Denver: Tanner gun show
Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 10:46 pm
As we arrived back at our hotel on Friday evening, two bald monkeys were scaling down the side of it unfurling a larger, very large (18 stories) advertising banner. We parked our Jeep and then strolled round to the entrance of the hotel, by which time the banner was fully unfurled.
"Tanner Gun Show. This weekend at Denver Mart."
Denver Mart is a large exhibition centre barely a stone's throw away from our hotel and so, purely out of a sense of loyalty to the netizens of this forum, we decided to visit it and report back.
The show is big. Over seven hours big. We arrived at 08:30 and were at the front of the line* when the doors opened at 08:45. We finally left not much before 16:00, with a niggling feeling at the back of our ikkle cranium that we still hadn't seen it all. It's a gun show attended by regional gunshops, smaller specialist manufacturers, dealers and small traders. The big corporate makers like Ruger, S&W et cetera don't attend. We didn't miss them.
At first we felt a little out of place: we don't have a red neck, a hill-billy beard, tattoos or a Viet-Nam Vet baseball cap (worn the correct way around, let alone back to front). However, the natives seemed friendly and our accent soon intrigued them with dealers almost falling over themselves to display stuff and let us pawdle things we aren't allowed to buy. We had to turn down excellent deals on exotica such as:
1. A Panzerfaust
2. A MA Deuce complete with AA mounting
3. Incendiary, armour piercing, 12 gauge sabot slugs
4. A Gatling gun
5. A box of claymore mines (only one box on display but we were assured they had plenty more out in the parking lot should we need them)
Amongst the more mundane items we drooled over were numerous revolvers, several machine guns (MG42s were almost two a penny, well, two a dollar anyway) and a flammenwerfer. We were a little surprised that automatic pistols were present in a ratio of about 20:1 against revolvers, it seems the wheelgun is really out of fashion in the USA nowadays.
Things we liked:
1. The Desert Tactical MDR. An awesome bullpup, semi-automatic rifle. We'll be mentioning it to Liz next time we pop by for tea in case she fancies buying 100,00 for Her boys in khaki.
2. The KelTec RFB. Another awesome bullpup, semi-automatic rifle. We'll mention that to Liz too in case the Treasury insist on an open competition and competitive tendering.
3. The Phoenix Arms Interdictor. A bolt action rifle in .408 CheyTac (sic) for when you need to reach out and touch somebody. Hard.
We think it our duty to report that the stories of an ammunition drought in Amerkky seem to be unfounded. We could have bought (if we weren't an alien), a million rounds of any calibre from .13 FlySWAT (sic) to 40mm Bofors right there in the hall. For larger quantities we would have been better meeting in the Vendors' Car Lot to do a direct vehicle to vehicle transfer rather than traipsing it all in and out of the hall.
At dead on 12 noon they had a patriotic moment. The Tannoy asked for silence and then a purty young lady wearing not much at all (but very elegantly) stood up on a rostrum and belted out The Star Spangled Banner as everyone stood with their paw over their heart. We did wonder whether we ought to point out the historical inaccuracies in the lyric, the aforementioned star bangled banner actually having been torn down from its flagpole by the HM Royal Marines after they set the White House ablaze and routed the US forces, but we felt we ought to allow them their moment of indulgence.
After a tasty lunch of Plains Beefsteak & Beans and Momma's Apple Pie (separate courses), we resumed our perambulation of the hall and loosened our wallet a little. Thus it was that by 16:00 we staggered out of the front door laden down with non-ITAR contentious purchases. Our most prized bargain was a drag bag for our DTA that cost us just $55 and they even waived the sales tax.
We may go back tomorrow...
* Queue
"Tanner Gun Show. This weekend at Denver Mart."
Denver Mart is a large exhibition centre barely a stone's throw away from our hotel and so, purely out of a sense of loyalty to the netizens of this forum, we decided to visit it and report back.
The show is big. Over seven hours big. We arrived at 08:30 and were at the front of the line* when the doors opened at 08:45. We finally left not much before 16:00, with a niggling feeling at the back of our ikkle cranium that we still hadn't seen it all. It's a gun show attended by regional gunshops, smaller specialist manufacturers, dealers and small traders. The big corporate makers like Ruger, S&W et cetera don't attend. We didn't miss them.
At first we felt a little out of place: we don't have a red neck, a hill-billy beard, tattoos or a Viet-Nam Vet baseball cap (worn the correct way around, let alone back to front). However, the natives seemed friendly and our accent soon intrigued them with dealers almost falling over themselves to display stuff and let us pawdle things we aren't allowed to buy. We had to turn down excellent deals on exotica such as:
1. A Panzerfaust
2. A MA Deuce complete with AA mounting
3. Incendiary, armour piercing, 12 gauge sabot slugs
4. A Gatling gun
5. A box of claymore mines (only one box on display but we were assured they had plenty more out in the parking lot should we need them)
Amongst the more mundane items we drooled over were numerous revolvers, several machine guns (MG42s were almost two a penny, well, two a dollar anyway) and a flammenwerfer. We were a little surprised that automatic pistols were present in a ratio of about 20:1 against revolvers, it seems the wheelgun is really out of fashion in the USA nowadays.
Things we liked:
1. The Desert Tactical MDR. An awesome bullpup, semi-automatic rifle. We'll be mentioning it to Liz next time we pop by for tea in case she fancies buying 100,00 for Her boys in khaki.
2. The KelTec RFB. Another awesome bullpup, semi-automatic rifle. We'll mention that to Liz too in case the Treasury insist on an open competition and competitive tendering.
3. The Phoenix Arms Interdictor. A bolt action rifle in .408 CheyTac (sic) for when you need to reach out and touch somebody. Hard.
We think it our duty to report that the stories of an ammunition drought in Amerkky seem to be unfounded. We could have bought (if we weren't an alien), a million rounds of any calibre from .13 FlySWAT (sic) to 40mm Bofors right there in the hall. For larger quantities we would have been better meeting in the Vendors' Car Lot to do a direct vehicle to vehicle transfer rather than traipsing it all in and out of the hall.
At dead on 12 noon they had a patriotic moment. The Tannoy asked for silence and then a purty young lady wearing not much at all (but very elegantly) stood up on a rostrum and belted out The Star Spangled Banner as everyone stood with their paw over their heart. We did wonder whether we ought to point out the historical inaccuracies in the lyric, the aforementioned star bangled banner actually having been torn down from its flagpole by the HM Royal Marines after they set the White House ablaze and routed the US forces, but we felt we ought to allow them their moment of indulgence.
After a tasty lunch of Plains Beefsteak & Beans and Momma's Apple Pie (separate courses), we resumed our perambulation of the hall and loosened our wallet a little. Thus it was that by 16:00 we staggered out of the front door laden down with non-ITAR contentious purchases. Our most prized bargain was a drag bag for our DTA that cost us just $55 and they even waived the sales tax.
We may go back tomorrow...
* Queue
