Fun Show AAR:

A pretty good crowd inside the show at the 1500, although there wasn't much of a line when we got there and none when we left.

It wasn't just tire-kickers, either. I rarely linger at the tables of the larger dealers that sell new guns; I don't have much interest in the stuff there ("Oh look. A new XD/SIG/M&P/Glock/AR/Mossberg. Just like the fifty thousand other ones I've seen,") and generally just crane my neck to scan their used stuff and see if there are any interesting-looking old Smiths or pocket pistols or military surplus guns. All of these bigger dealers usually have a little area set aside for folks filling out 4473s, and all of those areas were full of customers scribbling away.

There was a definite air of folks turning depreciating pieces of paper into appreciating chunks of metal.

I got caught up in the spirit myself. At the last show at the Armory, the one where I acquired the Savage, a dealer with whom I'd done some business before had a darn nice S&W .35 pistol. That's the last one I needed to complete my early American autopistol set, and the price was good, but still too rich for my blood. I'd been chewing it over since then, and when I saw it again at this show, I asked to look it over; it was in really good shape, and the price was actually pretty good, but still steep. The Smiths aren't common, and I'd only seen three others at shows over the last several years: A primo one for something over eight bills, a re-nickeled shooter for four-hundred and change, and a parts gun that looked like it came up off a u-boat wreck for just under two bills...

I thought and pondered and wandered the show and Bobbi bought a Star and we said hi to friends and acquaintances and that Smith was gnawing at me even if it would mean Ramen for a while and... there's a new Sunday Smith up.
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