Anybody here ever been to the Wanenmacher Arms show in Tulsa, OK?

I've been promising myself for years to attend this show, which is held twice a year. I finally decided to get off my lazy butt and do it this weekend. Besides, it's only about a 4 and a half hour drive by interstate from Little Rock. They've been putting this show on in Tulsa since the mid 1950's and currently--with eleven acres of exhibits on two levels under one roof, they claim it's the largest public gun show in the world.

They also claim that with over 4200 tables, if one spent the entire 18 hours that the show is open over the two day weekend trying to see every table, they would only have an average of 15.4 seconds per table---meaning one is going to have to pace themselves and just try to scan for stuff that interests them.

LINK
Wanenmacher Gunshow

Several of the Colt forum members will have tables at the show, and one of them let me know of a last minute room cancellation at the hotel they are all staying at, so I lucked out getting a hotel fairly close after most were booked up weeks in advance.

This supposedly is a quality show with mostly firearms (new, used and antique) and firearms related products or collectibles.. Of course they allow food vendors, but no jewelry, crafts, or other flea market crap.

The few local shows that I attend these days are usually a disappointment because the promoters do not limit flea market stuff--including commercial vendors selling everything from vinyl siding to health supplements. That leaves a dwindling percentage of firearms, which seem to be a mix of worn out pawn shop fodder or new stuff marked up 10 to 20% over MSRP. The dealers do this so they can knock off 10% and act like they are giving you a break.

I doubt I'll have the stamina to spend the whole weekend wandering around the show, so I will probably hit a local museum or two. Besides, I'm not particularly in the market for anything, but thought it would just be a fun thing to do for the weekend. However, one never knows.

Cheers

I am very jealous because with some many of you talking about your guns I'm thinking of getting one.

I'd love to go to that show. Going to have to put it on my to do list.

You really should get something--maybe a little .22 derringer with fuchsia rubber grips.

I'm one of those old farts who only has a small flip phone, which is not capable of taking a decent picture. However, if they don't object to me using a full size DSLR, I'll try to get some shots from the show for a short event report when I get back.

Cheers

Just thought I would update this thread after going to the Wanenmacher Arms show in Tulsa this past weekend. It was everything it was advertised to be and more. It was the most complete firearms,firearms related products, militaria, and collectibles show I have been to in maybe 30 years. It was so large that it was simply overwhelming and literally impossible in a single weekend to really take it all in. Not only were there dealers selling or trading, but there were quite a few exhibitors who were mainly displaying their fantastic collections of museum quality firearms.

If one couldn't find what they wanted at this show in the way of firearms or related items--then it probably doesn't exist, or it does and it's simply beyond ones financial means. I found the latter to be the case for me most of the weekend.

Unfortunately, I could not do a photographic report. The entrance was plastered with signs showing the show rules and in bold letters was the phrase "no cameras allowed". This is ironically stupid since probably 95% or more of the attendees were carrying smart phones with very capable digital cameras built in. I saw scores of people taking pictures with their phones--pictures of the show, the exhibits, the firearms, and the people. There I am with an archaic flip phone incapable of taking a decent picture along with a nice DSLR in my pack that I was afraid to take out.

However, I can post a couple of pictures of the two best things I came back with.

I was like a kid in a candy store and almost wore myself out the first day. My 71 year old body doesn't have the stamina that it used to, so over 8 hour of browsing tables and inspecting rifles finally took it's toll. By 4:30 PM my head hurt, my neck and back ached and this was only rivaled by the pain in my tired legs and sore feet. By the time I left, I had only spent $15 on 3 zippered pistol rugs.

While I stated I wasn't looking for anything in particular, i did have in the back of my mind to look for a model 1892 saddle ring carbine in 44-40 or maybe 38-40. Either that or a decent shooter Colt SAA in the same caliber. I gave up on the Colt idea pretty early on. High demand versus a low supply and almost no production out of Colt had driven the prices way up lately.

Consequently, i focused on finding the rifle. There was a vast selection of quality vintage firearms--more than I've seen in dozens of years of attending local shows. However, the vintage stuff made up only about a 3rd of this show. Since I wasn't looking for ammunition, reloading supplies, gun safes, hunting equipment, modern semi-auto pistols, black rifles, custom or commercial knives, class 3 automatic firearms, or anything related, i was able to skip broad swaths of sellers, but anyone looking for those items would have had all they needed to spend hours looking and shopping.

I checked out of my hotel Sunday morning and hit the show again intending to take one last brief look and then head home. That turned in to 5 more hours. Around 1 or 2 PM, I hit pay dirt and found two items--one that I wasn't expecting and other-- exactly what I had been searching for

The first was a replacement decorated box sleeve for a Winchester Bicentennial rifle I've owned since 1976. In taking it out about twice a year to inspect for the last 40 years, the original sleeve had become tattered. I never expected to ever find a replacement, so this was just pure luck to find one in new condition on a dealer's table.

The second was exactly what I had been looking for from almost the very start. I had intended to leave after buying the cardboard sleeve. Then within 30 feet of the exit, I pass by a table selling vintage collectable ammunition--mostly Winchester. There on the end of one of his tables is a small vertical rack with 3 model 92 carbines---two in 44-40 and one in 38-40. The 38-40 was in the best condition of the three and the best one I had seen for its price during the whole show. I looked up the value in my pocket Winchester Blue book and it was priced well below book. I figured there had to be something wrong, but other than a replacement aftermarket front sight blade, I couldn't find any faults. Still, since the guy was preparing to pack up, he seemed willing to negotiate a bit, so he came down a little--only $50, but as I said the rifle was under-priced to begin with. We made a deal and I headed for the exit. Before I could get out the door another dealer stopped me and after checking it out, offered me a price that would have been an immediate $200 profit over what I had just paid. I declined, but this let me know I had done OK--especially since the offer was from a dealer.

All in all, I thought the show to be fantastic and plan to go back for their winter show this coming November.

Below is a picture of my "new to me" model 1892 Winchester saddle ring carbine in 38-40 cal. It was manufactured in 1913, but the bore is bright and shiny with sharp rifling and the condition over all would rate about 70%. The action has a tight lock up, but is still smooth as the model 92 is known for. For a 104 year old carbine, it has honest wear, but still shows that it was well taken care of. This action was designed for Winchester by John M. Browning to replace the aging model 1873 and came in the same pistol calibers that were introduced for the older rifle. It's simply a scaled down version of Browning's earlier design for the large caliber Winchester 1886.
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Here's shot of the carbine and the sleeve I mentioned. The loading tools are antique Winchester marked items that I already had. They are in the appropriate 38-40 cal.
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This will be my classic Hollywood western movie gun. These were produced from 1892 to 1942, so they were really made well past the time of the true "old west". However, they were cheap and plentiful in the 1930's and 40's, so the movie industry simply adopted them as the quintessential cowboy rifle. They were used in the vast majority of westerns made up until the early 70's when more correct historical reproduction lever guns began to be imported from Italy. John Wayne carried a 92 in all his movies from "Stagecoach" in 1939 to True Grit in 1969. Of course his rifle also had the loop lever gimmick which Chuck Connors later made famous. The loop lever never existed in the old west and is a pure Hollywood fabrication. It also never seemed to bother Wayne nor other western actors that they were using a rifle that wasn't invented for a decade or two after the time frame of their movie.