Wrap Up... SHOT 2009


I'm going to try to sum up the highlights today for you... I'll post more as I remember them. As you can imagine... a lot of it is still a blur. Let's start with the nitty gritty... Here's some good info I got from straight from the mouths of various, and relevant horses while I was down there...

1) Kel-Tec will produce 250 RFB's a week... and have already taken orders for thousands. They took an order for 1000 while we were standing their BS'ing at their booth. They didn't even negotiate.

2) George Kelgren (Founder of Kel-Tec) is terrified of Obama. Remember, his old company, Gendel, was completely put out of business by the "assault weapons" ban in the 90s. He's very worried about the possibilities of another one... and it is driving his business decisions.

3) The big shots at Remington and Taurus discussed it... and decided the prostitutes in Orlando were nice but not as good as those in Rio. I heard this.

4) Kelgren is far from the only man worried about Washington. Indeed... the economy was not a topic that people seemed to care about. If anything they were joking that we should have depressions more often. There was a lot of worry about possible legislation. More companies than ever are schilling for the NRA. Shame they don't have sense enough to get behind an actual pro-gun organization like JFPO or GOA.

5) No Poofters

6) Nikon's BDC (bullet drop compensator) System is a complete joke. It has a magnum setting for 300 win mag and such... and it has a regular setting for .270, 308, and 30-06. Now when Luke asked a Nikon tech to explain it... he said... "we're going to get you on the animal"... which was fine... until he explained that the scope made no differences for bullet weight or caliber. When I laughed about this and asked if he understood the different drop at 600 yards between a 200 grain .308 and a 140 grain .270... the man said... "gravity is gravity". I looked at him like he was a moron... and he said, "I mean yeah.. all you have is the difference in speed... that's all." ???? THAT'S ALL??? The difference in speed is everything... the faster a bullet is... the less time its dropping... the more distance in covers in the time it has to fall. The company is acting like the difference in bullet drop at 500 yards between a heavy bullet in a .308 or a light bullet in a .270 is completely insignificant... its close enough. Its not close enough. It will not "get you on the animal". I am a Nikon guy. I love their cameras. I love their scopes. So I say this as a big fan of Nikon... do not... I repeat.. do not buy a Nikon scope that uses this system.

7) Charles Daly's AR's are assembled in Kentucky... which has us curious... have they contracted with Double Star? Also on the Daly front... Their Bul M5...a polymer 1911 is made by Bul... an Israeli arms company. Bul had their own display... with what had to be considered one of the most impressive line ups of 1911's I saw at the show. Right up there with Springfield and Dan Wesson. Keep an eye on Daly.

8) No Poofters

9) Kimber had quite a display... Half in disgust I picked up one of those idiotic "desert warrior" things... Gawd Awful... Luke saw me and well... it went kind like this...
"Nate? Holding a Kimber?"
"Yeah... I suppose I just wanted to check... make sure they still suck as bad as I remember"
"Hrm... ain't that like sucking a dick.. just to make sure you still don't like it?"
I chuckled of course... it was well played... but mostly I was just amused that someone had equated dry firing a Kimber with homosexual activity.

10) There is no item 10.

11) No Poofters

12) The little blog here is a little more widely known among the industry types than I realized. Folks at Barrett recognized my name and associated it with the blog. Barrett being in Murfreesboro, TN... that didn't surprise me. The blog makes the local news in Nashville every so often. I knew the boys at Springfield read it already... as the Springfield company blogger and I have exchanged emails. Kel-Tec's boys also apparently knew about blog. All of this says more about company's tracking their product's on the web than it says about my blog. Its not a coincidence that Kel-Tec and Springfield knew the blog when you consider how much I blog about them. Similarly one of the guys at Taurus (tech guy) also knew of the blog. Again...for the same reason. I didn't talk to the Kimber folks... I really didn't want to get in a fight at SHOT.

13) The EZ Signal phone will be available this summer.

14) No Poofters

15) EAA is making some really nice weapons. If you get a chance to check out their Gold Cup or Limited... do so. Truly cool. Cute chicks at their display area to.

16) If you're going to buy a Kel-Tec SU-16.. get the C model. The barrels on the A and the B are very thin, and heat up to quickly... which causes severe accuracy issues. The C on the other hand... which is the one JAC and I have... is astonishingly accurate. The head of Kel-Tec R and D told me he was pushing them to change all the barrels to the heavier C model... but everyone's focus is on the RFB right now.

17) Don't look for a Kel-Tec .45 any time soon. They know they need one in their lineup... but they just don't have the time or resources to do it. There are no drawings. There are no ideas. its just a hole they see that at some point they'd like to fill. Any rumors you hear otherwise are completely false.

18) The same fella from Kel-Tec also provided this gem on the Mini-14... "Ya know what you get when you take a bunch of bad ideas and put them all together? A mini 14." It was a joy to find that one of the brains behind my beloved little carbine was also a card carrying member of the Anti-Mini-14 Society for the Prohibition of Rifles that Suck. AMSPRTS... for short.

19) Taurus uses the same sites on the 24-7s and 1911s. Pretty smart. This means if they find a cool site they'd like to add to their line up... they can do so quickly. And yes... they are doing just that. Look for Taurus to offer triangle style sights in the very near future on their pistols. The details are still being worked out... but the fella that owns the company that makes the sights explained that he'd just talked to Taurus and worked out the deal.

***UPDATE***
20) I just remembered something that struck me as odd. In tactical law enforcement area of SHOT it was common to see company enterages trotting around.... almost all of them included a Navy SEAL... and often when they would introduce themselves... they would say things like "This is our Navy SEAL so-and-so." Like they were talking about a fashion accessory. It was amusing at first... but it turned creepy after a while. I kept my ears open... and I heard a lot more than I think a lot of people there.

Now... before you complain to loudly about the quality of information provided... I would encourage you to consider how much you paid for it.