i don't think listeners probably appreciate like
how do i go to sleep at night i lie in bed and
i try to imagine how am i going to come up with
a rig that's going to test this properly and
they're thinking god what a loser spending your
time trying to come up with stuff like that Welcome
to episode 27 of the Frugal Firearms podcast,
the podcast that spent a whole lot of time back
in January trying to find you guys the best values
by attending the SHOT Show in Las Vegas and walking
the 860 ,000 square foot plus show floor and
really destroying our feet and our legs and everything
else and kind of probably our mental capacity
too in the process of trying. trying to absorb
everything there. So, so I'm Craig, I'm your
host. And Ken, what did you think of the show,
my man? Oh, I thought it was an awesome show.
I mean, there was a tremendous amount of walking
involved as there often is. Um, I don't ever,
I don't think I've ever walked the entire show
and talked to everybody I'd like to talk to.
But, um, I'm telling you, you know, for the time
we were there, which was multiple days, uh, it
is a phenomenal show. Lots of really interesting
things to see. Lots of things that are outside
of the frugal environment that we're going to
focus on here today, as we always do. But some
amazing things, amazing things coming down the
pike. And maybe even for those of us who live
in a more restrictive state, maybe at some point
in time, maybe we can get some, for example,
suppressors. Even a less restrictive state. I
don't think we can be in a more restrictive state
than we're already in. Probably not. Maybe Hawaii
or something like that might be a little bit.
You know, and really what's happening right now
in, I guess, in Virginia, well, I guess that
got struck down, though, didn't it? But it got
awfully damn close. I mean, and New Mexico and
a few other places. I mean, there's places that
are, you know, really trying to compete with
California. Oh, yeah. No, no, no. We're worse
than you. We're more restrictive than you are.
It's really quite amazing. I'm really waiting
for the Supreme Court to come down with some
rulings, maybe take the Duncan v. Bonta case,
for example, which has been languishing here
in the court system for, I think, about eight
or nine years. Would be really nice to get a
final decision from the Supreme Court on that.
Yeah, that would be. And today is our SHOT Show
26, or in other words, 2026 review. I wanted
to point something out that we're going to make
a lot of comments on stuff that, just like we
did last year, the stuff that we see at the show
may not be new for 2026. It might be stuff that's
simply new to us or that we think still represents
the best value out there. So it doesn't mean...
new in the context of it's a prototype maybe
pre -release stuff that hasn't even been released
and by the way if you know this about what you
see at SHOT Show a lot of the stuff that is prototyped
never gets to market at all. But we do want you
guys to go out and do your own research on these
things. You know, figure out what's best for
you. Because what's best for us may not be best
for you. And we don't really know a lot of the
prices on some of the things that are new items
because those simply haven't been publicly released
yet. So whether they're value or not, well, some
of this is to be determined. We started off,
the first day was a Monday, which was industry
day or industry day at the range, to use the
complete name, which, you know, this year we
had good weather, didn't we? It was great. This
year was wonderful. Last year, it was probably
35 degrees with 35 mile an hour winds. It was
brutally cold. We came prepared for the cold
last year, but not the wind. Not the wind. This
year was a beautiful day. I don't know what the
temperature was. It was probably in the mid -60s
and virtually no wind. Very pleasant. There's
a mile -long amount of booths. You stop at the
top. It's about one mile long with booth after
booth after booth. All the various vendors that
are there showing their arms and a lot of the
things. It's live fire. So if you want to shoot
the latest clock or try something you haven't
tried before. You can just get in line and they're
very kind and they will share with you. It was
my first opportunity, for example, to fire a
50 BMG sniper rifle at 800, excuse me, 983 yards.
First time I ever got to do that. Oh, it wasn't
a thousand? I didn't know it wasn't a thousand.
The guy said it was 983, which, to be honest
with you, when you're looking through the optics,
there's probably virtually no difference of a
thousand yards. I took a few shots, and I think
the closest I got was about two feet away from
my target, which, to be honest with you, on a
brand -new rifle with something I'd never fired
before, I felt very good about. I was within
two feet of the target, so probably three feet
off the center of the target. Well, there was
some crosswind. I had to do... I was surprised
at how much I had to do wind hold. I was really
impressed at that range, how much the thing would
drift. At least when I was shooting, it was a
right -to -left wind, and I had to come off pretty
far, I thought. But, yeah, that was fun, and
they do provide all the ammunition, thank God.
Which is very nice. It would have been very expensive
otherwise. Oh, yeah, absolutely. They don't give
you an unlimited amount, but usually most places
would let you have, you know, anywhere. The .50
cal, I think they would limit you at three or
four shots. But most other places were anywhere
between 5 and 15, depending on what the caliber
was. Well, Barrett was one shot, but with their
50. Oh, the 150, okay. Yeah, it was just one
shot. So, you know, if you missed, well, you
know, get back in line. Go back in line. And
it was a really long line for Barrett. Oh, sure,
yeah. Yeah, but the one you shot was a bolt action.
Bolt action, which was interesting because when
you looked at it first, it was a bolt action
with the bolt actuated on the left -hand side
of the weapon, even for a right -handed shooter.
And you think, oh, that's kind of odd, but it
actually made sense just because of the actual
mass and size of the weapon. A left -handed bolt
was not at all a bad thing. I mean, I thought
it would be kind of odd, like, well, you got
a left -handed .50 here. No, no, it was actually
quite good. So I enjoyed it. They're all expensive
rifles. They're kind of outside the frugal environment.
They're all up above, north of $7 ,000 or $8
,000 and up. I think the Barrett's are going
for about $10 ,000 to $12 ,000. depending on
how they're configured. Wonderful stuff. Glad
we could try them, but a little bit outside of
our realm. Yeah. And that day you mentioned it
was a mile long range. I was surprised when I
got back. I mean, yeah, I had to walk, you know,
to get the bus and I had to walk back from the
bus. And there's a few other things, but I put
on five and a half miles that day. So it's like,
gosh, did I really walk the range that many times?
And by the end of the entire, I actually posted
a video about this. My phone, I was so disappointed
in this. I, when, after we get back to San Diego,
I looked at what my phone said I walked. And
across the days while I was there, it said I
walked 29 .92 miles. It's like, oh man, if I
only walked like another, I mean, what's, you
know, what's eight one hundredths of a mile.
I mean, it's not very far. And if I just walked
that distance, I mean, I could just, I'm calling
it 30. I'm saying I walked 30 miles. Absolutely.
So on that. Yeah, it's completely agreeable.
I didn't come near that, but absolutely. Yeah,
that's very doable, especially for you, Craig.
Absolutely. So what was your let's start out
this way. I have two items that I'm going to
mention that were to me the best to show regardless
of price. And by the way, they were both hideously
expensive. So they're not absolutely not frugal.
But, you know, hey, if you got the money. I would
really seriously be considering these. Did you
have anything that was like a just price is no
object? Because for me, for example, I'll tell
you before, it was probably the Lago Alien pistol,
which was north of $6 ,000. But now there's something
else that's more advanced, I would say, more
ergonomic. It has a negative. muzzle rise. In
other words, the web of your hand is above the
center axis of the barrel. And that was the Rideout
Arsenal Dragon, which comes in cost -wise. I
want to say it's about a $4 ,000 to $5 ,000 gun.
It might be less. I could be wrong about that.
But I remember it had a cost advantage over the
Lago Alien. And frankly, I think it was better
thought out. That and the other one was Vulcan
Machine Works. Well, works is spelled German
like Werks. Yeah, W -E -R -K -S. Yeah, W -E -R
-K -S. And they have a video that I'm also going
to post probably in the next few days. I've been
kind of dribbling out the videos where guys are
just standing here. I mean, it was a very kind
of a male. let's say satisfaction moment where
guys are just holding the guns and racking them
and just you know i think everyone kind of knows
where i'm going with this but it was it was interesting
because they were the smoothest guns including
staccato by the way smoothest thing i've ever
racked in my life um the the tolerances the machining
everything was just Now, they're quite heavy,
unlike the Rideout Arsenal Dragon, which was
actually not too heavy. The Vulcan Machine Vex
pistols were bricks, and they look like bricks.
But, oh my God, are they nice. Yep. But these
are the dreams, you know. And I know we're there
for the frugal aspect of it, but, you know, it's
fun to take a look at these, what's available
in the market space, in case you happen to have
a... A rich uncle who leaves you a ton of money
or you win the lottery or something like that.
Or maybe you just made the right choice in careers.
