This will be just a little informal report on my personal experience. I'm only going to offer a few tangential comments on the NRA turmoil in progress:
There were trucks circulating in the area and a small plane overhead with banners calling attention to the NRA's wavering on red flag laws. Honestly that was news to me, I had not been following that closely enough. Took part in some discussions about the internal disputes within the leadership. Not sure honestly, what to think and I won't stammer through it here. I know there's a separate thread, I see it has gotten very long while I was away, I need to catch up on it. I will say that I met Chris Cox, very briefly, and FWIW I got a very good vibe from him. It means nothing, but I got it.
Indy is a very cool town. The downtown is unique. We had steaks Saturday night at St. Elmo's, big reputation for great steaks, well deserved. I'm not a huge steak guy but man that was good!
Observations and things that interested me.
Mantis X device for improving your trigger press / follow through, etc. Motion sensor on your own gun or CO2-cycled trainer, shows movement before, during, after dry-fire shots, showing you where you might improve. Tools for analyzing all, collects data, counts shots, etc. A stand-alone shot counter for live fire may be in the works-- that is of great interest to me. I have tried two others that didn't work, sent back to get them replaced, never heard back and have not heard of them since. https://mantisx.com
Beaucoups AR triggers. Most or all were OMG good and appeared of quality design and construction. Most or all were (my opinion) totally inappropriate for duty guns simply due to being too light and being held in by jack screws or requiring the external pin retaining systems. I have used a very light single stage on a carbine that functioned perfectly and was of impressive quality but due to the feathery let-off and super short pull and resent, actually would bump-fire off my shoulder. So I'm not a fan of this style of trigger for something like a Patrol Rifle. However I will say that the same trigger on a 20" heavy barreled gun has never done that and has given great service in target shooting and prairie poodle control.
Of the triggers I fondled, there is one I will probably buy and try, it's from WMD Guns. Not that I need it but with some of these running $350-ish, the WMD one at about $75, seems worth knowing about. WMD also had a neat stock which houses a retractable sling..... I think it has potential. Full disclosure, I do some business with WMD. They use my OCKS and I have used them for custom gun finishes. But from doing biz with them I have found some pretty sharp people there. In the days prior to NRA I had given my two-day AR Armorer class at a Detroit-area PD and a very young WMD employee was there, just getting started as a gunsmith, a very likeable and sharp young man. There was one more new product than WMD had that I thought was cool but in all the jumble, run-together NRA recollections, I have lost it for the moment. https://www.wmdguns.com
I met Bob Maw at Republic Forge. He bought the company from the original start-up owner. I really didn't know much about the company other than that it was there but talking to Bob I quickly got the feeling that we had a shared outlook on what a 1911 should be. For the show, they had on display some pretty fancy custom 1911's but from what I could see, hear, and feel, and from getting a sample of Bob's philosophy, I feel safe in saying they were not all form and that function came first. Not to write fluff about a company I didn't know anything about before, just saying, I got a good impression and enjoyed the chat. https://republicforge.com/
Seismic Ammo. Very heavy for caliber bullets. Not saying good of bad, just interesting and had a talk with one of the guys there who really seemed to know his stuff. 185 grain 9mm, working on a 300 grain .45 ACP load that's gonna be at 900 FPS he told me, that's quite a goal. The bullet looks very Gold-Dot-ish, but lonnnng. They are using two-piece cases. This might not take the ammo world by storm, and we have seen and probably always will see BS ammo claims out there but these guys seemed more like real people with ammo manufacturing knowledge and less like wild-eyed hucksters, so, to me, kinda interesting: https://www.seismicammo.com/
Of course there were tons of displays for products I already know are not what I consider "the good stuff", a lot of AR15ery badassery / tactical doofage things that don't appeal to me, but, I maintain that hey, to each his own as long as it's not patently unsafe or otherwise dangerous. Some of it is well-made. Point being there simply is not time to stop at each booth for 20 minutes so one does a pick and choose. Absolutely without doubt, I missed some good stuff. I tried to scout little outfits that might have something of interest, and I stopped at displays that had nothing to do with what I’m into but just looked interesting.
