JavaScript is disabled
Our website requires JavaScript to function properly. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser settings before proceeding.
I just left the PDX gun show at the Expo Center and I feel like I just left the hospital after visiting a dying friend for the last time. It had been a year or so since I last went.

Paying for parking and admission to basically look at Keith's Guns inventory just isn't worth the bother any more.

I get that the days of panic buying are over, and that the gun business is a brutal, low margin endeavor, but I've been attending gun shows for over 40 years, and there's just not much meat on them bones any longer.

Not complaining, just sad to see its demise.

You don't like beef jerky and made in China toys? :s0140:
 
The internet and the vast resources at hand (including this forum!) have supplanted the gun show. Similar to how brick and mortar stores needed to reinvent themselves, gun shows need to do the same to stay relevant.

Financially, there is no reason to visit a gun show when ammo, firearms, accessories, etc. are cheaper online. Excellent YouTube reviews help me initially screen what guns are duds or which ones to consider. Even the sense of community has migrated online.

It must be different for us that are older, 50s-60s, that haven't been in the firearms circle since we were teens? I'd go to the show at the expo center. I wouldn't mind paying to get into the door. Heck, rainy, cold day? Somewhere warm with a bunch of guns, gun stuff and gun people? I could still dig it if it didn't cost so much. I don't always know what I want or need, until I see it. A gun show is a place to see it!
 
Like others, it's a bummer to see the shows dying off, but there is some good news.

In the last 10 years, I've scored some of my best gun deals at shows. Some were just incredible deals that would have been snapped up instantly online. One time a fella had been carrying around a M1A match with a sign that had it marginally overpriced. I had seen him for HOURS and he was getting tired of walking around, so I struck up a conversation. I was friendly, and the fello came down on the price just to sell it, which was a good deal right there; but then I learned the gun also came with a pile of mags and 5000 rounds of new sealed factory ammo - which was not listed on his sign. So I instantly bought it, basically a M1A at market price and twice the value in "free" ammo. I loaded crates of ammo into my rig... incredible find. And during the Obama black gun scare, I traded off an average AK for a $1400 TRP 1911, basically doubling my investment.

It's true, several things have harmed guns shows. I think ending FTF sales and creating hassles for buyers and traders is a prime killer of the shows. It's just not as fun anymore. The fun was doing swaps, haggling deals etc. But when you start having to do paperwork and pay fees it cuts into that fun.

The other component is the drying up of surplus guns and parts. Long gone are the days when you could get inexpensive old interesting rifles and really cheap ammo for them. I remember tables and tables of $50 Mosins and $100 Swiss K31s and $100 SKS rifles. Piles of cheap magazines for many rifles. Small mountains of $50 and $100 spam cans and crates of ammo. It was a golden time when I got into guns, around 2000-2005 or so. Doubt those days will return, partly because no nations make tens of millions of bolt action guns for war any more. WWI and WWII were real boons for gun collectors 80-100 years later. That period of time won't be repeated. And now, modern government arms will likely not make it to surplus markets in large numbers like before.

But there is GOOD news. I think gun ownership numbers and education is WAY UP and a lot of people got into guns. And that overall helps preserve our rights.

Much of gun shows has been replaced by the internet and forums where people can trade, research, sell, buy, and get information. And while it takes some of the "fun" out of shows, it's a lot cheaper and more efficient in many respects. And gunshows were rampant for "bad information" that can easily be replaced by generally good information found on the internet. [For instance, one common misconception I heard repeated many places including from gun show vendors was that an 8mm Mauser could safely shoot .3006, which is a dangerous lie perpetrated by ignorant people trying to sell Mausers.]

So on balance we're better off with the internet and forums, even at the cost of reductions in gun shows if that's the price.

Even in FTF legal states, like where I'm at now, the single gun show I've attended was smaller than I had expected. And it was mostly disappointing. Good selection, but high prices. My recent show experience, is that I spent probably 10 bucks in gas and 10 bucks admission to walk around and look at mostly overpriced guns available on various websites or gunshops. I did see a few unique or interesting guns, but prices were too high. I overpaid for a multi-tool, which I later researched. I did score unlimited boxes of factory hunting and surplus 3006 ammo at 10 bucks per box, and bought as much as I could carry, which was a good deal and made the show a "break even" proposition for my time and expenses. I had wished I brought a backpack, a lesson I had forgotten! Always bring a backpack. Just in case.

Other than losing the socializing and entertainment aspect, which does stink, I can replace that with the low cost efficiency of shopping 20 stores online for parts, and ordering them without leaving my chair or paying gas money. Get information and reviews on products. And the deals are there online if you're patient, sign up for discounts, etc. And the real benefit is that you can find deals, and you rarely overpay if you do your homework. And in FTF legal states (and even in background required states), the deals are still out there if you are regular at checking online sales forums. So deals still do exist...

I do miss the really great and big shows that would take hours to make a single pass and were filled with inexpensive guns and ammo, which will never likely return.
 
Last Edited:
I miss the Ham and Computer fests from long ago. They have been gone longer than the gun shows and to me, much more exciting and interesting. But like everything of this nature, they slowly fade away until they are gone.