Yeah, that can happen too. That helps. You know,
buy Amazon when it first came out or, I mean,
a whole bunch of things. Who knows? Yeah, you
don't know. I mean, we could have all bought
Bitcoin when it was $10 a Bitcoin, you know,
and sold $100 ,000 a Bitcoin. Exactly. Well,
okay. So what were some of the favorite things
I posted? And by the way, this got taken down
by YouTube because, uh, I don't know why I didn't
tell you anything that I was doing that violated
community standards, but I was interviewing a
really nice guy that I met. And by the way, you
do meet a ton of cool. I mean, a ton of cool
people at shot. This guy named Josiah, he's the
owner of a company called Maryland Ammunition.
And he was talking to me about ammunition costs
and what he can get wholesale and what the retail
market looks like and how the market is changing.
And I'm hoping to have him on as a guest someday.
But he did a little promo video for me when we
were both at the Kel -Tec desk looking at the
new Gen 3 Sub 2000. What's special about that?
They've had this folding rifle out now for quite
a while. A long time. Yeah, but what's different
about the Gen 3 Sub 2000 is that now the barrel
rotates. Absolutely. It solves a major thing.
I own a couple of Sub 2000s and Gen 2. Do you
have a red dot on them? I do have a red dot.
And you can't fold it. Well, you can't fold it
with a red dot in place. However, I have a 45
degree Picatinny rail offset, which lets you
fold. Oh, so you solved it that way. So what
happened with the Gen 3 is now they've added
a rotating barrel. You can rotate it left or
right. So it solves the problem of being able
to fold the gun because it folds essentially
toward the top, if you will. that unlike the
Smith & Wesson competitor, the Smith & Wesson
folds sideways. But I have to say that, you know,
I really think I like the Kel -Tec better than
the Smith. Yeah, I mean, I think they're both
excellent. I mean, these are guns that, in my
opinion, are perfect for bug -out bags or being
able to carry a carbine that does not... Print,
for example, if you needed to transport one.
People don't even give you this. Second thought,
you can put it in your backpack. Sub 2000s are
great. What I really like about them is the fact
that the vast majority of them are set up to
accept Glock magazines. Whereas the Smith & Wesson,
which I happen to like the side folder. The side
folder Smith & Wesson is very solid. The grip
is the same as a Yemen P pistol with replaceable
back straps and all sorts of things. I thought
it was great. The thing about the Smith & Wessons
is the fact that you pretty much have to use
the Smith & Wesson M &P magazines, which is not
a bad thing. If you already have an investment
in a Smith & Wesson M &P 9mm or whatever, that's
fine. They work great. And it would be a natural
choice. But the Glock magazine is so ubiquitous.
They are made by nothing. Glock makes them. Magpul
makes them. So the Glock pattern magazines are
everywhere. And I think Smith & Wesson should
have also come up with some sort of an adapter
in their folding PC carbine or FPC, I think they
call it, that would accept a Glock magazine.
I think if they did that, they would actually
see tremendous sales. But they want to sell you
their magazines, right? I mean, it's a high -profit
item. Yeah, it's a high -profit item. Because
magazines, I think, are... Sell them for about
$40 a piece. Yeah, for the stamped steel, a spring,
a follower, and a base plate. Exactly. I mean,
the profit margin on magazines is enormous. But
yeah, I mean, well, you know who I'd recommend?
Plug to a previous show. My favorite magazine?
Yeah, the ETS Omega series. Beautiful. I think
they're the best mags on the market, period.
Anybody. It's a polymer mag. You can see through
it, but it also doesn't compromise its strength
because it has a metal insert to keep the feed
lips consistent. It doesn't bulge out or anything
like that. And they actually have some interesting
colors now. They have kind of a rainbow version
and a gold version. I mean, if you care what
your magazine looks like because it's in the
gun, you can't see that. if you care what it
looks like those are the exceptional mags and
i would totally go with that so the caltech now
what mag what caliber do you have your your sub
both of my uh both of my sub 2000s are in nine
millimeter and they're set up to accept the glock
pattern magazines so now they have the 10 millimeter
which costs 100 more because there's just more
It's a blowback. So there's more mass. So there's
more stuff. So there's more cost. Yeah, exactly.
You kind of wonder, is that the one to go with?
Like as a reach out and protect yourself gun?
Yeah. I mean, particularly if you're going into
the backwoods or something like that, where you
want to, if you're like. I enjoy listening to
Chook's Outdoor Adventures. And he does things
on grizzly bear, grizzly bear attacks, usually
a couple of times a week. And he is a real fan
of the 10 millimeter and being able to drop pretty
much any North American game, which includes
very angry grizzly bears that are nine feet tall.
Yeah. And he's a big fan of the 10 millimeter
with a hard cast 200 grain bullet or something.
On the other end of the scale, would you consider
going with the 5 .7x28? Because the Sub 2000
comes in that also. Yeah, the 5 .7x28 is an interesting
round. I know you talked about it before. Like
if you are stupid enough to invade the White
House, maybe the Secret Service, they allow you
to sample a few of those. No. Oh, yeah, I see
what you're saying. Yeah, I'm kind of on the
border with the 5 .7x28. I think it's a great
round. But to a certain degree, frugal always
leads me toward common, which means lower cost.
And that's why the 9mm is... They're just everywhere,
and they are relatively inexpensive compared
to even .45s or 10mms you're going to pay a premium
for. And the 5 .7x28s are even more expensive.
They're really expensive. Not that they're bad
rounds. I just want to go with something I can
shoot a lot, practice a lot with. So I'm going
to tend to gravitate toward the 9mm. Not to say
that I don't own a couple of 10mms. I do. It's
just one of those things. Okay. um another company
that we saw that is interesting story behind
this we we saw some familiar faces but we saw
them at a company that they weren't at last time
we saw them dnt optics has a pretty broad and
and rapidly expanding line of digital and thermal
optics that are now kind of in a space that's
competitive with one of our previous guests And
I think that it's going to be interesting. At
some point, we're going to get the good folks
from D &T Optics on to talk about their stuff.
They had an interesting hybrid thermoscope that
also incorporated digital, like low light and
regular light scope. And they did it differently
than Holosun did. So what Holosun did in one
of their optics, and this was introduced, not
this year, it was previously introduced. It overlays
thermal and... let's say, visual range optics
into a single image. And it kind of does it sort
of okay, but it's not great. And DNT looked at
this and said, yeah, that's too hard to do to
get it right. So what they have is they have
essentially a picture -in -picture. So they have
an optic that you can use as a digital normal
scope that also has good low -light capability,
and then it has an inset. which has a co -aligned
reticle for thermal, or you can switch it just,
I think with one button, you can switch and go
to primary thermal with the picture in picture
being the visual range optic. So that also came
in at a very good price point. I don't want to
quote it because I don't know what the street
price is on that, but I would say get over to
the DNT Optics if you're interested in something
like that. And that's one thing. I mean, digital
and thermal optics are something that are, you
know, the price points are continuing to drop
on those while the quality and the performance
continue to increase. And they're really impressive.
I mean, Craig, we've got the one thermal optic,
for example, and I actually needed to borrow
it not but a few weeks ago to look for a leaking.
or a warm electrical outlet in a friend's house.
And it's nothing quite like having the option
to take a look at a thermal optic and effectively
look at your walls and say, oh, well, there's
where all the suds are. You can see how efficient
your walls are. But also just walking around
looking for a warm electrical socket to see that,
oh, well, that's pulling too much amperage through
that or whatever it might be. So thermal, you
might think, gee, why would I ever want a thermal
optic? No, they're really cool, and they're surprisingly
useful for even things that are not in the standard
gun space. And that particular optic was from
ATN. That was their Blaze Seeker. And that's
still a product we recommend. We're not saying
anything bad about ATN whatsoever. No, no. Excellent
stuff. Now, did you see that there are now...
remember when lab radar came out and they had
that chronograph that was radar based. So remember
for those who haven't used a chronograph before,
what does it do? It takes the speed of your bullet.
So they used to be optical systems and you'd
fire over two optical sensors that were a known
distance apart. And sometimes you had to use
a little shade because if sun got in the optic,
it, I mean, glare, right. It couldn't, it couldn't
see the bullet pass over the top. And it would
give you a readout on speed. And then there was
another one. I actually owned one of these, something
called a magneto speed. A magneto speed is interesting
because you attach it to the end of the barrel
and it measures, again, the passage of a bullet
over two essentially magnetometers that are a
known distance apart. So it gives you speed there.
