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Gary's Gun Notes #86
Things are finally beginning to slow down a bit
from the hustle of the SHOT SHOW. All the distributors have been having
SHOT SHOW sales and wringing out every penny they can from this yearly
event. I talk about the SHOT SHOW quite often on here but there may be
some that do not know exactly what it is. SHOT stands for Shooting,
Hunting and Outdoor Trade. It is a yearly show held in one of the major
cities in the U.S. The most popular site is Law Vegas. The show takes up
the entire convention center plus normally several large football field
size tents outside the show. I haven't heard the final tally for this
years show but last year they had over 31,000 booths. And booths range
in size from a 10x10 space to a space well over half a football field
size. It literally takes 3 full days to see this show. It is intended
for dealers only but almost all dealers give a pass to some of their
favorite customers. For me it is a chance to meet many of the gun
writers and gun magazine
publishers and some of the people I buy things like reamers,
barrel blanks, steel for cylinders etc from. Due to my surgery a week
before the show this year Kase, Colleen and I missed the show but that's
ok as it does get a bit tiresome going to it every year.
One of the things the show is good for is
to let us see and handle some of the new products that are scheduled to
be released to the public. This doesn't always go as planned
unfortunately. The manufacturers will often show a new product and watch
the publics reaction to it. If people are oohing and aahing over it for
4 days they will go ahead and produce it. If it is mostly ignored, then
they quietly drop the whole idea and when someone asks about it, they
deny the whole thing and tell you that it must have been their
competitor, after all, you how crazy those guys are.
One gun in particular I remember that Kase got
all excited about was a gun from a European company that has some very
decent semi auto pistols out. At the show they had a clear polymer
framed pistol in 9mm. You could see right thru it. The magazine was also
clear so at a glance you could see how many rounds you had left. I
thought it was a neat idea but it never saw the light of day. We asked
them about it the next year and they flatly denied it was them, although
we had pictures of it at their booth.
Quite often guns will be introduced at the show
and take 2 years to ever be delivered. This is not because they are less
than excited about releasing it but due to parts delivery and such. The
old Bren Ten people, Dornaus & Dixon, had a great product in the
Bren Ten, the first 10mm pistol many years ago. But when it came
time for delivery the magazines were not available. They had farmed the
magazines out to another company, who just couldn't seem to get them
done right. So they held off delivering them for a good while. When the
magazines still hadn't become available after several months, they
delivered the guns without magazines, which wasn't a real good idea. Yes
they would have lost considerable money by holding off on delivery but
by delivering them without magazines it killed the company. And tales
such as this have happened many times thru the years. A whole firearm
being scrapped due to the lack of a small part.
A few years ago we released our #5 revolver, a
very close copy of the old original 1929 Elmer
Keith design. The first 15 frames that came in were fine as were
the internal parts. The next 85 were junk, warped and had the screw
holes off center and such. This came about due to faulty heat treating,
which is the last thing they do before shipping. I had almost 100 orders
on the order board and no guns. We had shipped 10 of the first 15 guns
and held back the others for testing. I called the people that had
orders and asked them to hang in there, that I would get their guns out
to them as soon as possible. In the meantime we went thru arguments,
threats, lawyers talking back and forth and got absolutely nothing
done.
This went on for over 6 months. Many of the
customers just decided not to wait and demanded their deposits back. One
afternoon I sat and wrote refund checks for over an hour. Twenty five
years in business and that just about put us under. Eventually
we began to get some frames in, a small handful at a time. Many of the
internal parts still weren't right so that set us back again. That was 5
years ago and we delivered our last #5 of the original 100 back in mid
summer of last year. Diamond Dot, John Taffin's bride had called and
wanted a #5 for John's 66 birthday with the serial number MM66, mile
marker 66. I think John was half way thru his 67th year before he
finally got the gun. I think Diamond Dot would still shoot me on sight.
Three years ago we ordered another 100 of our
stretch frames. The same frame our Professional Hunter and BMF was made
on. Two years later the first batch came in. Out of 100 frames, only 4
were usable. The others were warped. So the whole thing started all
over. That one still hasn't been settled yet. But at least I hadn't done
a big advertising campaign about them so I didn't have but a small
handful of orders for them. I still have 2 or 3 guns that have not been
delivered yet. And they have been waiting for at least 2 years.
What all this comes down to is the old adage,
"the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray". And I know of
several companies thru the years that were good companies, that went
under simply due to things like our problems or the problems of the Bren
Ten people. It happens to large companies too.
While on the subject of the Bren Ten, they are
coming back out again under new ownership. Kase has had the hots for one
of the new ones since he heard about it 2 years ago at the SHOT SHOW.
Kase and I had 6 or 8 of them between the two of us a while back but
eventually sold them when we heard they were coming back in business.
They are taking orders finally and supposedly the first years production
is sold out. Prices run around $1200.
Another gun that looks amazingly like the old
Bren Ten and the new model Bren Ten is the new
Armalite AR-24. Both of these guns is based on the original CZ-75
design, which has been the design of choice for countless pistols over
the past 20 years. And like I was mentioning above, Armalite announced
this 2 years ago, but from what I have heard, very few have actually
ever been released. Knowing Armalite, it will be a good one when it does
finally see the light of day. It is a 16 shot 9mm and all steel
construction.
Hornady has come out with what they call
SUPERFORMANCE ammunition that is said to be 150 to 200 fps faster than
any of it's competition without going over the pressure limits. Other
companies are coming out with specialty ammo for self and home defense.
Winchester has come
out with some very special 410 gauge ammo meant for the Taurus Judge
revolver chambered in 410. It is in their Supreme Elite line of ammo.
