So, me being me, I just couldn't stand not having any real dough to blow at the show. I looked through the VFTP arsenal, playing a game of "Which one of these things is not like the others?" and decided that my 6.8mm SPC AR-15 was the odd gun out.
The 6.8 was a pretty nice AR, with some fairly top-shelf components: A MagPul M-93B stock, a Vltor CASV-EL forend, and an EOTech 512 holosight. The downside was that your average yob in the aisles was just going to ask "
Whut kinda lower izzat?" and wander off when hearing "Superior Arms", because the average yob doesn't realize that all lowers are made in only a couple of places. Most folks wouldn't see the $900+ in accessories bolted to the gun.
The folks running a few specialty AR tables would be able to tell it was a pretty bucks-up carbine at a glance, but they're buying for resale and they have to make a buck. Unless they already have a customer lined up for a fairly high-end 6.8 carbine, they're not going to be willing to risk sinking too much in it on speculation. I was on the other horn of a dilemma I've faced countless times from the other side of the counter. (
ColtCCO can probably picture the look on my face as I considered my prospects; the rest of you can get the effect by imagining the results of the expression "
like chewing on a cat turd".)
Oh, well. The price I was asking was a reasonable one; a reseller could make a bit of money on it, and it was a damned good deal for an end user. If it sold, it sold, and if it didn't, it wouldn't kill me to take it home again. Early in the morning of day two I was strolling it down an aisle when I heard "Hey! Didn't you sell me a 9mm AR at a show in Knoxville?" from a table to my left. Indeed I had. It was the the folks from JSE Surplus. She asked how much I was asking, I told her, she knew a deal when she saw it, and I was flush.
The main reason I wanted to generate some cash was that this Indy 1500 was the best show for
Trapdoor Springfields I have seen in over a decade. Most gun shows I've been to, I'd been lucky to find a bare handful, and even mediocre examples tended to start around $800. This weekend though, it seemed I couldn't turn around without bumping into another one, ranging from ugly pieces sporting tags in the $5-600 range to nice rifles with stickers north of a grand. I wanted a Springfield because I had an example of every primary US martial longarm from the Garand back to the Krag-Jorgensen, and that meant it was time to add a floptop to the museum.
The gun I settled on was a standard M1879 rifle that dated to 1884. It had a stock that had been sanded at some time in the distant past, obliterating its cartouches, but the finish was worn to an even brown patina with no really serious pitting anywhere, the screw heads were un-buggered, it was mechanically tight, and (mirabile dictu!) the bore had good, strong rifling and was rather amazingly bright for a rifle that had been built before the discovery of smokeless powder and a half century before the introduction of non-corrosive primers.
Following my maxim of always trying to turn one gun into two, I also browsed the Smith & Wesson selection at the show, coming up with a nice Model 1 1/2 Centerfire (basically a .32 S&W companion to my
.38 Single Action, similarly dated, also nickeled, and in a little better condition.) Happy as a clam with my new acquisitions, I'll call it a successful show.
