by B.B.Pelletier
There I was, at the Roanoke airgun show, and this year was REALLY different! For starters, it wasn’t in Roanoke. It was up a small mountain road several miles south of the big city, and I thought that would keep the attendance down. But at the Friday opening, there were hundreds of attendees who came through the doors. And those who struggled to find the place were rewarded with what I have to categorize as the very best airgun show I’ve been to. Allow me to explain.
About midway through the first day, and the show was doing a brisk business.
It seems that hard financial times have hit the airgun market, and as a result there were too many great buys to count. Also, something else happened that I guess is like the changing of the guard. It seems that many of the old graybeards were cleaning out their closets and selling most everything they had. Some strange metal surfaced to bait the faithful, as well as the tried and true guns we all love.
One thing I was looking for are readers of this blog. RidgeRunner was first to step up and introduce himself. He was doing his impression of a walking garage sale by lugging a rifle, pistol and a daypack full of pellets around the show. And the last time I saw him, I think he had bought some pellets! Talk about taking coals to Newcastle!
RidgeRunner was happy to be at the show.
Lloyd and his beautiful wife, Mary Ellen, were next to stop by. Mary Ellen was returning home from a business trip, and her plane was diverted to Roanoke; so Lloyd did the manly (and opportunistic) thing by rushing down to pick her up. We gabbed about old times while Mary Ellen looked around her very first airgun show. She said she was impressed, and I think that was an honest appraisal because for some reason this was a classy show.
Usually, a show has some sort of “flavor.” By that I mean that there will be one or more memorable things that happen only at that particular show. I remember one where there were new-in-the-box Smith & Wesson 78G and 79G pistols stacked up in piles. At another show, a man was trying to sell a genuine Girardoni military rifle. I was flabbergasted when he sold it for $3,500. Several years afterward, I was even more flabbergasted to see a similar rifle sell for over $50,000!
I look for those “patterns” at every show, and they help me report the show. At this show, I couldn’t see any pattern on Friday. Maybe there was a smallish group of 10-meter target rifles for sale and a few nice Benjamin Discovery rifles were out on the tables, but I couldn’t see any real patterns.
But what did happen at this show more than at others I’ve been to was that we had time to actually talk. Several other readers came by and even people I know just from seeing them at every show I attend; but, for once, there was time to really talk. And as a result, I was set straight on a number of technical topics. The beauty of that is that Edith wasn’t there to keep me in line, so the task was shared by many people. Of course, they weren’t as good at it as Edith is…but, then, she’s had many years of practice.
Mac shared a table with me, and he had a super first day! He brought most of his stable of 10-meter rifles, plus many of his finest sporting guns. His first sale was an FWB 124 I tuned about 10 years ago, and it still averages 881 f.p.s. with Premier lites. After that, his guns were flying off the table as I watched enviously from the sidelines. Part of his success is due to his engaging style. He stood in the aisle in front of the table and hooked them as they ventured too close.
Mac discusses the finer point of airgun trivia with a patron who moved too slow.
I’m always on the lookout for different things, and Wayne Fowler had one on his table. It was a .35-caliber single-shot round ball shooter with a ball reservoir that Mike Reames made. Wayne said his pistol is very accurate, so he mounted a red dot sight to the barrel and shot a group with it. The proof is right in the center of the bull.
Wayne Fowler’s handmade pistol drilled the bull. The 18th century meets the 21st as the red dot sight sits atop a round rifled barrel. Strange but true!
Want a ball reservoir pistol of your own? A customer deals with maker Mike Reames, who has several unsold ball reservoirs on his table.
I vowed I wasn’t going to buy anything at this show, and that resolution lasted until almost 12 hours before the doors opened. How could I need anything more, I asked, as I forked over the cash for several impulse purchases made while chatting at the motel the evening before the show opened? You’ll be seeing the results of those purchases in upcoming events. But here’s one: Edith has been asking for a slingshot with a laser for almost a year, and I found one for her that has a laser and a red dot sight. (Note from Edith: Woohoo! He’s right. Ever since I saw some online demo videos, I’ve been wanting one of these.)