The nice thing about the Magneto Speed is that
you can put it on a rifle and it's very repeatable
and very portable. But there's some guns it's
very hard to get the thing on and make it work.
Like there's some guns you simply cannot attach
it to. And it's good for making up loads, but
it also affects the harmonics of the barrel.
So I wouldn't use it at accuracy. But it's perfect
for building the load up, determining what the
speed is of a particular load, particular hand
load. But it's only one digit. And so there's
a couple of companies now that make very small
portable radar chronographs that are inexpensive.
relatively speaking we're talking in the street
price of 250 to 450 dollars right one is made
by garmin uh the zero and zero is spelled with
an x like x e r o and then there's also the um
oh it's made by athlon what's it called the range
something i can't remember the But they're very,
very, very similar. The Garmin and the Athlon,
if you look at them, the Athlon has a price advantage.
They're both 24 gigahertz units. Now, this is
going to matter here in a second. So 24 gigahertz
is the frequency that the radar is tuned to.
Both the Garmin and the Athlon give you one readout.
Now, they do some statistics. They'll keep multiple
shots. They'll do standard deviations and other
analyses for you. You know, they have memory
and so on, but they're only giving you one number.
Labradar, who made the original big chronograph
that was radar -based, now has a little one,
too. Now, this also is not a 2026 release, but
there's an advantage. The Labradar LX is also
very small. to my eye, has a better screen, more
sophistication than either the Garmin or the
Athlon. But the other, now you tell me about
the, so you reload, Ken. We've talked about that
before. If you have a radar that will take multiple
samples as the bullet goes down range, and therefore
calculate ballistic coefficient and give you
the G1 and the G7 numbers, would you find that
helpful? I would, absolutely. I mean, it's not
only just what it is at the muzzle, it's what
is it at 10 yards, 100 yards, or beyond, depending
on the device. Well, these little things don't
go out that far. So the way that the Labradar
LX does this is it takes multiple samples. I
admit to being ignorant on this. We haven't tested
one yet, so I have no personal experience with
it, caveat. But at the same time, it will measure
the bullet multiple times. Otherwise, it wouldn't
be able to get it. Yeah, it couldn't get the
G1 and G7 numbers. And by the way, folks, okay,
what do those numbers mean? The G1 number is
a number that is based on essentially the flight
of a bullet that is flat -based. That has, in
other words, the rear of the bullet is flat.
And the ogive, which is the curvature of the
bullet in the front, is based on the caliber
times two. That's the radius. Now, what's a G?
So you think, well, it kind of sounds like a
pistol round, really. A lot of bullets are best
measured by using the G1 number. The G7 number
uses a ogive of 10 times the caliber. In other
words, the slope of the ogive is much shallower,
and it uses a 7 .5 degree boat tail. That is
more analogous to a modern rifle hunting round.
So that's actually where you're going to get
a better ballistic coefficient calculation if
you're actually that technical in doing that
stuff. But it also tells you something interesting
here that the lab radar, it can see that very,
because all the bullets, all the radar is looking
at is the very back of the bullet, right? That's
all it can see. So it sees that very narrow base
on the boat tail. In fact, it can see a BB. The
BB is terrible. It's totally round, yeah. It's
round. So the only part that reflects back is
the very, very back that is perpendicular to
the, or actually parallel to the flight of the
round itself. So this is something we hope to,
is it frugal? I don't know. No, but it's super
technical. Well, it's $500. I understand. I mean,
basically, the more slippery the bullet is in
flight, the better, less drag it's going to have.
Probably the slower it's going to slow down,
just from friction and wind resistance. So basically,
the flatter it's going to shoot and so forth.
So there's a ton of calculation stuff here. Now,
so I'll ask you. If you're a reloader and you're
doing it with it, like you're getting ready for
a hunt and you really need, or your competition,
you need this to be right. Is $500 to get that
information worth it? Yeah, I think it is. I
mean, for some people it isn't, for others it
wouldn't be, right? I think it's definitely a
luxury item. And if you're a reloader, that's
really, in my opinion, the only reason to own
it. If you don't reload, then you're dependent
on factory ammo and you can't do anything about
it anyway. But if you're a reloader and you can
actually dial in a particular load with a particular
bullet to within a half a grain of powder or
something like this, that is where... a tool
like this would come to become a very valuable
asset to you. But before you get there, you know,
I would encourage people to start reloading.
You know, basically save your brass. Don't let
it just fall onto the, get stepped on and swept
away. No, no, save your brass and reload. Well,
if you're not going to reload, then what do you
do with your brass? Oh, you can sell your brass.
We actually had somebody here just on a show
or two ago. Brassbuyers .com. Brassbuyers. Exactly.
You can sell your brass back, particularly if
you've got a lot of it or if it's an unusual
caliber. And Jeff, who runs Brass Buyers, is
a fantastic guy who's doing a lot of good things
for his community. Right. Go back and listen
to the episodes 24 and 26 if you didn't hear
those. Right. Brass is a valuable asset. And
as a frugal person, you should collect it. And
even if you're not reloading, oftentimes next
time you go to a gun show, if you don't want
to deal with an online thing, bring it to a gun
show. And you'll find the reloaders that are
selling brass. And you want to say, hey, and
I've done this before. I've walked in with a
bunch of brass that was for a caliber I was no
longer using. Say, hey, I got a whole big bag
of this. stuff. Uh, you know, it's an all in
great shape, no problems. Hey, and you've got
something over there that I'm interested in.
Will you give me $25 for this, which you'll be
able to sell for at least 50. And then you can
be $25 worth of table credit to buy something
over that they might be selling. I do all the
time. Yeah, exactly. Okay. We're going to welcome
back to the show. This is the first time this
has ever happened on the frugal firearms podcast.
A guest that we just had recently because he
has an important update for his site. And that's
Jeff Goldstein of not only High Value Training
Academy, but of BrassBuyers .com. And Jeff, you
felt that even though we recently recorded a
show with you covering Brass Buyers, that your
business model has adapted a little bit to the
changing market in brass. And you really wanted
to get that message out. So why don't you take
the floor and tell us what's new at Brass Buyers
and what your new customers should be aware of.
Thanks, Greg. Thanks, Ken, for having me back
on. So we just finished recording the Brass Buyers
podcast and it's been out there for a few weeks.
And one of the things I spent a lot of time on
on that podcast was talking about our menu and
what we pay for and how much we pay for it. And
we're in the middle of implementing changes to
that for the very first time ever in the history
of the company. And so I felt like maybe it would
be a good idea to update the audience very quickly
on what changes we're making, because two weeks
passed when that episode aired or three weeks
passed when that episode aired. New prices are
coming out. They're going to put more money in
the pocket of customers that sells their brass.
And what kind of differences are people going
to see? And why does it make it more compelling
for them to do business with you as a result
of those changes? Absolutely. So let me first
start by talking about what isn't changing. For
customers that have very unique calibers, and
this was mentioned in the previous podcast, we
will still custom quote your unique calibers.
And those are per contact per request basis.
So nothing is going to change with that. What's
changing is, is that we're changing our menu
structure for our cash for brass program, which
also includes store credit and charitable notations.
In the past, the way our menu structure worked
was very, very simple. It was $1 .50 for cash.
It was $1 .80 store credit. And it was $2 if
you wanted us to donate. to a charity of your
choice at two dollars a pound and that also made
a lot of sense on the website so if you go to
the website you pick from the drop down menu
which one you want you'd enter an approximate
weight of your brass the website would tell you
approximately what's that worth you would complete
the transaction send us your brass and within
30 days you would get a check so one of the challenges
we had with changing that model to expand our
menu was one of two things needed to happen Either
we needed to make the selection options on the
website much more detailed in order to match
the new menu of prices, which we felt like might
be complicated because, well, what if we don't
receive what people say they're sending us? We
really don't want to have conflicts like that.
We want to just receive your brass, weigh it
and send you a check. And then the other option
was, well, if we have this expanded menu, then.
