My dogs are BARKING!!! 10 miles over the last three days…
Revisits on a couple of booths, and a chance to watch a master engraver work! One note from the Colt Booth- ALL of the Colt NM or Gold Cup pistols are actually Series 70, not Series 80. VERY smooth triggers and excellent fit! And some of them are less than $1000!!!
Meet John Pease! He’s a master engraver for the Colt Custom Shop! He’s working on a slide for a 1911, in the white.
This is what it looked like when he finished it! It’s what they call Class C+ engraving.
And one he’d already finished for a customer… Sigh… Simply stunning, and can still be shot (although I doubt the owner will ever do so)!
I’ll put a more detailed overall AAR up tomorrow. But a couple of initial thoughts…
Interesting show, but nothing really ‘new’ that jumped out at me. Some booths were considerably smaller than last year, including Colt’s. Some weren’t even there… (Remington, Axleson Tactical to name two), and others had combined booths.
My bad, Remington was there, I just missed them! Thanks for the correction!
A LOT less swag… I didn’t see any free t-shirts, really good pins (every manufacturer used to give those out routinely), and most of the ‘show discounts’ were 5-10%…
And Kubota and Yamaha had LARGE booths, hawking their ATV lines, small generators, and ‘power’ products for the field.
I’m having a hard time interpreting the data you present.
On one hand, it would seem to me that perhaps the failure of manufacturers to attend the show, or to reduce their presence (and presents) is a sign of a slowdown.
On the other hand, when there IS a slowdown, there is greater competition for the reduced dollars that are out there. So, maybe they are doing so well, they don’t see the need to push so hard?
Or maybe it’s not that at all. Maybe it’s that they didn’t want/need the visibility at THIS event, for whatever reason.
The generator/ATV presence tastes of cultivating the prepper segment. Maybe not. I’ve been wanting a generator for years, and there ain’t nothing prepper about me at all, unless you count making my own bread as a prepper thing. I don’t count it that way; I just like doing it.
I forgot to ask:
Regarding your barking dogs: 10 miles in three days ain’t that much. It’s the convention floors that will do you in. he said, speaking as one with extensive time-on-feet back during employment.
Unknown author, many sources: “It’s not the ‘eavy ‘aulin that ‘urts the ‘osses’ ‘ooves. It’s the ‘ammer, ‘ammer, ‘ammer on the ‘ard
‘ighway.”
So: what kind of shoes are you wearing? Do you wear inserts? I ask, because next Saturday I’m gonna have to buy a pair of shoes to replace these SAS marvels I’ve had for the last 15 years.
Why aren’t you buying a new pair of SAS? They are the best fitting shoes I’ve found. Quality workmanship and arch support.
Just asking.
Unless something else changes my plans, buying a new pair of SAS
IS what I’m going to do. I wouldn’t even be changing them now, but the exterior is so horribly stained that it’s starting to make even ME get self-conscious about wearing them to church. But probably a new pair will be nicer to my feet. I don’t know. Maybe.
I even took my favorite pair of sandals to a cobbler to replace the elastic! Even tho I now have backups they are still my favorite pair. They can get a bit scruffy looking after several years.
I went through a Remington booth…
Gorgeous!
Did you know?
That “Series 70” isn’t? The big departure from prior Gov’t Model guns was the collet style barrel bushing. Without that collet it’s really a Pre-Series 70 gun.
Some of the early Series 80 guns got that collet too. It’s a pain in the rear.
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That Colt SAA sure appears very similar to the model presented to Charles ‘Skeeter’ Skelton those many years ago. So very pretty …
Thanks for the pictures. Make sure your toenails are trimmed enough – walking long distances with long nails can be really bad in the long run.
Pat- One day in cowboy boots, two days in New Balance walking shoes with an insert. You’re right, it’s the concrete floors! I think a lot of manufacturers are ‘pulling back’ so to speak. There are a lot of issues with banks, financing, etc. that are probably impacting them.
Marc- I must have missed it… My bad.
Mrs.C- It truly was, the picture DOES NOT do it justice!
McT- Good point!
Julio- Yes, but I think this is a different one… Still beautiful! And yes, trimmed toenails before I left! 😀
Sorry I missed you – I figure I did about 8+ miles on Friday and another 6 or so on Saturday before I hit the highway south. Didn’t get much swag either but did (finally!) find a holster for the NAA Guardian .32 so at least that part was a success. Oh and renewed my membership with Knife Rights – good group – they were instrumental in getting Texas knife preemption law passed a while back.
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