All Donna Pullum wants for Christmas is a .308 Savage rifle. It's the only gun that will do.

"I like the .308 because I can go deer or elk hunting with it," said Pullum of Poplar Bluff, Mo. "It's one of those all-around guns."

Though Pullum and her husband, Ron, didn't find the right rifle for the right price at Cape's Original Gun Show Saturday morning, they said they still enjoyed browsing through the A.C. Brase Arena Building with their son, Terry.

This weekend's gun show, with about 70 vendors from throughout the state as well as outside Missouri, is one of four put on annually by three local men. This time of year, people often come for the same reason most people are out shopping: a search for the perfect present.

"I think quite a few come in here to buy the first gun for their child for Christmas. They usually bring the child with them to help pick it out," said Brad Moore, one of the show's organizers. "If they are not real knowledgable about guns, they can chitchat with the dealers to find out what is best for them."

By noon, Jerry Halley of Doniphan, Mo., had already sold at least three Christmas presents -- a Henry .22 lever action rifle, a Precision Shooting Equipment crossbow and a New England Firearms single shot .223 rifle. He said one of them was for the purchaser's son, but the other two buyers didn't specify a recipient.

"Youth-model guns have been hot since they started that special youth season last year," Halley said. "It's just gotten crazy. And they are making more youth guns than ever before."

Last fall and this fall, Missouri held a designated two-day hunting season for children age 15 and under.

But gift hunters who weren't buying for the gun enthusiasts in their lives were in luck, too. Dealers also offered knives, archery equipment, jewelry, wildlife T-shirts and sporting goods.

Workers at the door made sure guns brought into the show were unloaded, and they put a safety device on them so they couldn't fire.

Richard Woods of Poplar Bluff carried around his Hopkin-Allen .22 Ringfire rifle he bought at the same show several years ago. It is more than 100 years old.

"This gun probably cost every bit of $3.75 or $4 new. If I don't get $400 out of it, I won't sell it," Woods said.

The event continues today from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $3.

jgosche@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133