A trip to the local gun show

It's that time of year now, gun show season!
There is an annual gun show not too far from where I live that happens every year in the first half of September. I always go to this show even if I'm not looking to buy anything. I know there will be at least a few interesting guns at the show. I like the old milsurp guns and the antique cartridge guns, and there's always a few at the show, along with the usual hunting rifles and "black guns". I don't have a lot of interest in the black guns, they're too modern for my taste, and they're quite expensive. Also, I think that a pump shotgun makes a better home defense weapon, but that's just my opinion.

For those of us who are poor, a milsurp gun can be a pretty good bargain if it's in good usable condition. As a prepper, having a long gun that is more powerful than a 22 LR is worth considering. Another consideration is how hard the ammo is to find for the milsurp rifle. Probably the easiest ammo to find is 7mm Mauser, Remington makes hunting ammo for it, and it's available from several imported ammo suppliers such as S&B and Privi Partisan. For surplus ammo, the 8mm Mauser is probably a better idea, there is still a fair amount of that available. Another choice is the 7.62 X 39, that ammo is commonly available, but the SKS semi automatic rifle is more expensive than the average milsurp bolt action.

I took my camera to the gun show to take a few pictures if I found some interesting rifles.

Here we have a couple of bolt action Mausers and the more interesting K-31 Swiss straight pull bolt action rifle. These have a smooth action, and the cartridge is fairly mild to shoot but powerful. Of course, this rifle costs a bit more than the average Mauser.

Here are 3 SKS semi auto rifles. If you're looking for a semi auto rifle but you don't want to pay the cost of an AK type or AR-15 type, the SKS can be a good choice.

How about a lever action, or perhaps a "coach gun" double barrel shotgun. One of the lever actions was chambered for the .45 Long Colt.

Perhaps one of my favorites of the show was the semi auto Thompson "tommie gun". This is the classic version with the vertical foregrip. This is not an inexpensive gun, however. This one was marked down to 1500 dollars, from 2 thousand dollars.

Here we have the Russian type M-44 carbine in 7.62 X 54R These guns are not as cheap as they used to be, but they're still not too bad. One thing about this gun, with it's relatively light weight and powerful cartridge, these guns have a lot of recoil.

Here we have a reproduction of the Colt Lightning pump action rifle. These rifles were produced in the late 1800s to try to compete with the Winchester lever action rifle. This gun is chambered in the 45 long colt. Also in the picture is a vintage Savage-Stevens over & under shotgun/rifle. I think this one was chambered in 20 gauge and 30-30 rifle.

Here is another of my favorite guns, the Sharps single shot rifle. This one is a reproduction, chambered in .40-65 caliber. The .40-65 was based on the 45-70 cartridge, the cartridge was necked down to 40 caliber and the body of the case was tapered to the neck. Above the Sharps rifle is a vintage pump action 22 rimfire.

My last picture. To the left is a British #4-Mk3 and a couple of Mauser rifles, but the most interesting rifle of this group is an original Remington Rolling Block military single shot chambered for the 7mm Mauser cartridge. These rifles were used by some South American countries, Mexico, and Spain in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Most of the rolling block military rifles were chambered in the large bore black powder cartridges, but at the end of the 1800s, Mexico ordered a large number of these rifles in 7mm Mauser caliber. a few other South American countries also had rolling block rifles in 7mm, and France used some of these rifles during WW1. I don't know which country this rifle was made for because I forgot to look to see if it had markings on it. The owner was asking 700 dollars for it, which is not unreasonable for one of these rifles in good condition.

That's all I have for this post, I hope you found it interesting.

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