Posted: 12/1/2006 4:10:37 PM EDT
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Well, I was disappointed. Ammo prices are up... 1000 rounds of South African 7.62mm will run around $350. Miwall had Q3131 at $259/case of 1000, and USA223R3 is $295/case. 7.62x39 was $199/case at J&G. Federal AE223 was $119/500. AR mags were all over the place -- some as high as $20 for 3-rounders. I even saw a 5-round used mag for $30. |
| The Q3131 was $259 outside. I went by the setup inside and it was $239. J&G has RG for $200. Hunting Shack had some interesting items such as 5.56 75gr for about $19/50. Lots of fufu items in the show to wade through as well. In the SAR building Robinson's XCR seemed to get a lot of attention although after handling one a few parts seem a little flimsy (just my perception). POF also has some uppers for sale. Enjoy. |
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Wasn't the greatest but I got what I went there for for less than I could get the items in Tucson. The traffic in Phoenix sucks during evening traffic. In Tucson each of these rifles would have cost me a significant amount more on a recent group purchase from arizonashooting.com the dealer wanted $400.00 out the door for the .308. I was able to get it for $309.99 + tax of 8.1% ($335.09 a $64.91 savings) from a Flagstaff dealer, Arms of America. They give a substantial discount if you say you are a gunsnet member. If you decide to get something from them make sure to mention that as I think I got a savings of $50.00 on the .308 over what others were paying. That savings paid for my gas, entry and parking into the show. Not to mention the savings on the second rifle, though they were cheaper years ago, so was everything else.  I also picked up a CZ-82 from J&G. I figured I better get one before they disappear like the Makarovs which I used toget for $99.00 to $129.00 and mistakenly sold off 4 of the ones I had. (still have 5 I think) CZ-82 / $229.95 +$18.63 tax.  Ran in to trikerjay and kc7txm members here on the site from Phoenix area. All kinds of dealers with large quantities of AKs but the majority were overpriced. J&G had good firearms prices as always but all ammo was way too much. |
| As usual another disappointing AZ show. Wasn't a complete waste like the last one I went to though. I knocked a few things off my wish list (including a steal on some 1911 parts I've been wanting). As already stated ammo prices were quite high and there wasn't really anything new or exciting. |
Different issue. When RG was made, copper was far less than a dollar a pound. It's not like the RG ammo we're seeing is current production -- it's surplus, made 10-20 years ago. Plus, considering the actual amount of copper in ammo, the higher prices of metals will have only a small impact on the price. Much of the weight is lead, steel, and powder, which haven't seen as much of a price increase as copper has. |
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I saw 7.62x39 Wolf Classic for 159 per K from Miwall and the other polymer/copper for 199. Watch out for JKF (from winslow) that scumbag is selling 30 round steel AK mags for 10.99 that he claims are new from Bulgaria. They are just refinished steel mags from various places that he used a stamp to put "Bulgaria" on in white. The guy is a scumbag. I went friday, so maybe some big vendors will show up that were not there such as K-VAR, Tapco and DSA. Or, maybe they are not coming out this year. All in all, not as good as prevoius years for the real gun swag. As Mak posted, lots of overpriced AKs. And it now costs 14 bucks to get in and 6 for parking. |
| K-VAR was in the Small Arms Review building as were most of the AK builders. I did my review over on the AK side . I didn't think American Spirit Arms even existed anymore but they had a little table. Didn't even see Joken. |
ASA was there? What building? |
Joken was in the same building way in the back where you bought your pistol from J&G. ETA: I spent time talking to Krebs and the guys from Tromix, but somehow I must have just missed the k-var guys. |
From what I hear, some guys bought out ASA and are trying to start it up. I saw them in the back.. |
ASA I think was in the orange building where AZEXARMS was but I may have the wrong building. K-VAR, Arsenal, Ted Marshall and The Firing Line were all at the same set of tables to the left rear of the SAR building. I didn't even check out the ASA stuff but he didn't have much. |
Neither was ASA. There were a series of three smaller buildings grouped together and they were in one of those. I only looked at their booth to see if the cute blonde british girl was there and I was disappointed to see that she wasn't. She has a little british flag "tramp stamp" that I really enjoy. In any case, I enjoyed the show and I think it was very worthwhile. The SAR building was great. There were Colt LE6920s to be had for $1200. I did score a LE6920 but I paid a little more for it because the guy who had them for $1200 only took cash and the ATM had a $200 transaction limit. (not to mention I would have had a hard time scraping up $1200 in cash :D). VLTOR had a booth and I scored a complete VLTOR clubfoot kit for $95.00 (75 for the stock, cheekwelds, compartments, and buffer tube, $20 for the buffer, spring, and backplate). If you are into suppressors at all, it was a very good show. I talked for a bit with the guys from gemtech who were very personable and who had demos of all their cans to check out. Tactical Solutions was there as well as Soundtech (the guys who designed the Yankee Hill can). There were lots of others (the ones I got catalogs from were John Tibbet of John's Guns, the aforementioned Gemtech, and SRT) The owner of Duracoat was there. I talked to him a while and learned more about it and got to check out up close what it ends up looking like. My buddy who is really into his PS90 spent alot of time talking to the guys over at Halo who make or are making sundry parts for it. He bought a set of side rails for it from them. Lonewolf Dist. was there (maker of various glocking goodies) and the gentleman who was manning the booth (I think his name was John) was a great guy to chat with and it was a pleasure to meet and talk to him. If you need ANYTHING glock, checkout lonewolf. L3 communications was there (makers of EOTECH). It was cool to be able to play with all the different models before I decide which one to get. MGI had a booth. Lewis Machine and Tool was there. Nodak Spud (makers of excellent AK47 recievers) had a booth. There were several people showing gas piston AR systems. I found several new transferable class 3 guns that I now lust after including a $45,000 MG42. Those of you who complained must have went to the wrong building or something. Or maybe you are just cheap bastards who were hoping to score cheap ammo and mags. (which as the previous posters mentioned, weren't very available) I for one spent all day (Was there in line at 8:30AM and left when they kicked me out at 5pm) and I still missed everything under the big tent and over half of the first large building. edited to add: I had to laugh at the asshole I saw who was trying to sell a Playstation 3 for $1k. I bet he's still sitting on it after the show closes tommorow. |
There was a small tent just to the left as you went into the SAR building. On the back table the guy had a stack of 8 or 9 of them. It looked like they were all sold when I cleared out at closing time. Not sure though because plenty of people were already packing stuff up. |
Had I seen the 6920s for $1200 I would have bought one because that was one thing I was specifically looking for.  There were others who had them like some jackass named "one eyed jack" who had one for $2000  and Ken Elmore from SAW had a bunch but wanted $1495 even though his website has them listed at $1395.All in all the show was a dissappointment. The same dealers with the same shit in the same spots they were in last year. I did get a Eotech 552 NIB for $375 though. 
