What's going on with .357 Sig? Conclusion

Sorry for the delay, but I have been waiting for responses from several ammunition manufacturers, and not one of them has gotten back to me. That's disappointing, but I do have one more tidbit of information that I learned while at the NRA Convention. Two more major manufacturers will still be supporting this caliber although one in more of a limited capacity. These two manufacturers are S&W and Glock.

The S&W booth was very busy and it was hard to get to talk to anyone. The rep that I did pin down was very short with me, and seemed to be interested only in any direct questions about the firearms they brought to the show. He did take a minute to ponder what I asked him and said this: S&W will be discontinuing regular sales of the .357 Sig caliber in their M&P line, but will continue to sell this caliber in large contracts to law enforcement agencies. They will of course support any previously sold .357 Sig models that are under warranty. He had no information about conversion kits. I'm not sure if this means that they won't be selling this caliber straight out of the box, but will have the conversion kits for later purchase. I found this both semi-reassuring and puzzling. Why would S&W stick with the large volume contract sales if HK and FN - who are mainly concerned with those types of sales - are pulling out? Maybe S&W has more volume in police sales?  Maybe they have a lot of remaining departmental interest in switching to it? Possibly they have a lot of .357 Sig pistols out there to support. Your guess is as good as mine.

And now for the better news. I went to the Glock booth after all the whoo-ah had settled down from Gunny's visit and tried to talk to some of the marketing people there. To my surprise I was able to speak to several of them, and they were very interested in talking about all the calibers that they offer. They said Glock would continue to sell and support .357 Sig and there were no plans of dropping it. They didn't think it was exactly selling like hot cakes but they thought sales were steady. I didn't arrive to their booth with any real appreciation for Glock, but I left with a much better attitude about them. The reps were very nice, they answered all my questions and were knowledgeable about their products. I thought about this as I walked away. You see, I'm not a fan of their pistols. I think they're well made and relibale, and I have nothing against them, but they're just not for me. I now have a new respect for them. You see, Glock has sort of become a catch all for calibers. They still make and sell pistols in a variety of not so popular calibers. The more I thought about it the more I realized I really appreciate that. I appreciate a company that provides choice. Maybe they do it because they make so much money off their 9mm sales that they don't care if they only sell a few in the other calibers or maybe they actually care about the consumer.

As a side note, I made a quick stop at the Springfield Armory Booth. The do sell XD pistols in .357 Sig. Other than the reps saying yea we have those, they didn't have any other information about sales or plans to keep or drop the caliber..just "Yep we have em."

So what does it all mean? Without the ammo sales information I don't feel I can make a resounding conclusion. I will of course follow up, if they ever do get back to me. I think .357 Sig is here to stay. I don't think it's the hot ticket any longer, but I don't think it falling off either. It may have reached a plateau and I think it's going the route of 10mm. It's generally accepted and not an obscure caliber. Ammo is expensive, but not hard to find, and seems to be made by most manufacturers. The pistol choices may be limited more in the future, but right now there's still full support from several major manufacturers, and as many of you pointed out there's always conversion kits.

(borrowed from here)

It's time.

I hit the road today.

Literally.  With my feet.  Because I'm sick of being a lardass.

I'm going to join one of those 24-hour no-commitment $9/month gyms - my neighbor goes every day, said I should go with him.

I'm gonna kick this thing in the posterior.  My goal?  Eventually, I'd like to get back down to 140 or so.  I know carrying's gonna be a pain once we start since I'm such a danged tubbo right now.

I've got a minimum of 40 pounds to lose.  I'm gonna do this right.  I'm not gonna quit.

I can't quit.

An AR-style shotgun? Really?

One of the ... wierder ... firearms I spotted at the Meeting was the AKDAL MKA-1919 SBS.  It's a Turkish 12ga shotgun that uses the AR15 platform design - AR furniture fits it, and it's magazine-fed.  Mags are limited to 5+1 but if it gets popular enough here, I'm sure other companies will start making larger magazines for it.  RAAC will be importing it to the states.

I'm not sure what I think about it.  Moving away from the old tube-fed shotguns might not be a bad idea, and the AR/M4 platform is incredibly popular.  This might be a smart move...might not.  Only time will tell once it becomes available to the public.

ETA Chris's input:

I remember the guy at the booth saying the big difference between this one and the Saiga was that this uses a standard semi-auto shotgun gas system and not the AK gas system. It was pretty cool and I remember it being very light like a standard synthetic stock sporting shotgun.

So,  that much is interesting.  It WAS really light.  If the action is smooth, and if the price is right, it might be worth checking out.

Unfortunately RAAC doesn't appear to have any information on their site about it, so for now more information about it can be found here.

Charter Arms - my thoughts.

