I've had as much fun in a weekend as I've had in, um, gee...a heck of a long time!
The best of it is, it's something that would normally sound so lame, but if you have or if you do this sometime, you're in for a real treat.
I thought long and hard about it and just about didn't do any of this. I nearly stayed home and worked the whole time!
Finally, I talked myself into going. I haven't not gone since I started, and unless the weather turned south and got nasty, it'd be a shame not to. If I have regrets next week, it'll be a year before I can do it again.
Wells, Minnesota is a town of about 2500 located about a third of the way between Albert Lea and Mankato. Not a whole lot happens there, except that a week or ten days into March each year, the high school in the middle of town is home to the biggest and best gun show in the region. Lockers are zip-tied shut, certain stairways and corridors are cordoned off, and tables are set up everywhere.
Most are from Minnesota, and a good number of them come down from the twin cities. A few folks come up from Iowa for the weekend, including a former co-worker of mine. I used to see him every day. Now, the only place I ever see Paul is at Wells, 65 miles from my house! He drives a catering truck now, but I just never actually see him around Mason City. Go figure. I didn't buy anything from him this year, though in years past I've usually found something at his table worthwhile. I bought a frame for my rucksack one year, which has been a real help when I've had to load it up to fifty pounds or more and lug it on my back for a few miles!
I always see my old shop teacher there. I usually see him at Mason City, too, since he's the president of the Central States Association that puts on gun shows in the area. I've bought a few books from him, which is his specialty, and I carry a small piece of Arkansas stone in the change/watch pocket of my jeans while working at the store, with which I sharpen my own and others' box cutter blades when they've lost their edges. I paid a quarter for about an eighth of this stone that had dropped to the floor and shattered, and I'll tell you, for a quarter, it's put a lot of smiles on a lot of people's faces as long as I've had it. I didn't get quite as good a visit as I usually do with him this year; the first couple of times I'd dropped by his table in the gymnasium he'd nodded off and I just didn't have the heart to wake him. The third time was a charm, of course, and his eyes were open that time.
Most of the time I also see Milan, the Albert Lea gun dealer who is the premier retailer of firearms and related products in the area today. He's had a lot of back problems the past few years, and it's always sad to see how poorly he's doing sometimes. One day several years ago when I was passing through Albert Lea and had stopped in to his shop, the two of us were having a discussion about how steroids were working for us. They've obviously not helped his back, and the pain management specialist the VA assigned to me had quite a misadventure when I tried to shoot my left knee full of them, which only happened once. Milan told of the severe hot flashes he'd had and how he felt like tearing his clothing off and jumping outside into a snow bank to cool off when that started. An older woman was browsing his shop, and just about came unglued, unable to contain hysterical laughter as two grown men discussed experiencing hot flashes...
People who've never been to one wouldn't have any idea how many women are at gun shows. A fair number have tagged along or gone on their own and are perusing the selection like everyone else, but quite a few are sitting behind tables and can talk guns with the best of us. If I guessed that a quarter to a third of the people in attendance were female, I'd probably be right, but at times, I may even be a hair on the low side. In the case of Wells, the show is the big event and probably the only real thing going on in town that weekend, so everyone's there.
There might have only been about a half or five eighths of the tables where guns were offered for sale. Antiques in general are commonplace, as are stamps and coins. Esoteric food items are commonplace, as are toys, tools, cultural artifacts, dog and pet accessories, books, and collectibles of all types. A lot of fishing gear also turns up at these things. Generally, if it appeals to rural or outdoorsy folks, it's likely to be at what they call a 'gun show'.
I climbed the staircase toward the north end of the school and at the top, I encountered a man of about eighty five sitting behind a table of all kinds of stuff. One of the things in the mess looked familiar. I pointed to it and asked, "Model 10 Remington?". He nodded. "Ya need a new fore-end for one?'. I explained to him that my 1925 vintage Remington really needed a shoulder stock. He pulled one out from beneath the table, which he had made himself from a walnut blank and was still working on. He'd already made the forearm slide and didn't need the one that originally came on the gun. We discussed where those stocks tended to crack or break, and sure enough, our originals both had the same faults. The one he'd carved out had beautiful grain figure and was very well done. I wished him luck with that project and I pointed to another item on the table. Sure enough, the red and white Lee Precision box contained just what I needed...a set of double cavity molds for .45 automatic, capable of casting a pair of 230 grain truncated cone bullets at one time. I've got most everything else I need to cast my own, including the melting furnace and ladle, I just needed a set of molds. I handed over a twenty dollar bill and now I won't have to order a set for .45 and I can start melting down all of my recovered bullets I've been accumulating through the years!
I had a lot of great visits with different people there and shook a fair number of hands. A time or two it had been mentioned that I could also go down to Hampton, 30 miles south of Mason City, on Sunday.
I didn't quite know what to make of that. I'd never been to a show in Hampton, and I had no idea what to expect. Not too much had been mentioned about it, so I wasn't even sure if anyone was likely to be there. Only one way to find out!
A half hour drive got me to the Franklin County fairgrounds and four dollars got me in the front door. Honestly, it wasn't bad for what it was. Nowhere near as many people as there was at Wells, where it was almost tough to breathe! I got to look at a lot of very interesting, um, 'exhibits' and visit with a lot of very knowledgeable people who enjoy the hobby as much as I do, even if in different ways.
