With only hours left in 2014 it brings
one to wonder how well we will weather
2015. We have done surprisingly well,
politically wise this year, even though
Obama keeps throwing monkey wrenches
into the works. He has to be the
absolute worst and most anti gun and
anti American president we have ever
had. This next 2 years under him will
tax our reserves of patience for sure.
We have had some good things come to
pass this year with quite a few new
conservatives elected in November and
hopefully they will get in office next
month and start working to get this
country back into shape. Also on the
good side, in 2014 there were quite a
few guns introduced. Ruger has been at
the forefront of the new gun
introduction as usual. The new owners
and managers at Ruger have changed the
rules quite a bit than in the past.
Years ago if Ruger introduced a new gun
and said it would hit the dealer’s
shelves within a few months, that
usually meant a few years. The P-85
comes to mind that was introduced in
1985 and actually made it’s appearance
in late ‘87 if I remember right. And
Ruger hasn’t been the only company
guilty of this. More and more these days
the SHOT SHOW has become a “concept
show” where new products are shown and
if they get enough orders for the new
gun they then build it, making delivery
months or years down the road. If they
don’t get enough orders or interest in
it, then they quietly drop the whole
idea.
Ruger has surprised me during the last
year or so by introducing a myriad of
new guns and being successful in selling
them. There were even a couple in the
past that didn’t do well that Ruger will
be bringing back in 2015. There are also
a couple that they are revising and
bringing back out nicer and more
shootable then before. A couple of those
are the Gunsite Scout rifle in 308 and
223 and the Charger pistol, built on the
fine 10-22 chassis. One of the newly
redesigned Chargers is a take down model
just like the take down 10-22. Not
really sure why but it should appeal to
many plinkers and varmint shooters out
there. When I heard the newly redesigned
Charger was coming out I was hoping it
would be in 22 Magnum. But the 22 Magnum
10-22 didn’t do well for a lot of
reasons that I am not privvy to, so
bringing out a pistol on the old 22
Magnum chassis was asking a bit too
much.
Ruger did pleasantly surprise me with
their new AR-556, an extremely well made
basic AR-15. Their SR 556 is the top of
the line AR but many can’t swing the
high dollar price tag. The new AR 556
should fill the void very well and end
up in a lot of gun cabinets.
Another thing that has pleasantly
surprised me in this past year is the
large amount of gun companies that are
moving and have moved to gun friendly
states in the South. A lot of it has to
do with the unions and the desire to
move their company to a “right to work
state”. That term may have some vague
meanings to some folks. Half of our
states are right to work states. This
simply means a worker can’t be forced to
join a union or pay union dues, even if
a union represents every other worker in
the plant. In union states the unions
force the workers to join up, whether
they want to or not. Most of the right
to work states are in the South, from
Tennessee on down. Most of the union
states are in the northeast although
some are in the west. Some states that
are considered union states have
surprised me. States like New Mexico,
and Montana, while some other western
states didn’t surprise me at all. States
that have been known to be anti gun and
extremely liberal states like
California, Washington, Oregon, and
Colorado really didn’t surprise me as
they have been left leaning for years.
I have mentioned this before but very
briefly here are some of the gun
companies and accessory companies that
have moved South. Beretta has moved to
Gallatin Tennessee, American Tactical
has moved to South Carolina, Walther/Umerex
has moved to Ft. Smith Arkansas, Knight
Arms has moved to Florida, Steyr Arms
has moved to Alabama, Mag-Pul has moved
to Texas and Wyoming and several other
companies are currently in the process.
A couple that surprised me were Kahr
Arms who moves a whole 60 miles out of
New York to another union state,
Pennsylvania. That doesn’t make a bit of
sense. And of course Colt. They planned
to move to Florida, had a large plot of
land set to lease to them for $1 a year.
The city renovated a large building,
costing about a quarter million to do.
And then Colt, as they have done several
times in the past. changed their feeble
minds and decided to stay in the north
east. I have no compassion for Colt at
all. If they don’t want to see the light
at the end of the tunnel, then they can
go under for all I care.
By the way if you have wondered which
states are the most gun friendly gun
states, here are the top gun states in
order...by the way these tabulations are
from the NRA and from Guns and Ammo
magazine..
1. Arizona (this didn’t surprise me with
our extremely pro gun governor)
2. Vermont (this surprised me)
3. Alaska
4. Utah
5. Kentucky
6. Wyoming
7. Alabama
8. Kansas
9. Missouri
10. New Hampshire
11. Montana
12. Florida
13. Georgia
14. South Carolina
15. Texas
16. Indiana
17. Louisiana
Here are the neutral states. These are
states that have tried to be gun
friendly but due to some anti gun
politicians they have failed to be
completely gun friendly..in order..
