We just got back from the NRA 138th Annual Meetings in Phoenix, Arizona and I wanted to drop everyone a note. My first thought is to say that the hospitality was exceptional in Phoenix. The people of Phoenix and the surrounding area are great folks. It was hot there, but as they say it’s a dry kind of heat. I think it was 107° F on Monday when I left.

The first day (Friday) was a very busy day with a lot of customers stopping by our booth to say hello. We also had the opportunity to visit with a lot of new shooters and those new to reloading. There was quite a bit of interest in .50 BMG shooting, F-Class Shooting, and a lot of questions about reloading. Of course, primer availability was a main concern of many of our visitors. We did talk to Wolf and they now expect their primers to begin arriving in the United States in July sometime. Another popular topic was the use of once fired military and law enforcement brass. Many visitors wanted to know about military crimp removal tools. I know the crowd was so concentrated on Friday that quite a few people were delayed getting into the show.

We couldn’t tell about Saturday but the crowd seemed just as big but more spread out. If you ever get a chance to visit the NRA Show I highly recommend it. For a supplier like us, it provides us a great opportunity to meet fellow shooters and customers and get ideas on what they need. For customers it gives them a chance to meet and talk to the people that make the stuff they use. More importantly, they get to pick up the guns and gear that they are considering buying and see what they look like versus just pictures in a catalog.

The Members Banquet on Saturday night was fantastic. There were reportedly over 6,000 guests and it was said to be the largest sit-down dinner ever in the state of Arizona. That’s a lot of chicken! John Stossel, co-anchor of ABC’s 20/20 show was an excellent speaker that really gave us some ideas to think about. Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North was the other keynote speaker and gave us an inspirational and touching speech. There was also quite a tribute to our veterans and our soldiers currently serving around the world.

Attendance on Sunday was a bit lighter than the other two days, as usual. Most of our staff was able to get a chance to go out and look at some of the other exhibits. We have Brownells, Buck Knives, Hornady, Dixie Gun Works, Sierra, Single Action Shooting Society, and Lapua as booth neighbors. The folks from Buck Knives were a great help during setup in loaning us some tools we needed.

Next year the NRA Annual Meetings will be held May 14-16, 2010 in Charlotte, NC – we are already looking forward to it.

Good Shooting,
Bill Gravatt