The Oshkosh Blues Again

Oh mama, can this really be the end?
To be stuck inside of Oshkosh
With the Boulder blues again...

— With painful apologies to Bobby Dylan

You know, lake perch isn't bad! I had dinner last night with the guns from SIGARMS, since the entire hapless Outdoor Channel crew was driving in from Chicago, where they got stuck in the O'Hare flypaper.

Remember, I'm only at the DU Great Outdoors Festival TODAY...I'll be in the Outdoor Channel booth/truck when I'm not sneaking over to the range to pop off a few rounds, and I'll have a bunch of leftover SHOT Show collectable duck pins...this is the last of 'em!

Stop by and help me pass the afternoon!

I talked to my pal Dave Skinner from STI International yesterday, and he says orders are already coming in for the Texican single action revolver. he did not say whether he planned to extend the incredibly successful STI Contingency Money plan to cowboy action shooting. Essentially, shoot an STI gun and win in USPSA, IDPA or at the Steel Challenge, and nice Mr. Skinner will give you money. Cowboy has always disdained the bucks, a la Tom T. Hall's admonition in Faster Horses — "I do not care for horses, whiskey. women and the loot!"

But a contingency plan exists separate from the organizing organization and is outside of SASS' control. And I'll bet a lot of the young Turks in cowboy would love to put some college money in their pockets!

The SIG guys tell me the 556 carbine is getting closer and closer to the market pipeline. That's good, because there are a lot of people standing in line waving money. Speaking of carbines, I'm following up with the guys from Sabre Defense Industries on their AR platform guns...they do the Massad Ayoob signature gun...if Mas had asked me, I'd have gone for, say, mauve furniture...what color is mauve, anyway? Sabre is also importing the Swiss Sphinx pistol, a very pricey, very well-made 9mm, ostensibly with a .40 on the horizon. They look and handle great, although I didn't get a chance to shoot one. Since the Sphinx is made in the shadow of the Eiger, it would be the perfect gun for an Eiger Sanction!

BTW, Jerry Ahern posted a really cool article on the Zen of the O.K. Corral over on the SHOOTING GALLERY site! This October is the 125th Anniversary of the Uber-Shootout, and, of course, we'll be there for the festivities, and, yes, we'll be your huckleberries. Well have Bob Boze Bell in tow, and he knows more about outlaw mythology than any sane person should!

Anyhow, come see me this afternoon! Oshkosh, b'gosh!