Field and Stream writer laments SHOT Show militarization



“You have to look fairly hard for something designed to kill animals instead of people,” wrote F&S’s David E. Petzal in his regular The Gun Nut column.

Decrying the steady evolution in items from guns to accessories and clothing that have moved away from more traditional hunting and shooting sports towards the growing self-defense, concealed carry and practical shooting market, Field and Stream regular Petzal had a week full of bad days at the 38th Annual event in Las Vegas earlier this month.


Range Day is the Monday prior to the Show’s opening when manufacturers demonstrate their wares. People like me are bussed out to handle the goodies. This year, Range Day sounded like the Battle of Dak To, or perhaps Fallujah, with the distinctive pop-pop-pop of full-auto fire, which was extremely popular amongst all the SEAL wannabes. Indeed, this was symbolic of the whole show, which has now become so heavily militarized that you have to look fairly hard for something designed to kill animals instead of people.

Petzal went on to compare a K9 handler giving a demonstration to an SS panzergrenadier, lament the lack of booth babes (seriously?), lampoon gun politics in relation to gun sales, and bemoan how the hunting oriented booths he did see were poorly presented, writing, “The posters, displays, and photos for anything relating to big-game hunting showed people whose expressions looked like they were getting a prostate exam from the former Secretary of State.”

Comments to the article were mixed, with some agreeing with Petzal while others made effective counter-points.

“Sorry to break it to you guys, but this is the gun culture 2.0,” responded one before going on to advocate,”There will always be a market for the traditional hunting arms that are part of our history and heritage, but in the end, more people are getting involved cause they are realizing that the 2nd amendment has nothing to do with hunting. And that’s what I love about our shooting heritage in this country. It cares not for race or creed, age or sex. But a love and respect of everything with a trigger that goes boom. And in the end, is that really a bad thing?”

Is it?

Read more at: Guns.com

There is always one who proves to everyone that WE are our own worst enemy..........

Perhaps the Traditional Hunting and Shooting Sports, don't sell as well as the other stuff.  Petzal may have forgotten that people are there to make sales, and if there is no new Rem 700 model, it won't be there,  It IS a trade show after all.  

This guys was a Zumbo supporter last time Field and Stream  did this

I'm glad to see this change. I'm so tired of being told "nobody needs a AR-47 or AK-15" by local "hunters" who haven't shot their .22-250 in a couple years. Most of them I've talked to thought all the AK's and AR's that are everywhere now are all full auto

I'm kinda bummed that a lot of quality O/U's and SXS's are being manufactured less and less.  You see a lot of Turkish made stuff that looks nice on the outside, but doesn't hold a candle to a quality French, English, Italian, or German made gun of years past.  Hell, I wouldn't mind a Japanese or or Spanish made double at this point. At the same time I get it, the money is in the more modern guns, but from a pure sporting aspect I can empathize with what he is saying.

That other garbage he spouted about the SEAL wannabes, is nonsense and he should be raked over the coals from the firearms community for it.

My pussy hurts.

Fudd feelings.

BUTT HERTERS

Is what he wrote inaccurate?

No butthurt necessary. I think I know what he is trying to say, but before I comment, I hunt with an AR. A big scary .50 cal AR (Fuck Jim Zumbo). However, I do so only because of a change in Michigan's laws pertaining to centerfire rifles in the shotgun zone. If they had done away with the shotgun zone entirely, I'd still be carrying a bolt gun.

I recently started shopping around for a CZ 455 Varmint in 22lr. It's probably something I'll teach my kid to shoot with when he is old enough. Problem is, there isn't a dealer in a 100mi radius that has one in stock. They only have the model with the "tacticool" stock. I have zero issues with every shop in town pushing the AR platform, I love the AR platform. But, it's a pain in the ass when your looking for a conventional, wood stock firearm and all you can locate are those marketed to Timmy Tactical. I blame FBHO. I suppose I'll have to wait until some asshole shoots up a Denny's with a squirrel rifle to have a better in stock selection.

What an idiot...whatever brings more people under the 2A umbrella is a good thing so STFU.

What the writer wants:
"Hey!  Have you seen the new bolt action .270 Winchester!?!?  It's the same as last year's!  And the year before that..."

There's that 12 gauge that I wanted since I was a kid!  Hasn't changed much........

Fudds are going to fudd.

I don't hunt. Not my thing. I do however support hunters. But hunting products does not get my attention or my cash. I own guns for either self defense, nostalgia, range fun, or for reference as part of a collection. I have no fucks to give for a fudd lashing out because of his turdy-purdy feelings.

ETA: He must be blind to world events and that people are buying in record numbers for all of those things he has vitriol for. Did he fail to see the casual dressed officers looking for new equipment and those in uniform looking for specific things because we're dealing with muslim fanatics at home and abroad? Close minded is gonna be close minded.

Yes. SHOT show isn't a hunting expo, it's a shooting expo and right now personal defense and recreational shooting is more popular than hunting.  The show follows the industry trends.

Field and Stream isn't fudd.  It is full on leftist.  

They are sierra club environmentalists that still like to wear LL bean boots and fish in a catch and release stream.  