I had a great historical conversation with a gentleman who had on his table a Winchester model 1893. I have a very early Model 1897, so comparing the two was most interesting. This is the only 93 I think I've ever seen in real life. Not too many were made when Winchester upgraded the design to handle smokeless powder shotshells and renamed it the Model of 1897. Winchester also offered to buy back any '93's in trade for a new '97, and I have no idea how many folks out there took them up on that offer. This guy just about begged me to take it, and he was willing to let it go at his cost. The bluing was completely gone, leaving the gun 'in the white', and someone had soldered the barrel to the receiver. We mused over who would've done that, why'd they'd have done it, and when. In truth, whoever it was might have literally departed this world a lifetime ago. The shotgun was half a century old when my grandfather was in the Army during WWII, and he's eighty five now!
I've been to dozens of gun shows through the years, but I've never actually bought a gun at one, just small things. Until today.
Some years back, I bought a prime specimen of a Russian Mosin Nagant Model 1891/30 at the local Mills Fleet Farm store. In fact, it was built in 1930 and was one of the very first 91/30's produced. It's the nicest one I've ever seen and it performs flawlessly. I've shot 1/2" groups at fifty yards with it, using only the regular open sights the rifle is equipped with. I've never mounted a scope to it. The Model 1891 and the 91/30 revision both have barrels that are almost 30" long. From a distance, they do look somewhat like old black powder rifles of either the Revolutionary or Civil War eras. After I discovered how great my $100 M91/30 was, I decided I'd be interested in buying an M1938 carbine if I ever saw a nice one for a good price. It's the same rifle, but with a barrel that's most of a foot shorter. The gun is lighter and handier, built especially for soldiers who were not actual infantrymen. For truck drivers, artillery crews, messengers, and others who would be hampered by lugging around a full size rifle. A lot of the M1944 carbines turn up at very reasonable prices, but the M44 has a strange folding bayonet attached to the muzzle that I never cared for at all. The M38 never had one, and was never intended to be fitted with a bayonet. It's just a smaller 91/30. If I could find one in great shape that had a hexagonal receiver like my 91/30 does, that'd be perfect. Those are rare, and I'm not sure if I've ever actually seen one. The 91/30 and later Mosin Nagant rifles were simplified for easier, cheaper production and one of the modifications was replacing the milled hexagonal receiver with a lathe turned round one, at least after the supply of hex receivers was depleted, which hadn't happened when my 91/30 was built. M91's and M91/30's were often rebuilt into later models by reusing the receiver, which is how an M38 or an M44 can occasionally be found with a hex receiver built sometimes decades earlier. The Russians were very frugal and seldom threw anything away if it could be reused. The last M38 I'd handled was built in 1942, which was a very bad year for the Russians. The Nazis had invaded, and the ordinance factories were cranking rifles out as quickly as possible because the Red Army was chronically short of hardware. This one was extraordinarily rough, with milling marks everywhere, and a stock that appears to never have been sanded. It also appeared to have quite a hair trigger, either from overly anxious hand fitting at the factory, normal wear and tear, or both. I left that one where it was. At Hampton, I found one on the table of a dealer named Dennis who specializes in old service rifles and shotguns. He not only had a Model 10 Remington riot gun in near mint condition that had an interesting story behind it (it had been owned by the Carrol Co., IA sheriff's office for about 50 years before they decided to sell it to a retiring deputy for $100 when he retired in 1980...it had been assigned to him 30 years earlier when he was hired by the department.), he had a really nice M38 Mosin on his table that drew my attention. It looked decent, came with all the accessories the rifle would've been issued with (tools, cleaning kit, and a cartridge pouch), and priced as reasonably as I've seen in awhile. It was made in 1943, and looked much better than the previous 1942 produced one I'd seen. By '43 the Germans were in retreat, so the factory in the Ural Mountains where this one was produced apparently had a chance to catch it's breath, so to speak, and start producing a good product once again. It's well used, but solid, and with some experimentation, I may well end up enjoying it as much - if not more - than my full size 91/30. Only time will tell.
People who don't go to these things likely have a lot of wrong ideas about what they're like. I didn't see anyone at either location this weekend who I feel would've given me the 'heebie-jeebies'. There might have been a couple I wouldn't have wanted to spend any real length of time in an elevator with, but that happens pretty much anywhere there's people. Not because they're dangerous in any way, just that some have an apparent aversion to bath water, doing laundry, or knowing when to stop talking and leave those around them alone for once.
If you get a chance, going to a gun show is well worth your $5 or so to get in and a reasonable amount of time it takes to get there. If you're not too much of an outdoors enthusiast, I wouldn't travel far to one unless you could catch a ride with someone who was going anyway. It's just a phenomenon that I suspect is rather uniquely American and know should be experienced by all of us at least once in a lifetime just to see what it's like. If you go to one, you may not find yourself attending them regularly for years to come, but if you're a curious person who likes to investigate things and visit with people, you'd probably not readily pass up the opportunity to go to another one if it was practical to attend.
One of the most rewarding parts of two gunshows this weekend: hearing 'It was nice to see you again!' by people who don't know me by name, but only recognize and remember me from shows throughout the last ten years or so that I've been going to them. When you only see someone a time or three in each year, never really get acquainted but do stop and chat for a minute or two, and they remember you next time you see them, that, my friend, is part of what being alive is really all about.
Take care,
the TiGor
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