Discovery’s Last Flight…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Just took this from the top of the office building about 30 minutes ago…

747 with Discovery up, escorted by a NASA T-38.

Sad, sad end to our space program. Discovery was the workhorse of the ‘fleet’. They were about 1000 feet up, inbound to the DCA fly by…

Final landing at IAD for roll-out to the Udvar- Hazy Museum at Dulles…

BAG day…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Well, didya???


I jumped the ‘gun’ last week, pics maybe this weekend if the new gun gets here…


Final NRA Convention post after I get some sleep…


Edit- Final count of NRA Convention attendees 73,740, courtesy of Danny the Man.

NRA Convention, Day 3…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Quick hits from the morning ‘stroll’ through the floor… Talking with the folks at Shaw Barrels, they indicated they are 3-4 months behind on barrels, 4-5 months behind on rebarreling customer rifles, and 14 months behind on their MK-7 rifles! The issue is maintaining quality, and their comment was that customers are very understanding. THAT is the right way to do business… 


 For Midwest Chick, and Everett, I got the things covered you asked for… MsgtB, that pic you wanted will go up tonight! 


 Saw a 70’ish lady, by her self, looking at Glock 26s. She ‘knew’ what she was doing, and the rep walked over and asked if there was anything he could help her with. Her answer, “Oh, I’m just looking at the Gen 4 to see if I want to upgrade…” 🙂 


 Chatted with Josh Kinser with Miliary Warriors Support Foundation, they are doing good things for not only wounded warriors, but the children of warriors who have died in combat. Their link MilitaryWarriors.org Josh is the field activities director, and does the hunts in South Texas. 


 The worst ‘customer’ service, or I should say lack of, was El Paso Saddlery… They were more interested in talking to each other about how good they’d done at the Casino last night than they were talking to customers… I watched three people walk up, get ignored (just like I was being ignored), at that point, I walked off… And No I’m NOT linking to their site… Go to the Holster site.com or Dragon Leatherworks, THEY know what customer service is!


Along with that, yet another trip by HS Precision, and not a soul there (as usual), other than the two booth guys. Same as last year! 


FNH, good news/bad news for SCAR 17 folks… More magazines are on the way, BUT… They are currently filling another order for 10000 units (which means 100,000 magazines). Sigh… Best guess is 6 months until SCAR 17 mags are readily available… 


 One hears about ‘rock stars’ in various formats, in the gun world there are a few also Ted Nugent (real rock star), Ronnie Barrett (icon), R. Lee Ermey (movie/TV star), and I’d add one more ‘rock star’ Frank Brownell. In three days of observation, I’ve watched literally hundreds of folks walk up and wait in line to just speak to him. And it’s obvious that Frank truly enjoys meeting his customers and actually knows a lot of them. Talking with Larry Weeks, he said that Frank routinely comes in around 0730, and usually doesn’t leave before 1700-1800. He spends most of the day on the phone and email with customers/friends… I spoke with him a few minutes, and he stressed his company philosphy is still based on getting the right parts to the right people in shortest time with minimal cost. He also brought 150 employees over via bus to give them a chance to see the NRA convention. More later…

NRA Convention, Day 2, Part 2…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
As I said, some of the ‘fun’ things seen walking around…

Somewhere between $3-400,000 worth of Rifles

Cavalry Colt- $175,000 estimated sale price

Remington-Rand 1911A1, Serial Number 1!

The Thompson/Auto Ordnance Display
(note the signature above the pic of the WWII soldier with the Tommy Gun…
And the poster is SIGNED by Walter Hughes, who was the soldier in the picture!!!

Patterson Colt #3 Complete set in the original box- $450,000 estimated sale price

Colt Navy Serial Number 1- Complete set in the original box- $1,000,000+ estimated sale price

A group of us got together for dinner, and the manager of the restaurant told one of the group that they get ‘all’ the convention traffic, and the NRA folks were the nicest, most polite people they’d ever had in the restaurant…

An armed society IS a polite society!

NRA Convention, Day 2…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
The crowds were heavy yesterday, and today was even MORE crowded…  


And people were just as polite today as they were yesterday…  


An interesting note from the Press Room, the ‘suits’ studiously ignored all of us peon bloggers, to the point of even refusing to sit at the table with us when seats were open!  Kinda interesting…


Anyhoo, some pics of things of interest from the convention floor!

 I had a chance early this morning to chat with Les Baer for a few minutes, and discuss the upsurge of women coming into shooting/self defense. He’s developed (or maybe I should say re-developed) this little beauty, a small 1911 package called the Stinger. It is specifically designed for easy carry/concealment with a shorter frame and their Comanche top end.  This particular one is in .38 Super, which Les says also making a comeback.  For women, this is pretty much an ‘ideal’ size and with the .38 Super, a pretty good stopper too! You can see the gun HERE on Les’ site.  As always, Les’ products are top quality, and he DOES support his customers!

Leatherman One Hand Tool (ONT) Prototype

According to the folks at Leatherman, this tool will probably hit the market in September 2012, and all the tools, knives, screwdrivers, etc are available for one handed operation.  Price point is yet to be decided, but it will be ‘reasonable’…  Something to think about for those who ‘need’ a one handed tool

Ronnie Barrett with the one of one  30th Anniversary M-107

Ronnie with the representative from HAVA, as Ronnie presents a check to the organization for $67,900+ in donations from the ‘drawing’ for the M-107…
Pretty Impressive!