Mr. Petzal is a loudmouth that should probably keep his mouth shut most of the time. I read field and stream every once in a while and sometimes I like his his writing and sometimes I dont. My passion for shooting is accurate bolt guns first and foremost. But I love my ar15. If shtf and I leave the house with only two guns its gonna be my sidearm and my ar. I really hate that there is is scuttlebutt between fudds and tacticools. We are in this together. It really pisses me off that another respected writer pulled a Zumbo. But lets be honest. For all of the tacticools that dont hunt or have any sort of real training what do you really know about being tactical? Do you know how to track someone or something? Do you know how to slip through an area as stealthily as can be? Have you ever actually drawn down on something and killed it? I see a lot of paper punchers on here talking shit on the fudds too. It goes back and forth and back and forth.The shitty part of Mr Petzal is he should know better because he knows he will be quoted just like Jim Zumbo. We as gun owners dont need negative press from anyone especially from our own kind.

We're the worse kind of negativity. Everyone has their own opinion on what people should do or own, and what to not do or own. In regards to our own kind eating our own, that's what happens when you have so many being vocal about things on social media and using the anonymity of the internet to adopt a more obnoxious persona that creates further conflict rather than doing a full stop and actual problem solving the issue at hand.

The young are edgy and hip and are out to prove things while the old is experienced and pretty much set in their ways when confronted in a hostile fashion from the young and lash out back at them. Getting people to be angry is not seeing common ground as they will find ways to talk down.

No one is trying to compromise from both sides. Like I said, we eat our own.

They'd be more popular if they didn't cost as much as car.

I totally agree with you  GSL. The question is what do we do to bring everyone together? I myself dont limit myself to any gun subculture. I see a gun and I want to shoot it. I dont care what it is. I love my shotguns, my pistols and my rifles. I dont hunt with an ar because I feel like I would be limiting myself. I have custom bolt rifles that I like to shoot deer and varmints with. They do an excellent job. But if the shtf I know that a bolt gun is not a good choice in a firefight. I guess my point is why limit yourself and why talk smack because someone is into something that another person isnt. It just doesnt make sense to me.

After my first two posts here in this thread I figured I should read Mr. Petzals write up on the shot show. I actually found it entertaining.  The quote about the "wannabee seals" I kind of get. Who hasnt been to a big gun show and not got pissed off at least five times at different blowhards and morons. I swear every year that I will never go to the Wannamacher gun show but I go anyways. I dont focus on the bad. I rejoice in the deals I find and the good people I do meet and talk to. I dont think anything I read was near as bad as the bs that Jim Zumbo said.

We get this crap every now and again.


This is the kind of messaging within the gun owning/selling community that deserves a thoughtful, firm but not necessarily an abusive response, IMO. A respectful yet vigorous response is definitely in order.




Fractures in understanding within gun owners dont need to be widened by ill-informed articles such as this crap in F.A.S. The author needs to be educated, and from multiple angles.




One of the biggest problems we have that the liberals don't seem to suffer from is a lack of solidarity. This author is part of the source of the problem and he should be made plainly aware that he's what's out of step. Market demand alone should be his own education, however it's clearly not.




He either never understood the 2A, never accepted that it has nothing to do with hunting, and like the OP's screen name, these guns he dislikes are in fact modern muskets.




I have a feeling he'll get the picture very soon however, as gun owners typically make their opinions well known in a variety of ways when these "Zumbo" moments pop up.


 

I knew it was petzal as soon as I saw field and stream.

He wrote a column in there where he whinned about:

Long range hunters,
Cowboy action shooters
and that people who want "tactical guns"

Hate to say it but hunting is fading away in many areas due to urbanization and access cost.
Not everyone gets to live next to a national forest.

Not from what I have been seeing. I hunt public land almost exclusively and every year it seems like I am seeing more and more people,especially during bow season. I have also been seeing more people using ar platform rifles during rifle season which I think is great.

I'm a  firm believer in Reagan's 11th commandment. Both of these guys broke it and committed a Cardinal sin.

A Confessional might help.

Eta, my safes have all sorts of weapons. Not the least of these are beautiful bolts.

I have found that having the ability to read something without being offended is a good skill to have.  I didn't particularly care for the three blog posts he wrote about SHOT show but I certainly didn't waste any of my emotional energy in being offended by it.

 
I don't think being offended was really the reaction.

I think this guy is missing the point he can call people wanna be SEALs or Deltas or whatever, what he missed is Americans should have access to the same arms that our nations elite use to do business to protect this country.  I'm sorry but personally I look to groups like that because they use the best equipment to save and protect lives. Call me what ever you want we still have a First Amendment in this country, but  these kind of rants show one thing, he has no idea what the Constitution means or why it was it was enacted in the first place.

petzal was one of the reasons I quit buying those stupid magazines

gun owner and hunting elitist

I still here bird hunters decry semi-auto (MSR) owners as the reason "their" gun rights are being threatened. What they totally miss is the fact that very few people are interested in hunting and places to hunt are getting harder to find.

If the political class is successful outlawing any firearms, all the rest will fall like dominoes. Having been stripped of one's rights causes some people to lose respect for other peoples. Like "Why should I spend my time and money to defend duck hunter's and their shotguns when they didn't stand with me?"

We are in this together, or we will wither away. The truth is every American is responsible for their personal safety and the safety of their loved ones. Anyone who wants you defenseless is a mortal enemy.

I guess I'm in the minority  here- I'm an avid upland upland bird hunter. Every gun I hunt with is a classic American double, not one of which was made after 1930.

I also like AR15s. unfortunately I live in a state that won't allow me to buy any more than I currently have.

His also.

No one reads F&S any more anyways