PS: Spent some time at Chris and Ronnie Barrett's ultimate fantasy gunstore, The Outpost Armory, down the street from Barrett. WOWIE-ZOWIE! Think of it as a gun geek's wet dream...skids of ammunition, walls of exotic arms (including an SPR semiauto Krink 5.56 that practically wept to come home with me), all the ARs in the world and a whole series of 'way cool t-shirts put together by Chris Barrett (who was also the primary designer of the Barrett .338 Lapua you saw on SG recently), including one he made for me in mind that shows an S&W M29 and the words, "WHEEL GUNS IS REAL GUNS!" Cool or what?
You know, I completely forgot Sabre was in Nashville...I had the extra time this afternoon and now I feel el stupido for not dropping by. I'll make it up to them with a special trip.
Dinner tomorrow night with Larry Potterfield in Missouri.
BTW, Marshal Halloway and I made a decision today to shift SHOOTING GALLERY and DRTV resources away from this year's Steel Challenge in California and refocus them on the Ruger Rimfire Challenge event in New Mexico. I won't go into all the reasons but it was definitely the right thing to do. Lemme know your thoughts on the matter...
Let us know enough ahead of time to play too.
ReplyDeleteI think the rimfire challenge is important in that it can bring in new shooters from families. So...filming it is important too.
ReplyDeleteHaz will be ordering one of those shirts I bet.
ReplyDeleteAs for Steel challenge versus Ruger Rimfire, As Anon at 5;03 said, the Ruger event is a fairly low investment event that draws younger new shooters to competition shooting, and is more doable in a bad economy. Besides why spend money in a State that hates everything we believe in if you don't have to.
Tom B.
YES, to Ruger Rimfire and THANK YOU!
ReplyDeleteMB, Tom B. sparked a thought... I have been thinking of moving to New Mexico for a while. Been there with the wife on vacation and love it. There seems to be quite a few shooting events and ranges out there (including NRAs Whittington range). Hunting also looks to be varied and plentiful with a few large national parks.
ReplyDeleteSince you travel across the country in your work, I would be interested in your assessment of the environment in NM both for the opportunities to shoot and the political environment. In general the gun culture and climate. If you want to broaden the treatment to other states also that would be great. It's always better to get first hand info and I value your opinion.
Everybody and his mother will be at the Steel Challenge.
ReplyDeleteYou wanted a low cost family shooting event so it makes sense to help push it.
Ratcatcher55
Interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe Steel Challenge website says "“We are proud of our longstanding relationship with the Steel Challenge and honored to once again be their official television show. For the past six years Shooting Gallery viewers have had a front row seat to the fascinating world of Speed Shooting and what is one of the most important shooting matches on the planet,” said Michael Bane, producer and host of Shooting Gallery."
"proud to be a part of one of the most important shooting matches on the planet", to not going at all, three weeks before the match? So, what's the real story?
My relationship with the Steel Challenge has always been predicated on everyone standing up, being up front and doing what they say they will do.
ReplyDeleteI can't give you the whole story right now, but it's a sordid little piece of garbage. My experience has been that when you lay down in garbage, you wake up with pigs.
mb
Can't wait to hear this one!
ReplyDeleteDittos to all of the above! I like the idea of seeing matches that the average guy can participate in without being (at best) an afterthought.
ReplyDeleteSure, it's fun to watch the "super-duper stars" demonstrate skills that take years of hard work to develop. And thats assuming you have the natural ability to start with.
Seems to me watching (another) "B" or "C" shooter would be more likely to encourage a new shooter to jump in and sign up. Well, that and keeping entry fees low.
It is always a plus to remember that normal people like to shoot too!
ReplyDeleteEspecially when it is still affordable to do so.
Bravo Mr. B.
I'd love to watch "B", "C" and "D" shooters instead of the really great shooters. It would be just like watching any other sport on TV, like golf for instance.
ReplyDeleteOh wait, no other sport does that. Guess shooting isn't really a sport so its not fair to compare it with actual sports.
Sorry Steel Challenge went south, but I agree with the others that jumping to the Rimfire Challenge was a good decision. I've enjoyed watching the stars, and I'm not so sure rimfire won't have its share of whiz bangers, too. But the economy is driving more of us more and more to rimfire for practice, and it's the place for recruiting and encouraging new shooters to our game.
ReplyDelete(Am also awaiting with bated breath for the real Steel Challenge story!)
Anything that keeps you out of California is a good thing to me.
ReplyDelete