Saturday
The Saturday show was much different than Friday. Saturday is normally when the locals come; and while a few did make it in, it was a very slow day. Mostly dealers trading with dealers.
I did overhear conversations between several dealers saying they’d had as good a show as ever despite the smaller size and change of location. I would estimate was only 75% as large as the Roanoke shows of the past. There’s room to grow in the current facility, and show promoter Davis Schwesinger has plans to do just that.
One last comment. Although I mentioned him earlier and even showed a picture of one of his pistols, I must say that Mike Reames, who makes the unusual ball reservoir pistols, is making a name for himself. His work is of good quality, and everybody who gets one seems to enjoy it. I think we’ll do more with Mike in the future.
The show ended around 2 P.M. Saturday, but all the dealers I talked to said they were coming back next year. I know that many of the dealers who were not there will make plans to attend. It may take a while, but I think we’ll grow this into a fine, large airgun show, again.
I think there’s a “flight to quality” going on. Interestingly, if you’ve downgraded, or been spanked down, by the current economy, you may find yourself with more mad-money than when you had a job. A lot of people, people north of 40, are realizing that this is it, the big show, do it now or …. well … things may be a lot more miserable in 10 years so better do it now. Where ‘do it now’ means buy that 300s, that PCP, that antique ghillie gun, play the violin, what-have-you.
I notice around here that In-N-Out is doing well, McD’s not. Station 55, a local bar/restaurant in an old fire station, doing well because their food is a good value, other places shutting down. Most household junque going pennies on the dollar but something good, you’ll get a premium price for it. Last weekend I attended a flea market as a seller and my first sale of the day was $180 for some Tektronix sampling heads. Not a $5 for this, $1 for that, $180. Needless to say, with patience they’ll be able to sell ONE of the four on Evilbay for that, and they may even get paid. …. Again the flight to quality.
What to invest in? Stuff that will last. Stuff that will always be the stuff it started out to be. Solid, reliable, repairable. A gun that will always get you dinner. Yeah Benjamin/Sheridan come to mind. But also your well-made Dianas and RWS’s and so on. Think in terms of, “I didn’t get it fer to be a playtoy”.
To me there were two noticeable absences at this show. There were no “commercial” dealers such as PA and there were NO PELLETS! I probably had more for sale in my pack than were in the whole show! Well, I guess that is a bit of an exageration, but not much. I scoured the show for some decent wadcutters and found one tin.
There were some great deals at this show. Tables full of 10 meter rifles and pistols! I saw three Gary Barnes rifles for sale. One of them was a beautiful .20cal field target rifle for $2000! I am glad I was broke! My wife would have had a fit! There were some fantastic prices on some Discos and BB guns out the wahzoo.
I did notice that quite a few of the dealers were VERY proud of their 10 meter springers. The good deals on them went last year.
BB – Really enjoyed talking to you Fri and Sat. I’ve been to the last two shows at the Roanoke Civic Center, and I had even more fun at this one. I found a very nice IZH-46 at the show, and was looking through your 2006 reports. You mention a process of working the seals for ~30min to restore the power. Can you elaborate? I assume you are adding a few drops of Pellgun Oil at a time to the piston and working the pump to spread it out. How many drops would you expect to use?
RidgeRunner – I’ve spoken to several 10m collectors this year – DHL stopped shipping air rifles this summer. Until we have another source, I expect dealers are going to be very tight with what they have. I know I’m not likely to let go of the LGV I had on display. I was hoping to find a Diana 60-66 – no luck…
Jay,
No, oil isn’t what you are doing. What you are doing is flexing the pump head or seal, so that it captures more air.
As it flexes, it gets warmer and larger, to better seal the compression chamber. The oil is important, but the flexing is more so — especially in an older gun. And it doesn’t take 30 minutes. You can do it with 10 partial pumps. Once you have done it once, it seems to last for that shooting session, as long as you move right along.
B.B.
BB:
This will be the third Roanoke air gun show I’ve been able to attend via your blog.
Always a treat BB,thank you very much.
