Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

The big Missoula gun show was this weekend. Its the largest show in the great state of Montana and brings in dealers from far and wide. Observations from this show:

• AR’s are back in a big way. There were plenty of them, from pretty much every manufacturer. Plenty of sub-$1000 AR’s if you don’t mind lesser known manufacturers. However, AR parts kits and some parts were still scarce.
• AR magazines are also back and in quantity. Even the Magpul PMags were less than $20. Plenty of AR mags. Oddly, its all the other magazines that were a little light.
• While AR and AR-materials were in abundance ammo was still short and way overpriced. Not sure what planet youre on where you think $0.44 per round for 55 FMJ .223 is a ‘good deal’.
• Primers fell back to about $35/m when you could find them.
• Oddly, this was the first show I didnt see a buncha FAL’s floating around. Either theyre all sold or folks are holding onto them.
• Only a handful of vendors (out of around 800 tables) had Glock mags in any quantity. AK mags were around $20. Some people thought they could get $5-10 for HK91 mags….theyre delusional. CTD had them for a buck each last time I checked.

I saw very little at the show that I wanted. I missed a HighPower at $350 by just a few minutes, but I have a bunch of them so I don’t feel too bad. In other gun related news, a buddy of mine is paring down his collection and has made me an offer for a few guns I want – an FR-8, a Redhawk in .44 and a Siamese Mauser .45-70. The FR-8 fills a niche as a nice beater truck gun in .308, the Redhawk satisfies the itch I’ve been having for a big bore double action magnum, and the .45-70….well, I dunno about that one. Might use it as a test platform for my cast bullet experiments.