Handgun Scope Spec
K-Hornet is Old an
Meanwhile Back At The Ranch
Smith & Wesson and T/C can’t seem to figure out where their customers went. Jim Shepherd at the Shooting Wire reports that Smith & Wesson is having problems financially and they are blaming it on the fall of the hunting market. Since their purchase of Thompson/Center Arms in 2007 it has been a ball and chain around the neck of S&W according to their recent earnings report.
Jim says, “Smith simply couldn’t overcome the impact that hunting-centric subsidiary Thompson/Center Arms has had on the overall corporate balance sheet. When Smith & Wesson purchased Thompson/Center Arms in 2007, it looked like a solid acquisition. As a category-leader in hunting that also had a barrel-making facility, it seemed a great fit into the S&W portfolio.
Today, smart might better be applied to the stinging negative impact T/C is having on Smith & Wesson’s stock price. On Monday, Smith announced the previous quarter turned from a profit to a loss after a write-down taken due to the hunting rifle business. That write-down resulted in a loss of $76.2 million- roughly $1.62 per share in the period ended October 31. Without that “impairment charge” S&W would have shown a profit of around a penny per share.
As a public company, that change brought the wrath of investors and analysts. If you’re a public company, you dare not disappoint the analysts. Should that happen, they take their pound of flesh out of your stock price. And Smith & Wesson stock has been pounded, losing slightly more than thirteen percent of its opening stock price yesterday, closing at $2.32. ”
Here’s my take on the situation. S&W has no idea what to do with a company like T/C. Being the new owners and feeling compelled to show just how far up the wall they can piss, as new owners of any company seem wanton to do, it appears they got rid of nearly everyone at T/C who built that company (read gave a crap). For years I’ve been trying to get support for Handgun Hunter Magazine from S&W and from T/C. I feel the handgun hunting market is one that could flourish as did the muzzleloader market a number of years ago. But there is no industry support for it.
T/C did help out in a very minor way in 2004 but that was it. S&W has been full of promises that they would do something but they never spent a dime to support this magazine. Their PR company even complained to me a couple years ago that they weren’t getting any ink (editorial) on the X-frames.
Should it be a real surprise that their hunting markets have fallen off to zip. Have they done anything to develop an untapped market in the hunting industry? No, they haven’t. Even T/C, famous for their line of Contender and Encore handguns, gives overwhelming coverage to Encore rifles and muzzleloaders.
Linda Powell at Remington told me once that in order for a product to succeed it needed two things, “to have a champion inside the company, and it needed to be a great product”. A champion meaning there is someone inside the company who is passionate about the product and its use. That’s why the hunting market is hurting. At last year’s shot show I approached a person in a booth at a big gun maker and inquired about a new pistol. He was very excited to show it to me and in the process of walking to the display he offered he didn’t know what you would really use it for but it was cool. Huh? Don’t know what to use it for — are you kidding me?
There is an old saying that you dance with the one that brought you. Well the dance with the hot babe is just about over as the tactical markets seem destined for a gun ban and those of us that brought you to the dance are really getting tired of the whining. Reading between the lines, T/C may not be around very much longer.
Comments are off for this postAnother Bad Move By A Gun Company
Today I read in the Outdoor Wire that another company has tripped up and let the marketing folks rile the masses. HS-Precision it seems has used a recommendation on the back cover of their catalog by someone of rather dubious distinction. Remember Lon Horiuchi, he’s the FBI sniper that shot Vicki Weaver at Ruby Ridge. Yep you got it — HS-Precision is using his recommendation in their catalog. So far it seems to be the “Zumbo Effect” all over again. According to the wire, the company has received quite a lot of emails from unhappy customers.
Also like the Zumbo incident and the Cooper Rifles incident, I suspect this will blow over fairly quickly. They’ll fire the person who let this happen and in a month or two everyone will be buying HS products again. Two things strike me with these events. One, like the title of the column in the Outdoor Wire, “What Were They Thinking?” and two why do Americans seem to forget so quickly when we are wronged. 9/11 barely has notice of anything other than the day after the 10th. Zumbo is back with TV shows, albeit a new-found-love of AR’s. Dan Cooper has been fired but that will probably change once the flames are out and the dust has settled. If he doesn’t own a gun anymore maybe Obama will give him a cabinet position. On the first preponderance, I suspect HS hired some twenty-something with a marketing degree and tasked him/her with putting together the catalog and well now you have another Zumbo event taking place. The good news for Cooper Rifles is that this will probably take some of the heat off of them but I suspect most have already forgotten about it.
