Old friends from Austin Lawrence and Dwight (You do read them every day, don't you? Thought so.) went to the Saxet Gun Show. I went a few times when it was in Austin and had very cool stuff like a table where the guy was hawking a free tank school. Don't mess with Texas, baby - they'll teach you to drive and shoot a tank.
But Austin is weird, and not in the happy fun way. The City Fathers* banned the gun show, so it went off to San Antonio. Lawrence has a report from the show which has both good news and bad news for folks looking for guns/ammo/reloading supplies. It's detailed and I encourage you to read the whole thing.
Oh, and I didn't even know that Beard Oil is a thing.
Man, I need to get back out there for a visit and take The Queen Of The World with me. Maybe stop in Lockhart for some BBQ as well.
* I just phrased it that way to annoy the Usual Suspects®
"The City Fathers* banned the gun show, so it went off to San Antonio."
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's kind of weird. One group (Saxet) runs shows in San Antonio every month. There are also other groups that run shows in
*Dripping Springs (different county, about a 20 minute drive from me) about twice a year.
* Bsatrop periodically (though I don't think they've run one since COVID)
* Belton (about an hour and a half up the road from me - it seems like they have two different groups running different shows there on a regular basis)
* New Braunfels, sometimes.
* I think Taylor and Fredericksburg sometimes as well.
All of these shows are smaller than the old Austin or current San Antonio shows (and the SA show this time was a lot smaller than the pre-COVID ones, because physical distancing)
After the city and county ran the gun show out of Austin, they had a pretty large show in Cedar Park (different county, just up the road from Austin) for a good while. As I understand it, that went away - not because of politics, but because the economics didn't work for whoever was running it.
"I need to get back out there for a visit and take The Queen Of The World with me. Maybe stop in Lockhart for some BBQ as well."
Yes, yes you do. And it would be an honor to hang with youse guys.
==Dwight
I also attended this show, and from your description, not long after you got there. I’ll offer my thoughts as a new TX resident.
ReplyDeleteI’ve seen both bigger and smaller shows. Prices were middle of the road with some variance. I saw a decent price on a Tavor for example and optics capable Hellcats. Ammunition prices were expectedly, scalp level prices but what really shocked me was the only guy I found with a 5k count case of Winchester primers he wanted $350 cash for - no joke. I just checked by ‘net and phone, and can easily score SP Primers for $25/1k I asked the guy 3 times if he was sure because I thought ‘there’s no way’ and he was supremely confident.
Kenzies optics there, glad to see them. They’re at a lot of east coast venues, and I’ve found them to be worth checking if you’re in the market for optics/glass. They’ve been very up front with negotiations and pricing for me. I’ve even had them tell me on one scope I was looking at to go online, there was no way they could touch some online pricing for that model - I forgot what it was. The could have easily tried to hard sell me and take my money, but these guys know how to keep customers coming back and won’t try to rook you.
Here’s the one thing that sticks out to me - again- as a new TX resident.
30.06 & ’07 signs at the door. This is clueful
It’s become common practice for gun show promoters to tout the line “we can’t get insurance if we don’t ban loaded guns”. I’ve challenged 4 promoters to produce a policy or rider requiring this. All 4 declined to provide it, but one of them did provide the alleged verbiage, and was a requirement “all firearms for sale shall be zip tied or cable locked”. What I’ve come to find is that these prohibitions are put in place by the promoter’s professional trade organization. This makes sense, if it was truly a requirement by insurance companies, you couldn’t go somewhere to shoot, and gun shops the country over would prohibit loaded guns as well. Of course, they don’t.
At every level of interaction with gun rights groups, it’s been drilled into my head to not spend money at posted venues and let them know why. From my understanding of TX law, unless there’s an outright legal prohibition, it’s the owner/regulator how must post, meaning the show organizer is responsible here. As a community, we simply can’t “excuse” this behavior as anything approaching acceptable or it will spread to other venues and used against us later by the other side.
Yep, shows are 'changing', and not for the better, IMHO. I'm an old fart, so I remember the Houston show with over 150,000 people, and the LA shows at the fairgrounds with five buildings of guns. Now, Wanamaker's is about it. Sigh
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link!
ReplyDeleteAre there any gun shows worth visiting in your new neck of the woods?
Best guess would be that the restrictions originated in CA. EVERY show I've been to in CA and NV, for more than 30 years, has had that. For that matter, their gun stores and ranges are the same way.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that part of what pushes this is their insistence on inspecting all guns that come in the doors. Local gun store/indoor range has a wall behind the counter full of bullet holes due to their mandatory inspection of guns brought in to shoot. I just love the idiocy of manhandling guns outside the range. Typical left-wing environment thinking. When I question the logic involved, I find there isn't any. Just rules. The system becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Demand that guns be checked for ammo, and have the occasional negligent discharge due to this handling by those unfamiliar with them, then decide that a loaded, or potentially loaded, gun is too dangerous to allow on the property.