DaveUK
Hi BB, I am glad you enjoyed the show. I have to make Roanoke one of these years. It’s hard to make the trip when I only have two weeks of vacation a year though. I am so glad there is a show in Arkansas that is much closer. You and others have mentioned there being an abundance of 10 meter rifles at the show. It was the same way in Malvern, Arkansas too. This is puzzling because 10 meter springers are still selling well on the classifieds. I know a lot of school shooting program guns are being replaced by PCPs and that may be where the abundance is coming from. With the abundance of cheap 10 meter springers available it would be fun to see a mini sniping league.
David Enoch
David,
What you saw at Malvern this year was a one-time thing and far greater than what was at Roanoke. But there were some good buys at Roanoke, nevertheless.
Tom
A very interesting tidbit on the Steyr-Sportwaffen website: a change in name and a major declaration of policy that I missed when it came out:
==================================
STEYR SPORTWAFFEN becomes STEYR SPORT
On the IWA in Nuremberg we published the change of our company name: We cut the “Waffen” (weapons) – so from now on the world market leader for air pistols is called STEYR SPORT!
Because we are involved in sport, fair, competitive sport. With much practise, body control, mental strength and a rounded holistic perspective our sports friends can, as a result, enjoy many exciting hours.
Our products are no “weapons” but highly developed sporting devices. Because it’s the sport that counts!
===========================
I think this is really good for all of us in all parts of air-gunning (except trying to kill wild boar with a single 0.177 shot, of course).
The website is still http://www.steyr-sportwaffen.at
Like so many others here,life’s complications have kept me from another one.My budget (what’s that??)
still took a hit….one of my airgun friends was good enough to sell me a very neat PCP made by the dubious Filarm company.It is beautiful,very small for a rifle…..32″ and 3lbs14oz,and very small production so the quality seems custom made.It is called a Cayman jr. and is .177.I’m told it shoots CP heavies @ 975fps and shoots cloverleaf groups at 50yds.This one comes with three tanks,moderated,and velocity is adjustable on the fly.Until I hold it,I almost have to take the performance data w/ a grain of salt.My purchasing it will allow it’s owner to buy an Air Arms TDR that he said he literally tossed a coin to decide between them.I was enamored at first sight,because it has a swing breech reminiscent of the USFT,or the much earlier Swedish Excellent C1 from the 1912-1917 period.The tank and conventional hammer arrangement seem to mirror the Giffard from the 1870’s (the first Co2 airgun made) in both arrangement and function.I regret not getting to meet Tom still……perhaps Arkansas this year!
Frank B,
Neat little guns those Caiman’s.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/79574/message/1285393860/For+Sale+-+FILARMS+Caiman+JR+rifle
http://www.network54.com/Forum/79537/thread/1318703222/Here%27s+the+gun+I+bought+at+Roanoke+%21
kevin
Kevin,thanks,you always are there to share the research….and I really appreciate that! Sadly,the Jr. has been pulled from the bargaining table.I am getting the full sized one instead.It is still very light,mostly T6
aluminum.Nicely done stock as well…..the one I’m getting is all black.
Frank,
Sorry to hear about the x-Jr. Did you get a chance to even hold it? It would be interesting to know how the Sr. feels in comparison.
No,but my friend did.He said the longer one was also very light.I weigh 215,so even with a very bad back I think the long one will be fine for me.I know my Daystate Harrier is about ideal to me….the “Jr.” was under 4 lbs,that is in freaky light territory.I bet you can feel a CP heavy…..as in “I know it’s loaded,I can FEEL it!” LOL
Frank,
I had my cased FWB 124 on the table at this show. It will be there at Malvern, too, so you can see it in person.
B.B.
I would love to see your now infamous ! 124 for myself.I will try to bring my 124,s/n 9,2xx ,tuned by Derrick K.It will of course be wearing it’s Himilayan sunday duds! Derrick did an awesome job on it,it has the BEST original plastic trigger you’ll ever feel.
Frank, I know you had a typo since the gun is right there in front of you but (needle, needle):
Cayman – Small Island in the caribbean
Caiman – ~8 ft long crocodilian reptile found in much of Central and South America.
