Trafalgar Show at Bisley

[Buccaneer]

The show was well down on trade stands this year as well as members of the public but then this show never is as busy as the "Phoenix" show in May.
I did get to have a quick look round but was to busy to take much time from my own stand to have a serious look at anything.
There seemed to be a lot of Enfields but the main reason for this post is to ask if anyone had time to look at the No4 rifles being offered on the EFD stand at £1750 (about $2625)each and marked as having been imported from the US and unfired.
I know that importing from the US is expensive these days but even so the price seems to rather excessive but then most of their guns are......
ps I have no idea if they managed to sell any.

Information

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[Beerhunter]

EFD never have the cheapest Enfields in the show and they often have some much more expensive "esoteric" items. Seth Ellet is the place to go.

Having not been on top form for a while now, I only popped in to say hi to everyone. (And to buy a tub of H4895 - failed again.) The car parking and ranges seemed to be busy but the trade stands seemed to me to be well down on previous years, let alone compared to to other shows.

[Simon]

I've noticed the footfall through the trade show has been slowly but surely declining over the last five or six years and the lack of a younger generation of shooters is noticeable.

From a personal perspective the show or fair or whatever you want to call it was a huge disappointment. Taking into account the expense of transporting everything on a 500 mile round trip, the cost of the table, fuel. food, drinks etc I reckon I fell short of covering my costs by quite a margin. Strangely everything I took over the weekend came from anciliary stuff like cases, heads, slings etc and not a single sale of a rifle or shotgun. Over the whole weekend I only unlocked the chains once for someone to look at a couple of Gew98, I could tell within about a minute of taking the first one off the rack that he had no intention of buying either of them.

[bigduke6]

The show was well down on trade stands this year as well as members of the public but then this show never is as busy as the "Phoenix" show in May.
I did get to have a quick look round but was to busy to take much time from my own stand to have a serious look at anything.

How did you find the two Enfield's delivered to your table ?

[bnz41]

Our club were attending the Short Siberia 100yds range on Saturday shooting from a bench, every point in the morning was being used, a few empty spaces after lunch.
We had a walk around the trade show later in the afternoon, several tables empty, got the ammo, bullets and powder I needed so was happy.
I did speak to one dealer he said the NRA may take this show over next year and may put the table prices up, I asked if he had sold much, he said 8 rifles, ammo and reloading items so he said was in profit by a small amount after the expence of doing the show.

[Buccaneer]

How did you find the two Enfield's delivered to your table ?

Yes, they are arrived bright and early and unlike Simon I had a very good show selling 8 rifles 4 of them Enfields.

[Simon]

I took along, amongst others, a nice straight Balle N chambered Lebel and an honest, not rebuilt to factory specs, 1944 Lithgow H Barrel S.M.L.E. Neither of which garnered even the slightest bit of interest.

[Roger Payne]

I sympathise Simon. As you know Dave & I stood just the Saturday & were rather disappointed. We did not sell a lot, but I suppose the profit on it just about covered our costs. I sold a nice EFD 1915 SMLE complete with volleys etc., a new SMLE barrel, a L42 mag., a LLE bayonet cut down into a fighting knife (WW1 era), & a Mills bomb! However, all bar the last two items were pre-arranged sales that would have occurred whether I had done the show or not.

I shall never understand the human psyche (even after dealing with it for thirty-odd years!); but one customer walked up to the stall next to ours & bought a Long Branch No4. And a nice rifle it was, too. I gather he particularly wanted a No4 of Canadian manufacture. However, we had no less than FOUR LB No4's on our table, all of which were very nice hand picked examples. (One was a 1943 rifle that has hardly seen any use at all), yet he didn't even seem to notice our offerings, let alone have even a cursory look at any of them. Our prices were not dear, either. I don't begrudge the other dealer the sale (indeed he is a pal & we get on well), but I cannot understand for the life of me why punters act as they do!

[PrinzEugen]

I think collecting and shooting is interesting currently - and I wonder if people use the traditional routes to gun ownership as was. Back in the day people would always use shows and physical shops but I wonder if people now simply hunt things down online. At my club membership has definitely been on the rise with more younger people joining - and, rather than the previous trend of a rise of horrid plastic impossible to miss type rifles, there is a much greater interest in 'heritage' shooting. I think the web, greater availability of information, and being able to communicate directly with enthusiasts has been the cause. So, although shows might be on the wane, gun owership is on the rise. Certainly if I was a dealer and wanting to shift stuff I'd be building a website rather than only booking tables somewhere.

[bigduke6]

I think collecting and shooting is interesting currently - and I wonder if people use the traditional routes to gun ownership as was. Back in the day people would always use shows and physical shops but I wonder if people now simply hunt things down online. At my club membership has definitely been on the rise with more younger people joining - and, rather than the previous trend of a rise of horrid plastic impossible to miss type rifles, there is a much greater interest in 'heritage' shooting. I think the web, greater availability of information, and being able to communicate directly with enthusiasts has been the cause. So, although shows might be on the wane, gun owership is on the rise. Certainly if I was a dealer and wanting to shift stuff I'd be building a website rather than only booking tables somewhere.

A sign of the times...... only trouble with online shopping you can get carried away and sometimes things are bigger than expected