GARY'S GUN NOTES
Every spring the gun magazines list the guns, scopes and ammo of the year. My
pet peeve is in most cases the guns they choose have not even been released to
the shooting public. A poll that seems a bit more “honest” is one where gun shop
dealers send in their pics and they are tabulated and gold, silver and bronze
medals are given out. The poll for this year just came out a week or two ago and
actually shows some winners in about 30 different categories.
Just to go over a few of the categories that gun shops
have voted for here are the winners…
In the bolt action rifle category in order of gold,
silver and bronze it was Ruger, Savage and Remington. The vote for Remington
surprised me a bit (I didn’t vote for them) due to the bad feelings that
Remington has left among gun shops over the past few years. They are owned by
new folks and obviously they have done their homework as they pulled in a Bronze
medal. The winners for AR-15s (and yes they called them “Modern Sporting Rifles
which to me is a chicken shit way of listing AR-15s. It is like they are afraid
they will tick off some anti gun people if they call them an AR-15.) Anyway in
order of gold, silver and bronze it was Daniel Defense, Ruger and S&W.
In the shotgun category it was Benelli, Beretta and
Browning.
In the AR-15 pistol
category it was Sig, Daniel Defense and Springfield. In the handgun category it
was Glock (naturally), SAR which surprised me big time as not every gun shop
carries the SAR. And bronze went to Sig.
There were almost 40 categories of clothes, optics,
safes and so on so I won’t go into all of these. But in a few in the centerfire
ammunition (which I think included handgun ammo) it was Hornady, Federal and
Winchester. This had to be a hard one as ammo is still iffy in many areas and it
is hard to vote for a company when we can’t get the ammo to sell.
In shotshells it was Federal, Hornady and Winchester.
Shotshells are a really strange market these days. We
sell shotgun slugs as quick as we can get them in and there is no hunting season
out here that requires slugs. But slugs sell as quick as buckshot.
In the rimfire ammo it was again hard to vote for a
company that can’t get product to us but it was CCI, Hornady and Aquila. Hornady
and Aquila have both been real good about getting product to us. Can’t say the
same for CCI.
In reloading
components it was Hornady (no surprise there), CCI and Federal. In the bullets
category it was Hornady, Sierra and Barnes.
In the rifle scope category it was Sightmark (that was a
surprise), Leupold and Vortex. Some of that ticked me off as there was no
category in handgun scopes. I guess we got thrown under the bus again.
In the red dot sight it was Sightmark, Aimpoint and
Trijicon.
In the binocular
category it was Swarovski (this surprised me as the company is sort of outdated
and I seldom see one in the field. Next was Leupold and Nikon.
In the rangefinder category it was Bushnell, Leupold,
and Vortex. In the spotting scope category it was Leupold, Swarovski, and
Vortex.
In the hard gun case it
was Pelican (no surprise there), Plano and Allen.
In the knife category it was Buck (a bit of a surprise
there but a lot of gun shop owners are older and they grew up with Buck knives),
Benchmade and Kershaw.
In the
boots category (and this was a hard one for me as I have had some real duds thru
the years), it was Danner, 5.11, and Rocky.
At the bottom of the list was favorite gun writer and
this really surprised me. It was, in order Kevin Reese (whom I never heard of),
Max Archer (ditto on him), and Gordy Krahn, another one I never heard of. Guess
I am showing my age as I didn’t vote for any of them.
There were about 2 dozen other
categories including,
gun powder
Aftermarket trigger
Aftermarket barrel,
night vision
Thermal
Laser sight
Gun mounted light
Hand held light
Suppressor
Shotgun choke tube
Shooting sticks
Shooting bench
Shooting targets
Gun cleaning product
Gun safe
Bipod
Apparel
Favorite new product
Favorite article
I will have to admit the above categories left me
yawning. Ho hum.
A few tidbits of
new goodies. S&W has a new M&P9 limited edition coming out. It is optics ready
and comes with 2 stretch magazines that hold 23 rounds each plus one mag holding
15 rounds.
CZ has revamped their
Scorpion. It is now the Scorpion 3+ micro pistol. It comes ready for an arm
brace and comes with 20 round mags with the 30 round mags coming soon.
The Ghost Gun Law is now in effect. It is a confusing
law to say the least. All homemade firearms now have to have serial numbers on
it to be legal. And some parts have to be serial numbered. Many of the parts
kits and some of the individual parts will have to have the NICs check done
before you can buy them.
This is
just a small part of the gun control that Biden says he is coming out with if
the Dems win in November. This includes confiscating all AR-15s and AK-47s plus
guns that are similar and plus any semi auto rifle or shotgun that can hold more
than 5 rounds. And these are just a few of the laws he wants to pass if the
Democrats stay in power in November. So obviously this is a very important
election for law abiding folks. With Biden giving out money left and right it
will tend to make some voters jump on the liberal band wagon for the free stuff.
So talk to your gun friends and make sure they are
planning to vote. Even be willing to drive them to the polling places. Do
whatever we can to stay a free country.
Congrats go out to Michael Mendes who is in Africa again
and has taken a great Cape Buffalo and Sable. Hopefully more info as it comes
in. My next Africa hunt is a big IF. Health wise I hope to make my last African
hunt next summer. Colleen is set to go over next spring and if I can make it
late next summer.
If you have a
chance to get out and do some shooting or small game hunting make sure and take
a youngster or lady with you. And if you can make the HHC (Handgun Hunters
Challenge the 6 thru 9th of October at the usual place, in Monterey Tennessee)
bring a friend or youngster and lady with you. It will be a great memory for
them and you too. Until next month, God bless,
Gary