Both are pretty cool so the rifle will be respected regardless of definition used.
Excellent buy, BTW. Congratulations! I do love the look but it’s strictly a right hander, right?
Chuck,sorry for the typo……I do try to spell correctly when I type.I don’t actually have it in front of me either.As it turns out some things have changed and I’ll be getting the full sized Caiman (NOT 8 feet) instead of the Jr.
Welcome back B.B. It looks like you were as happy as a kid in a candy store, as a…. I read one of your sentences above as “The beauty that is Edith…” 🙂
RidgeRunner, good to see you. I love your name. Is it inspired by the Marines sent to rescue Fox Company at the Chosin Reservoir?
dg, as KidAgain mentioned, by reloading, I meant that I was assembling centerfire cartridges. If you’re into precision, this is your game. And if you think you don’t need this rush, well I didn’t either when I started airgunning. 🙂 KidAgain, the reloading has actually deepened my appreciation for the economy and lack of hassle in airgunning. My reloading will only be very occasional so I can afford to lavish the necessary care to make each cartridge artistic perfection. Or as Mr. Spock says, “I have just realized that the enemy’s power utilization curve is not the norm.”
Flobert, isn’t On the Beach about some people on a submarine waiting for nuclear fallout on a beach in Australia after Armageddon? Depressing. Well, play the fiddle and we’ll hope for the best. I’m of a more optimistic outlook but you do have to wonder to see the global unrest over our the financial system. Maybe it’s time to look over the stocks of ammunition. But barring something catastrophic, I would look forward to more than 10 years. Did you see that some Indian guy who is over 100 just completed a marathon?
How interesting that you grew up in Hawaii. Fill me in. Were you on one of the military bases? I can see at once that your experience was authentic. For those who didn’t grow up there, Hawaii is a multi-ethnic environment that is not exactly the shining example that Bill Clinton held it up to be. To be sure, there are elements of Aloha and cross-ethnic tolerance that he was referring too. But there is also a good deal of friction of everyone against everyone else. But it is most virulent between the local Hawaiians and whites. The local term for whites is “haole” which was originally an objective term in Hawaiian for “stranger” that has morphed into something deeply pejorative. For example, I knew a female teacher from New England who said that she had had it with Hawaii and was leaving as soon as she could because she was tired of her students calling her a f—- haole b—-.
Growing up, my experience was largely one of reverse prejudice against white people. And to my blank slate of a mind the merits were obvious in comparing my intelligent, well-spoken, and above all good hearted relatives from the Midwest who came out to visit occasionally to the foul-mouthed, stupid, crude, violent people I was going to school with. The fact that locals tend to be of very robust build and had no problems throwing their weight around did not improve my opinion. Incidentally, they tend to do disproportionately well in pro football.
A propos of this, I just attended a workshop on diversity at my workplace. To get us to expand our minds beyond the norm, the gave us various exercises like answering the question, “What is the shape of your imagination?” The older woman who was assigned this question bugged her eyes out and waved her arms. Then, when it seemed like she couldn’t last another second, she gasped out, “Spiky!” Anyway, after this we were told how white people could not be oppressed because they were part of a dominant power structure???? Well, I could think of numbers of cases where white kids were oppressed that I saw according to any definition of that term.
So, Flobert, Iike you I couldn’t wait to get out of the place and make it to the big time on the Mainland! However, time has mellowed my perspective. I understand that the racism is not as virulent as before. Also, looking around, the people are not as large and threatening as I remember. I have even sought for them on YouTube streetfighting videos of Hawaii. But all I can find are unusually skinny kids bounding about in a display of aggression without really hurting each other.
Actually, all the range officers at the shooting range are quite nice, and if they wanted to get rid of a haole it was done already since they are non-white. It remains to be seen what the outcome of that very weird incident will be. I have thought of every safety contingency in my own use of guns but shooting a flare gun at dry brush on a shooting range was not one of them….