Instead of giving the customer all of these choices
on the website, what if we take away the approximation
of what your brass was worth? So today, if you
go on the website and you select the cash option
and you say, I have 50 pounds of brass, the website
is going to say that's worth $75. And what we're
going to change in the future is you're now going
to select whether you're sending us sorted or
unsorted. And we may have some specific caliber
call outs. And the prices for those things are
now all different. So you are going to tell us
what you're sending us, but we're not going to
give you that approximation on the website anymore
because it would just be too complicated to then
compare that versus what we receive. So but the
program is becoming a little bit richer for the
customer. So cash prices prior to the changes
we're making in March, which, by the way. If
you're a February customer and your box is waiting
for weigh -in pay, all of these prices are retroactive
to all unprocessed February boxes. So we're not
just doing March and moving forward. We're going
to take care of our customers that have already
sent us unprocessed boxes. The price for unsorted
mixed brass. So just think of a bucket of brass
at the range. It's every caliber people have
shot. If you send that to us. It's now $1 .60
a pound. So that went up 10 cents, and that's
because the market price for that has changed.
If you send us sorted brass, meaning that we
can now count on being able to turn around this
inventory back to the website much faster without
having to put it through our sorting machines,
we will pay you $1 .70 a pound for common pistol
calibers that are sorted. And when I say sorted,
I don't mean... pistol calibers in one bag, rifle
calibers in a second bag, what I mean is if you
sort your pistol brass, so in the box there's
a bag of 9mm and a bag of .380 and a separate
bag of .38 Special, we will consider that sorted
and pay $1 .70 a pound. And the same thing for
rifle brass at $1 .85 a pound. That's a good
increase in percentage. It is a good increase
in percentage. All you need to do on the website
is say you're sending us sorted or unsorted.
So if you say you're sending us sorted, we're
expecting it to be sorted in that manner when
we receive it, not just sorted pistol versus
rifle, but actually by caliber. And so we'll
pay those higher amounts. And what was the demand
signal that told you that this was necessary?
We've had a lot of conversations with customers
recently who've contacted us and said, I have
brass and it's sorted and it's shiny and clean.
I just don't reload anymore. I'm looking for
a place to offload it. And the more I talked
to these customers, obviously we want to buy
their brass. That's what we do. But also, you
know, having some compassion for the fact that
they've already put in the work that I won't
have to or the people that help me won't have
to as far as sorting the brass goes. Whether
it's clean or dirty or not is still not a consideration.
But if it is sorted by calibers, then we will
pay those higher amounts, pistol versus rifle.
Okay, great. And then on top of that, we're going
to have caliber call -outs. So right now, starting
in March, if you send us sorted brass and you
send us a mix of .223, .556, we consider that
the same thing as fired brass is concerned. Or
if you send us mixed .308, slash 762 by 51 we
will pay 225 a pound for those two calipers well
I should say four calipers but but really two
two three five five six can be combined 308 plus
762 by 51 can be combined we'll pay 225 a pound
cash for those so that is a significant jump
from the dollar 50 a pound and What we're doing
is we're going to start calling out calibers
that we see in the market. There is higher demand,
which means we need more supply. And so we're
going to be paying a little bit more for high
demand calibers so we can receive those, make
sure they're in good reloadable condition and
turn those back over as quickly as possible.
If somebody sends us a box of. two two three
five five six mix just as an example a usps large
flat rate box will hold approximately 2500 pieces
of that if we receive that and we can put that
up for sale immediately on the website without
having to sort it first we're certainly willing
to pay extra for that so store credit values
are also higher so starting with unsorted brass
it's now a dollar 95 store credit Sorted pistol
205, sorted rifle 225, and sorted the caliber
callouts like 223 or 308 will be 240. And then
charitable donation across the board now is $2
.40 a pound. And it just is a reminder for the
listeners, what does charitable donation mean?
If you have a bucket of brass sitting in your
garage and you're thinking, you know, it's time
to maybe make a donation to your favorite charity,
send us your brass. And we'll make that donation
for you in your name at $2 .40 a pound. So it's
a way to make a charitable donation for the cost
of shipping as opposed to taking cash out of
your pocket. So it's a really good return for
you if you're considering making a charitable
donation. And you send them proof that they made
that donation so they can use that for tax purposes.
yeah we'll send them a screenshot of where we
donated it so that they'll tell us where they
want it donated we'll verify that that is a legitimate
charity and we'll make that donation uh we actually
have had one instance now where somebody sent
us a charitable donation and then dropped off
the face of the earth we haven't heard from them
i asked them probably five times. Can you please
tell us what charity you want to donate to? I
have to this day never heard back from them.
So we made that charitable donation to High Value
Training Academy and their name. And if they
want proof of that, they just need to reply to
one of our emails. OK, so on to your story about
high value training before we get back to our
SHOT Show 26 review. This past week. i was invited
to teach two nra classes to some college students
at a local university and we did it at a house
one of the things i was trying to be careful
of was to not bring a bunch of firearms onto
campus into dorm rooms or into apartment buildings
that are shared spaces that was going to cause
some concern for people who might see it so There
was a house we could use for these guys in this
fraternity who wanted to do the class. So we're
in the basement of the house. The power goes
out. So we're in this basement. It's completely
dark. And we're not sure what's going on. Of
course, savvy college students, they're checking
their phone. Oh, the power's out for the whole
block. There's something going on. So in my head,
I'm thinking, man, we. We packed up all of our
stuff, pistols and rifles, because we're doing
two classes. We brought it all the way over here.
We're two hours in, and the power goes out. And
one of the kids says, hey, I've got an EV. And
I said, you mean like an electric vehicle? He
said, yeah, I'll go get it. So we took a break.
We moved all the tables and everything upstairs.
into the living room of this house and reconfigured
their living room to turn it into a quasi -classroom.
This kid pulls his Hyundai Ioniq into the garage
of the house and we ran this really long extension
cord from the surge protector that had the projector
and the laptop plugged into it and ran this class
off of the car. There you go. Yeah, there are
cars out there like the Lucid Air that can run
your house for like two days. And I'm talking
refrigerators, air conditioning, all that stuff.
I can't think of a better story than, you know,
we were agile enough to use a college student's
electric vehicle to actually run an NRA class.
And I have a video to prove it. The projector
screen that we have with something up on the
screen, turn around and you see this long extension
cord on the ground going out to this. car in
the garage. I just, I couldn't believe we saved
the day. It was so cool. Hey, if you guys want
to hear another story that also relates to high
value training, go listen to episode 24 of the
frugal firearms podcast, and you'll get to hear
him tell another story about a person who maybe
shouldn't have been in class. So Jeff, thanks
very much for joining us. And we're going to
get back to our SHOT Show 2026 review. Sure.
Thanks guys. Appreciate the time. Thank you.
I'll tell you that sometimes When Ken and I go
to the SHOT Show, you make contacts and you get
cards and you meet people and then you try to
arrange to show with them and then it kind of
doesn't happen because people get busy and time
passes and stuff like that. But one company that
I approached again this year that I had approached
previously was Recover Tactical. Now, Recover
Tactical makes some stuff that if you haven't
seen it, you need to go look at their website
because it can add, I wouldn't say value as much
as opportunity to the guns that you already own.
You can do things like get a pistol brace for
your Glock. Now, why would anybody do that? Well,
I mean, you might want to be able to put a red
dot on or you might be able to want to do. use
a forward stabilizer or something like that,
or just stabilize it by attaching it to your
forearm. This is particularly good. You know,
I need to tell the guys over at the Accessible
Hunter, which is another great podcast. By the
way, we appear with every Monday. Our show is
broadcast on the Outdoor Call radio app. along
with a number of other shows, Accessible Hunter
being one of them. Accessible Hunter really specializes
in talking hunting and gear, you know, for people
who've, through dint of fate or bad luck or whatever,
have suffered accidents that usually compromise
their mobility. And some of the stuff that Recover
Tactical makes really turns your gun into something
that it really wasn't to begin with. And we're
going to be talking to those guys, getting some
samples from them. They have things that are
really thinking out of the box. And one of their
ideas that they have is the thing called the
G -Zero. And I'll say holster, but put, you know,
quotes around the word holster. It's a little
clip, basically, that has two springs in it.
And it attaches to the pick rail on your pistol.
It's generic across different pistols, I believe.
And what happens is that you use this, you fold
it out, and then you fold it up. So it comes
outward 90 degrees, and then it folds up, and
it opens a latch. And that latch attaches to
your belt or inside of your waistband or something
like that. As you draw the gun, the whole thing
folds up just like that. Folds so quickly that
it's completely stowed by the time the weapon
is presented. It adds, I don't know, five, six
grams to the gun. Now, is it a proper holster?
No, it's not. Does it hold as securely as, you
know, a Kydex holster would? No, it doesn't.
