Guns: Five Worst Gun Show Items

I made a trip to Ye Local Gun Show this weekend, and it was a good reminder that a whole lotta junk gets peddled at these venues. Here's my top (or should that be bottom?) five types of crappy products you'll find at a gun show:

Mystery Reloads

I trust my own handloaded ammunition, because I've personally inspected, measured, and loaded each case with an appropriate powder charge. I don't trust random pistol rounds that someone shoved into a Ziploc bag.

Optics of Dubious Provenance

At the gun shows around here, it's actually very difficult to find decent red dot sights; I couldn't find anyone selling an Aimpoint Micro or an Eotech XPS. There were plenty of off-brand and airsoft grade scopes, though.

I've also heard about "replicas" of high-end optics, which some sellers ignorantly or maliciously pass off as the real thing. There weren't any at the local gun show, but I thought it was worth a mention.

Self-Defense Gimmicks

There must be a lot of people who are skittish about carrying a firearm for defense, because every other aisle at the show had some strange gadget designed to fend off hoodie-wearing assailants. I saw sword canes, Kimber Pepper Blasters, and, of course, the ever-popular cell phone stun guns:



Cheapo Knives

I'm not sure why anyone would buy a "gun show special" knife when you can get inexpensive folders from reputable companies like Spyderco, Kershaw, and others. Sure, the low-end knives from the name brands are made in China, but they come from the good Chinese factories, not the bad ones:



Inedible Jerky

I don't think it's physically possible to walk through a gun show and not be handed a foul, tough beef jerky sample by some desperate stranger. All the other products on this list might be bad, but at least you don't put them in your mouth and eat them.