




![]() |
Oooh Glock Pencils |











I enjoy a nicely sculpted body as much as the next person, however I don’t think it belongs at a trade show. If you want that go pay for it like everyone else does and let me get on with my business. To me vendors with a Tits and Ass display says “hey I wanted to get your attention because our products are total crap and there is no other way we can get you in the booth without these Booth Babes… and I know zip about marketing.” Ok, OK if it is your marketing figurehead signing posters... well that's a grey area in my book. What is worse are the total neanderthals literally running people over to get to the next “even hotter” booth babe, grunting, ogling, and yes even handling the scantily clad female masquerading as a feeble attempt at gorilla marketing. You want my attention? Stop using them like perfume girls whose experience with guns ends with the brochures she is handing out.
You have ritechus kick ass female shooters like Julie Golob and Jessie Duff who should be be admired for one thing… their ability to kick all our asses in a gunfight. I will bet they were really impressed with you portraying females as nothing more than icing on guns. Noting that there were more females attending this year than ever who are buyers, PR, and manufacturers, what do you think their impression of your booth and products are? The gun market will be grown and saved by the huge growing female shooter segment, however the market has a long way to mature before it feels truly welcome to the female shooter and the old swat on the ass “woman get me a beer” mentality is NOT where we need to be. The general rule is that if you would not want your mamma seeing marketing methods, then maybe you should choose a different tactic.
For those that are new to trade shows, I beg of you please do not be a Swag Hunter. I never really understood this mentality of traveling across country, abusing your body for a week to walk 15 miles of trade show booths just to accumulate 50lb of free virtually worthless trade show swag. My most loathed creature of Shot is the Swag Hunter. Generally this beast is dressed all in camo or tactical gear usually in a size which makes you ask “good lord I didn’t even know they made fatigues that large… was that special order from a tent company?” This may be a generalization, however the worst of them are almost always eating, attempting to get a date with the booth babes, and riding around bumping into everyone’s ankles with a HuvaRound and interrupting business conversations with “got any free stuff” or “what-cha-givn-away?” Really a $1000 for a weeks worth of travel and you wet your self in ecstasy because you get a $2 USB drive with a logo on it? Don’t be that guy/gal.
Shot Show “ride-alongs” are a term most use for attendees that have no real purpose for being there. Generally they “ride-along” by knowing a vendor who can register them under their business. It is easy to spot these people as they are not exhausted, unbelievably happen to be at the show, and usually smell like they have been drinking most of the day. Just a note that everyone who actually works the show wishes we could be a Ride-Along attendee.
![]() |
Source -Julie Golob - I was there when she did this. |
There is also the weird stuff that occurs only at Shot Show. The Best Beards of Shot Show, walking by seeing the world famous Julie Golob mounted on a custom motorcycle threatening to take it for a ride, running into James Yaeger, the ATF booth doing Shot show promo videos, the sticker on the vandalized ATF booth that says “come and get them”, a tricked out slammed Swat van, watching most of the media at media day muzzle sweep spectators at least once with a hot gun, the super awesome new overseas manufacturer that you literally get every gun they hand you to jam at media day, and trade show hot dogs… which are not bad, extremely satisfying, but I am really unsure what they are made of.
This year thankfully did not have the big depressing feeling that everyone is coming for our guns, but some from states who had enacted moronic laws were visibly kicking their feet in disgust. There was the typical pronouncements by literally every company that they are twice as tactical, cool, and featured as they were last year to signify they are somehow leapfrogged their competition again. There had to be well over 100 manufacturers of Rmington 700 action billet receivers all claiming to be somehow better than the other 99 I just walked by. There were things I did not get like all the optics guys now offering 34MM tubes on their top tier optics and a 14lb titanium receiver’ed and graphite barreled AR15… both left me asking “why?” There were also a huge number of manufacturers with virtually nothing new this year simply because they are still behind from last year.
Barring any horrible events that cause people to think emotionally irrational about guns and ammo, I actually think that we will see a glut of ammo and guns this year. There were a HUGE number of new AR15 and other firearm manufacturers that hit the market in the last 24 months and most are just starting to hit their production stride. I would not be surprised if by mid-year we saw the prices fall below the buying frenzy levels due to a huge glut of AR15s being pushed into the market. I also saw a lot of new faces in ammo manufacturing as well which will also drive ammo prices down. Personally I think this is a custom and custom accessory year for shooters. I believe 2014 will be the year that everyone decide to spice up and customize all the guns they bought in the last two years. Optics, rails, and furniture will be huge, but people will also be be spending all the other parts of their kits like packs, shoes, shirts, and holsters.
MajorPandemic.com is locked and loaded for another year of articles and videos, “Green Green”, lets hit the range and see what all this new stuff can do. See you all again next year at SHOT.
No comments:
Post a Comment