AGCA Gun Show

[CoorsLightGuy]

I'm just curious if any of you are planning on attending the Alabama Gun Collectors Association Gun Show in Birmingham, AL on March 18th & 19th at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center?

It's held 2-3 times per year and is one of the best gun shows in the South. I'm planning on attending unless something comes up at work. Any others?

[LoLo25643]

I try to make those when I can but want know for sure probably until about a day before. I'll post something if I see that I'm going.

[Herr Mario]

....only if you can provide me with either a round trip limo ride or private jet...and some spending $$$......and tell my boss to give me paid time off,and I'll be there...:xxrotflmao: .......................its just a teeny weenie bit too far from here...:dontknow:

[keithreid]

i'll be inside when the doors open. pop didn't join, so he has to wait in line;) . i think a potential future brother-in-law will be with us. bet my sisters gonna love that!:duel: y'all gonna come early for some of the expensive bacon at the hotel across the street? if not, there's a cracker barrel right off the interstate in gadsden just south of i759. y'all have a good one! Keith

[CoorsLightGuy]

y'all gonna come early for some of the expensive bacon at the hotel across the street? if not, there's a cracker barrel right off the interstate in gadsden just south of i759. y'all have a good one! Keith

No thanks on the bacon.......I heard about that fiasco. I forget how much it cost you guys for breakfast that day, but it was pretty bad.

SlimTim likes to "belly up to the bar" at an all you can eat breakfast, so I bet he almost crapped his pants when he got his bill for the small portions he got.

It would have almost been worth it, just to see the look on his face.

[keithreid]

lol, i believe it was 14 bucks. couldn't see his face over that pile of bacon, either. he said he was gonna get his money's worth.

[CoorsLightGuy]

I've got to work this weekend on Sunday, but as of now, if nothing changes, Saturday is looking "all clear". Soooooooo..........I'm planning on driving down to Birmingham early that morning.

I'm guessing that besides myself, Keith and PoP.....that Spuds will be there. Perhaps Ted (7.62x54r) will be able to make it as well. Always good to see him.

Anyone else? Mosko.......are you going to make it?

[Stan in SC]

Gee..memories.The first gun show I ever went to was the AGCA show in Birmingham in 1964.

[CoorsLightGuy]

Yeah, I think last year was their 50th anniversary, if I'm not mistaken.

[CoorsLightGuy]

Here's a link to their website. I got this from a post that Spuds made over at Gunboards.

http://www.agcagunshow.com/

[DOGolden]

You did your 1st gunshow about the same time that new fangled electricity hit the South eh? :icon_salut:

Man I would love to hit that show and meet some of seedy characters. However, I am broke & promised to attend the MSA shoot that SCcloser is putting on out this way in rural SC.

[Stan in SC]

Hey DOG,let's hit the Columbia show on Sunday.

[LoLo25643]

Looks like I'll be there in the morning if nothing happens between now and then. If ya'll see a fat ugly old southern boy wearing a black cowboy hat and looking at Swiss stuff, that'l be me.:D

[CoorsLightGuy]

The wife and I are planning on getting up early in the am and heading to Birmingham as well. I'll most likely be wearing a green polo and will have a pretty young Turk with me (my wife, not a Turkish Mauser).

[LoLo25643]

Look's like I'll be making the trip alone unless my son changes his mind. Hope to see ya'll there.

[LoLo25643]

Well, I tried to keep my eye out but probably passed some of ya'll somewhere down the line. I ran into several folk's there that I know and spent some time looking around with Riceone from some of the other boards. I couldn't go home empty handed so I picked up a 1934 K31 that will fill a gap in my Swiss collection. I only need three now to have a line up from the first year of production through 1945. They are getting hard to find the dates now. Maybe another time I'll run into you fellows. Anybody find any decent deals or make any good trades today?

[Spuds]

I grabbed a Finn M24, my 3rd since December. Also a K-11 Schmidt Rubin and a Hakim. I'm not sure why I bought the Hakim, I wasn't looking for one. Come to think of it, I wasn't looking for the K-11 either! Should have bought a nice Mossberg M44 also but didn't want to spend all my hard earned cash.

I showed Brian Dick my new wobbley Webley and was pleased to find out it's not the horrible POS I thought it was, just a moderate POS.

Saw a guy with a box marked "Schmidt-Rubin accessories" on his table, but all he had left when I finally noticed it were 2 chargers, a hat and I forget what else. No slings nor muzzle caps.

Keith Reid told me that Rice One was at Trey's table, but when I got back there again he'd left, wanted to say hello to him for the Chairman. I don't know him, only know a few of the Japanese collectors.