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My mistake. The building they were in is usually only used during SAR shows, so I just consider it *a* SAR building, not *the* SAR building. 
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Came away with a PS90, a pair of Vaqueros and a P22. Not the best show ever but not the worst either. Just think, some day we probably will look back at these as "the good ol' days" so I try to keep that in mind when thinking about the parking, admission and all the high-priced junk I saw. I was there till 3 and still didn't get to see everything. |
No thats not true. The SAR folks have one building, one. They have control of that building. If you went to the show you will notice there are two different colored buttons for the dealers. a green one for the crossroads show, and a pink one fro the SAR building. Today at 4:10pm I was asked to leave the SAR building since I had a green button. They closed the building to everyone but pink button people at 4pm. |
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I was happy with my purchases: * An Enfield No4Mk1 rifle with bags of "character" and a spike bayonet for $130 (anyone know a good way to remove cosmoline ?). Oh, and a stripper clip. The .303 ammo was outrageous though, so this rifle will probably stay just a wall hanger. * A belt rig with 10 magazine pouches for those high round count subgun matches (now I need to put on some extra inches around the waist). * As many 12ga slugs as I could carry (MP5_guy didn't offer to carry any for me ).
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Cosmoline removal On metal I stick it in an oven on a metal pan with edges at around 200 degrees. Heat gun or hot water will work. |
i think this was one of the best deals to be had....i'm kicking myself for only picking up one. they were selling the stock kits minus tube for $45....that's almost half of dealer cost (i already had a milspec tube for mine). anybody get extras they changed their mind about?
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The Vltor deal wasn't as good as the one last year. They had the full kit for $55. I wanted to buy one of their hats but nearly fell over his table when he told me they are $25. At least I made a class III purchase - a 22 suppressor...WOOT. I wished the dealers would stick around till the end. It was 2:00 Sunday and I was ready for my last walk round and start buying stuff. Two of the dealers I stopped by already packed up their stuff and they didn't act like they wanted to sell me anything. As much as we all hate the prices of ammo, we have to realize they probably won't come down. It's like machine guns, buy it now otherwise you pay more later. |
There was a SAR building which was under their control, and the main gunshow which was crossroads. all the good stuff was in the SAR building. I spent like three hours in there and still could have spent more time if I had more time. |
I think Mindtrix is a troll, trying to stir up the shit. |
Here is a copy of a post I made on another board giving a quick summary of the show. I thought it may be helpful. I am just getting back in the groove in my office, several thousand miles from the show. After I can get a little caught-up I will get something up here that is a little more informational. I have gotten several requests for pics and I am uploading over 3 Gigs (yes, with a "G") of photos to go over right now. I included one that I thought was kind of neat and I'll post a pile more later on. This is a shot of James DeGroat providing a little extra heat early one morning in the Arizona Desert. First, it was a great show. I have never seen a Friday at this show as busy as it was this year, and we have been doing this since 2000. (7 SAR Shows already!) There were LOTS of new items introduced there including a .45ACP AR-15 Type From DeGroat Tactical, A .223 FAL Type gun in .223 that uses AR Mags from Bobcat and a .308 Piston Gun from POF. Richard Lage had some cool MAC uppers in 9mm, .45ACP and .22lr. The new innovation being released at SAR Show even before SHOT Show is a very special thing. It is nice for "our family" to get the first peek at this stuff. For deals, I don't think I have seen a better show, ever. I will give you a couple of examples. A few people bought some like new original Colt 9mm AR15 mags for $20.00 each and teased me with them. I saw some original 30-round HK MP5 Mags sell for $19.00 too in excellent shape. If you spend time looking around this huge show and pawing through peoples stuff there are some great deals to be had. The Colt mags sat on a table until late Sunday AM before they were discovered and the HK mags were bought on Saturday afternoon so it wasn't a case of Dealer to Dealer Thursday Setup deals. These were retail sales. Anyway, I really need to get some of my "to do" list nailed down. Much more later. Thanks to everyone who came to Phoenix. I always have a blast meeting the SAR readers and all the C3 people who visit. Jeff Z |