Mike
 
The Spokane shows used to be packed, it would take a half day to go thru it, between looking at guns and talking to people. More than a few times i sold my guns standing in line waiting to get in yea i miss those days
Yep, same here. I sold my Ruger rifle just walking around and then bought an old Ruger Blackhawk in .45 Colt right after. Good times, good times...………………………..
 
I miss the Ham and Computer fests from long ago. They have been gone longer than the gun shows and to me, much more exciting and interesting. But like everything of this nature, they slowly fade away until they are gone.

Mike


There is one in Seaside if your in to that kind of thing... Hamfest..
 
I miss the Ham and Computer fests from long ago. They have been gone longer than the gun shows and to me, much more exciting and interesting. But like everything of this nature, they slowly fade away until they are gone.

Mike
https://www.seapac.org/2016_SEA-PAC_Booklet-webposting.pdf

"The Northwest's Largest Ham Convention"
and the ARRL Northwestern Division Convention

Seaside Convention Center, 415 First Avenue, Seaside, OR 97138


SEA-PAC 2020 is June 5-7, 2020
 
Last Edited:
It's the sleazy vendors I hated. Same guys lying to me each time with BS inflated prices. Lol. Haven't been in over 10 years.

I'm not sure I would go to one if you paid me. How much? Huh.. thinking.. if you paid me $150 and parking I would spend an hour... $200 if I had to talk to vendors and listen to lies and bs. Lol
 
Still beats any gun show in Cali, NY, NJ, etc. Yes, the parking is a ripoff. That's a given. It is still however, a nice place to go look at tons of guns all under one roof. In the near future when the Democrat's finally turn Oregon into Cali you will all be remembering the good old days when you could go still enjoy your freedom at a gun show in the Expo center. Yes, sometimes you encounter a shady dealer or vendor. Sometimes they charge a bit more than they should. It costs money to set up and staff one of these things, especially if you are one of those dealers with multiple tables full of guns or 12 million pounds of ammo to drag in. As a small business owner, I can tell you for a fact that state mandated minimum wage is a huge factor. It's not exactly about the rising minimum wage itself, but that the rising minimum wage is driving up the pay rates for everybody else. You can't just hire anybody very easily at the current minimum wage anymore when they could get that anywhere. Then you have to worry about retaining existing employees who worked to get what noobies fresh off the street are demanding.
The Communists in Oregon are trying to make every job a single income provider job. But I digress. Bottom line, nobody is making anybody go to the gun show or buy anything there. I am still amazed every day how Oregon has not gone full blown Cali/NY Communist yet.
 
I went to the Rickreal show a couple times, small but friendly. Don't know if they are still going.

I don't think the background checks are for keeping guns out of the hands of bad guys (an obvious impossibility). They are for harassment. They are for taking the fun out of it.
 
Thanks, going to check out albany show on march 8 with few guys from work. :)

Guy i go with, his more of pay in person purchase guy and cool antique collector. Not a internet shopper kind of guy.
 
Ditto. It has been an eternity since I've been to one.



I went SeaPac once with my father-in-law. Met some cool people and saw some neat technology. :)

LOL....I was wonder what in Hades did ham have to do with computers? I finally got it after reading on. I mean, ham and eggs... yeah. But ham and computers......:s0092:
 
LOL! Mikej. Yea, I guess that could be confusing to someone that didn't know the context. Breakfast was always a big deal at those types of shows though because back in the day, people would be lined up at the gates well before dawn waiting to be the first in to get to the good stuff. Probably much like what the gun shows use to be like. It's too bad things like this didn't happen after our memory has failed... then we would miss them.

Mike
 
l have never been to the Portland show. Heard enough to not waste my time. l have a table at ARPC March 7 & 8. l have always liked the Rickreall gun show as well. As far as Collectors West, l find interesting buys at the Grants Pass show. l usually meet my brother there. He drives up from the Redwoods. After the show we go to the range there and blast away.
 
Last Edited:
l have never been to the Portland show. Heard enough to not waste my time. l have a table at ARPC March 8 & 9. l have always liked the Rickreall gun show as well. As far as Collectors West, l find interesting buys at the Grants Pass show. l usually meet my brother there. He drives up from the Redwoods. After the show we go to the range there and blast away.

You'd better go the 3/7 and 3/8, or you'll miss the first day, and there'll be no one to let you in on the 9th! :s0114:
 
I went to the Rickreal show a couple times, small but friendly. Don't know if they are still going.

I don't think the background checks are for keeping guns out of the hands of bad guys (an obvious impossibility). They are for harassment. They are for taking the fun out of it.
Rickreall is March 14-15
 

Upcoming Events

Oregon Arms Collectors March Gun Show
Portland, OR
Tillamook Gun & Knife Show
Tillamook, OR
"The Original" Kalispell Gun Show
Kalispell, MT
Teen Rifle 1 Class
Springfield, OR
Kids Firearm Safety 2 Class
Springfield, OR

New Resource Reviews

New Classified Ads

Back Top