18. Mississippi
19. North Carolina
20.Pennsylvania
21. West Virginia
22. Nevada
23. Tennessee
24. Virginia
25. Wisconsin
26. North Dakota
27. South Dakota
28. Oregon
29. Maine
30. Oklahoma
31. Arkansas
32. Idaho
33. Michigan
34. Nebraska
And on the other side of the coin, here
are the worst gun states, in order of
not quite as bad to why in hell would
you want to live there......
35. Ohio
36. New Mexico
37. Colorado
38. Iowa
39. Minnesota
40. Washington
41. Delaware
42. Rhode Island
43. Maryland
44. Illinois
45. Connecticut
46. Hawaii
47. California
48. Massachusetts
49. New Jersey
50. New York
51 Washington D.C.
There are the standings and again I
didn’t make those up. And it does bother
me that my home state of Tennessee isn’t
in the most gun friendly states list,
but they have had some hard core liberal
politicians in the past few years and
some gun laws passed that were not good
ones.
For those not in the know, Kase is
totally burnt out on building guns and
is taking some time off. In the past he
has been manager of a couple of night
clubs and when a friend offered him
managership of a new club in Scottsdale,
he decided to give it a try. He has been
building custom 1911s since he was about
14 and he just turned 39, so that is
enough years to burn out just about
anyone. The custom 1911s will still be
built. My main guy, Nate Henning, and I
are collaborating on several new
designs. Our new Texas Ranger Classic
has been recently introduced in a
Commander length 1911. It is being made
in 45 ACP and 10mm.
https://reedercustomguns.com/1911/TexasRanger.htm
We also have introduced our new Patriot
1911, which is also in 45 ACP and 10mm.
This one is starting out in the
Commander size frame for concealed carry
but will be offered in government model
lengths fairly soon. We have worked out
a deal for one of the big companies to
make our slides and frames for us and we
are doing all the interior and custom
work along with the special custom parts
added. The guns go thru an extensive
testing process and if they won’t shoot
a 1 1/2” group at 25, they get a new
barrel or whatever it takes for them to
do so. We are also keeping the prices
down to where they should be. The basic
gun (and “basic” is just a word, as it
has all the bells and whistles) is
selling for $1495 with us furnishing the
entire gun. The next step up is the same
gun but with the light rail at $1595. In
the near future we will also do the same
package on the customer’s base 1911, but
that will be determined by how soon the
parts situation eases up. For now we
will build the guns and offer them on
our “in stock list”....https://reedercustomguns.com/information/in_stock.htm.
We also have one or two other custom
1911s on the drawing board.
Some other new ones we have recently
introduced are our new American Classics
which are full custom Ruger Old Army
revolvers. We are building our own
special cylinders with more capacity in
the 44 caliber and building new 5 shot
cylinders in 475 caliber. Each of these
new guns has a brand new barrel and
several new parts.. We have pretty much
redesigned the entire gun, giving the
Old Army a lot more power than ever
before.
Another new one just introduced is our
Silverhawk. This beauty is based on the
Redhawk and sports a new 5 shot cylinder
(in most calibers, 6 shot in some of the
smaller calibers), a new full octagonal
barrel and octagonal full underlug.
Chambered in several large calibers this
one should give the person who spends
time in dangerous game country a whole
new double action revolver, that has the
power but not the weight of some of the
other big game revolvers..https://reedercustomguns.com/revolvers/silverhawk.htm
Last month we introduced our new Perfect
Packin’ Pistol, and my thanks to John
Taffin for the inspiration for this one.
In fact the prototype gun is being
shipped out to John for an article in
the next few days. Also being shipped
out are the two American Classics, in 44
and 475 caliber. These are going to Mike
Venturino for an article.
Our next HHC is now 3 months away. Three
months from tomorrow night we will be
leaving here and driving to the
Wilderness Hunting Lodge in Monterey
Tennessee. The hunt is officially
scheduled for April 2 thru 5. All the
weekends in March were conflicting dates
with things already planned by Alan
Wilson of the lodge or myself. Already
quite a few folks calling to see about
booking a spot on the hunt. If you have
more questions, feel free to call me at
928-526-3313 or to book a spot, call the
lodge at 931-839-2091 and if it doesn’t
go thru the first time, keep trying as
they are way out in the boonies. And
consider this my personal invitation to
join us in April for the next Handgun
Hunter’s Challenge.
That’s it for now. More info next time
on new guns and accessories to be
spotlighted at the SHOT SHOW. Til then,
take a lady or youngster shooting. They
are our future.