Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Attending a Gun Show

      
Both our own, and the guns for sale, are well secured.

 



        Welcome to the large numbers of visitors to this blog that have been logging on from Ukraine, Turkey,  and also from Sweden !     Thank you for reading, and best wishes to all of you.  I hope that the information in this blog contributes positively to your preparedness levels.   




           I spent a couple of days last weekend at a gun show.  It was an excellent and interesting experience from a number of standpoints.   Yes, there were sellers of both used and new handguns and rifles. They are required to run an instant background and criminal check in this state, just as they would if I had been interested in buying one of the firearms at a conventional gun shop.  There were also several police officers walking around, as visitors on entering the building must remove their ammo from their weapons, and have a temporary plastic tie placed through their weapon in order to prevent any unexpected discharges while showing their weapon during the event.   It was  great to see so many accessories, such as magazines for rifles and semi-automatic handguns, rails for weapons, scopes, and every conceivable type of holster known to man.  Magazines for semi-automatic handguns do age and do malfunction on occasion, and so it is smart and necessary to have plenty of spare magazines for any weapon you own. You never really know if in the future, that particular type will be hard to locate. Gun shows are great places to pick up lots of magazines, and often, they will be very fair prices.

            One place with an awful lot of stock was:

     Quantico Tactical



                         There were also a number of tables of a variety of Pro Second Amendment organizations.  The NRA is not the only horse in the shed now. Some of these groups are more conservative than the NRA and report that they are continuing to see proposed legislation on the state level that continues to infringe upon the legal right to bear arms (if of course, you are not a  person being treated for a mental illness or a former felon.)  On such organization that was quite impressive was

                The National Association of Gun Rights
                        

                 This year, a number of people whose products fall squarely into the preparedness and survivalism category came to the show.   One couple was selling custom "concealment" furniture.  It was gorgeous furniture with a hidden compartment for either a shotgun or for a handgun.  The work was stellar, and unless you knew the trick to opening the compartment, there was no way in which you were finding it. It is made by Amish craftsmen in Ohio.

              Secret Compartment Furniture

 
Anyone would be proud to have this quality furniture in their home.

 
                
                There were several sellers who sold excellent preparedness medical supplies, fairly reasonably.   Israeli dressings, complete new first aid kits for expeditions, and some EMT supplies were abundant.      There were several vendors selling #10 cans of freeze dried food,  MREs and a variety of other emergency foods.   I love it when the sellers rehydrate and cook their hot foods and them provide samples a la Sam's Club.   I tasted some freeze dried reconstituted barbecued chicken which I thought would likely be horrible, but it was excellent. The chicken was tender and the barbecue sauce was mild.  I also learned through sampling, that Legacy brand freeze dried banana really does taste like banana.  Often, dehydrated or other brands of freeze dried banana are hard and unpleasant and we worry about sugar being added or breaking a tooth.  The Legacy brand was simply bananas, with the slightly crunchy consistency of a marshmallow found in a box of Lucky Charms cereal.   Of course they sold out of that wonderful canned bacon, by Yoders.  With some skill and the correct paper, you really could can your own lean bacon, but I really do love the Yoders.  Our family has had BLTs through power outages during hurricanes, cooked on the gas grill thanks to them.

        One good source for medical supplies for preparedness who attended was:

     The Source Inc.                   Emergency, Medical, Survival Supplies
       434-929-2520



               There was another couple selling beef jerky and jerky with cheese inside that they make themselves and sell online.   I sampled some of their product, and it was delicious.

                There were many sellers of signs and bumper "snickers"   I liked the signs which said









               There was also a couple of book sellers who had a fair number of preparedness books for sale.  He had a couple of copies of my friend Jim Cobb's first preparedness book.    If you have a chance to attend a regional gun show, preparedness expo, etc.  take the drive and spend the time.  I came away with a number of great business cards and some new ideas.

There is also an intangible benefit to attending a gun show.  Sometimes a spouse who was lukewarm about spending money on preparedness, will go to a gun show and will see the large numbers of vendors who are concerned with preparedness, and this will inspire them. Sometimes, seeing so many businesses devoted to different aspects of preparedness and home defense helps them to see that many, many intelligent people are concerned about being, and staying prepared.   
If you get a chance to attend such an event, please try.   It was a very interesting weekend.



 Other great suppliers where I spent time:

              Remora Holsters

The company selling these at the show was Hillman Sales     hillmansales@gmail.com

 and





      Bullseye Holsters        Leather, kydex and hybrid

         




SurvivalFoodPlan.com          and   info@survivalfoodplan.com

This was the man with the Legacy bananas, and other tasty samples.   This food was excellent.

 Greg and Barb Smith
 1.800.406-7040                      Chesapeake, VA     also   757-389-8691

 They specialize in quality long term storage foods
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  Ash Tactical

Armor,  Gun Accessories, Kydex Holsters, Survival Products, and Class 7 Firearms Manufacture

  www.ashtactical.com

Store address: 4733 Jefferson David Highway, Fredericksburg, VA 22408    540-860-0274

Sales@ashtactical.com

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    Strong's Camera Services

 This company has a drone which can take fantastic pictures of your farm for video or brochure purposes which can be very useful when it's time to sell.

They do new system design, installation, repair, upgrades, integration for video monitoring of your property or store.  They specialize in offsite viewing, phones, laptops, computers and Ipads integrated into your security.

Owner:  Jeff Strong         804-539-0101     jeffbstrong05@gmail.com

 7436 Southwind Drive, Chesterfield, VA 23832

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  Patriot Services, Inc.

     Purchase and liquidation of estates, firearms, military items, fast free appraisals, small and large quantities.

 Jim Jarrett    804-272-6748    patriotservices@comcast.net

8949 Brucewood Drive, North Chesterfield, VA, 23235

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 And this I will mention because the quality was superb.

This seller manufactures custom vehicle emblems primarily for military and former military.

USCG,  USAF,  NAVY,  ARMY,  USMA,  USMC  ,          540-582-2227
 and Firefighter


CarCoolEmblems.com


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