Just got back from Charlott NRA convetion

[hip shot]

Wow, what a site, there are acres of displays, every body you have ever heard of is there. Sara Palen's line to buy tickets to hear her talk went from one end of the convention to the other.....

it warms my innards to be arround the faithful

 

[dr632]

Hey - don't stop there ... tell us more, please!

Any antis protesting outside? I doubt it, but curious nonetheless.

Was everyone welcome to carry into the show and events if they had the permits to
do so?

What was your favorite display(s)?

Is the media portraying the speakers correctly?

 

[hip shot]

Hey - don't stop there ... tell us more, please!

Any antis protesting outside? I doubt it, but curious nonetheless.

Was everyone welcome to carry into the show and events if they had the permits to
do so?

What was your favorite display(s)?

Is the media portraying the speakers correctly?

will psot more later,,, there were no anties, we could not carry because it was against the convetion center rules, the gun desplays were awsome, gotta go get garden stuff ... will post more....

 

[fullauto 45]

Did you see the Thompson display? That is always an award winner at the NRA show.

 

[hip shot]

Hey - don't stop there ... tell us more, please!

Any antis protesting outside? I doubt it, but curious nonetheless.

Was everyone welcome to carry into the show and events if they had the permits to
do so?

What was your favorite display(s)?

Is the media portraying the speakers correctly?

like going to the Indy 500 it is somthing everbody needs to go to at least once. There was a thompsen booth and they have somthing new comming. all the gun manufactures were there.

saw a prototype of an airsoft Minigun...... I did not have time to go see any speeakers i was there on a seperate job. I did hear Sara interviewed on the radio and she sounded great.

i walked arround on the floor for 2 hours and only stopped a 4-5 booths and still only covered about 1/2 of the room. Gun manufactures had the biggest booths.

One thing was cool was how it was organised. You go down one isle and it is all the hunting trip booths, the next isle was all the gun collectors, then another area was all the optics, then there was an area where remington and winchester were, but on the other end was Sigg. S and W had a big pistol booth where you could handle all the various models.

if you are an NRA member you get in free if not it is 10 bucks, parking was a problem, I parked at the football staduim and walked in, also getting somthing to eat was a big line.

But it was cool and the displays were top flight. Nothing like the Indy 1500 where it is a bunch of tabels with guns, these were manufatuer booths and displays put up by the corporate marketing arms. Very nice.

Also the Daisy people were there and they are reintroducing the model 25, which has been out of production since 1978, since I still have mine from when i was 10 that was cool to see, also I got the names of 2 people who can restore my old BB gun...

 

[IndyGunSafety]

NRA Convention

I also just got back from Charlotte. While it was a good show there were some down sides. We only went on Saturday, so I'm not sure if any of this applies to Sunday:

We never saw a single protester going in or leaving. But the local news showed about 10 seconds of the show, and then did about 2 minutes on the protesters. We were outside on two sides of the convention center and never saw any.

I think the food court was a little overwhelmed. The lines for food and drink were 30 deep for lemonade and ice cream, but for any real food the lines were 60 to 100 people deep with an hour wait time.

They had great upgrade deals: $500 life membership, $200 to become Endowment member and $750 to become Benefactor. But this kind of got under my skin: The guy that checked me in checked my membership card and never offered me my life ribbon. I had to ask if they were giving them out. I saw the $200 upgrade to Benefactor and decided to upgrade. I filled out the form and asked the guy for his recruiter # so he could get credit for it. He advised me he was not a recruiter so I went to put my number on the form and this lady ran up to me and in a really crappy tone said "You can't do that! This is OUR show!" I nearly told her to shove her upgrade offer. I'm not sure who "OUR" is. NRA? Midway USA? I didn't ask.

I found the guys at the GLOCK booth VERY rude and arrogant. In fact one guy made a comment to me and I am considering removing all references to Glock from anything I teach OR SELL at my shop. Besides, the XD's outsell the Glocks 3 to one in my shop.

Everybody else, and I mean EVERYBODY was very helpful and eager to show their wares. T-shirts and the like were very reasonable. The local cops were nice and very helpful, as was the staff

I found a Kel Tec clone that I am going to try out for a few weeks and if I like it I will begin to offer it. It's a .380 made by I.O. out of Monroe, NC. What's funny is I lived in Monroe for 13 years, and my mom and dad still live there. The gun has a few improvements over the Kel Tec AND come with an extra mag and a holster for LESS than the Kel Tec!

I found a supply of Mosin's I may dig into. I'll buy a few and see how they sell.

