesday nights and the other who he said was blessed up top that wins the thursday night wet t-shirt contest. I asked him about his credentials and he said "you aren't from around here are you?" I said "nope, I'm from SC." He then explained to me that the laws in Tenn. were different from the rest of the country. Well needless to say, I am at home this weekend and retired from the circuit! I too remember the days when the gun shows were something special and to look forward too! Me, dad, gran daddy and my uncle, always a great weekend. I apologize for being long winded, it was eating at me.
 
#11 ·
I went to a gun show last Saturday and there were a lot of people, but not much in the way of reloading components. There two guys (separate tables) selling .22 LR that had ridiculous pricing. They were not dealers but most likely some of the ones that get to Wal-Mart two hours before opening so they can get any .22 that happens to be on the self. One guy was asking $100 for a 325 round box of CCI. Another guy was asking $200.00 for a 1,400 round bucket of Remingtons. Other .22 prices were similar and I didn't see any sold in the two hours I was there.

Every gun I looked at was over priced. The one rifle I was interested in was a CZ 527 in .223 caliber. The guy was asking $850 and the MSRP is $711. I offered $650 and he was offended. The only thing worth buying were some Magpul 20 round .223 mags for $14.95.
 
#13 ·
I got another box of 525 Remington golden bullets for $23.99 again at Sportsmans W******** on Saturday.I also picked up 2 boxes of 22 magnum and 250 115.grain 9mm bullets to reload. There was only about 10 boxes of 22 and it went in minutes of the store opening at 9 A.M. One per customer of the bulk ammo.

I'm glad you saw some decent prices at a gun show they have a reputation of being Gougers.
 
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