The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Vince it was nice to meet you again, ill bring some shiney things to diggle in April is there any thing you particualy wanterd yourself .

I didn't find any bargains, indeed some of the prices seemed to have been raised for the weekend...

The days of filling bags with bargains is long gone. Even the prices at the CLA game fayre are now the same or more expensive than the shops. I guess its due to the expenditure of the pitch.

Best bargain ever at a "gun show" I had, was at a Pistol AD in the early 90's...... Smith & Wesson Model 15 (no dash) Combat Masterpiece with a 2 inch barrel, lovely condition, for £225!!

Everything else is sadly gauged by this.....

bought some bits but have a serious wish list for later this year including a tunnel range 1911

Deleted - Brain Fart.

I think there is a perception that you will find stuff much cheaper at shows but in reality its not, bit like ebay people think its much cheaper but i often find stuff much cheaper elsewhere, if the pitch fee's are anything like what i used to pay for a pitch at British Superbike events then you have to shift alot of stock to even break even.

It being my first show maybe i had too high an expectation as there was lots on my list i didnt see or find, i was looking for mostly clay shooting gear for me and the wife but most of the stalls were catering for either the wildfowler/pigeon shooter or game shooting, so a little dissapointing for me on that side but then i was also there to look at all the firearm related stuff for purchases later in the year, so all was not lost.

As for bargains, as has been said above, i didnt see much, the stuff i did was cheaper at my local gun shops and to put it another way you could say for anything to be a real bargain for me it would have to cover my costs for the weekend which would of been in the region of £300+ to cover my fuel/accomodation/ticket/food costs for the weekend but thats not what i went for.

Would i go next year, i probably will as its going to be closer so will just drive up for the day and now i know what will be there i can cater my wish list for that.

Westcountry gamefair in 2 weeks and maybe CLA in July

There was noticeably less historic & military stuff for sale than last year and I didn't see ANY milsurp on "Show Special offer", come to think of it there wasn't much milsurp at all.

Is the trick not to go late on the last day and haggle? I've heard that retailers would rather discount some stuff than pack it up and drive it home. Depends of course what it is.

Tikka, its not that type of show. Speaking to historic dealers who had been there in the past they were struggling to cover costs, one of the reasons why I've never taken a stall is because of the amount I'd need to take just to break even.

With spiralling costs especially travel we are having to be more circumspect about which events we attend and go to ones where we think there will be a market for the historic stuff. There are a lot of historic fairs in the south already especially at Bisley and the shooting show adds nothing to these.