The Gathering has come and passed this year and it was a great change from the rainy days in the past. What was everyone’s favorite vendors? Favorite pistol/rifle/shotgun? Favorite non-firearm vendor? I’m sure there are some complaints to be made as well so let’s hear them!
For me, one of my favorite vendors that I found myself at both days multiple times was DPMS and H&R. Two guys in particular that worked the booths both work there are absolutely amazing at what they do. They both truly seemed like they enjoyed be there. The Kitty Cat and DOE were both awesome to actually put my hands on and get a chance to shoot.
I like the event overall. Lines were not horrible and seemed to move fairly decent. There were vendors that had a lot of options and my son and I were really disappointed by the PSA booth. They had 1, one yes only one pistol, full size dagger with compact slide and I was so disappointed I didn’t even look at the rifle table.
We all are planning on attending again.
The wife saved the bullet fragment the imbedded in her are on an index card to show people she was shot at the gathering.
Early on, PSA had the compact Rock out but it disappeared at some point on Saturday. Supposedly, it was on of the prototypes? Had like 10-12,000 rounds through it before Friday. It may have gone down. PSA seemed like they had fewer guns this year to me though. In my opinion, PSA and its sister companies should have the biggest showing at this event. PSA also did not have stickers and patches out like the past.
The lines were ALOT better this year. I don’t know if there were less people this year or vendors did a better job at streamlining everything.
Still can’t believe that your wife got hit. I guess she joins a small club of people who can say that lol
i loved the gathering. i personally had a great time, and actually enjoyed meeting folks and talking with folks more than shooting this year, cause this year had nothing new out there. sadly it was all the same old firearms, nothing new. Companies that i expected to see, were not there too, which was disappointing. Ruger, Rossi, Taurus, im looking at yall. I wont even talk about FN and their childishness. PSA booth should have had the biggest spread of their options out there that they produce. its the point of the gathering in my opinion, is to SELL what you make, by letting folks shoot what you make. should have had a minimum of 2 guns of every model they make and one of those guns on the table to shoot at all times. the second is held in reserve in case the first goes down. I felt H&R and DPMS had a better showing of firearms than PSA did. which is sad.
The event this year was MUCH better organized, and laid out. because of both planning by PSA and the clinton house expansions and planning as well. they’v ereally done well with it making it a great time, for all. there were many more food trucks there this year as well as a lot more vendors around too. Sadly many vendors had no swag to pass out.. not many stickers, even less patches, and forget hats and t-shirts of the past. A good door gift by Savior bags again though was excellent to the first 300 per day. I abstained this year from them entirely as i have a few of those bags already. because of the first gathering that they gave those bags out, i now ONLY BUY SAVIOR bags, for my guns, and equipment. their rifle bags are off the chain too.. by the way.
we mods had a good dinner at Dempsey’s Pizza house in clinton friday night with a handful of folks, and then on saturday morning we enjoyed a good meet and greet of folks in the morning between 9-1030 am … sorry we missed folks otherwise… we also enjoyed anyone who walked up to us as we were riding around in a golf cart with our kitty ears on our ear pro. if you see us ever riding around with the kitty ears, do not be afraid to stop and say hello.. Sadly I missed meeting some of you guys that i was really looking forward to meeting. oh well.. maybe next year.
vendors had their wares out quite nicely.. i got myself a very very nice knife from PBK and love it.. if yall dont have one of his knives you’re missing out. highly recommend. cant wait to see him next year and what he brings then.
I was kind of surprised by Taurus not being there this year since they were there last year. I would have really liked to have seen Ruger and Heritage there. Kimber actually showed up this year though!
Glock may not have had the best flowing line but they had an excellent setup. Several hot and new pistols on the front table for everyone to see, handle and ask questions about without slowing down the line.
I picked up a PBK as well along with a Kronos! If I saw Microtech’s booth first, I may have bought an OTF instead. It was VERY tempting to buy one anyways. I didnt realize they have 3 plants in NC.
@Rufus everyone did a great job of keeping a good flow going then. Last year seemed like a standstill mass of wet and miserable people.
Overall, I give it a good score. I would rank it 2nd best year; only due to the decreased amount of represented companies and guns there. I was a little disappointed by how many companies were missing and how few PSA guns were there.
I really appreciated how many suppressed firearms there were this year. There were only a handful of guns I shot that were unsuppressed.
I was pleasantly surprised to see silencercentral taking orders and doing their fingerprint uploads right there. I am sure there were several people who took the opportunity to buy a suppressor from them there.
I was EXTREMELY impressed by the fact the booth with the forced reset triggers was using a PSA rifle and it was just taking an absolute beating all weekend and just kept going.
My favorite booths were the Benelli and Beretta shotgun clays booths. The lines are always long and slow, but nothing beats shooting reactive targets.
That hibachi truck was pretty good.
The weather was superb!
On day two, I brought my two best friends. neither of them shoot recreationally (one has a gun for home defense, and the other is a hunter, but neither have been to something like this); so it was good for me to show them that guns are more than just tools and that “gun people” are not a bunch of wingnuts like they’ve been led to believe.
I’ll admit that I don’t care for being given the “sales pitch” at some booths. I get it, you’re here to get people interested in your gun/accessories; however, we arr here to shoot them and decide from hands-on experience. Your 5 minute long pitch is holding up the line!
Is guntubing dying? Except for Sootch, I didn’t recognize any of the guys with media badges. Maybe I’m getting old and out of touch…
@Jammo it was Active Safety Designs out on NC with their machined version of a Hoffman super safety (metal instead of plastic) for $100. They gave their cards out which had 10% off using code PSA.
Here is @Simple_Man shooting the psa $400 gun. They said 1800 rounds on Friday without any maintenance or additonal lube. The tan one.
I was tempted by the hibachi truck but after being burned last year by the absurd wait, we packed food and I was going to eat what was already paid for. That barbecue truck smelled fantastic and drool worthy too.
@SuperPredator I get how some of the guys are long winded and will slow the line down. It’s kind of a double edged sword where it’s good and bad. The Flux guy had me sold on a Raider chassis for a P320 in a couple of minutes. Before, I was thinking it was gimmicky and will be short lived. After his pitch and me shooting the Flux and FDEZ Werks one (not the one at Sigs booth) I was sold. It will probably be my next purchase unless I can keep my hands in my pockets until PSAs 570 comes out.
@GuitarGuy were there really a lot of extra bays this year? The only one that seemed new to me was the one with Beretta and Langdon Tactical.
