At Gun Show--ever see a table crash?!

S

Sevens

New member
Have you ever watched a dealer's table come down to the ground, with guns and items going every which way?! Seems like this would happen on occasion.

I have an experience that I'll share... but I'm seriously long winded, so that will be in the following post.
 
I'm mashing up two experiences here in to one... I suppose because my idle mind has already done it, so now I'll share! :p

Maybe 4 or 5 years back I was at a local gun show here in town, one of the bigger & better ones in the area and I was at a table looking at a few Smith & Wesson revolvers. There was a very, very old and decrepit gentleman there also that was cutting a deal on a well-worn Victory model. It seemed obvious that this old guy was in some manner of failing health. He seemed to take these irrationally long pauses and close his eyes in the middle of sentences. It should NOT have been a surprise when he passed out and crumpled to a heap on the floor in front of the dealer's table.

There were others around the table, the show was packed and two guys nearer to him than I was were quick to help him to his feet. He didn't lose his balance or trip on anything. This guy lost consciousness for a moment and gravity had it's way. Though I didn't have a hand in rescuing the guy while he was on the floor, I set down my bag of goodies and positioned myself within inches of him while he completed his deal, figuring there was some chance of a repeat. That didn't happen, thankfully. The old guy went about his business as if it had NEVER happened. :confused:

Amazingly, he didn't crash in to the table. He collected himself, pulled his wad of 20's from his stuffed shirt pocket and finished his deal for the old Victory Model and sauntered on. I worried about him.

Okay, fast forward to the last collector's show I attended. Awesome show, if you live near me -- you know the show. There are MANY guns on display without prices as they simply aren't for sale. Some table holders will put irrational prices on some guns just so they don't get bothered by folks asking prices on guns they really have no intention of selling. This is an active marketplace, of course, but at it's core, it is a genuine "show" where many set up to parade some fine pieces of hardware and they don't actually wish to sell them.

Well, a guy had a pair of Savage .45 cal semi-autos that he said were from the Govt pistol trials. One was an unfinished prototype and the other was said to have competed in the trials. One was "priced" at $25,000 (IIRC) and the other was "priced" at $45,000. Not knowing the history of these, I have no knowledge base to question these prices or the claims attached to the handguns, but I can share that this show isn't a bunch of carnival barkers with a rusty van and a suitcase full of tall tales.

My point is that these two were simply sitting on a folding table with a white sheet for a table cloth. That's it. No more. If the guy from the story above had crumpled to a heap on this table, it may have been a catastrophic event.

I'm not sure what my point is... but it seemed interesting enough to share.
 
I've never seen a table crash, but I did see a guy with box after box of ammo stacked up behind his table...

Bottom box decided it just didn't want to bear all that weight, and when the top box (opened with a couple of 50-round boxes taken out) hit the ground, a number of the 50-round boxes sprayed everywhere.


OOH... forgot about this one from a shot MANY years ago...

Guy picked up a 25-lb bag of shotgun shot and the top seal split.

Shot EVERYWHERE.
 
A few years back I was at a gun show and was talking to the two vendors when one started acting really wierd. I asked him if he was OK and his friend said he's diabetic and it think his sugar just wne too low. I have problems with allergies and sometimes have to breathe through my mought craeting a dry mouth situation. Usually I have a tin of Tic Tacs or Altoids to keep saliva flowing when it gets bad. I had a fresh can of Tic Tacs in my pocket so I gave it to him and told him just to chew them up nd swallow them. His friend asked me to watch his table while he chased down a soda and some bags of sugar from one of the food concessions outside the show. I stayed with them for a while till the guy got straightened out and was feeling better and went on my way. If the guy hadn't told me his friend was diabetic, I would have thought he was drunk and on the verge of passing out.
Paul B.
 
Paul B. said:
If the guy hadn't told me his friend was diabetic, I would have thought he was drunk and on the verge of passing out.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that low blood sugar symptoms mimic intoxication signs almost exactly. When I ran a little bar, one of our regulars was diabetic, often wouldn't take his meds, and it was difficult to tell which it was. It would hit quite suddenly sometimes. 'Course with him it really could have been either...

I really don't miss babysitting drunks for a living...
Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.
 
Here's the worst "crash" disaster I ever saw:
About ten or eleven years ago I was at the Sportsman's Team Challenge National Match at Markham Park in Florida. I was getting ready to shoot one of the shotgun events and was taking my shotgun up to the line and put it on the racks they have for the competitors. These racks were wood and held about twenty guns. The rack was full and there was only one spot left to put a gun. I walked over and gently sat my gun on the rack in the empty spot. Just as I was letting go of the barrels (Citori O/U) the entire rack collapsed. All the guns on the rack were pretty high end guns. Mine was one of the cheapest and it was fairly expensive. There were Perazzis, Kreigoffs, etc laying one on top of the other. Carpenter ants or termites came crawling out of the wood by the thousands! One good gust of wind would have taken it down. However, at first all everyone saw was me standing there and the rack collapsing. I thought I was going to get killed until everyone saw the big black ants crawling all over the place. Park management took it upon themselves to check all the rest of the stands before anyone could put a gun on them. FWIW....my gun didn't fall. I grabbed it fast enough.
 
I was at a gun show and a vendor was counting out 1100 rounds of loose ammo so he would know how much to charge me per round. He was dropping them in a cardboard box as he counted them and when he was done he picked up the box and the bottom fell out. 1100 rounds of ammo went rolling all over the floor.

This didn't happen at a show but when I was in the Navy I opened the door to my work area to leave and about eight M14 rifles came crashing in through the door way. The armorer brought them up to the helo deck for training and thought a door would be a good place to lean them up against. I told him that a door isn't a good place to lean rifles on, then he picked them up and put them right back up against the door.
 
There were Perazzis, Kreigoffs, etc laying one on top of the other.
Click to expand...
:eek: Wow, pretty ugly! I can't imagine the way you felt standing there.

Might have "worked" if you tossed down your Citori in disgust! :p
 
A guy practising with one of those retention carry on your chest slings was practising outside of the bench + partytent the vendor had and when he swung the mock shotgun he knocked the supporting tent-pole out, the tent would probably stand with just 3 poles but the dude tried to untangle himself from the tent and brought it down:D
 
"Oh GOD, if that's not a major <facepalm>, I don't know what is.

What a nightmare, seriously."

I decided that it would be a good time to leave the show because there were going to be people slipping and sliding all over the place, and there was probably going to be a lot of lead dust getting into the air from everyone grinding it on the concrete as they walked.

I was a couple of tables down and heard the guy swearing. Apparently he filled his shoes....
 
I grew up in gun shows. My father and his business partner sold for The Gun works. I've seen quite a few oops moments over the years but my personal favorite was when one of the vendors was unloading a pallet of round ball from his ex u Haul truck. The cart fell off the side of the ramp exploding the boxes round ball all over the Portland Expo Center parking lot.

Another time at a black powder rendezvous some guy pulled up in one of those tin teepee's( read motorhome ). He proceeded to back right over the guide wires for one of the vendors tents. The tent, gun racks and most of the tables crash to the ground. Yeah oops.

Boomer
 
Man I knew there were tool gnomes ( you know the ones that don't put your tools back in the toolbox ) but gun elves that's new. ;)

Boomer
 
I've never seen a collapsing table or customer at a gunshow.

However, the heartbreaking metallic clanging of a dropped fire-arm, now that I have heard. Darn it, I wasn't close enough to learn several new cuss words.

Bart Noir
Who wonders what sound is made by a cascade of lead shot onto a concrete floor.
 
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