And I couldn’t resist this one…

This lady said this was going up in her front yard (and her hubby said ‘she’ bought it on her own)!!!  Think this might be a hint NOT to mess with this particular little old Lady…

And the “protesters” that were supposed to be out in force from ‘that’ organization??? Zip, nada, none…

The only Hippie I saw was one coming out of the Convention with a t-shirt on that said Venison- It’s what’s for dinner…

Go read Daddy Bear, Jay G, Phlegmmy, Lawdog, Sebastian, Days, Farmer Frank and others as they have reports up too!

More later with some ‘fun’ guns…

Oh my aching…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Well, it’s official, Jay G is a blogging fool…  I think he put up either four or five posts already today at the convention!


We met up with Ian Harrison on the way down, and had a good chat with him, and based on conversations with NRA officials, the estimated number of pre-registrations is 60,000+  


All the usual suspects are here, except Say Uncle, sadly he had to back out this year… 


Sebastian is covering the legal and speeches as always, Jay, myself, Dennis from Dragon Leatherworks, Daddy Bear (don’t ask about breakfast), has a post up HERE on his first impressions and I agree with him!


AD finally caught up with us, and we became the multiple amigos…


We wander hither, yon, and back, with folks breaking off to look at specific things (note to self, keep DB away fromt he swords…)


A few pics of things that caught my interest!

Took a pic of Jay taking a pic of the M&P

Outstanding factory engraving…

More outstanding factory engraving, and yes they are S&W, but I still appreciate quality work…

DB wanted to play with these…

“I” wanted to play with these… The top gun is a 1 of 1000 Winchester 73 in 45-75 with a 30 in barrel ($180,000)

The ‘original’ Judge…  Colt Revolving Rifle in 45-70

Black Powder no less…

Jay! You BROKE it…  Jay, playing with the takedown 10-22…

Nice little Colt .22 on a 3/4 size Colt Frame (by Colt)…

Ronnie Barrett’s 30th Anniversary give away gun…

Yep, believe it or not, a SHORT BARREL .50 BMG M-107
This will be the ONLY one of these built, so truly a one of a kind rifle…
And all the benefits go to Honored American Veterans Afield!!!

“Off the record” conversations with Cold Steel, Ruger, S&W, Colt,  Barrett, FNH, hell, basically everybody I talked to today said sales are up, some are expanding shifts (S&W), some are expanding facilities (Cold Steel), and some are working hard to just keep up with orders (Ammo to go, Brownells, Magpul)…

Once again I noted how polite everyone is, both in and out of the Annual Meeting, and how patient folks were on the display floor (actually waiting to take turns handling weapons)…

Off to dinner and a well deserved beer 🙂  Anybody have anything specific they want me to look at, shoot me an email!

Let the blogging begin!!!

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Well, Jay G is off and running… As usual 🙂

We haven’t been here 15 minutes, and I think he’s already put up three posts! I’ll be sucking hind tit but we’re heading to the floor now.

Kudos to the NRA folks, media checkin was about 2 minutes total, and most of that was standing in line…

We’re Heerrrreeee…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Look out St. Louis…


Thanks to Jay G for ‘organizing’ the first get together at the NRA-AM 🙂

Tomorrow we descend on the Convention Center and the drooling begins!

More later…

The Military doesn’t teach anything useful…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Other than how to kill people…


That was the opening statement today when a few of us that flew together back in the 80’s got together for lunch.


We all kinda looked at the guy that made the statement, since he is a Washington Lobbyist now (and yes we made HIM buy)…


He laughed and said that was a statement made by one of his female co-workers who is a dyed in the wool DINK yuppie liberal.


At that point we all started laughing…


And comparing how we aren’t taught anything…


Of our group of pilots/NFOs, one is a 2-star Admiral, nine are consultants, one is a CEO of a large company, three are VPs or directors for major corporations (like Eastman Kodak), three are airline captains, two are lawyers (one heads up the Maritime Law group for a major NY firm), four are directors of major government programs (GS-15 or SES), a couple of others own small companies, one is an airport manager for a large airport in the SE. Oh yeah, and one is an English Professor at a large Midwestern college (don’t ask me why)…


On the enlisted side, one is a corporate pilot, flying Gulfstreams as the Captain, two are facilities managers, one for a major hospital in Florida, the other for a high rise in Houston; three are now managers with various defense contractors, one is an engineer for Southern Pacific (something he always wanted), one is an operations manager for FEDEX in Memphis, and one is a ‘beach bum’ (who also happens to have an any ocean/any tonnage master’s license and when he ‘works’ it’s for Maresk as a Captain)…


So, why are we succeeding?  To put it simply, we came up with these things:
it’s the work ethic that was instilled in us by the military
the integrity/honesty we were taught
the leadership we’ve demonstrated over the years
Praise in public, counsel in private, give credit where due, and take blame for problems/issues
Never bring up a problem without offering a solution 
and we’re all too damn dumb to not do the best job we can for the $$ we’re paid…

Implicit Associations Test…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
If you’re truly bored…  The Implicit Associations Test (there are a number of them), are done by Harvard. Link HERE


I took the weapons one just for S&Gs during lunch and here were my results…


I believe my results are a function of a career in the military, exposing me to a variety of cultures both here and abroad; and handling weapons my whole life.  It IS interesting to see what some folks said though, and I cannot help but wonder if the skew is a result of WHO is taking the test… Just sayin…

Your Result

Your data suggest little or no association between White American and Black American with Harmless Objects and Weapons.

Thank you for your participation. Just below is a breakdown of the scores generated by others. Most respondents find it easier to associate White American with Harmless Object and Black American with Weapon compared to the reverse.
Race-Weapons score distribution