Hawaii Historic Arms – Small Arms Review https://smallarmsreview.com Explore the World of Small Arms Thu, 22 Feb 2024 21:57:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://smallarmsreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-online-sar-logo-red-32x32.png Hawaii Historic Arms – Small Arms Review https://smallarmsreview.com 32 32 Hawaii Historic Arms Association Show https://smallarmsreview.com/hawaii-historic-arms-association-show/ Tue, 01 Feb 2000 21:02:28 +0000 https://dev.smallarmsreview.com/?p=1482 By Dan Shea

Hawaii has a lot of firearms enthusiasts. Those of us from the Free Zones tend to think of the Controlled Zones as places where no interest in firearms is evident- but nothing could be further from the truth. SAR has a huge following in places like California, New York, and yes, Hawaii. Personally, I love going to the islands, so it didn’t take a lot of convincing to get me to pack up and go set up SAR at the Labor Day Weekend Gun Show at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. I had other business on Oahu anyway, so a small gun show might be fun- that was what I was thinking….

The Khanate of the Golden Horde is a living history society dedicated to preserving life as it was in a typical 12th century Mongolian camp. These gentlemen were set up at the entrance, complete with yurt and weaponry. SAR readers in the islands might enjoy a little goat roasting fun with this Horde of weapon wielding re-enactors. No full auto, but they do fire foam tipped arrows at each other, and beat each other with assorted fighting sticks. All this is done in the name of making the events as realistic as possible, and it looked like a great time. Contact Greywolfe at 808-526-2455

The Hawaii Historic Arms Association puts on this show twice a year, on Labor Day Weekend, and in early March. The show is a 250 table show, and it goes for two days. I expected to shake hands with a few subscribers, sell a few back issues, and generally enjoy some camaraderie with a few like minded individuals. Silly me. At the end of the weekend, SAR was sold out completely, and we had two new dealers on the islands.

From the moment the doors opened, the SAR tables were busy. Mark Genovese from Maui had arranged for a nice display of semi auto beltfeds, and these were set up with SAR. The interest there was amazing. From grizzled old vets to Gen-x comp shooters, there was a constant flow of people there with either interesting stories about firearms use, or interest in obtaining their own semi autos. These belt fed semis are legal in the islands, after following the local ordinances.

Blaisdell Center where the Hawaii show was held.

It is important to note that high capacity magazines (Over ten rounds) that are for a handgun are illegal. If you are going to a show, be very careful of what you get involved in. Rifle caliber mags are alright. Someone offered me a Luger snail drum for $275, under their table in a box. Scary incident… until we looked closer, and it turned out to be one of the European copies that only fit 9 rounds, with the snail on it just for appearances. Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out to get you.

Security Equipment Corp (1322 Young Street, Honolulu, 808-589-0911) had a real crowd pleaser in this twin 1919 Browning semi-auto on tripod.

My scavenging turned up some really interesting parts- optics for an M9A1 Bazooka, scope mount for my 57mm recoilless, various small parts for WWII guns, etc. Although it was only a 250 table show, it was a great scrounging show for me. There were also a lot of connections to be made with people who had stores of military collectibles. On the table across from SAR was a rather interesting sword. It was a presentation model, with the inscription “To L.M. Judd from members of the Machine Gun Company, 1st Infantry, NGH”. Unfortunately for me, the owner was a collector himself, writing about the subject, and no amount of browbeating or whining would get him to name a price.

SAR contributor Mark Genovese from Maui and his friend JJ set up some of their semi auto belt feds at the SAR location. It was absolutely amazing how strong the response was from the crowd. Firearms shown included a 1917A1 semi, an HK21 semi, and an M2HB semi.

If you are planning a trip to the Islands, I would highly recommend this show as a place to visit. The people that run it are enthusiasts, and it shows in the way that the gun show operates. It is geared toward the collectors and the shooters.

The next show is March 3-4 2000. As I understand it, some tables might still be available. Aloha, and I will see you there!

Contact:
Hawaii Historic Arms Association
PO Box 1733
Honolulu, HI 96806
808-623-7234

“Armed images of the Civil War” was a very interesting display. Phil Van Steenwyk had set up his display of original tintype images and original weapons from the era. I found this display to be a major draw, bringing many of today’s youth that walked by into that evolutionary era of firearms design- necessity being the mother of invention- and it seemed to capture the interest of many attendees.
L to R: Brian Ching, Paul Perrone & Norman Wong in period costume.
This article first appeared in Small Arms Review V3N5 (February 2000)
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