The book signings were crowded but the line moved. I got in line for Ted Nugent, but then I came to a sign that said NO PHOTOGRAPHY. I wanted a book and a pic, so stepped out of line. But the line was moving.

USPSA, SASS, and Steel Challenge were there but NOT IDPA.... BOOOOOO!

As far as the workshops, we went up to one that was supposed to start at 1:00 PM and sat right down. They changed the time to 2:00 PM. So we left and came back at 1:30 and the room was packed with HUNDREDS of people, many standing in the back. They were all like that. So that was disappointing.

Saw some great forward grips (for a pic. rail) that had laser and flashlight built in. The guy had 100 and sold them in the first hour or so. Laser was visible clearly all the way across the convention center.

Sig had something similar on an AR they were doing a demo of.

We got there early, (0830) parked within a block, and walked right in. When we left the deck was packed.

Remington now has a 1911 handgun series! Saw some SIG 1911's I had not seen before.

Taurus had the most handguns out of any dealer, and they had EVERYTHING out!

The only other thing I saw that was really "NEW" was a revolver that shot from the 6:00 chamber instead of the 12:00. Internal hammer. Look kind of strange and bigger than it needed to be for a snubby.

The NRA store had a great deal, no tax or shipping charges. So you could go into the store and buy whatever you wanted, OR go up to one of about a dozen computers and order it online. That way you didn't have to carry it around all day, and shipping was free!

Saw a suppressor company I had not seen before. They had a 5.56 product that looks like it works similar to the HALO. Easy on- easy off. Their .22lr was priced at $350 and was not as large in diameter as the TI or Gemtech's. A .45 was $850.

The new XD's are beautiful! I really like the 3.8" barrel and overall size of the gun.

I had a red shirt on with huge INDY GUN SAFETY lettering on front and back. I saw several folks I knew and met some who were from Indy, Carmel and Avon.

The only other thing that made me go Hmmmmmm.... was a guy at a display that had a 20mm rifle up on top of a cargo hauler. He was telling his crowd how they bought the barrels for the gun from the US government, and that they were from the 20mm Vulcan cannon on the A-10 Warthog. The A-10 never had a Vulcan cannon on it. It has always had the GAU-8A 30 mm cannon and in fact the aircraft was BUILT AROUND the cannon... That's why the front landing gear is way off to the side. No big deal, but a new business introducing a new product shoots themselves in the foot when they give out inaccurate info. It leads the savvy consumer to wonder about credibility.

Plenty of light, crowded but moving along. Hotties EVERYWHERE! All in all I enjoyed myself and would go back. But I would take a few cereal bars and some bottled water and avoid the food court.

Largest NRA convention EVER, and largest ever convention for the city of Charlotte. It was a win-win for everyone but the invisible protestors.

 

[BE Mike]

It sounds like the magnitude of the show pretty much overwhelmed the convention center, vendors and volunteers. Is that what happened? The Louisville show was huge, but it sounds like it was better handled.

 

[hip shot]

For IndyGunSaftey; it sounds like you really checked the place out. i was told they turned vendors away. That is prolly why we could not get anyting to eat, or drink.

Also they could not accomodate a dinner banquet on Saterday night. I beleive the show is comming to Indy in 3 years so that would be cool.
would reccomend everybody keep an eye on that.

The thing that blew me away was the barret booth. In their magazine they showed a 1.9 inch 5 shot group shot from 1000 yards!!!!!!!!!!!
it is a new record....

 

[ihateiraq]

It's a .380 made by I.O. out of Monroe, NC. What's funny is I lived in Monroe for 13 years, and my mom and dad still live there.

i lived there from about 88-98. whats it looking like down there? sadly, i havent been back.

 

[Tactical Dave]

The only other thing that made me go Hmmmmmm.... was a guy at a display that had a 20mm rifle up on top of a cargo hauler. He was telling his crowd how they bought the barrels for the gun from the US government, and that they were from the 20mm Vulcan cannon on the A-10 Warthog. The A-10 never had a Vulcan cannon on it. It has always had the GAU-8A 30 mm cannon and in fact the aircraft was BUILT AROUND the cannon... That's why the front landing gear is way off to the side. No big deal, but a new business introducing a new product shoots themselves in the foot when they give out inaccurate info. It leads the savvy consumer to wonder about credibility.

There was one on gunbroker that was listed as a 20mm anti-tank gun........... um... no.

On the GLOCK people there.... I am not a fan of them just for how they feel in my hand but a lot of the onwers seems to think they are the greatest thing since slice bread and that all other guns are junk......... personally I am against no gun that feels good to me and is a quality gun.

