This has been one of the most hectic couple of months in
memory and at the same time one of the most disappointing times in a long
while. First the dreary news, then we will get to the stuff to brighten your
day. During the last week, two of my favorites have turned their backs on us
and left us hanging by the skin of our scrotums. The NRA has caved in, again,
and says they will compromise on one of the big anti gun bills. This bill,
introduced by that extreme anti gun Carolyn McCarthy, Democratic
representative from New York, and helped along by another hard core liberal
anti gun, Dingell, is just another of our freedoms to be taken away. McCarthy
is one of the most rabid anti gun people in our government and giving in to
her now is like throwing in the towel. Now there will be no stopping her. But
the NRA said in an interview last week in Newsweek that they are ready to
compromise, AKA cave in.
Then the day after I read that I read in the
Conservative Alert that I subscribe to, that President Bush had been in closed
door sessions with Ted Kennedy and John McCain, two of the most anti American
scum bags in government. Apparently Bush is ready to give in on the illegal
aliens fight and let Kennedy and McCain have their way, which will allow 12
million illegals to become citizens and be eligible for social security and
all the other benefits that we have worked for, if the full bill becomes law.
Plus these 12 million illegals have families so that means probably 18 to 25
million living off the governments handouts. The liberals are loving this and
already shouting "we won!!" to anyone that will listen.
It's a sad day when the people we trust and rely on to
help keep our freedoms turn their backs on us. But I have a gut feeling this
is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Well, so much for the bad news. Let's see, is there some
good news here somewhere? Well, the prices on ammo keep surging higher and
higher, but you already knew that. Powder and primers are going to be very
scarce in the next year or so, maybe longer. STOCK UP NOW. Ammo for this
hunting season will also be harder to find than normal and much higher, STOCK
UP NOW. There are two trains of thought on this. One is that the war is making
ammo hard to find. This is true to a point. But the Military ammo is made by
two companies, and one of these companies only makes 223, 308 and 50 caliber
ammo, so this cannot effect you finding a box of 30-30. Plus all the other
companies that manufacture ammo for hunting and sport shooting do not make
ammo for our military. So it must be the other side of the coin. As I have
mentioned before the Chinese are going thru a massive trade expansion and are
becoming more and more of a capitalistic country day by day. Their work force
is massive. Try this on for size. Chine has more people unemployed than we
have people in the United States, period.
This industrial revolution is sucking up all the raw
material that is out there, causing companies to bid on it. And the prices are
getting higher and higher every day. And this isn't just gun products. It is
in every part of our economy. A friend who works at Home Depot told me they
got a batch of metal fence posts in recently. As they were pricing them, he
noticed the few that they still had in stock were priced at $1.99 each. The
new ones they just got in were $6.89 each. And this was over a 6 week period.
Surely there is some good news to tell you here. Let's
see. Thompson Center has just released their new Icon rifle. This is the first
bolt action centerfire rifle for TC. It will come in the standard calibers at
first, like 22-250, 243, and 308 but will also feature TC's new 30 TC
cartridge. S&W is continuing to expand their product line up. They now own
Thompson Center, they have introduced a really classy double gun in 12 gauge
and are coming out with an over & under shotgun this fall. They have
released a new bolt action rifle with match grade barrels called the I-Bolt.
They are getting into cleaning products, clothing, outdoor gear and much more.
To say that S&W has had a great year so far is an understatement.
Savage Arms has brought out a really nice 22 LR rifle
with all the classic good looks of an early Winchester or Remington. It is
aptly named the Rimfire Classic. It reminds me a bit of the Remington 541T
with the stock of the Winchester 52. One of the nicest looking rimfire rifles
on the market and knowing Savage, probably one of the best shooting also.
H&K has introduced a new handgun, the P30 that has
all the features of most of the other new guns out, that being picatinney
rails, interchangeable backstraps, loaded chamber indicator etc etc.
Taurus' 24/7 is doing very well for them, especially the
OSS model with it's two toned look. Rock River Arms is coming on strong with
it's various AR-15 rifles. A year or so ago very few people would know the
name, but those times have changed. The bad times that were projected to
plague Ruger after it's ownership change have not materialized. In fact if
anything they are doing better than ever before with quite a few new products
under development.
We are taking a lot of orders for our new 429 GNR and
the 256 GNR. Last month we were getting a lot of calls for the equally new 455
GNR and now this month the 429 and 256 are jumping in there. The 455 is a 475
Linebaugh case necked down to 45. It will equal the 454 and in some cases beat
it without the high pressure and without the extreme recoil of the 454.
The new 429 is a 454 case necked down to 44 and will
beat the case capacity of the 44 mag by 30% which in real terms should mean a
15% increase in power. We are still in the testing stage as the dies haven't
arrived yet from Hornady but quite a few orders for this cartridge have come
in. It is currently being chambered in the 44 magnum Redhawks in our Stealth
Hawk series and a new series of single actions is almost ready to be released.
The 256 GNR is one of our newest and for those that like
the smaller calibers this is a good one. It is based on the customers Ruger
357 Maximum frame, features our own heavy duty barrel and heavy stainless
cylinder. The full custom gun is in our Wyoming Hunter series and we are
building about a half dozen guns right now in this caliber with probably
another 15 to 20 orders on the board. An excellent deer cartridge or larger
varmint cartridge, this one is showing excellent accuracy and no recoil at
all. Like the 429 above, we are still waiting on dies to get here so we can
start to fully promote these new cartridges and new series of guns. We have
Sean Harper standing by to begin the full testing and data work up on both
cartridges, and Andy Rowe of Cartridge Performance Engineering ready to start
loading the ammo for those that don't reload. Considering the initial
ballistics and reliability in functioning, both look like good productive
hunting revolvers.
Kase's new Tactical 12 shotgun is doing well with
several orders on the board. This is a true tactical oriented pump shotgun,
with 9 round capacity, special red dot type sights, sidesaddles, slings, heat
shields, pistol grip collapsible stock and several other features, making this
one of the best of the tactical shotguns on the market.
By the time our next Gun Notes comes around we will be
getting ready to head out for our Hot & Nasty handgun hunt in south Texas.
This is mainly a hog hunt but a lot of other exotics are available too. We
have almost 20 hunters going on this one.
Our Handgun Hunter's Challenge 2 is slated for the last
few days of October in the Tennessee mountains. I booked the entire camp as
usual and in less than 24 hours we had booked the full camp with 22 hunters
signed up. This is also a hog and exotic game hunt but in the Tennessee
foothills in October it should be a very pleasant hunt. If this one goes over
well, and I see no reason it shouldn't, we hope to schedule another one in
January or February at the same ranch.
That's it for this month. Hunting season is just around
the corner. Get ready.
Gary