For those that carry a pistol as I do, Mexican
Carry, which is simply stuffed behind your belt in the small of your
back, you might check out the new
Kel Tec PF9 in 9mm. It holds 8 rounds and is only about 3/4"
wide, extremely slim. So it would be perfect for those that prefer
Mexican carry. And I have no idea where it got that name. I would think
a mauser rifle and
4 belts of ammo strapped around his chest and neck would constitute
Mexican carry.
Barnes bullets is coming out with a special line
of Buster Bullets. They made the comment that you needed extra heavy
bullets for taking game like bison, moose etc with a handgun. Personally
I think the people at Barnes that made that statement are morons.
Speaking of bringing guns back out, the old
Browning 25 auto, known as the Baby Browning, is coming back. Apparently
due to the run on small carry guns and an upsurge in the pimp business,
there is a demand for small 25 autos. I know a cop in Sarasota Florida
that was shot 5 times point blank in the head with a 25 auto. It really
pissed him off.
Our new Mastodon is doing extremely well, much
better than I had expected. One of my favorite people is Roy Huntington
who is the head honcho of
GUNS magazine and
American Handgunner. Roy always wants me to send him some pics of
our new products and usually he throws in a little free publicity along
the way. I sent him the new pics of the Mastodon that are on the site
here and immediately he called back saying "we need to get that in the
magazine, I will call
John Taffin and get back to you". Within a few minutes I got an
e-mail from Roy saying "get the guns to John and John will do an article
on them and we will get it in the next issue of American Hunter". He
also mentioned that he had to have the article back and in his hot
little hands within 3 weeks. So the race was on.
So I got with John and loaded up some hot rounds
and light rounds for both guns, one a 455 GNR and the other the 510 GNR
prototype. I had the guns to John within a hair over a week and he had
the shoot done and pics taken and back to Roy with days to spare. So my
thanks go out to Roy and John for being two of my favorite people and
good friends. The Mastodon will be in the July/August issue which will
be released the last week of April.
I also have a new Mastodon that we will be
releasing next week. As I type this the gun is in the Black Chromex tank
and will be the first high polished Mastodon and also the first 3 inch
Mastodon. The prototype gun of the snubbies is chambered in 510 GNR.
Andy Rowe has a great light round that is perfect for this little beast.
His 350 Short load or even a lighter load using his new 315 grain bullet
would be perfect in this gun. And before you shudder, the recoil isn't
that bad at all, even with the hot 350 Long load. Due to my surgery I
still can't shoot it yet but Kase shot at least a box of 50 of the light
loads and hot loads thru it with me looking over his shoulder. The gun
barely came off the sandbag in recoil. I will have pics of it by this
time next week.
If you have been wanting a new AR-15, get out and
buy one. You can buy a brand new top of the line brand AR-15 for around
$700 and in some cases less, even closer to $650. There is a glut on the
market of AR-15 type rifles and even the top end brands are making
deals. Guns that were retailing for $1800 this time last year are now
well under $1000.
Police style shotguns are finally back in stock
at most dealers. A lot of people over the last year bought small riot
type shotguns for home defense. Many of the older crowd don't feel
comfortable with an AR-15, but a short riot type shotgun gives them a
warm fuzzy feeling. Mossberg had record sales of their shotguns over the
last year. They sold everything they could make, and often before they
could make it. And the
Mossberg shotguns are, to me, the finest home defense shotguns on
the market. Our troops in Iraq and other hot spots use the Mossberg
model 590 and a fine
combat shotgun it is. When Kase built his first Tactical 12
combat/home defense shotgun, which was built on the
Mossberg 590, when all the pictures were taken and it was
released to the public, I took the prototype home. Since then I have
used it in a couple of combat shoots and a fine shotgun it is.
As I sit here typing this I can see out my office
window and see the snow coming down in what must be our 473rd snowfall
of the year and I ask myself IS THIS CRAP EVER GOING TO STOP??? Damn Al
Gore. It's all his fault for ticking off Mother nature. I do love snow
but I am reaching my love limit rather quickly. And we still have at
least 2 more months in which we normally get snow.
The snow will be nice for our next HHC (Handgun
Hunter's Challenge) coming up in a bit under a month. Last March we had
snow there the first day of the hunt. I can still see Puff Daddy rolling
down the side of the mountain in a ball of snow and mud, screaming like
a little girl. Those California boys aren't used to snow. But they are
good at rolling down hills.
The next hunt is scheduled for
March 25th thru the 28th, Thursday thru Sunday. We arrive
on Thursday and if you get there early enough you can be like
Bill Firman and slay half the hogs in Tennessee by dark. We hunt all day
Friday and Saturday and leave out
on Sunday. The hunt is at the Wilderness Hunting Lodge in
Monterey Tennessee. You can take a look at the lodge at
www.wildernesshuntinglodge.com . They have some of the finest
exotic game I have seen anywhere and their prices are half to one third
what everybody else charges. Plus no hidden charges We should have
Aoudad, large Russian hogs, Sika deer, Fallow deer, bison, water
buffalo, Addax, all kinds of exotic sheep, from Dall sheep to Corsican,
large elk, Red stag,
probably Muntjac and much more. If you enjoy a good hunt, give Sherry
Wilson a call at
931-260-1600 and put down your $250 deposit. I guarantee you
won't regret it.
It looks like time to get back out and
shovel snow, so until next time, take a youngster hunting. They are our
future.
God bless,
Gary Reeder
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Links E-Mail: gary@reedercustomguns.com
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