 

[Rotor Talker]

I'm back as well, Spent all 3 days there, actually got at the front to see the ribbon being cut, heard LaPierre say " Next year in Pittsburgh, 2012 in St. Louis, following that Houston. The wife and I suspect the timing vs. the Indy 500, the 500 still trumps everything, for now I guess, after reading the news about the sparse crowds, well, I better keep my personal feelings out of this.

Mods please warn me if this is unacceptable.

Liked being able to compare all the .22's under one roof, after looking at the three in process of being brought out, I'm getting a Tactical Solutions .22lr upper for my Glock 22. The only 1911 dedicated gun I would even consider would be the Umarex one, the GSG and Chiappa people had no idea what I was talking about when I asked if it disassembled like a regular 1911, bad deer in headlights look.

Agree with Indy Gun safety 100% on Glock people, Dave Sivegny ( I hope I misspelled it) is an ass, an exceptionally arrogant one at that, hope his knees give out on him one day. Everyone else, Todd Jarrett, Jerry Miclek( sp, sorry, great friendly guy) Jim Scoutten, The Gunny of course, all great guys. The Gunny was all the made Glock ok for me, even Randi Rogers was kinda snippy, and this was at 10:00 friday morning! the Thompson display was as always, Maj Plaster's presentation on sniper's had over 700 people in the auditorium, he made a great comment ? slip when discussion the Suni Triangle and where Oba...uh, Saddam had his HQ, it was great, brought the house down, he's pretty cool. The 1911 lecture was actually pretty disappointing, and I really like listening to Martin Morgan, this time though it bombed pretty bad, lots of people walking out during it, falling asleep, I thought they could have done so much more with it.

Don't get me wrong Medal of Honor stories are interesting as hell, (by the way SFC Sammy Davis, from Freedom, IN was at Voodoo tactical, got to shake his hand and thank him for all he's done, really nice guy), but the 1911 presentation could have been a lot better.

Pretty good time all in all, will have some pics up shortly.

 

[T-rav]

I just seen Becks Keynote speech. That was pretty cool! Sounds like it was a good time!

 

[IndyGunSafety]

i lived there from about 88-98. whats it looking like down there? sadly, i havent been back.

Union County is the fastest growing county in the state. All the land I used to hunt is $250,000 and up houses!

 

[ihateiraq]

Union County is the fastest growing county in the state. All the land I used to hunt is $250,000 and up houses!

ill have to plan a visit to see what it looks like now a days.

 

[Rotor Talker]

Must have been my indy 500 comment.......

Well, I guess I can't post up my pictures, at the bottom it says I may NOT post attachments.

Anyone wanting to see my pics, PM me an email, I'll be glad to share what I have.

It's a great time, they had Louisville and Columbus Ohio on the survey for future sites, Indy used to be on, and noone will discuss why we aren't. I don't think the NRA big wigs liked my " we're good enough for the Super Bowl in 2012, but not the NRA?"

I'm not dropping it though, firing off a letter to the NRA secretary tomorrow, my guess is though with that race, there are no rooms, alas, and our loss.

 

[ihateiraq]

Well, I guess I can't post up my pictures, at the bottom it says I may NOT post attachments.

Anyone wanting to see my pics, PM me an email, I'll be glad to share what I have.

It's a great time, they had Louisville and Columbus Ohio on the survey for future sites, Indy used to be on, and noone will discuss why we aren't. I don't think the NRA big wigs liked my " we're good enough for the Super Bowl in 2012, but not the NRA?"

I'm not dropping it though, firing off a letter to the NRA secretary tomorrow, my guess is though with that race, there are no rooms, alas, and our loss.

youve gotta host them offsite on photobucket etc and then copy and paste the code into your post. theres a tutorial on it floating around.

 

[Rotor Talker]

I see



OK, Tomorrow then, I'll have some up.

 

[Manan]

I too am back from the convention. I never saw one anti anywhere. Lots of film crews outside. Venders where by and large great and polite although at times overwhelmed. Food was a bit pricey, but that was to be expected.

Great displays from the early days of firearms and many great old collections available for view with histories attached.

Checked out my competition (Hearing Protection) and saw that we manufacture as good as any and better than most. We will have a booth set up at the next NRA Convention in Pittsburgh.

Lots of give aways such as bumper stickers, decals, flags, bags, pins, etc.

It really was very educating and a lot of fun. Met a lot of folks from Indiana.fun