SHOT Show Day 1

Today was a total learning experience!  Just imagine your local gun show, then doubled it, then quadruple that, and quadruple that (perfect description I saw tweeted out today and had to borrow it).  Today’s goal was to knock out the military/law enforcement exhibits and we found some great stuff.  We really appreciated the vendors that took the time to talk with us and answer our questions as they apply to the civilian and competitive shooting market. 

During the morning rush of check in and the initial shock of “oh my God”, I bumped into our new friends from twitter SHWAT Tactical, where Hog hunting goes tactical!  This is way out of our scope from our usual AG & AG activities but, last week I was very surprised to learn that we have some hog hunting women in our membership, and thought why the heck not… let’s see where this might lead us!  The great point made by SHWAT is that hunting hogs can be a testing ground for the skill sets we are developing when participating in handgun and Multigun sports.

My first fabulous find of the day is Galati Gear (a woman owned company and I met the gal in charge).  The Double Modular Rifle Case has a front compartment with holsters for two pistols standard.  There were several other range bags, but I am just kind of smitten with that one. 

LOVE my new shirt!

While we were moving on the fly, I got to meet our friends and vendor partner Ammunition Depot.  Love that they only carry American made products that are the best quality.  They deal in manufactured bulk ammo sales where you will get the best deals, but any size order is welcome.  They offer our AG & AGmembers 5% off plus whatever bulk discounts may apply.  The best part is they are all about supporting our club, as well as other organizations and training companies… if you are in the market for great ammo; visit our friends at Ammunition Depot. 

The proud moment of my morning was seeing my good buddies with Legion Firearms and their display (and in an amazing location too).  I can say “I remember when” a year ago last November when they were just rolling out the first line of rifles and testing out the course curriculum.  So proud of Adam, Jamie and Chris for all their hard work this year.  And Leander girls, you will remember our friend Chuck that brought the demo pistol for us to test out in top secret conditions… well he is rock n and rolling with these guys.  The super-secret STI/Legion 2011 is a big hit at the show, and the rifles really stand out from the crowd. 

Right next to Legion is Sprinco, another local Austin TX business.  They manufacture upgraded recoil systems for just about every handgun and rifle (reduce the recoil = faster/accurate shooting).  They have the best “machine gunners” lube ideal to use on all your guns. 

We had a lot of fun talking to the guys at Zev Technologies aka www.Glockworx.com. They had some really jazzed up Glocks.  John, who is not a Glock fan, really liked the work they did and was pretty impressed.  The way they trick out the gun is not IDPA legal, but I would consider having a twin sister for Helga (my purple Gen 3 34) just so I can have the trigger job and other sweet bells and whistles. 

Tactical Solutions makes an easy conversion kits for most 1911s and Glocks handguns, as well as rifles.  Being able to convert your carry gun or competition piece into a .22 caliber as a practice gun is the most cost efficient and effective way to put rounds down range with your regular gun instead of using a .22 pistol that does not match the ergonomics you are trying to develop muscle memory for.  If you shoot a lot, this investment will pay for itself very quickly.  If you are looking for a .22 for competition, they make a full line of lightweight pistols that are badass in style and function. 

Law Enforcement Targets www.letargets.com for all you Zombie killers out there, they had the best looking zombies I have ever seen. Not to mention the threat/non threat targets have real challenges on how you engage them, and where you need to place your shots to only hit the bad guy.  We were so busy talking about all the different training systems that we could use for the club and IDPA style shooting that we forgot to get pictures.  We will revisit these guys again tomorrow and post the pictures. 

For those of you who hate to get dirty when cleaning guns, I found something you will want to have!  The Ultrasonic Gun Cleaning System cleans, conditions and lubricates in two steps that takes about 20 mins.  The system is about $400, but well worth it if you don’t have the time to clean your guns as often as you should.  Remember a clean gun is a happy gun… and a happy husband. 

And to finish out my list of favorite things today is the Stress Vest… Reality based training just got real!  You have to visit their webpage for pictures, mine just wonn't do it justice.  Imagine you are playing laser tag and have on the little chest plate that vibrates when you are hit.  Ok now imagine that when you are hit with the laser instead of a vibration, you get shocked!  Yes I said shocked.  The StresssInoc™ allows you to integrate a safe and localized electric stun “pain penalty” to any type of training environment that requires elevated stress. It has several different settings and levels of pain you can work thru, and the electric stun can be placed anywhere on the body (torso, arms etc.) I had all kinds of visions to help our shooters learn how to shoot and move quickly and the big one, use cover properly.  You may not have some shooting back at you but if I ding you with the clicker for being too far out of cover I bet you will learn to fix that technique pretty quick!

Day one ended with an awesome dinner with some friends and me winning $40 playing the Price is Right 2 cent slot.  Wednesday is a big day of appointments and the 3 Gun Nation Range event.  Can’t wait!