Otherwise, it was an agreeable weekend with me spending a lot of time at the computer watching YouTube videos of Force Recon, martial arts, IPSC shooting, and car repossession. The last is very entertaining, but I’m suspecting like professional wrestling that it’s not entirely real. Also discovered a new shooting sport called posing in front of the mirror with surplus rifles and making sound effects.
Matt61
Matt61 – discrimination against whites isn’t restricted to Hawaii, but at least on the Mainland there are pockets where we’re a big enough ethnic group that it keeps it down a bit.
There are plenty of big, violent, guys hopped up on meth back in Hawaii and “haoles” still disappear with regularity. Just go to the North Shore and look at all the MISSING posters on the notice boards. Lots of them young “haole” girls. It’s a “might makes right” culture there. So if you kill someone, it was their fault for being weak.
Areas like that, I have some great memories of growing up there, beautiful land and sea etc and the “mokes” can’t always be around. But the sensible thing seemed to be to leave.
I wish more “haoles” had the experience of living there to wake them up. Here on the mainland most seem to be sleepwalking where this subject is concerned. I fear they’ll have to learn some hard lessons before the concept sinks in.
The movie “On The Beach” was about a bunch of people in Australia, yes a nuke sub crew but also residents of a beach town there, and basically how they handle the fact that there’s a cloud of nuclear dust encircling the earth and approaching them. They’ll be dead in a few months. Like a lot of great writing it’s a reductio ad absurdum, taking a condition and telescoping it, in this case shortening it. The real situation being of course the fact that we’re living limited lifetimes, we generally make it to the Biblical 70 years. That’s it. And of course American life spans are shortening, and a hell of a lot of us are not making it that far. My parents died in their early 60s, mainly due to the effects of poverty. I just turned 49. Can I expect to make it as far as my parents did? I’d like to think so, and beyond, but then add in the present economic meltdown, which is worldwide and showing no sign of stopping. Add in that we’re in the beginning of a Depression. Add in that we’re in an era of massive government encroachment, where things are being nationalized in the US at a rate not seen since the 1930s, and new laws being written that effectively make us all criminals, on some count or another. Or many. Say the wrong thing on a blog, just say what I’m saying here, and you, or I, may become an “internal terrorist”. How long do those live, once it’s time to round ’em up?
So if there’s something you’ve always wanted to do, better do it now.
Matt61,
“Also discovered a new shooting sport called posing in front of the mirror with surplus rifles and making sound effects” LOL! ‘You lookin’ at me, punk?’ Still laughing!
ka
PeteZ, I am feeling an acute sense of constriction at the light speed limit. Cough cough. However, I’m holding out for interesting things yet to be discovered. Is it not true that quantum physics and relativity which are the pillars of modern physics and which have never been proven wrong in a single experiment are deeply incompatible and cannot both be right? I don’t know enough to say how but it may have something to do with the discrete probabilistic nature of quantum vs. the continuous, absolute nature of relativity. Anyway, the universe must have some objective explanation according to the deepest assumptions of the scientific method but quantum and relativity cannot both be right. So something’s got to give. The theories of physics have survived for now, but it’s just a matter of time… 🙂
Matt61
Special Relativity and quantum mechanics are not only compatible, they have been integrated into a single theory called Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). No experiment ever done has shown a breakdown in the combined theory, although many have tried (me too!) with their best efforts. However, General Relativity, which is the theory of gravity in modern dress, cannot be reconciled with QED. String theory was an attempt to do so; Einstein’s unified field theory tried to integrate classical electromagnetic field theory with gravity, and it didn’t work either.
Richard Feynman wrote a thin little book called “Q.E.D.” (with the periods), which is a very lucid and very understandable explanation of QED meant for the absolute layman. I’m sure it’s still in print, but most public libraries have a copy. My (non-techie) daughter got through it quite easily; no math. It is nothing like the books Stephen Hawking has written, which daunt even professional physicists. I couldn’t get through “Brief History of Time”!
Yes Q.E.D. is a great book, and it was the lecture he gave at a girls’ school, yep that’s right, we’re all schoolgirls compared to the great Feynman! I curtsey before his greatness …..
I think some of his famous Feynman lectures are on YouTube now. The Feynman lectures are not for lightweights though!
