Posted: 5/19/2006 3:10:56 PM EDT
|
I went today (Friday) to my first ever NRA convention. I hit the road after 4 hours of sleep. About the point where waukesha and milwaukee meet, I noticed a police car on the on ramp to I-94 with its cherries on. I was in the middle lane the cop car was far right. In my mirror I see someone on a sport bike speeding up the emergency lane, and I figure he can't see the cop car because of a semi in front of me. The biker changes into the left lane so I stick my arm out the wind and signal to slow down, figuring he can't see the cop car. He slows down a few seconds, then takes off again! a couple of seconds later, a 2nd cop car comes tearing after him, and the 1st cop car joins the chase! They were out of sight pretty quick, and a 3rd police car came hightailing past a couple of minutes later, but turns off his lights about a 1/4 mile ahead and slows down, so I figure the chase was over one way or another. Anyway, I get to the site, and not being familiar with the area, I pull into the Hilton parking ramp. 8 bucks for the first 1/2 hour (or was it hour?) and $1.00 every half hour over. hoofed it over to the convention center, waited in line to get in, waited in line to "register", then spent about 3.5 hours browsing and ambling. Got lots of brochures, pins, patches, and decals. Fondled a bunch of guns. I thought the 6 shot .380 semi auto from NAA would be a nice fun gun, as well as some of their .22 revolvers...small! A 12 gauge coach gun from one of the name makers (can't remember now, will have to dig out the brochures) with a list price of $340 might be fun to have, depending on street price. An indoor shooting system looked promising until I saw that it used an especially machined barrel and cases, and heard the price ($350 is what I heard). I dunno what kind of charge it used, some kind of blank? I hope it wasn't properiety. Saw Gunny Emory, what, has this guy sold his soul to PLASTIC?? you'd think he'd be pushing a good ol' 1911! :) Didn't line up to buy his book either, but he certainly was a pleasant guy. Savage range design was pretty cool...anyone one to front me cash for a large, multi-lane, rifle caliber capable range in south central WI? Lots of DVDs/CD's being given away too. Was disappointed there wasn't more selling going on. A show like this would have been good for compact items, but there actually wasn't a whole lot. I did pick up a duracoat kit, but thats it. I was hoping for a better selection of holsters, tactical and concealed, but wasn't much. I was kinda hoping that the NRA store would be selling targets and other competition things, but they weren't. There were a lot of guns there I wish I could have at least tried out. maybe I'll win one of the many drawings for guns and accessories! I'm sure theres more that I have forgotten though. Parking wound up costing me $12.00 for just over 3.5 hours. :( John |
