NRA Convention Day 3…

Posted on by May 6, 2013

Whew…

Made it to the end, and survived another one…  The crowd was not as heavy today as yesterday, but still lots of folks there!

Comments from various folks-

Usher lady- Two and a half days and not ONE grouchy person, I’m amazed!

Usher Man- Y’all are the politest folks I’ve seen in years in here.

On duty LEO- It’s just not natural; way too many people, and everybody is polite; I almost feel bad for taking overtime to work this… Almost…

Booth person 1- BIG damn crowd, very sharp, lots of informed knowledgeable people all three days!

Booth person 2- My feet hurt… and my brain hurts from the questions!

Booth person 3- Good thing it’s ending, we’ve run out of everything!!!

On duty(ish) LEO- Hey, they told me to walk around, didn’t tell me I couldn’t “look” while I was doing it! (with three gimme bags in the off hand)

For the ladies, there were quite a few “ladies only” boothes; Flashbang holsters was VERY popular every time I walked by there were 8-10 ladies there.  Across the aisle was a booth with ladies handbags with concealed carry pockets (they ranged from VERY discreet purses, to outlandish (sparkles, designer, colorful).  Other boothes did have items for women, holsters bags, etc (including hunting gear and pants that actually fit).

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And this was pretty much the ‘status’ of most displays… EMPTY!

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And a tease for later…Doc - May 5, 2013, 16-58I’m off on the rest of my road trip, so probably no post tomorrow…  I hope I’ve answered folks questions, and at least given y’all an idea of the show.

Thanks to NRA Media for allowing us to participate, and special thanks to Philip Schreier for allowing us to get educated on the Museum guns that were here!

I’m getting too old for this…

Posted on by May 5, 2013

The after the party party two nights in a row are getting my ‘attention’…

The first night we were real classy…

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And yes, good scotch WILL eat waxed paper cups…

And here’s AD in the wild… Scotch and beef jerky!  At least it wasn’t Cheetoes!!!

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But damn, it’s fun be able to just sit around in the hotel with good friends, good booze and just chat about life, liberty and the pursuit of what ever happiness happens to be walking by!

And I never cease to be amazed at how ‘quick’ folks are, male/female, sober or not… And the breadth of the conversation(s), that go on and the digressions that come up!

It’s also great to meet new folks (both bloggers and commenters), and get a chance to put names/faces/voices with the folks.  While the commonality is guns, it is truly a diverse group of folks, spanning ages from college to 70+, and a huge variety of jobs, life skills and personalities!

Sadly, folks have to start leaving today as many have to work tomorrow and have either long drives or flights at zero dark-30.

I’m going to trundle back in this morning for a few more hours of the show to try to actually finish seeing the whole floor.

At least last night we ‘upgraded’… Real plastic cups! 🙂

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Y’all enjoy a quiet breakfast with family, and enjoy the day!!!

NRA Convention Day 2…

Posted on by May 4, 2013

panorama-2My dogs survived today… 🙂  This is a look at about 1/3 of the show floor…

Lots of interesting things at the show, and a LARGE crowd!  It was pardon me, excuse me, stop cold, move three feet…

Here’s the crowd at the Colt Booth!

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And here’s their new pistol…

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Ambi safety, thumb groove, vestigal rail (for laser), dovetailed sights; oh yeah, and a polymer frame… Damn them… 🙂

Ironically, the same project manager from Colt was there, we chatted and he said these are the first four off the line (and no he wouldn’t give me one for T&E)… So basically all the questions Matt and I had last year are now answered!  Sumbitch… gotta start saving again…

Stopped by the Brownell’s booth just as Larry Weeks was getting his picture taken with the Francis family.

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For those who don’t know who she is… Go HERE. And I have to pick at Larry, but she’s only 13 and almost as tall as Larry… and the whole family is very personable, and NOT hung up on their celebrity (I think that is due to Chad Francis).  And the younger daughter is getting started too!

Product wise, they have a new complete set of screwdriver/bits out and they ARE on my buy list!!! And in an interesting twist, apparently Brownells is now sponsoring the CMMG Midwest 3-gun Match! Guess Midway dropped the ball on that one…

I’m sure I’m not the only one that found the protesters this morning…

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There were 16 with signs, and maybe 5-6 more but I couldn’t get a good shot for all the media in the way…   Sigh… And THEY WILL BE ON THE NEWS, bet on it!!!

More from the floor…

Posted on by May 4, 2013

Talking to folks from various booths, everybody is crowded, the perception is that ‘this’ show folks seem especially knowledgeable…

My comment, “Well, this IS Texas!”

FNH, Leupold, Colt, pretty much everybody I talked to echoed that sentiment..

And those new Leupold Mk8 scopes are ‘sweet’… Sigh…

And thanks to Lars and Kyle from the NRA media, last year’s show had 340,000 square feet of show floor, this year the floor is 440,000 square feet, so this IS the largest NRA show floor to this point!  And over 600 exhibitors.

