Miles walked today so far: 3.4.
We finished up around 4 PM. I think I can safely say we saw everything, even the stuff that didn’t interest us or that appalled us.
Not much to report from the rest of the upper level, to be honest. There were a lot of really nice displays from the collector’s associations in the area we looked at. My people, the S&WCA, had an excellent display of Schofield revolvers, and I got to chat with some of my friends in that group. The Remington collectors had a huge display of Remington Model 720 rifles that had been awarded by the Secretary of the Navy to winners of marksmanship competitions. The one that really blew me away was the Ruger Collectors display of Model 1 rifles…in every known caliber they’ve been made in. Which is something like 66 calibers total.
We got to handle a TC86 rifle at Taylor’s and Company, and this is something both Mike the Musicologist and I are interested in. A takedown .45-70 lever gun that looks wonderful, and isn’t going for that much more than the revived Marlin .45-70 lever guns? You have my attention.
I did manage to make it to the Smith and Wesson booth, which was in a back corner of the upper level. It kind of felt like they had been exhiled to Siberia, though it may just be that was the only place they’d fit. I don’t have a whole lot to report from there, except that the wood stocked Model 1854 does look nice in person.
One vendor whose products interest me, though I didn’t get a chance to talk to them, was Oasis Scientific. They make wireless borescopes. I don’t know that I need one, but it seems like something worth having. Lyman also makes one now, too, which I did not know.
Mike reminded me that we had a really good time chatting with Gordon Bond, of Bond Arms. Mostly we chatted about the Cyclops, which is silly and something I don’t need, but which also looks like fun. If you miss the bad guy with your one shot, you’ll set him on fire with the muzzle blast. (Personally, I’m thinking about getting one of Bond’s .45 Colt/.410 bore derringers.)
I had a good chat with the Burris folks on Friday. According to their rep, Scout scopes are still an active product. They’re just backordered right now due to supply chain issues and the fact that everyone is buying them – at least, everyone who wants a long eye relief scope, because they are pretty much the only choice. Leupold discontinued theirs. As for a model with the features of the Veracity PH…seems unlikely.
We did get to talk to everyone we wanted to who was at the show. But there were a lot of people we expected to be there who were not: Steyr, Leupold, and Brownells were three absences that we noticed.
At this point, I feel like I need to get home, sleep for a week, and sort through all the stuff I picked up before I can write any more about the show. I’ll probably be trickling stuff out over the next few days. Tomorrow is a travel day for us, so light blogging ahead.
Addendum: Number of protestors seen or heard by me personally: zero. Our other two friends did say that they saw some near the city hall while they were walking back to their hotel, but I did not see or hear a single one. I also did not see any of the mobile sign trucks that they were using in Houston in 2022.
Edited to add: Apologies for the confusion. I don’t know what’s going on, but it feels like the WordPress app on the iPhone is eating my posts when I make changes and replacing them with previous drafts. I think I have this one back to the way it was now.