Real Avid has a kick-butt AR Armorer’s kit full of clever and useful tools. Very well worth checking out but I don’t see this cased kit on their site, maybe they just came out with it. https://www.realavid.com/shop/catego...intenance/ar15
Daniel Defense. I’ve held them in high regard for quite some time and anyway was obligated to stop there by someone close who has used their product to good effect on three deployments. Picked up some swag for said warrior, texted pics, got gleeful response….. he’s a big fan. Good conversation with the lady there who handles military / LE sales. Handled the new Delta 5 bolt gun a little, looks good but I’m not really the world’s leading expert on bolt guns. Thanks, DD. https://danieldefense.com/usage/prof...arms/mile.html
Faxon Firearms had a great display with a lot of very interesting a well-made products I had no idea they were offering. One being the smallest-diameter AR15 barrels I have ever seen, that if a guy was going for lightweight above all else, would be the way to go. Plenty of other barrel profiles, and other products too… very knowledgeable booth crew. It’s always nice to nab a booth person who knows the product on the tech and manufacturing side. https://faxonfirearms.com/
DuraCoat. I have never really looked into this but got a real education from a smart lady who knew the product, its application and properties very well. Two-part mix and spray, meaning no baking necessary so, basically, put it on anything. Use your airbrush / sprayer, but also available in a special two-part rattle can. They had a revolver there that looked like it had a really fine, high-polish blue on it but—it’s DuraCoat. I thought it looked great. Another product mimics Manganse Phosphate Parkerizing very effectively, and another does Zinc Phosphate Parko. Gold plate, silver plate, camo colors and patterns, wild colors and wild patterns, they have it all. One thought I had was, if a guy wanted a gun to look like it had a high polish blue, but with much better corrosion protection, he could Parkerize it and coat it with the high polish blue version of DuraCoat….. and the lady I spoke to confimed that putting DuraCoat over fresh Parko is the optimal application. https://www.duracoatfirearmfinishes.com/
I looked at a lot of 1911’s. Some outfits making them sell a lot of them simply because, well, the market is huge and they advertise cleverly and prolifically. I didn’t check them all but I did check the Dan Wessons just to see if I got the same impression I’ve been getting the last three or four years, and I did. I have not shot one to speak of but they look and feel impressive. I’m not the easiest guy to impress 1911-wise but they sure seem to be well made. Smooth operating, no sharp coners and knife edgeshttps://danwessonfirearms.com/product/specialist/
Turkish shotguns, in general. Lots of people selling Turkish-made shotguns under US brands and I’m going to go ahead and say I think that is probably a good thing. Even Winschester! I don’t think anyone is obfuscating that they are imports. The quality of all seems good (I have had previous hands-on and shooting with a few over the years); they are of varying degrees of refinement. Everything from a basic econo-pump to very nice looking autos and superlative over/unders. Well, superlative to me anyway, a total non-connoisseur of such guns. But I mean beautiful walnut wood, deep high-polish blue, bank-vault lockups. Dickinson Arms and Legacy Sports were two that I talked to at length about them. The guy at Legacy was a very likeable and knowledgeable young Army vet; among other things he’d been through Armorer training for, well, everything from Berettas to artillery; I told him about my MOACKS carrier key stakers and he said, basically, yup, the Army has them. https://www.legacysports.com, https://dickinsonarms.com
Alexander Arms. I’ve dealt with them for years, a little here and a little there. Bill Alexander was always an interesting cat, good for lengthy and deep consversations. Have Emailed with the new owner, James Reddish, met him here for the first time. He’s a vet and has had some involvement with AA going back years, didn’t really get into what it was, but he knows the biz and we had a pleasant exchange.
Highlight of the show for me: Meeting John Holliger at SIG. Have had a few Email exchanges with him. Quite a personality. We had some meaty tech discussions regarding the AR15 in general… guy knows his stuff from all the angles. Came from AAC to SIG, now doing internal and external training and suppressor development / testing.
More later, probably.
Saved this for last 'cause possible downer. As I exited the show I got interviewed on the street by a young man wearing a show pass, about the NRA’s internal strife. I (we) stayed neutral and noncommittal because that's where I am until accusations one way or the other are substantiated, if they ever can be. Also, because I didn't really know if the interviewer was friendly or hostile toward NRA, or if he was perhaps even polling for the NRA itself. I didn't recognize the outfit he said he represented and then kinda didn't care since I was just telling the truth and certainly none of it was anti-NRA. Only afterward did I get the real picture of who it was, The Trace. Not friends of the NRA. Well as long as he doesn't misquote me, ya know, but-- lesson learned for sure. He recorded the interview on his iPhone, and should there be a next time, I would record it on my own as well. That should help keep an interviewer honest.
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Originally Posted by Ned Christiansen
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