Looks like the coverage just got a little more international…
Just met a crew from the BBC, who are apparently getting a LOT of questions/requests from their bosses about the show.
Also, NTV from Japan is here, should be this really interesting!
And conversation in the media room elicited that apparently two of the Sandy Hook ‘family victims showed up (location unknown) but apparently long enough to get on the 5pm news here in Houston…

Chatting with the NTV folks (Japanese TV), they are covering the show straight, their ‘hook’ is the 2nd Amendment, because Japan doesn’t have one (and very few guns). They are interested in the self protection aspect, and the lady commentator mentioned women being able to protect themselves…

The German reporter is covering the show for the “gun public” in Germany and Europe.

And more media… NRA Convention

Posted on by May 4, 2013

Looks like the coverage just got a little more international…

Just met a crew from the BBC, who are apparently getting a LOT of questions/requests from their bosses about the show.

Also, NTV from Japan is here, should be this really interesting!

And conversation in the media room elicited that apparently two of the Sandy Hook ‘family victims showed up (location unknown) but apparently long enough to get on the 5pm news here in Houston…

Off to the floor, lots to see and folks to talk to.

And more media… NRA Convention

Posted on by May 4, 2013

Looks like the coverage just got a little more international…

Just met a crew from the BBC, who are apparently getting a LOT of questions/requests from their bosses about the show.

Also, NTN from Japan is here, should be this really interesting!

And conversation in the media room elicited that apparently two of the Sandy Hook ‘family victims showed up (location unknown) but apparently long enough to get on the 5pm news here in Houston…

Off to the floor, lots to see and folks to talk to.

Quick hit…

Posted on by May 3, 2013

Now granted ‘everything’ is bigger in Texas, but…

“I” don’t ever remember seeing a ‘school bus’ like this…

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For a HS girls soccer or lacrosse team apparently… A/C, reclining seats, video, etc…

And for Paul, no I did not see a single Colorado hunting outfitter, and the folks that I talked to were NOT booking any hunting in Colorado for the rest of this year, or going forward…

Extremes at the NRA Convention…

Posted on by May 3, 2013

From this…

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Complete Colt Gatling gun found in St. Louis WITH carriage…

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Note the proof marks, smiths mark and barrel numbers… According to the RIA rep, they only had to do minimal cleaning, and the gun went together “seamlessly”…IMG_1187And when I asked him if they’d ‘test fired’ it… Well, he just smiled…

To this…

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Yes, that IS a pink overmould for the grip on the Ruger…

And pretty much everything in between!!!

For Frito, YES of course there were horses… And apparently only ONE single protester reading names, but we never found her…

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Gearing back up for more of the show!

Blog meet at NRA…

Posted on by May 3, 2013

Well, we’ve proven yet again we can’t count…

What was ‘hoped’ to be around 20 folks getting together at Ginger Man (BEER), like 4 pages worth… of BEERS…

Well, we ended up at 26, 28, 32, 36, and finally 38 folks!!!

IMG_1194And of course ‘somebody’… Jay I think, said “What’s in your pocket?”  And this was the throwdown from six folks if I remember correctly… Including at least two of the ladies… The ‘other’ things in the pockets, well they stayed there!

And the conversations ran the gamut from bullet design, to ‘stories’, to a comment about nipples, and a back comment about a nice rack (laughter and a LOT of looks), movies,  strange things seen in the sky, strange things seen at the NRA Convention today; which promptly segued into comments about strange instructors, etc…

In other words the ‘standard’ blog meet conversations… 🙂

And for PE, the food was decent, AND THERE WAS BEER!

Oh yeah, and on the way back to the hotel, I pull up at a stoplight behind a white Bentley with 20’s on it and a PINK Texas plate that says PAY2PLA! Dunno who it was, but I’m betting a pro at ‘something’…

NRA Convention, Day 1…

Posted on by May 3, 2013

Various thoughts from the day…

Thanks to Kevin at Smallest Minority for the dinner list from last night!!!

Lots of overseas coverage compared to what I remember from last year!  I met Danes, Aussies, and one German this morning covering for various media in their countries.

Dayum, my dogs are BARKING… That is a BIG damn floor!!! It’s at least 200 yards long by probably 50 yards deep!!!

This is the emblem for the year, and pretty appropriate (IMHO)…

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As usual, MAGPUL has a nice vehicle featured, and apparently this one was actually at St. Louis last year but I missed it… Sigh…

IMG_1188One wag’s comment was normally you only see these with “Peace” stickers, but not THIS one…

JayG came up with a ‘version’ that would be appropriate- “Peace through FIREPOWER”!

And for Murph- One booth babe…

IMG_1190And that is Ammo to Go’s truck!

And for Joe P., the word on your Sig P229/.357 Sig is they’ll get to it… They know they’re backed up, and are working full shifts.  When a run is done, they will ship according to order dates received at the factory.

IMG_1192And yes that really is a purple slide on this P290RS…  FROM THE FACTORY!!!

Geez…