I did get a good buy at a gun show last week. I needed some parts for a 1917 Eddystone, specifically a rear sight.

The first guy I stopped at that had parts had two but he believed they were for the P-14 Enfield. Said they would work but the gradients wouldn't be correct for the 30-06. He was selling them for $15. I opted to continue looking. Halfway through the show, I found a fellow who had one in a small display case, usually not a good sign. It was for the 1917, price $25 which is close to what I watched a few go for on ebay. Again as I wasn't all the way through the show, I continued on. Two thirds of the way through I found a fellow who had a "junk" box on the table along with numerous parts boxes. I found an Enfield rear sight in it. As I just bought the rifle a few weeks ago I didn't know what the difference was and he did not know if it was for the P-14 or the Enfield but in any case it was $5. I figured at that price I would buy it either way if no one else in the place had a 1917 sight. But I went back to the first two guys to see the differences in the two and came away with 90% certainty that this was a 1917 sight. I bought it and then asked the fellow about an ejector figuring if he's selling the sight so cheap, the ejector should be comparably priced. He had 5 of them, $20 each which was considerably over what I watched a few of them go for on ebay. I declined.

So he knew what he had but still sold it cheap. No idea why but it is an exact match for my broken sight and was marked Eddystone which while not necessary to me was a plus since I have an Eddystone receiver.

At the same show I saw Mosin-Nagants going anywhere from $99 to $300 for the basic re-arsenaled version. A bit higher than some of the large chains are selling them for but the lower end wasn't out of line. Another fellow had a Brazilianicon Mauser that was very nice, too nice in my opinion. At $350, seemed a bit high unless it was original condition. I went back after seeing everything and still having some cash to burn and looked at it more closely. The numbers matched but some of the metal was bare and polished, on the rest the blueing was very nice. Could have been the way they finished them but there was some pitting in a small area of the polished section. With the condition of the rest of the gun, this didn't fit. I examined the stock closely and while the cartouche was still there, it was very thin and the stock appeared to have been sanded. I passed.

It seemed that the vast majority of guns being sold were either Garands or AR's of some type. A fair number of AK's thrown in there. There was the usual collection of sporting arms but very few shotguns and even fewer older surplus rifles. I did see some militaria but did not pay real close attention to it. Books were terrible. I don't think these individuals are aware of a company called Amazon.com and many of their books on firearms were over list price for them, and Amazon rarely sees books for list price.