Why Gun Shows Are the Best Place to Find Antique Firearms

You can find great deals on rare and antique firearms when Pennsylvania’s Largest Gun Show comes to a community near you. Along with hundreds of tables filled with modern self-defense and tactical firearms, knives, and accessories, you’ll find vintage guns from a variety of manufacturers to add to or start your gun collection. Historical firearms are a fun and exciting way to bridge the gap between your Second Amendment rights and our nation’s history at home and abroad. Here’s how and why our next gun show should be your next stop.

Hundreds of Tables, Thousands of Deals

Vendors travel hundreds of miles to reach our gun shows because they know it’s their best chance to sell their top products to as many motivated gun owners as possible. That means your local convention center or expo hall turns into a unique retail experience with a larger selection of guns, parts, and accessories than any brick-and-mortar store can possibly offer. It’s clean, well-lit, professionally promoted, and has paid security on-site so vendors and customers know they’re safe to buy, sell, and trade firearms or collectibles in comfort.

Rare, Vintage, Historical, and Antique Guns

If you’re looking for antique firearms, that means you have a better chance of finding just what you’re looking for–even if you’re not quite sure what that is. Vendors are motivated to bring both their high-traffic vintage guns, which are popular favorites, and the rare firearms that only specialty collectors and enthusiasts might recognize. Even if you can’t find a certain model, many of our antique firearms dealers maintain websites and inventories, and they’d be happy to connect with you, talk about your wishlist, and keep an eye out as they buy and trade for guns across the country. Networking at gun shows can help you find better deals and hard-to-find guns that haven’t hit the public marketplace yet.

Rare Gun Categories

While some new collectors will lump everything that’s not a modern firearm into the antique category, it helps to remember a few terms as you talk to vendors and other collectors.

• Antique Firearms – Any gun over 100 years old has reached the milestone of being recognized as a true antique. In many cases, these guns have features or mechanisms that are quaint and outdated by today’s standards, but you can often see the beginning stages of the evolution that gave us modern guns.
• Vintage Guns – Vintage guns are still pretty old, but they haven’t reached the century mark yet. The vintage moniker usually starts to apply at the 20-year mark, so there can be a big difference in designs and materials between two vintage guns. After all, older AR-15 rifles are placed in the same category as the M1 Garand.
• Historical Guns – Historical firearms are usually vintage or antique firearms with a particularly important relationship to history. “Historical” can be highly subjective. It may mean the collector ties the weapon closely to a favorite historical period, or it may have belonged to a person of note from history. 
• Rare Firearms – Rare guns are seldom seen, hard to come by, and frequently get snatched up. There are many reasons a gun could be rare. Discontinued models, closed-down manufacturers, high demand and low survivability, and obsolete but unique firing mechanisms are all factors to consider. 
• Retro and Replica – These guns may not be antique firearms, but you may have to look twice to realize it. From modern versions of “cowboy guns” to exact reproductions of the originals, these firearms can be an entry point into gun collecting or help you fill out the pricey gaps in an established gun collection.

It’s also important to note that a single firearm may fall within several of these categories. For example, Gyrojet firearms are certainly vintage; their obsolete firing system, low production numbers, and high demand certainly make them rare; and their use as personal side-arms during the Vietnam War has unique historical significance for some collectors. 

Finding Your Antique Firearms

If you want to get the best value for your money when building your collection, you need to put in a little work before showtime:

• Determine Your Focus – Before you begin collecting antique firearms, it helps to define the parameters of your collection. While some collectors go for pretty much anything that catches their eye, you will build a far more cohesive set of vintage guns if you know what falls within your boundaries, whether it be American military conflicts, guns of the Old West, or obsolete hunting weapons.
• Decide on Your Goals – You know the what, but now you need to understand your why. Are you collecting out of a passion for the time period? Do you want a collection that brings you closer to your forebearers? Are you collecting as an investment that will build your retirement? The reason you’re buying antique guns matters because that will determine how you go about collecting and what a successful collection will look like. 

• Do Your Research – Now that you know the what and why, it’s time to start educating yourself about which firearms you want to add first or next to your collection. Learn about the firearms of the time period, how to identify authentic historical guns from copies, and what you can expect to pay for both common and rare guns from your wish list. 
• Set Your Budget – Once you know the general prices you can expect, it’s time to set your budget. Most of us don’t have a magic money tree in the backyard, so we’ll need to save up or get a more comfortable living room couch before buying. Even if you have more expansive financial freedom, identifying your budget keeps you from overpaying on antique firearms that don’t warrant a premium price tag.

Shopping For Antique Guns at the Gun Show

The day before the gun show, make sure you have the references you need downloaded onto your phone, your budget, either in cash or available in your account, and your tickets pre-ordered. Get to the show early so you can make a complete circuit of the sales floor, find the vendors who carry antique guns, browse their stock, and get an idea of their prices. Once you know which gun you want, start a conversation with the seller and work to build the best deal you can.

Pre-Order Your Gun Show Tickets Online

You’ll find a gun show on our calendar coming to a community near you soon. Now’s the time to get started on your plans for a weekend of shopping for the rare firearms and vintage guns your collection needs. Order your tickets to an Eagle Shows Gun Show today!