NRA Annual Meeting

Second in my reviews of medical training courses at #NRAAM2019 is Travis Hall’s “Medical Mindset: Are You Prepared?” First in such short seminars is verifying the instructor’s bona fides. Travis “Doc T” Hall is an 18-Delta (special forces medical sergeant) from 5th SFG, with over 8 years combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. That checks the box for “experience” right ...

Over the years, EAA has developed a reputation for importing surprisingly decent guns, such as the EAA Witness, and Tanfoglio pistols.Saw this one in the exhibit hall, and I am intrigued. May be doing a T&E and full writeup on this one soon.

Nifty gun storage solution from EAA, the importers of Tanfoglio pistols.

Seems like every year you go to one of these, there seems to be a theme to the exhibits. There was the Year of the AR15, the Year of the 1911, the Year of the Precision Bolt Action Rifle…… and frankly, they’re so damned ubiquitous now that it bores me to write about them. I’m not interested in the latest ...

This appeals powerfully to the lazy in me.

One rapidly growing trend in the firearms and self-defense industry is an increased focus on first aid and medical care, to the point that the IFAK nightstand pocket dump photo is becoming as ubiquitous as the EDC pocket dump. Alongside John Q. Instagram Influencer’s photo of his personal gat and knife, is usually a micro trauma kit and a tourniquet.And ...

Today opened the 2019 NRA Annual Meeting. Estimates at attendance this year put the head count at somewhere around 70,000, which is a bit down from recent years. It has been rainy and dreary in Indianapolis, which may have thinned the crowd this morning. We’ve seen the usual contingent of protestors, as usually outnumbered by the press interviewing them. They ...

The 2019 NRA Annual meeting begins tomorrow in Indianapolis. This morning I’ll be picking up my media credentials, and tomorrow opens the exhibit hall where I’ll be prowling for article fodder and guns and gear to T&E. Given the recent strife and financial woes of the NRA reported in the media, covering this year’s meeting promises to be… interesting.Expect the ...

I learned to wingshoot with a Winchester Model 37A chambered in 3″ magnum 20 gauge, my first real shotgun. My friends all had HR Toppers chambered in .410, and I remember feeling smugly superior to them because my Winchester was an objectively nicer shotgun. But that HR Topper was a ubiquitous firearm in the south; seems like every kid had ...

One of the more intriguing rifles I encountered at #NRAAM2018 was the switch-barrel rifle from Omega Custom Rifles. Omega is a veteran-owned company based in Meridien, TX, and features a product line of bolt-action rifles built on custom Stiller actions glass-bedded into carbon fiber stocks, but the really part is the option to switch barrels in the field in a ...

One of the neater doohickeys I saw at the NRA Annual Meeting in Dallas was the Mag Pump magazine loader. I can think of plenty of times on the range when I spent more time loading magazines than I did emptying them, and had the sore and skinned up thumbs to prove it. The times I’ve had the opportunity to ...

Much joinder was was created yesterday at the Lone Star Medics Hydration Happy Hour following the close of the exhibit hall. Many thanks to Caleb Causey for hosting this mixer. I got to meet a great many Facebook friends for the first time in meatspace, and speaking of meatspace, dinner at Texas de Brazil was… epic. There was food, liquor ...

Before I set out for the NRA Annual Meeting, I had a long, serious discussion with my girlfriend over the trip. She knows this is the way I recharge my creative batteries, and I don’t get the opportunity to shoot near as often as I’d like, but she has serious misgivings – I should say misconceptions – about the NRA. ...

Well, Dallas is dreary and rainy, parking sucks, and I got drenched walking from my remote parking area to the Press Office in the convention center. On the bright side, I’m among my tribe, and I got my press credentials yesterday, so I avoided the line at the door. Estimates put show attendance at 80,000+, and the line to check ...

Headed out for the NRA Annual Meeting in Dallas this weekend. I’ll be blogging and sending out show reports and updates via the blog and Twitter. Follow me here and on Twitter for updates, and look for the hashtag #NRAAM2018.