This past week has been one of the worst I have gone thru. We have lost 2 of our good friends to what appears to be blood clots. Both were way too young to die. Jason Parr, Puffy to his many friends, and Eric McClure, Squirrely to his many friends, both died this past week. Puffy left a wife and 3 young boys, Squirrely left his wife Teresa. Most of us that knew them are still in shock. Both Puff and Squirrely were at the last HHC 3 weeks ago. They will be sorely missed.

The HHC was another good one with 40 Misfits there. A lot of exotic game was taken and a lot of freezers were filled to overflowing. We have dropped the March HHC due to a lot of bad weather during mid march. We will only be doing the October hunt from here on. No date set yet for the next HHC.

Our Africa hunt in March is filled up. The new camp holds 12 hunters and it is in the middle of 120,000 acres and has not been hunted before except for a small group that went in this past spring to weed out a lot of cripples, one horned animals, barren cows and other non trophy animals. But we will be the first actual hunting group in there in around 100 years.

The 12 hunters are..

Alcorn Russell

Eric Stenberg

Nick Stenberg

Larry Farley

Huey Eaves

Daren Harris

David McGilvray

Doug Faith

Dean Andrews

John Bunnell

Amede Honeycutt

And myself.

Larry Farley and Alcorn Russell were with me on the last African hunt this past May but it is the first time for the rest. I really enjoy watching the new guys enjoy the wonders of Africa. There is nothing like it on this planet that I know of. On the last hunt in May the guys and one lady took 53 animals and so far we have learned that about 40 have made the record book, some in the top 10. Hunting Africa is great but putting one or more animals in the record book is just icing on the cake.

Our hunting seasons are off to a good start. Lots of big bulls being taken and record book size bucks. The heavy rains this past spring and summer have left us with heavy thick grass and the animals are loving it.

Due to being gone for a week at the HHC and then being off the grid so to speak during this past horrible week, not a lot to tell you about. Couple of unusual things though. The Mossberg Shockwave, is a very unusual one. Mossberg started with a whole new frame and listed it as a firearm, not a shotgun, so it can legally be shorter than the normal 18” barreled shotgun. It has a 14” barrel, a pistol grip and is extremely handy. It comes in 12 or 20 gauge and I can’t think of a better home defense or “truck” gun. We sell them as quick as we can get them in and surprisingly about half of them have gone out to ladies. And being made by Mossberg, that means the quality is there.

Another thing that is sort of goofy but will probably sell well, is a “sniper” rifle for youngsters. Those of you familiar with the Crickett rifle, the tiny little single shot 22 rifle for the little guys and girls mainly under 10 years old. The gun is, as I said, tiny. But now they have come out with a sniper rifle version of the Crickett. It is called the Crickett Precision Rifle. If you have seen the Ruger precision Rifle, this one is a tiny version of that. Full tactical stock, bipod, piccatinny rail and a scope with hood and a threaded barrel with a muzzle brake like that found on a 50 caliber Barrett and it comes in the flat dark earth finish. And the whole package should sell for less than $350. I predict there will be a lot of these in Santa’s bag in a few weeks.

Those of you back east that use bolt action shotguns like the Browning A-Bolt, it is being dropped, so you might grab one while they are still available. They are at close out prices so you save big bucks while you are at it.

We have set up to do the Hydro Graphic camo finish on AR-15s and a lot of other guns. This is a really nice finish and for those that don’t want their AR to be just another black gun, this might be the way for you to make it different. Lots of different shades of camo from desert camo, to dark green to all the browns in between.

H&K said recently that they will no longer import their rifles and handguns into the U.S. Surprisingly they are drinking the anti gun Kool Aid, saying if they no longer import guns into the U.S., crime will go down. It’s no big deal. H&K haven’t come out with anything new or unusual in 20 years.

The new S&W M&P 2.0 is out and a big seller. It feels very good in the hand and I will have to give S&W credit. They have a winner with this one. It and the new Generation 5 Glock are the 2 guns a large majority of folks are coming into the gun shop wanting to see and feel. They also sell as quick as they come it. The S&W 2.0 comes in the compact version but it is not too compact where your little finger hangs off. It feels good in the hand and shoots even better. The new Gen 5 Glock is also a new feeling pistol. No finger grooves. The trigger has been changed somewhat to a smoother, less travel trigger that makes it more accurate over all. It comes in the model 17 and 19 for now, both 9mm and is an excellent carry or home defense pistol.

For the last couple of months Colt has said they were bringing back the Gold Cup Trophy but we have yet to see it. At $1700 we may not see too many of them.

Alliant powder (which we haven’t seen much of in the last year or so), has come out with a new pistol powder called Sport Pistol Powder and is optimized for polymer coated bullets. Now I am not really sure what crowd they expect to interest. I load a LOT of pistol bullets for hunting and our test firing and I have never shot any polymer coated bullets. Maybe there is something here I don’t know about.

This month’s edition is short and sweet. My head is still messed up from losing two good friends this past week. I will do better next month. In the meantime, go hunting or shooting and take a youngster or lady with you. They are our future.

God bless,

Gary