But if you have a situation where you need absolute
minimal exposure and you want to have the minimal
amount of gear and you're not going to wear a
belt, because it just isn't appropriate for what
you're wearing at the time, that you can hold
your gear on properly, put quotes around the
word properly, then the GZERO holster might well
be, and it's only like, I think, retails for
like $20. Maybe that's a low number. Maybe it's
more than that. But it's truly unique. And these
guys at Recover Tactical do stuff that nobody
else has. I haven't seen any place else. I did
see one of the company. There was one of the
company that made similar folding stocks and
stuff like that for pistols, but they only had
two pistols that they did it for. One was a Sig
P365. I don't remember what the other one was.
And their stuff was a lot more expensive for
one thing. And frankly, wasn't better. I didn't
think. In fact, I'm not even sure it was as good.
So what else did you see, Ken, that you want
to talk about? Well, one of the things that I
really liked, and they're actually from San Diego
company out here in San Diego County anyway,
which was Core Tactical, or I guess they're Core
Essentials. That's K -O -R -E. They make gun
belts. They're from San Diego. They are? They're
in Santee. Yeah. I did not know that. Core Essentials.
They make these gun belts, which are... It's
really, you know, perfectly stiff, which is what
you want on a gun belt. Perfect for, you know,
attaching a holster, whether that be inside the
waistband or outside the waistband holster. And
the neat thing about them is they have a ratcheting
part to it on the front of it. So normally when
you have a typical belt, there are little holes
that are punched in your belt. You've all seen
it. You probably have a half -thousand -minute
closet. You know, but you're limited in them,
and the holes are punched about an inch apart
or so. The great thing about these Core Essentials
belts is that they have a ratchet built into
the belt. So basically, there aren't any holes
in the belt. This is an internal ratchet. You
can't even see on the outside. But it slides
into their proprietary belt buckle, I guess you'd
call it. And it goes click. And if you want it
a quarter inch tighter, sometimes you just want
a quarter inch tighter. And that would be like
two clicks. I think they're eighth inch or something
like that. Something like that. It's very nice.
Because sometimes an inch is a bad, it's either
too loose or it's too tight. And there's nothing
in between. Right. Right. And these Core Essentials
belts are extremely well made. They come in different
styles and colors. I mean, to be honest with
you, I've been wearing mine now. I got one there
at the show and I've been wearing mine now for
about three weeks. I've got one too. Yeah. I'm
using it for a tech con this year. And they're
good looking belts, guys. I mean, if you don't
want to look, I mean. Okay, if you're in the
trade and you want to look like tactical, I'm
not saying that in a bad way. I mean, it's just
that's how you dress. Cool. They got a lot of
stuff like that. But if really what you want
is more of like a business attire look or something,
they make that too. So that's a good call there,
man. I hadn't even known that they were in San
Diego or not literally San Diego, but San Diego
County. San Diego County, not too far from here,
not too far from me. Other friends that we saw
at the show, Vantage Point, we've mentioned them
before. We still have yet to test their product.
which we will be doing, and we will be featuring
them on an upcoming show. One of the nice things
about Vantage Point, what does Vantage Point
do? They have two different divisions. One does
archery products, and neither Ken or I are archers.
We don't have anything against archery. We just
haven't really done it. So it's not really our
thing. But they do make a lot of very nice broadheads
and things like that. What we're interested in
on the gun side of the house are their compensators,
because the compensator that they make is attached
to the rail of the gun. Right. So it doesn't
require a threaded barrel. It's easily taken
on and off. And they're, you know, relatively
speaking, inexpensive. And they don't really
add much, if any, they do add some length to
the gun, but very, very minimal. And they've
added now more options because when they first
came out, not surprising, they were sort of limited
in the number of offerings that they had. And
that offering is now expanding. They're up to
quite a few of guns now that very likely, if
you're looking for something, they probably have
it. So I'm trying to figure out how are we going
to, because being an engineer, I've been like,
I don't think listeners probably appreciate.
like how do i go to sleep at night i lie in bed
and i try to imagine how am i going to come up
with a rig that's going to test this properly
and they're thinking god what a loser spending
your time trying to come up with stuff like that
well why because you know testing a comp is both
the rearward motion and the downward motion and
doing that on a jig is not really something you
can do correctly. And I've been trying to come
up with a way to do this objectively. So maybe
I should just give up and just do it subjectively
and said, yep, this is a lot better, but I don't
know. Talking about objectivity, though, one
thing that we did get to try at Industry Day,
Ken and I both got to shoot this, was Cimex ammunition.
Yep. Which is, in fact, you touched on this,
Ken. In a previous show, you were talking not
about SimEx per se, but you were talking about
high -speed ammunition with very light green
weight. Yeah, Liberty ammunition, yes. Exactly.
And that's what SimEx is predicated on. SimEx
is predicated on the idea that you're going to
hit something very, very fast with minimal penetration.
So does it meet the FBI standard? No. Is it supposed
to? Nope. Not supposed to. Because their theory
is, and I'm not going to say it's an untested
theory. That would be wrong. And we're going
to have the president of the company on. He's
agreed to join us as a guest to talk about really
what the core process is. of incapacitation.
Because he told me a story. I'm not going to
repeat it here because I don't want to take away
his thunder on this. But he told me a story about
a certain coroner's office that called them up
after an engagement with SimEx ammunition. People
will want to listen to that story when it comes
in. But you know, I was thinking, what's a good
analogy to that? And it's not a perfect analogy.
Well, you talk about energy transfer. How did
the dinosaurs die? The dinosaurs died because
an asteroid hit the Earth. And the asteroid...
you know, imparted so much energy to the planet
that it basically cooked the surface of the planet,
certainly in the immediate area. And then it
threw up so much ash and things like that, that
it changed the... Nuclear winter, yeah. It changed
the weather enough that basically most things
starved after that. Was that a momentum transfer
or was that kinetic energy transfer? And I'll
give you the answer to the question. It was kinetic
energy. In other words... the velocity mattered
more than the mass. Because if you look at the
mass of the Earth versus the mass of the asteroid,
you'd think, that thing can't do anything to
the Earth. Well, yeah, it can when the velocity
is high enough. Because the velocity is a square
function when it comes to kinetic energy transfer.
And that's the same thing. I'm not saying that
you're going to cause nuclear winter by shooting
someone with SimEx ammunition. You certainly
won't. But if it causes rapid incapacitation,
That's really the goal, right? That's what you're
getting at with get the round there. It's not
that you're going to save time. The difference
over 50 yards between 1 ,100 feet per second
and 2 ,000 feet per second is not, in human terms,
very measurable. But if it causes that incapacitation
because the round is going faster, that's what's
going to matter. Also at industry day, there
was a product there that was by a company called
Grit Grips. So G -R -I -T -G -R -I -P -S. And
what's Grit Grips? Grit Grips is a company that's
making a frame for the Glock that has a superb,
I think I did talk about this before, but a superb
directional pattern. embossed into the grip that
when you're let's say you rub up against it unlike
let's say certain generations of glocks that
were a problem because they would wear out your
clothes and wear out your skin or if you have
certain other types of grips that are very very
aggressive that can be very uncomfortable because
they're so aggressive This isn't aggressive at
all when you rub it, but if you put your hand
on it and squeeze, it locks into your hand, and
it's really quite amazing how good this is. So
why is this a value proposition for us? Because
Grit Grips is selling their frame that will simply
swap the frame out for your Glock for $70. And
when I asked him about the price, I'm like, $70?
Like, I thought he was going to say... you know,
270, or maybe at the low end, 170. Nope, 70,
7 -0. Now, is it a new gun? Yeah, technically
it's a new gun. Yes, it is, yeah. Because it
has a serial number, because it isn't something
like, let's say on the Recover Tactical products
that would add a rail to your Glock or something,
it just has a cutout. You can see... the original
serial number through a window, but you can't
do that. I mean, grit grips, since it has to
replace the entire grip on a polymer handgun,
the only way that's going to happen is replace
the entire frame and therefore it's a new gun.
So what's part of the cost? Well, part of the
cost is the dross and, you know, using an FFL.
So there's a couple extra costs here, but still,
I mean, as an alternative to a Glock Gen 6. Which,
by the way, has, I think, a fantastic feel to
it. Oh, yeah. But I can do it for $70. Right.
And I'm not voiding. I don't know if you guys
know this out there in listener land. If you
stipple your Glock, I think, I'm not 100 % sure
on this, I think you void your warranty. Could
very well be. I wouldn't doubt it. If you're
modifying the frame of a Glock, what warranty
you have, you've left behind. I think that's
true. So, grit grips, you're not voiding anything
because you're simply swapping the grip out.
