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Practically Shooting

NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits


BarryinIN

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I could only stay about four hours today, but it's a start.

First, here is the entrance off Capitol Ave at 1:30 when I left:

Five minutes later, the car radio is telling me about protesters out front. Where? I guess you had to look for them. Really look.

Itty bitty safe:

They said they delivered one to a house (mansion) with a front door big enough they wheeled it right in. The first gun in was valued at $40,000.

Colt is no longer shy about selling ARs:

I've been trying to find some RL-15 powder for almost a year. Notice Alliant didn't even have an empty display can:

Seminar- Defensive Shooting Skills Development, by Rob Pincus:

Very cool moving target system. I didn't ask the price.

Savage "B-Mag". New rimfire with twin rear bolt lugs, and barrel attachment nut and head spacing like the 110, except more streamlined. I only saw .22 Mag and .17 HMR.

Why would a VW bus have a Magpul logo instead of a VW logo?

Here's why:

Springfield Armory has a new version of the Range Officer 1911 (lightweight Commander type- very handy). They also gave away T-shirts.

People-

Lones Wigger- Olympic shooting team 1964, 1968, 1972, 1980, team coach, Olympic gold medal winner (2x), silver medal winner in Smallbore prone and 3-position:

Maj John Plaster- Army SF Vietnam, author of "Ultimate Sniper", "SOG", and several others:

Jerry Miculek, world's fastest revolver (and other stuff) shooter:

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Here's some more.

The very first Les Baer:

The world's slimmest revolver:

The goofy thing is a three-shot .38Spl. Two chambers at top and one at the bottom of the flat cylinder. Fire the first two, roll the cylinder around and fire the last.

I kid you not.

From the provider of fine firearms, Century International Arms.

Big brother to the Magpul minibus from yesterday:

5.9 Cummins diesel, leather interior, very large bar, and a full armory in the back complete with water cooled Browning.

It even comes with a 1950s cigarette girl (the "cigarettes" in the packs were .223 dummy rounds):

Here's a scoop I got from Colt's go-to guy in their 1877 Bulldog Gatling gun:

They are going to make a run of 1903 Pocket Model pistols like the the General Officers issue. They have a list of all the original serial numbers issued to Generals and will duplicate those numbers with a new prefix. They will come in a glass topped wood case with the name of the General who originally had that number.

Nifty.

Now that gat.

Colt 1877 Bulldog Gatling gun.

Around 400 pounds and $40,000. Your choice of 5 or 10 barrels. The rep said they are actually selling approx 50 per year. That's over twice as many each year as made originally.

Poor pic of the new Sig P320 .45. It was drawing a crowd.

One of the weird KelTec .223 bullpups promised 4th qtr of 2014 but expected 6th qtr 20nunya:

It's a bottom eject, and they had a diagram showing how they did it. The hammer is U-shaped and straddles the ejection port, or chute. The action is long, but being a bullpup, it doesn't matter.

I bet I can predict the first club member who owns one.

First highlight of my day:

This is Mr Russell Gackenback. Mr Gackenback was a navigator on the B-29 "Necessary Evil", which was the photographic plane for Enola Gay.

He took the picture, which I've seen and will look up later.

He was also the navigator on Enola Gay when it went ahead as a weather check plane over Kokura few days later when Bockscar nuked Nagasaki. Kokura was the primary target.

Second highlight: I met my first Medal of Honor recipient.

This is SFC (ret) Sammy Lee Davis.

He looks like he could walk out on the parade ground and start barking orders right now. A very nice man, and we had a nice chat. He received the Medal of Honor for actions in the Vietnam War in 1967. In the movie "Forrest Gump" when Gump receives the Medal of Honor, it's actually the footage of SFC Davis' award ceremony with alteration.

He lives in Indiana.

A somber moment:

The NRA had some guns there from their museum, like a pair of Annie Oakley's guns but one moved me. I saw a scarred S&W J-frame under glass and had a look. It was the backup gun of an NYPD officer who died in the World Trade Center named Walter Weaver. Rescuers found it in the rubble. I had to walk off for a while after reading about it

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More celebrities from the gun world.

Walt Berger, benchrest champion and founder of Berger bullets:

US Shooting Team member (rifle), Sarah Beard, who is from a town about 12 miles from here:

The man who made her rifles, Jochan Anschutz:

A very poor picture of Todd Jarrett, probably wishing he was at a match somewhere:

The Cold Steel guys were sparring every time I walked by. I'd stop for a minute to watch, then 30 minutes later have to tear myself away. Quite a sight:

Some actor or something:

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I went once before. 25 years ago. I hate it took so long to get to another. Next year's is in Nashville. That's not that far...

Gunny must have read that because I awoke at 4am with him yelling in my face to start doing PT.

Day 3. Final day. I'm sad. It took three of them to drag me out, though.

I attended a workshop for clubs and states associations that was very informative. As anyone who has ever used it knows, it's a mess trying to find anything on NRA websites. First, I learned that club support is under NRA Sports. I also learned the NRA has a lot more support for clubs than I knew was available, and how to get it.

Now the fun stuff-

FNH precision rifles:

DSA 58 (FAL) pistol:

The obligatory Barrett photo:

Kahr gold plated and engraved Tommy gun:

Magpul says "bye" to Colorado:

No comment:

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My friend Andy Langlois of Andy's Leather. A good guy making good slings, holsters, ammo cuffs, etc.

Boberg Arms XR9 and XR45. OK, I walked past this one a few times before looking. Once I did stop and look, I think it was the most innovative gun there. Maybe the most innovative in a while. That's not to predict success or failure, but it had a lot of different ideas, that's for sure.

It has a "fork" that lifts the top cartridge from the magazine and holds it in line with the chamber. The barrel doesn't drop down to unlock; it rotates to lock/unlock similar to the Beretta Cougar or the old Savage pocket pistols. The cartridge is fed in a straight line to the chamber.

The designer says this lets him cut the chambers tighter and with full case support (no feed ramp) which lets them handle higher pressure ammo. The .45 ACP model is rated for .45 Super ammunition (28,000 vs 21,000 psi).

You should be able to see the fork there. It is a single piece that is pivoted by the slide traveling over it and pressing the back end down. Pretty simple.

There are more odd things like the recoil spring being in the upper corner of the slide. It's different all over.

A Leupold Custom Shop rep was laser engraving scope turret caps for free. You could choose from wolf prints, deer heads, etc, from their catalog or they could copy something.

An idea hit me.

I brought the caps from my Scout rifle and had them engraved. Since Jeff Cooper came up with the Scout and Gunsite, I felt the Gunsite logo was fitting:

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  • 8 months later...
  • 2 months later...

It looks like there was more going on this year.  I've seen mention of extracurricular shooting events off-site that didn't happen last year.  Also, there were some exhibitors that weren't at last year's show.  

 

I have clearance to go again next year.   It's only about a two hour drive.  

 

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