[CoorsLightGuy]

It was good to see Spuds, Keith, Pop, and Mike at the show. I just got home a short while ago. I left the show around 1:30pm, but made several other stops in Alabama and made a day of it. I then had to stop at Sam's Club in Chattanooga on the way home, so I'm beat.

[DOGolden]

Sounds like you guys had a good time. I hit the gunshow in Columbia today Ol' Fella, sorry. $1 to park (big whoop) but $7 to get in? This ain't LA!!

[LoLo25643]

Sounds like everybody had a good time. Spuds, I saw a nice K11 on the table, it must be the same one. Also saw several Vetterli's on different tables. I just got through cleaning up the K31 and it's in pretty good shape. It was pretty dingy when I got it. It's also the only one that I have gotton that was full of old grease. Had a name tag under the butt plate so that was a plus also. Glad to hear ya'll had fun.:)

[CoorsLightGuy]

I saw something that I'd never seen before at the show. It was a Dutch Beaumont rifle. I've seen pictures, but never one in person, at least that I can remember.

Spuds saw and pointed out to me a beautiful Chilean Mauser. It was virtually flawless.

There were several nice WWII Japanese displays. One on the back row, another on the far right wall, in front of the windows.

[keithreid]

we had fun sitting out front talking, too. i bought everything i was going to get within 30 minutes of the show opening. didn't plan that, just ran across some neat stuff right off.
came out with a 1915 spandau gew98 that saw service in poland after WWI, a 42 vkt m39 i saw marked for 85 bucks that was in good shape, and an 1889 spandau gew88 that was all german marked and not updated to gew88/05.
me and pop stopped at some places on the way home and i picked up a steyr m95 carbine and 40 rnds of ammo. it's budapest marked on top of the receiver.

pop wound up coming home with a 34 tula 981/30 refurb and a 39 izhevsk 91/59. that and the wrong ammo for his japanese rifle:BangHead: .
i told him i'd swap him some 6.5 ammo for it, since i have a 7.7 rifle, and he made me carry it for the rest of the day! see, no good deed goes unpunished!:cussing:
see y'all at the next one. Keith

[RGRWJB]

Those Finn m/24's are rare birds...congrats.

[DOGolden]

Yes, can you post pictures of the m24 Spuds? I've never seen one! As for a $85 m39 - I would've bought it sight unseen! Great catch!!

[Spuds]

I'll try, still behind on pics from last weeks show plunder, the P-26 and NEW. I got pics of the Chairman & Komrade Bok (not a user here I think) at our last Sumac shoot on my camera that I've failed to get posted.

LoLo, I saw 2 K-11 carbines at the show. One was 4 bills plus I think, it was on Southern Firearms Appraisals table. I got mine from an older gentleman who was sitting at his table and just putting the price tag on it as I walked by. The reddish knobs were chipped at the top and bottom a bit, but it's in fine shape otherwise, P marked for civilian sale if I remember my facts correctly. A nearby table had 2 or 3 nice K-31 carbines on it, looked pretty nice other than the Century Arms import marking, which pretty much caused me to pass them by.

[RGRWJB]

Like I have always preached. Its much better to buy at the gun shows than to buy from the on line Mil Surp Dealers. It appears there are other places in the country, that has gunshows, that you can pick guns up cheap.

It looks like you all did great!

[DOGolden]

Like I have always preached. Its much better to buy at the gun shows than to buy from the on line Mil Surp Dealers. It appears there are other places in the country, that has gunshows, that you can pick guns up cheap.

Maybe so. But it's getting harder and harder to find good deals at gunshows and to be quite honest, it has been some time since I've stumbled onto anything worth talking about.

I am long overdue for a good deal. Having said that, I'm looking for something in the 7.62x54R department, & something cheap {I would love to stumble onto another $68 m27, m28, or m28/30}.

The local pawnshops in this area have dried up in the milsurp department {unless of course you are in dire need for a $900 Garand}. Rant off?

[LoLo25643]

Spuds, the one that I bought had the deepest dot-matrix billboard on the receiver that I have seen so far. I took care of that when I got home and cleaned it up though. You can still read it but it's not nearly as noticeable as it was. I have another one with the large billboard also but it was very shallow. As long as the original serial number has not been lined out I'll take them. I like three more serial number ranges to complete what I wanted to assemble in the K31's and they are getting hard to find when your limited to those. I may not ever get one that was made in 1933 but I'm going to keep looking.:D

[RGRWJB]

I sometimes run out of money there are so many great deals around here.