I don’t remember which lecture number it is, but by golly if you look quick you’ll find the grad student version of me in the audience. The Messenger Lectures were shot at Cornell in 1964. We all bow in his direction; greatest physicist of the last 60 years.
Possibly since Newton. Time will tell.
OT…so it isn’t just pellets?! (am I being obtuse enough 😉 )
My oldest (10yrs) started his second year of archery this year. He’d practiced minimally over the summer…preferring the shooting range to the archery range.
He seemed to start right where he left off…meaning he was a little discouraged. On the 40cm target he can keep all the arrows (which amounts to 3/end) on target…but sometimes barely.
There is a new instructor there this year whose focus is competition archery…the primary focus of the club in reality is hunting…so the compound bow users outnumber the recruve users about 4-1.
(I’ll get to the pellet thing in a moment 😉 )
He looks at the boys setup…very good bow, pricey sight, good stance…and then says that whoever suggested the arrows we were using was ‘crazy’.
Says there a hunting arrow (carbon fibre) and way to heavy for the recurve as we’ve got it set up.
So we bought 6 new aluminum arrows, 25-30 gms lighter…and low and behold nearly every shot is going into the red and yellow.
I gave my head a shake…all last year we struggled with sight adjustment, tensioning adjustment…changing his stance…all that stuff.
And just like with pellet guns and pellets it ends up being a case of his bow liking one arrow way better than another.
There are plenty of things about bows and arrows.
The arrow must be spined right for the bow to work best. Arrows act diffrently between recurve and compounds.
If I remember right, you start out this way….
Draw weight?
Compound or recurve?
Draw length?
Point weight?
Kind of arrow…aluminum or graphite?
You need an arrow chart to get it figured out.
When the arrow is right for the bow, it will be the most forgiving and shoot the best. Brace height also affects how the bow likes the arrow.
twotalon
And once you get the right combo, it’s like pellet guns, Sweet!! It feels like you can’t miss! Except then it starts costing in arrows…. 🙂
/Dave
Echoing the others… Yes, the arrows need to be able to resist some of the flex (but not all) from the bow.
A hunting weight (50+ lb) pull recurve probably needs stiffer shafts than a compound of the same pull weight. Recurves put the strongest impulse at the time of release and, while still accelerating, have less and less force in the bow. Compounds, due to the ellipticals, are typically and 2/3 or 1/2 of peak pull when at full draw — so they start lower, but acceleration forces increase to about mid-draw where the peak pull occurs. (Sounds like the difference in impulse behavior of a spring vs PCP)
BB,
It was good to see you and Mac and several other folks at the show. Mary Ellen really DID like the show, especially some of the cowboy cap guns from our childhood. She was deprived of that sort of fun as she lamented the all too familiar refrain, “They never let us do THAT in Catholic school, you public school kids had ALL the fun!” A nice little silhouette pistol might be in her future. Ever year I’ve been lookin for something specific, and have been successful.
This year I was looking for a Career 909, but none were to be found. If I had been looking for a 707, well then, “Which of these 20 should I choose from?” Lot’s of nice Daystate’s, too, and at good prices. But even on a very good day, a Daystate is fairly rich. That’s probably why you don’t find any worn out and beat up Daystate bargains.
Having gone to Virginia Tech, and then lived in that area for another 8 years, I was in home territory. After the show we drove back toward downtown Roanoke to the New Yorker Delicatessen on Williamson Road. I don’t think the decor has been updated in the 25 years since I was there last and I had to get my favorite, a Ruben! I think they gone a little “heart healthy”, though. To me, a good Ruben just about needs a drain plug for the grease. This one, I was able to get by with just a handful of napkins. Still delicious.
Lloyd
LLoyd,your post made me very hungry.I do have a “beater” Daystate I would gladly trade for a functional prototype! I’ll wait for your call….LOL
Frank, would you settle for rummaging thru boxes of parts and valves and barrels and such and we come up with a nice “kit”? That could be interesting. Kinda like American Pickers, LOL.