Right. So, that was a fantastic product. What
was another one? Remember, going back some episodes,
full spectrum lighting. Absolutely. Remember,
Ken, refresh people on what was the advantage
of full spectrum lighting. Full spectrum lighting
was basically, it's 180 degree light. I mean,
when you click down on it, it has a bright center
beam. Okay, that's wonderful. But it will also
illuminate completely, 180 degrees from left
to right. So if you walk into a dark room, for
example, and you actuate the light, you get a
nice center one right out in front of you where
the round is going to go. But you've also illuminated
the whole room. I mean, not super bright, but
you could see if somebody was standing there
on your left or your right. So it gives you tactical
awareness in a situation. So if you heard bump
in the night and you had to go down and investigate
your house or something, you think somebody might
be inside. This is a way of illuminating the
whole area, which is great. Fantastic. And now
I don't know if you got to their booth, but Roy,
the president of the company was their founder
and he had the idea and everything else. He was
there and he had set, he had used his booth space
to set up basically a little shoot room. Everything
in that room was dark. Except he left a few shipping
boxes and things like that in there as props
for people to hide behind. And the version that
he has now, which is the production version,
because we hadn't even seen the production version.
What we saw and did our show about was a pre
-production version that wasn't as good as the
production version. The production version basically
almost is as bright to the sides now as it is
up front. It's really remarkable. And I played
the role of not only shooter, but I played the
hiding person as well when I went in there. And
when you see it, you know, this person might
be looking 90 degrees away from you. You think
they're looking at you because there's an LED
literally facing you. It's not just that one
LED is being spread widely. It's multiple LEDs
and some of them are covering the flanks. you
know, you're very well illuminated and it's like
nothing. It's like no other light out there.
And Olight has a really neat new light, but it's
more conventional in its approach. Full spectrum
lighting's approach is completely different.
And gosh, I can tell you what, if you're in law
enforcement, I mean, I can't understand not having
this. And like you said, home defense, it's just.
I almost don't think there's another option.
Is it going to be expensive? Yeah, arguably,
yes. Because it's so different, absolutely, absolutely
worth it. Right. Speaking of expensive, there's
a company that I saw on the knives side, Stroop
Knives, S -T -R -O -U -P Knives. Some of the
nicest knives I've ever seen in production that
were factory knives, but kind of costy. I mean,
if you want a good tactical knife and something
that feels amazing in your hands and you're willing
to spend, you know, north of 200, possibly three,
$400 on a knife. Absolutely. I would go to strope
knives. You want to save a little bit of money?
Boker. I have owned a number of Boker products,
which is they're, they're based in Germany, but
they also have some Asian manufacturing as well
on some of their lower end products. They had
a knife called the Sigurd and. I hope I'm saying
that right. S -I -G -U -R -D. So I think it's
Sigurd 42, which was about as minimal knife as
you can possibly imagine. I think I'm going to
drop a link in the show notes to this one. 2
.16 inch knife, fixed blade. It uses a ring on
one end. So it's... almost like a karambit, but
it's straight. And because it's straight, it's
in an incredibly minimalistic scabbard that you
could hide pretty much anywhere. And if you ever
think about getting, pressure test yourself on
this, people. If you think that a knife encounter
is ever realistic in your life, show me how long
it takes you to get your pocket knife out. Show
me how long it takes you to get your folding
knife out and get it into play. And I think you'll
find out that you're going to lose that encounter.
If you don't have a fixed blade knife in a position
where you can get to it very quickly, you're
on the back foot or you're on the ground. And
both of those are bad things. You're talking
about knives that are of good value. Ones that
I've always liked, and I have several of them
in various bags and so forth that I carry, are
Amora knives, the M -O -R -A. Okay. Amora knives,
which I think are tremendous value. Generally
speaking, you know, anywhere from $20 to $50
or $75, they come in blue steel or, yeah, standard
steel or in stainless steel variations, different
colors and so forth. I really like them. I think
they're a great value as well. So another one
I'd recommend. Talking about great values, if
you recall back, I think it was, gosh, I want
to say it was episode four when we had Kyle Wade
from Anderson Manufacturing on. Oh, yes. Well,
does everyone know out there, rhetorical question,
because we can't hear our audience talking back
to us, that Anderson was closed down. Anderson
Manufacturing was sold to? Ruger. Ruger. Because
I think, again, I'm not sure, I think that Ruger
needed extra manufacturing capability. And they
also maybe, this is a way to get rid of competition
at the low end, right? By buying the competition.
Well, some of the guys from Anderson came out
the other side and started a company called One
Horse. So there's a little bit of a, you know,
you think about the pony that was on the Anderson
manufacturing. Well, now they have one horse.
So I think that what's going to happen is that
one horse is going to be a disruptor in the industry
because now there's going to be a reintroduction
of value -focused AR -15 parts and other products
that are just going to, you know, migrate as
they grow the business. They're really going
to... reset the table on value because I think
a lot of people lamented the loss of Anderson
because, I mean, if you didn't know people, whether
you were thinking that Anderson was for people
who, you know, don't want a quality product,
well, they were making a lot of stuff for a lot
of other people. And if you look at the ATF records,
there's an awful lot of ARs out there that are
using Anderson lowers that were just fine. Anderson
lowers are great. I mean, you know, obviously
they're now going to be Ruger branded, but that's
fine. I don't even know if Ruger is using it
for that purpose. I don't know what they use
them. Yeah. They could have bought, they could
have bought the machinery for who knows what.
Yeah. But no, I had no problem with Anderson
receivers. They were, they're very good. You
know, I've owned several of them myself. One
horse is now the, the remnants of Anderson and
you know, maybe, maybe in a better way, I think
that they learned some lessons from what happened
at Anderson and maybe they don't make, if there
were mistakes made, they don't repeat those mistakes.
Right. Uh, let's see what else. Well, we talked
about before that the show was dominated by suppressors.
By suppressors. Everything was about suppressors.
That was mainly because of the passage of the
One Big Beautiful Bill last year. Right. And
that basically took away the National Firearms
Act, the NFA, $200 tax for short -barreled shotguns
and rifles and all of this type of thing. So
basically, it was a tremendous decision, but
they unfortunately kept the requirement for still
having to be fingerprinted, background checked,
and blah, blah, blah, the rest of the stuff.
But the whole theme of the show was because now
there's no $200 tax on suppressors. Everybody
and their grandmother was selling a suppressor.
I think there were around 70 or so different
manufacturers there. Were there that many? I
didn't know that. Yeah, 70 manufacturers, all
with their own suppressors. Now, some of them
were there before, though. Oh, true, true. Like
YHM. But the market has just exploded. Yeah,
Yankee Hill Machine, YHM, has their own. And
we interviewed with them and talked to them.
Great company, by the way. Great company. Yeah,
great company. Yeah, absolutely recommending
them. And we're going to have their president,
Chris, on again in that show. I'm told that he
wants to really talk about ASA, which is the
American Suppressor Association. So it's going
to be less a show about YHM products and more
a show about progress in the... Why can't I say
that? That is so hard to say for some reason.
Progress in the... Oh, my gosh. Progress in the
suppressor space. Man, try to do that a few times.
Can you say that faster than me? Projects in
the suppressor space. There you go. Okay, thank
you for that. And that's the great thing. If
you're fortunate to live in one of the, I think
it's like 40 states, I don't know how many, 38,
40 states, that allow suppressors, go out and
buy one. Yeah, before they change their mind.
Yeah, go out and buy one. And yeah, you got to
go through the registration process. But that's
a safety equipment. We talk about frugal firearms.
There's nothing that you should be, you never
skimp on safety equipment. And in my opinion,
a suppressor is safety equipment. It's the same
thing as earplugs or earmuffs if you're going
to the range. And it's a phenomenal thing to
have. Sadly, Craig and I live in California,
so California is going to fight it tooth and
nail, you know, because they don't want anybody
to have any firearms and no suppressors. So it's
not something that's open to us at this point
in time. But if it ever does become open to us,
I'll be right in line to get one or more suppressors.