So the big reason we went to the NRA Annual Meeting was to scope out all the pretty shiny things the various manufacturers brought for the general populace to manhandle...and manhandle, we did.  I had a couple of brands I specifically wanted to find while we were there, though, and made a point to go looking for them.

Charter Firearms was one of the companies I was looking forward to finding at the Meeting.  Jay had mentioned they were eager to talk with him at last year's Meeting, and I wanted to check out their other revolvers, so on day 2 we hoofed it to the first floor to find them.

We found them off in a little booth near the end of the hall, and immediately approached them.  Chris wanted to mention how much he likes his Bulldog (he also wanted to show them his holster), and I wanted to check out their .357 and .38 offerings.  I'd already perused the site a bit and familiarized myself with what they had for sale, so nothing was a huge surprise, but it was still nice to see the firearms in person.  I like to see firearms and handle them before I order my own - I'm weird like that.

So, they had everything laid out all nice and pretty, and here I come with my camera and mess everything up.  I was amused, y'see...they had a Chic Lady on the table, and I really wanted to see the pink on polished stainless. (Photos are here.)  I know there are plenty of folks who are against the pink gun, but living in a state where I can't carry, I can't justify avoiding something pretty due to practicality.  Confession time: I love this pistol.  It's cute and girly, and I WANT ONE.  They also had the Pink Lady and Lavender Lady on hand for viewing which were equally cute, but neither come with the crocodile-pattern case that comes with the Chic Lady.  If anything, they're the only revolver company making items directed at women...that aren't going to cost an arm and a leg.  My only complaint was the lack of "feminine" colors in higher calibers, but this is apparently due to cost: the higher-caliber firearms are stainless, and therefore can't be anodized like the aircraft aluminum .38s.  Though disappointing, this makes sense (and also explains why the Tiger Stripe Bulldog was given the Cerakote treatment instead of some other finish). 

I also got an opportunity to talk to Lissa McCarthy, who was easily the most enthusiastic woman at the show.  Companies really need to have representatives who actually know and care about their product at shows and conventions if they're going to thoroughly engage a potential customer.  I met just one woman out of all the other big name booths who knew what she was talking about, and she wasn't half as enthusiastic as Ms. McCarthy.  Ms. McCarthy was enthusiastic and excited about the products at Charter, and she and I gabbed like friends about pistols, holsters, holster purses, and boys (heh).  Even if I was on the fence about buying a revolver from them, she'd have pushed me over to the Charter side.

Edited to add: I recently rediscovered this post.  I've gotta say, I'm glad Charter opted for "Pink Lady" instead of "Pink Bitch."  It's a bit more appealing with the more palatable name. :)

Tea and Targets - Maryland women taking aim.

A member of a local forum shot and edited the video for this piece for the news down around Bowie, MD.  Go, watch, and be as happy as I am that more women are getting interested in shooting - and shooting safely.

My favorite line?  The elderly lady saying "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!"  Amen to that!  Now I want one of the clubs up around me to have a shoot like this.

"Hipster" hunters?

Chris found two articles that I found interesting.  He's not yet sure how he feels about it, but I figured I'd share my thoughts.

It seems people are piggybacking on the Paleo diet craze that's picked up recently, and taking it to a degree I've never seen before.  The idea of truly primitive hunting is ... well, it's interesting.  And a bit nuts.  I'm not 100% on board with either idea, but I'm all for getting close to food, admitting food had a face, and acknowledging the origins of what they eat.  People need to take back responsibility for what they eat - that's how we got ourselves into the GMO crop and abused food animal problem in the first place.  If that movement gets more people hunting?  Awesome.  I'm all for it.

I guess my only real concern is that this will be another fad, and it'll die off in 6 months to a year...and my only hope is that some folks will get past the fad stage, find they really like it, and stick with it.  I can deal with it if they need justification for hunting - they can claim it's so they eat healthier, are getting back to their ancestral roots, or whatever.  Hell, dress up in silly clothes, dance around a fire, do whatever the hell they need to do to make themselves feel better about it.

Whatever they do, though, I hope they do these three things: Eat better.  Live better and don't be a douche about it.  And don't feel guilty for enjoying it, either...why else would we be alive, if not to enjoy the time we have?

You know...

After the month I've been having, I've got a hankering for a few of these.

Seriously, I was unaware one could make a classy Jello shot.  And now I need to make many.

Sigh.

Want.

Well this is interesting - attention Maryland people!

Every morning I get deals in my inbox from both Groupon and LivingSocial.  Today's "deal" from LivingSocial is particularly interesting.  Apparently you can get a package deal for Horst & McCann, up in Harford County.

Now, I've never used LivingSocial, and I've never been to Horst & McCann, so I can't vouch for this one way or another...but this might be a great idea for those people who've never been to a range before and want to learn how to shoot.

Who'dathunk we'd see package deals to the local shooting ranges on a deal site?  I sure didn't...