That’d be more like Monster Garage! Or ….. whatever that show was where they had a bunch of parts and had to build a tank that blows soap bubbles etc.
Just one comment…
I don’t want to catch the insanity that makes someone convert a .44 muzzle-loader to .35 PCP.
(The .44 “New Orleans Ace” kit was received as my birthday gift in 1976 — quite hard to fit a patched ball down a rifled barrel of that size, when you can’t really brace the pistol on anything)
{now to catch up on four days, while squinting at the laptop on a bench stealing off B&N WiFi connection — I should never have mentioned that the blog was one of those sites my flaky DSL wouldn’t receive… I got home Thursday after the lay-off to find that 75% of the sites I normally access were not transferring data; connect, log-in, OKAY… download anything bigger than a status packet — freeze}
Yeah you were saying …. they neutered your net!
So, you’re moving back where your parents are, or something? You mentioned moving to the Midwest.
A friend of mine has his brother with wife and – if necessary – kids, kids are in their 30s, moving back in with him.
Well, since I now have a working DSL modem again… I just need to get OFF the computer and return to packing boxes of books… At least I’m not having to drive to a coffee shop or bookstore to use my laptop [but I DO need to activate the AT&T prepaid service card and buy a $50 month block to configure the laptop to not need WiFi]
Yes, my plan is to pack up and hopefully fit everything into a 26 foot U-Haul [going to be close — I’m over 90 cubic feet of books already in storage, with an order for 50 more boxes, and those are for the three book cases in the dining area [540 linear inches of books]. At least those book cases fold up; I’ve got 9 that won’t, so there’s a stack of 30×12″ space. Oh, and the boxes can’t be stacked more than about four feet up due to crush [the older stacks have already compressed by an inch].
I’m delaying the application for unemployment insurance — having to send in a form every two weeks [on a specific day — too early or too late gets rejected and I have to justify starting up again] would have cramped the move. This way I can spend my time NOT job hunting, packing up stuff instead [Get off the computer!], run the U-Haul up to MI, unload, maybe even find a rental apartment and get phone number for DSL service transfer, THEN fly back, patch holes/clean apartment, apply for UI using the MI address, and drive the Jeep up in time to get the papers.
Wow. Well, better get to it.
Tom, it was really great to chat with you and Mac at the show…Friday at Roanoke is consistently my very favorite day of the year! (Do NOT tell my wife I said that, LOL.)
I agree with your assessment…a smaller show than in the past, but one truly dense with things I’m interested in! Just to use “old German target rifles” as an example, I spied:
2 Weihrauch HW 55 M’s
6 Walther LG 55’s, including three Tyros (a lefty, a righty, and a double-set-trigger!)
literally more Walther LGV’s than I can remember, including a Tyro
1 Walther LGR
1 Wather LGM-1 in walnut
5 FWB 150’s, including a Tyro
2 FWB 300’s, including a Tyro
3 FWB 300S’s, 2 of ’em literally new-in-box
1 FWB 601 in walnut
1 Haenel 311
Most of ’em in great shape and most of ’em reasonably priced, too. What can I say…long live Roanoke!!!
Mike,
I should have listed those 10-meter guns. Thanks for doing that.
I think Davis Schwesinger may have bought that DST LG55. It was all he could talk about.
Maybe next year will return to the size we had a couple years ago. But even if it doesn’t, as long as the guns on the tables are as fine as they were this year, it will be a show to attend.
I am hoping Pyramyd AIR will come next year. If they only took four tables and brought a third of the guns they usually do — but tons of pellets for RidgeRunner and everyone else — I think it would be a shot in the arm for the show.
B.B.
Glad that this years show turned out good.
Had planned on going, Roanoke/Salem is only a 2- 2 1/2 hr drive away, but since both parents had been in/out of the ER in recent months (Mom most recent – too close to the Show, in fact), I felt that being a responsible, available for emergency child was in order this year; though I would have loved to have brought Dad along for him to see some of the guns (and prices of said). Oh, he’s not very much into guns at all, and thinks that $20 for those ole Chinese B3s is plenty, so seeing some of the better guns, the prices really gets him. 8)