It would be very nice. Well, if you're talking
about safety gear, too, let's not forget our
show that we did, you know, with Rescue Essentials
and Dr. Dana Onifer. If you haven't listened
to that show, go back and find that show because
that's a very important, I mean, critically important
show. Yeah, if you're into safety and you're
in a range and you're in one of the free states,
definitely every range bag should have one or
more tourniquets in it, which is what we talked
about in a previous show. But from a hearing
protection perspective, a suppressor is a tremendous
advantage. The reason why California and these
other states are against it is absolutely mind
baffling to me. I don't understand it. That's
because you're a thinking person, Ken. You're
not going to be able, don't try to rationalize
something that irrational people do. Yeah, it's
like if they didn't like automobiles and they
wanted to get rid of automobiles, they would
ban steel -belted radial tires. They'd ban disc
brakes. They'd ban seatbelts. All of these safety
things that we have in automobiles today, airbags,
they'd ban the use of airbags. Yeah, but do criminals
use seatbelts in their cars and disc brakes?
Exactly. It's like, why would you ban airbags
and seatbelts? Same exact principles. Why would
you ban sound suppressors, which are protecting
people's hearing? Why? Well, let's be careful,
though, because Chris said that he drank the
Kool -Aid. And by the way, you guys know it wasn't
Kool -Aid, right? Jonestown, it was a product
called Flavor Aid. It wasn't Kool -Aid. Moving
on, moving on. That he himself, a guy who makes
really good suppressors for a living, has suffered
hearing loss. Why? Because he drank the Kool
-Aid, as they say, about, well, it's hearing
safe. It's not. I mean, if you're knocking something
down to, let's say, from 165 down to 135 decibels,
you've taken out 30 decibels, which is a tremendous
amount of energy that you've taken out. But it
accumulates. It's still damaging. It accumulates
over time. So it doesn't mean that you shouldn't
wear hearing protection, but it does make it.
just a lot more pleasant but right okay so what
is my best of show value i'm jumping ahead here
right okay i i mean i'll repeat it at the end
there i have two best of shows um as far as value
goes. One of them is Grit Grips. I didn't mention
that. Grit Grips is 70 bucks for a new frame
for your Glock that makes it feel amazing, has
all the undercuts, all the stuff that you would
do to the thing if you tried to hit it with your
own Dremel and then screw the thing up yourself.
They've already done this for you and have got
it right completely. That, to me, is tied for
the best value of the show. The other best value
of the show were the Lyman suppressors. and again
lyman what do you know them from reloading equipment
reloading equipment and accessories and stuff
so they partnered with a company in europe that
makes suppressors so they're bringing in a suppressor
that was already a product in europe modular
suppressor super easy to take apart in fact it
has an interesting design there's little cones
inside Not surprisingly, but these cones are
all part of the individual baffles that unscrew.
It has a little bit of a twist in it. The twist
is in a direction that causes the threads to
tighten as you shoot. So the thing won't self
-loosen. It'll self -tighten in case you didn't
have it tight enough. So it won't come apart
after a while. And, okay, is it as good as...
Well, I didn't compare it directly to YHM. Is
it as good as Ambient Arms that makes a great
suppressor? For the most part, very close, I
thought. Is it as good as Wraith? I think Wraith
was a little bit better. But the price point
on the Lyman, if you can buy one of these things
for $400 or $300 or $200? It's kind of hard not
to do that. I mean, you don't really have an
excuse not to buy it. Right. And again, the laws
can change in the wrong direction again, folks.
And if you don't go out and buy a suppressor
while the opportunity is there, I mean, don't
come crying to us if it doesn't work out for
you in the future. Right. Highly recommended
that those of you in these wonderful United States
that are allowed to have suppressors, go out
and buy one. It's a safety equipment. What's
another thing that I saw that was a, not a safety
item, but really a great tactical item? And maybe
safety in the sense that it keeps your primary
weapon out of the way if you have to go to your
secondary, or it makes carrying your primary
weapon so much easier. It was a, I think it was
a prototype unit. It's from a company called
Mantis Gear. Now, okay, we've talked. at length
before about Mantis X products. It is not the
same company. Mantis Gear makes a pulley system
that has attachments for a MOLLE pack, so you
can attach it to your web gear. And it runs a
protected, in other words, it has a sheath around
it, cable that goes to one of the QD attachment
points, let's say on your AR. And you can balance
the amount of force that this thing is trying
to pull the weapon back. So you want to have
the weapon high and tight on your chest. It'll
hold it there. And then there's a little clip
that they also have that would, let's say, if
you're right -handed, it will go on your left
shoulder and it'll hold the fore end of the gun.
You want to deploy the gun. You simply grab the
gun and push it out. And as you push it out,
the... cable will resist a little bit, but it'll
provide a little bit of tension and you'll be
able to get the gun into play. You let go, the
thing just spools right back in. So if you have
to go to your secondary weapon, now you don't
have to worry about a sling. The thing's flopping
around. It's over your back. It's down by your
side. Vastly, vastly better than anything else
I've seen that handles just the management of
the weapon. And again, probably something I'm
going to point out to the guys over at Accessible
Hunter. You saw a revolver that you want. By
the way. I do. I'm a revolver guy. Tell them
what's coming up, too, in our next show. Well,
we've got a discussion about revolvers, but I
won't go too much. I don't want to give them
too much heads up on that, but we're going to
be talking about revolvers. Anyway. From a frugal
perspective, Taurus, which I'm a big advocate
of, the Taurus has a new model number 327, model
327 revolver, comes in 2 -inch and 3 -inch, and
it's basically for the federal 327 federal cartridge.
But the nice thing about the 327 federal is that
it is backward or... How would you say it? Or
there are cartridges that are older than that
that also fit into a .327 chamber. There are
actually five cartridges that will fit into it.
So for people who want to have a, maybe buy a
single firearm in their life, I think of women
or people who say, I'm only going to buy one
gun. That's all I need. Okay, I get it. Well,
you might want to consider this, the Taurus .327.
The main reason is it'll take the 327 Federal,
which is a pretty hot, spanking round. It's right
up there pretty close to the 38 Special Plus
P power level, just a little bit below that.
But it'll also chamber and fire 32 H &R Magnum,
which are a little bit less. Again, we're stepping
down about 15 % or 20 % in power down to a 327.
.32 caliber down to the .32 H &R Magnum. Then
you can step down below that to the .32 Smith
& Wesson Long, which was the standard pistol
revolver cartridge in the United States from
like 1900 to 1930 or something like that. And
it's still a very popular caliber today. And
you can get all brand new loadings on .32 Smith
& Wesson Long from factory as well as they make
cowboy loadings on it that are even lighter than
that. And it'll also chamber the .32 Smith &
Wesson short, which is kind of a rare caliber
today, granted. But if you had one, it would
load and it would fire, no problem. As well as
the other one, which is still very popular, the
.32 ACP. .32 ACP is a semi -rimmed cartridge
and thus will fit inside a .327 revolver for
firing. Anyway, so you get five calibers that
are literally firing that one gun with no modifications.
And it's going to come out for how much is it
going to cost? Oh, it's going to be around that
$350 to $375 street price. Fair enough. Stainless
steel. Stainless, so it doesn't rust. That's
really nice. It also, they had a TOR model, which
I forgot, sort of a Taurus optical ready something
or other that comes with a red dot on top if
you're a person who likes. Red dots, they make
one right out of the factory. It comes in 2 -inch
barrels and 3 -inch barrels. I know you do. I'm
an iron sight guy. I'm going to convert you somehow.
It's going to happen. You might someday. Well,
someday. But right now I'm an iron sights guy
because that's the way I grew up and that's the
way I like it. But they have an optics -ready
version of it, and they also have ones with exposed
hammers and ones with bobbed hammers. So there
are a bunch of variations of it, and it's out
there, and Taurus has a lifetime. repair, um,
repair warranty, I think on their, on their stuff.
And I think it's a great revolver at a great
price. I think that, uh, what I would put it
in, if I was going to own that weapon, I would
be looking for an Orpaz holder, holster for it.
And you think, no, Orpaz, who's that? Orpaz is
a company that these products are made in Israel.
And I stopped by their desk and actually I posted
that video as well. And I saw something that
I just caught my attention. It was a blue gun
with a fakie suppressor on it and they had a
holster for it. And I thought, yeah, I never
thought about that. Like, how the heck do you
holster a gun that has a suppressor? Well, these
guys had a solution. It was like a break forward
type holster that, you know, clipped around the
gun. but didn't interfere with the holster or
the suppressor at all. And then I started looking
at their stuff, and I thought, my gosh, these
guys really have some innovation going on. They
had a couple of their holsters that, again, we're
hoping to test at some point, that were very
new to the market. They have a number of different
ways that they can be configured and, you know,
literally accoutrements that allow it to attach.
itself correctly to various guns, but kind of
generic. Now, not the one, well, the one that
was for the suppressor, I don't know how many
frames it would handle, but they had a couple
holsters that were rather generic and meant for
different types of lights to be attached. And
what I did, I took it upon myself to say, you
know what, this is the first holster I've seen.
that I think might be, you know, the go -to choice
for full spectrum lightings light, which by the
way is already, we already know that it fits
in a lot of duty holsters that law enforcement
uses. That's part of full spectrum lightings.
