Gun Show Fun

Two weeks ago, I got to spend some time at a nice sized gun show here in San Antonio.  Friday, I helped a friend at Sparks Firearms set up his booth and then got to walk around on Saturday.  I wasn’t looking for anything particular but am always looking around for something I can’t live without.

First, I bought a Ruger LCR from Sparks Firearms.  I’m loving this gun and carrying it everyday now (see the review here).   So, after buying the gun, I was looking around for holsters and anything else that would be fun to have or a deal I couldn’t pass up.

A couple things I noticed right away,  ARs are back in stock.  Everyone seemed to have one for sale again.  The prices where still pretty high, but you could get one if you had the money.  Ammo was in stock but at a huge premium.  Some of the prices hurt to even look at.  It seemed that the vendors were trying to out do each other with how much they could charge for the ammo.  It was like a bidding war in reverse.  Rumor had it (I never could find it) was that the highest priced ammo was a brick of .22 LR for $125! Maybe they sold out by the time I walked by, but probably not.  AR magazines were also in stock everywhere.  The prices were still higher than I would pay.

The first thing I bought was a MagPul MS3 sling.  I’ve wanted to try one of these for a while but just didn’t want to put out the $50 to buy one.  Since I really didn’t need it, I just never got around to it.  I found one at the show for $30 and couldn’t pass it up.  Bought one in tan just to be different than all the black and green slings I have.  Using this sling is pretty nice.  It functions as a single-point or 2-point sling.  The single point is super simple and nice to have.  You can wear the sling without the rifle and then simply pop the sling to the rifle and you are in business.  You can also use the sling as a 2-point sling.  I like to wear my sling as a 2-point connected to the back of the receiver and the butt stock.  This allows me to use the weapon off of either shoulder and holds the rifle close to my body so the sling can take some of the weight of the rifle after walking around for a long time.  Can’t wait to start training with this sling.

I bought a bandolier for my AR next.  I used these during the war in Iraq.  It’s an incredibly easy way to carry and store ammo.  With a little work you can put a lot of ammo in one and then load magazines easily.  It’s just a cheap way to store and carry ammo and I could use another one.  They are hard to find normally so I pick up an extra one now and then.

Alamo Tactical is a local shop here in San Antonio.  I’ve been into their shop a couple times and it’s pretty cool.  I saw their Minimalist Holster there and thought I should try one.  I ended doing the impulse buy for $20 to try it.  It was a waste of $20.  The holster only covers the trigger guard and has a J Hook on it to hold to your belt.  There is no front of the holster.  So anytime I was wearing it and bumped the back of the gun forward, the gun would come out of the holster and fall down my pants.  Not really something I want to happen with a loaded gun for a bunch of reasons.  This is why I try new gear with an unloaded gun.  It’s a “don’t buy.”

I got a new Mag pouch that I love from On You 6 Designs for my Glock.  This is a new company started here in San Antonio.  Nick is the owner/operator and was manning the booth.  I needed a single mag pouch for my Glock and his design looked cool.  He opened the bag and let me try one on.  When the clip didn’t fit the belt I normally wear, Nick simply pulled another clip out of a box and changed it out.  It fit perfectly so I bought it for a whopping $15.  I like it and have been using it on and off for everyday carry.

Last, I found a Sticky Holster from Hunker-Down.Net to fit my new LCR with a Laser Max.  It wasn’t easy to find a holster that fit.  The guy behind the table pulled out like every holster he had until he found one that fit great.  I wasn’t sure if I would like it, but for $25 I decided to give it a try.  The holster has been working great for the last couple of weeks.  I’ve been wearing it almost everyday since I got it.  It has been working great!  I’m going to a class this weekend and will see if it falls out when I’m running around.  So far I’ve jumped up and down, run around the house, and done some combat rolls, but it hasn’t fallen out.  This weekend’s course will be the true test to see if the gun falls out or not.

Just running around the show, I always find something cool.  I found this car done by a local artist who was standing there talking to everyone about her art.  She does mostly military stuff.  I ran out of money by the time I found her booth and didn’t buy a T-shirt, but they where pretty awesome.  She does everything by hand as pencil drawing and then has them transferred to T-shirts.  It was fun to just look at all the things she had drawn.  The Trans Am was pretty sweet.  She had hand drawn a new logo on the hood and then had people write the names of fallen warriors underneath the hood.  I enjoyed looking it over and was excited to see that the car was actually being driven around and not just a trailer queen.

I got a cool demo of how this works.  The guy sharpened my CRKT M16 (knife review here).  He was able to get out the nicks in the blade from use and give it a nice look in about a minute.  I know he is really good at it, so I gave him a nice tip.  By the time I saw him I was out of money and he was asking $80 for it.  I just found it on Amazon for $70 (4/2/13).  But the show is always offering a couple freebies that I didn’t understand but probably made it worth it.  I’ll be getting one next time around.

It’s always fun to go to the gun show, if for nothing else to meet a lot of the smaller venders.  Every time I go to a gun show I meet some really cool people and find some fun stuff to play with.  If you haven’t been or have been putting it off, go back and enjoy the people and the stuff.

Stay Safe,

Ben

PS Remember the 4 Gun Safety Rules! Not everyone does.  I almost attacked someone because as I came through the crowd I came face to face with a guy pointing a single action revolver at my face, finger on the trigger, thumb on the hammer like he was going to fire it.  I jumped right to get out of the line of fire and coiled to jump on the guy when I noticed he was just shifting positions with his revolver he was trying to sell.  He continued past me and I just walked on trying to overcome the adrenaline rush he just gave me.  It scared the crap out of me! Don’t be that guy!