The flip side of this is that perhaps there will be a few more people who become educated about the heavy-handed ATF/FBI fiasco that took place under Janet Reno’s watchful eye. Remember her, the Attorney General under the last Democratic President who also has the Waco, and Elian Gonzales incidents to her discredit. Looking at how Obamba’s cabinet is shaping up I wonder what we have to look forward to this time around. We already know we’re hated from the top down.
Comments are off for this postTime To Check Your Safe
I recently had occasion to check my gun safe dehumidifier and found it wasn’t working. Upon inspecting the situation a little further this is what I found. This was a “Dri-Rod” and it was completely corroded internally. I’m not quite sure how something like this could get a UL rating but here’s the proof. I’m no electrician but that just looks like a fire hazard. This is something to think about if you’re one who stores powder and primers in your safe.
So check your rod and see if it’s heating. If not then check power to the outlet and then look into a replacement. I just bought a Goldenrod from Brownells which is what I should have bought to start with.
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For Comic Relief We Still Have PETA
You have to wonder about the folks that PETA gets hold of. In a shocking move (does anything about PETA actually shock us anymore), a PETA intern named Jennifer Thornburg legally changed her name to “CutoutDissection.com.” She says that she now goes by her nickname, “Cutout.”
I’ll also have to classify this post manually in the stupid category.
Source: US Sportsman’s Alliance
No comments - Click to Enter OneGo Anywhere Gun Security Storage
This is a gun storage container that uses steel mesh, a “draw string” cable and padlock to provide an inexpensive and portable solution to securing firearms or other valuables. The key to how this works can be seen in the closeup photo of the lock (notice the brass bead on the cable.) This bead is pulled through a hole in the collar and aligned with a smaller hole in the collar that it can not pass through. A padlock is placed through the larger hole. The loop end of the cable is then passed around or through a permanent object (like a seat rail) and then the loop end is secured to the lock.(gun and holster not included)
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RUGER® REVOLVER FIBER OPTIC FRONT SIGHT
Do your iron sights let you down early and late in the day? Replacing the front sight on your Super Blackhawk Hunter, Redhawk, Super Redhawk or GP100 with a Marbles fiber optic front sight will make all the difference (available in orange and green).
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RADICAL - B. Hussein Obama
Refused to sign the brief supporting an individual Second Amendment right in the Heller case.
Against Right-to-Carry. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 4/2/08; Chicago Tribune, 9/15/04)
Director, Joyce Foundation—one of the most anti-gun foundations in America. (Politico)
I think it’s a scandal that this president [Bush] did not authorize a renewal of the assault weapons ban.” (Illinois Senate Debate #3: Barack Obama vs. Alan Keyes, 10/21/04)
Clinging” to guns—how Obama described “bitter” gun owners at a San Francisco fundraiser.
Ammunition ban supporter. Obama voted to ban almost all rifle ammunition commonly used for hunting and sport shooting. (United States Senate, S. 397, vote 217, 7/29/05)
Limiting self-defense. Obama voted to allow the prosecution of people who us a firearm for self-defense in their homes. (Illinois Senate, S.B. 2165, vote 20, 3/25/04)
No comments - Click to Enter OneThe Cosine Indicator
Have you ever wished you could remember just how much to adjust your hold on a target that is at an up or downhill angle? Well there is a shooting do-dad that will help your long-range shooting. It’s called a cosine indicator.
Precision-machined, aircraft-grade aluminum instrument eliminates guesswork when adjusting your scope to fire at elevated, or very low targets. The orange needle moves with your firearm and displays a number that indicates the percent your gun is off level. Multiply the indicated percent by the target distance to easily calculate the adjusted distance for gravity. Dovetailed bottom fits onto the aluminum mount (shown above) which fits Picatinny and Weaver-style rails. Or, mount an extra Weaver-style ring on your scope tube and clamp the Indicator in the ring’s dovetail.
No comments - Click to Enter OneGet The Lead Out
The Lewis Lead Remover from Brownell’s is the perfect tool to solve the problem of leading in barrels and chambers. It handles calibers from .32 up to .45.
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Handgun Hunter Magazine - Publish Your Own Articles
A totally new site feature is the ability to add your own articles with photos. The photos are automatically re-sized so you don’t have to fool around with copying image URL’s or tagging them to get them to show up in the article. Just as with the existing articles you can also leave comments on the articles. The submitting member also has their display name posted with a link back to their profile in case you want to send them a private message. Feel free to play with the feature you can always delete your article pending approval.
Articles will be formatted just like the one you see in the picture below.
Below: your articles will appear on your “My Articles” page and indicate the status in the system.
Many of you have seen the game recipe feature by now but in case you haven’t, members can enter their own recipes. Just visit the Member Services page under Cool Stuff and you’ll see the links under the Game Recipes subheading.
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