Original specification was it had to fit stuff
that law enforcement already had, but a lot of
people don't have those holsters. And if you're
looking for a holster that will fit a broad variety
of weapon mounted lights and red dots and things
like that, you know, this little known company
called Orpahs really seemed to have their stuff
together. And it was one of those just jewels
that you find by walking around and just walking
to every booth. And I never had any intention.
I didn't know who they were, had no appointment
with them, anything like that. And I spent a
heck of a long time talking to these guys. And
Orpaz is spelled O -R -P -A -Z. That is correct.
So go ahead and look those guys up. What was
another amazing thing that we saw? There was
right down the hall from Orpaz, there was a company
that was selling a variety of different products,
cleaning products primarily. But they had a little
display right on the corner of their area for
something called the Rapid Rod, which I'd never
seen before. And it's made by a company called...
ATSKO, which is A -T -S -K -O. But if you just
look up rapid dash rod, so rapid dash rod in
a Google search, you'll find it. It only weighs
two ounces. And it is a sectioned aluminum rod
that has, you know, attachments for like you
can put a swedge or something like that on the
end or a patch holder or something along those
lines. And it's all held together by a cable.
So as you put the thing together, the cable tightens
and makes a rigid rod out of it. Now you think,
well, I've got cleaning rods. Why the hell do
I need this? Well, do you carry the cleaning
rod that is long enough to go through your barrel?
It's a one piece in your kit with you when you
go to the range. Because if you don't, Ken, you've
had this happen. I know I've had this happen.
You get something in your barrel. You can't get
out. Now you're like, well, I guess my day's
over. Right, when you get a squib load where
a projectile lodges itself halfway down your
barrel. Or just crap in your barrel. Yeah, just
junk in your barrel, yeah. If you remember how
Otis started, Otis started because someone was
out hunting with grandfather and dipped the muzzle
into the mud, couldn't get the mud out, day was
over. Well, what does rapid rod do for you? It
weighs two ounces, it folds up small enough to
stick in your pocket, and now you've got not
only a way to clean your gun. you know, at the
square range, but vastly more importantly, a
way to get your gun back into service if you're
out in the field. Because, I mean, think about
this. And they even told me a story about people
who'd gone out on hunts where, you know, you're
talking thousands and thousands of dollars to
get guides and days, you know, and you travel
and everything else. And then the gun goes out
of service. You're like, does anybody have a
cleaning rod? Nope. No one's got a cleaning rod.
Well, I guess we're done with that gun. And how
disappointing is that? And how expensive is that?
Right. You can get this thing for $19, you know,
maybe, or $19 .95, so call it $20. Why wouldn't
you do that? Another product that we saw, Tag
Targets, so T -A -G Targets, just spelled normally,
.ai. as in artificial intelligence yeah why would
they call their company that because what they
do is they make a product and this is another
company that we're going to feature on an upcoming
show they make a target we don't give away too
much here that you can configure yourself And
they're paper targets, but you can basically
order it to be the way you want it to. And they
use AI to build these things. So now you have
shoot and no shoot targets and you can get them
any way you want. So enough said on that because
they're going to be an upcoming show. Monstrum,
did you stop by the Monstrum desk and see the
new range finder they have? I did not get to
spend as much time as I wanted there, but Monstrum
products, if we had them on the show before,
phenomenal value for optics. Yeah, a really nice
looking, I mean, clear and kind of an innovative
approach to a rangefinder that's essentially,
it's a side saddle type rangefinder. It's not
built into the optic. In this case, it's an adjunct
that you would put on a pick rail or attach to
the side of an optic or something like that,
that will range. I don't want to quote how far
it ranges because I've seen rangefinders before
that say one thing and do something else. in
terms of they don't go as far as they ought to.
So we haven't tested this yet, but we're talking
about a rangefinder that's going to cost $80
retail, $80 retail. So if you need that for long
-range shooting and you don't have it, this thing
weighs just grams. It has a fantastic display.
So that's going to be another thing that we're
definitely going to have to get a sample of.
I'm just going to go buy it. When it comes out,
I'm going to buy it. Last couple of things I
wanted to mention. And you guys out there can,
I don't think you're the biggest sports fan that
there is, but if you know, if you watch, if you
watch games where the Gatorade gets dumped on
the coach, you know, at the end of the game,
after the team, they do all the time. Yeah. Did
you know that it's not necessarily Gatorade?
Did you know that it's, it has a Gatorade label
on it because there's a contractual agreement
to have the stuff in a Gatorade container, but
that it's not necessarily Gatorade. No. Huh.
Yeah. I didn't know that either until now. The
company that I stopped by and talked to, and
I've used their products before. This isn't based
on some sort of an endorsement or something like
that where there's an agreement between us and
this company. I've bought their products before.
I've bought a lot of hydration products before.
I mean, a lot of them. And I will tell you there's
one, I won't name it because I don't want to
disparage any company. There's one company where
their product is so salty. that i think the next
time i get a colonoscopy i'm going to use that
product to prepare for the colonoscopy because
it's basically like drinking ocean water like
concentrated ocean water it's so salty i mean
it is un it is very difficult to get down but
this other company that has a product that tastes
fantastic and works better in my opinion than
you know the branded gatorade product is a company
called drip drop d -r -i -p -d -r -o -p They
have a lot of different flavors. They have more
electrolytes or types of electrolytes than most
other products that they compete with. And they
are also a product that has a lot of military
usage. So the military has vetted this company,
vetted their chemistry. So you're getting something
that is not just a bunch of advertising fluff,
but it actually meets certain standards. They
offhandedly mentioned that, yeah, the stuff that's
in the Gatorade container might not be Gatorade.
So anyway, I think that's all the stuff that
I have to cover product wise. I will mention
that, you know, we alluded to this in the front
end of the show. You meet some amazing people
at SHOT Show. I mentioned Josiah from Maryland
Munitions. Got to have dinner across from Kate,
who is known popularly as Lady Liberty Australia.
We're going to have her on for a show. A fantastic
person who has a story to tell that people in
the United States need to hear because, you know,
we could be next. In fact, in some states, we
basically are kind of the same as Australia.
And you can learn a lot from people like this.
I don't know. Is there any other products you
wanted to cover, Ken? I think we, you know, this
is a long show. We've gone over a heck of a lot
of material. Yeah, I'm happy with what we've
covered. It's good stuff. Yeah. I will also want
to mention that we want to welcome, we have new
listeners from across the United States, which
is great. The show's growing organically and
we really do appreciate that. So apparently you
guys are getting the word out. So the shares
are, they must be happening because the growth
is happening. But we do want, you know, tell
people to subscribe. Don't just... Ad hoc, listen
occasionally. Subscribe because, again, it helps
you get a better show. And also like, leave comments.
That helps the algorithms as well. But those
new listeners. So we have some across the United
States, but we also have some in India, in Denmark,
Israel, more in Costa Rica, Canada. Nice to see
some people from Canada joining us. New Zealand
and also Turkey from Istanbul. So lots of new
listeners out there. And, you know, you guys
are responsible for, we make the content, you
guys make the show popular. That's the way this
works. So anything else tonight, Ken? We're going
to be recording another show in a few days. It'll
post in a couple of weeks. And we're going to
have a guest that I think is, man, it's going
to be kind of a blast from the past, I think.
It's going to be a lot of fun. And a person that
you're going to want to follow up on because
they've written so much in the gun world before,
particularly for those who like, you know, reading
stuff that's intellectual and meaningful in nature
and not just the quick, you know, tick tock five
second got my attention. Oh, wait, you lost my
attention again. Right. This guy produces a lot
of content there. I think that's about it for
tonight. Ken? Very good. Appreciate everyone.
listening in and supporting our channel. So please
do give it a thumbs up and subscribe and appreciate
all your time. All right. Good night. My thing
says. Turn off macOS reactions to prevent both
macOS and Zoom reactions from being generated.
Huh? Skip it. I don't know what the hell that
meant. Okay.