Range report needed: guns and gear expo,

[HillbillyMafia]

How was it??????

What can I expect????

How much of the kids college fund should I bring?????

magic, xan we get a barret .50 in your trunk or will we have to strap it on top? A tactical Lexus?

I'm getting excited

[McAllyn]

I just got home, and will be going back shortly. If you got some money, they got some toys to play with. Oh, and Barrett has plenty of plinkers to look at. Worth the money, great vendors and manufacturers to talk to, and JHatmaker at the TGO Smoking Lounge. What more could you ask for?

Mac

[valv6]

Hillbilly You might want to stay home. Not worth the drive from Cookeville. I could have saw more stuff at the Sparta, TN gun show. This is just my opinion. I am sure some people loved it.

[extremescene]

Sorry but not worth drive from nashville. Not many gun tables.

[TGO David]

I'm not here to defend the event; if people think it sucks we'll just take that on the chin and try to make it better next time. But... those of you complaining about quantity of vendors: Did you actually look at the tables that our vendors have, and check the prices... or are you pissed because there weren't more to window-shop at.

I know for a fact that several of these vendors are selling firearms at extremely reasonable prices. And by reasonable I mean $200 off in some cases.

If you want us to put on a show next time with a room full of the same overpriced vendors that are at most of the local shows, we'll make an adjustment in our theory of operation and stop trying to innovate and just give you guys another show to complain about.

[Guest ArmyVeteran37214]

Personally, I think this was a great starting point. Yeah there are some things that could have been done better, but I'm sure David and Joe will make the proper adjustments where need and make things better the next go around. Also I've had a great time meeting other TGO'ers and it was nice to place a face with the name that posts on here.

[extremescene]

I certainly mean no disrespect to any of the workers or good folks putting this on. For me, it was an hour and a half drive from Nashville and wasn't worth it in my opinion.

I looked at the tables and prices. I was prepared to leave with any of the following, some commonly found at most shows and some obviously not...

-economical pump shotgun - very few shotguns at this event and nothing below $400

-red dot sight or scope - Trijicon was the only table with any of these, way beyond my price range. No other red dots or scopes that I could find at the entire show.

-mosin rifle - only one found, was $599 with scope... enough said?

-mauser rifle - one m48 found but it wasn't for me, priced reasonable at $149 though.

-22LR AR Conversion mags - none to be found, cmmg nor black dog.

-Sub $100 stripped AR lower - none to be found, none even in the low $100's that I could find.

-sig p6/p225 mags - none to be found

-standard AR sling - none to be found, only gimmick slings.

-misc SKS parts or accessories - none to be found

There were plenty of high-end $1500-3000 ARs there but I didn't see a single one that was below $1000.

[Mr. Brooks]

Personally, I think this was a great starting point. Yeah there are some things that could have been done better, but I'm sure David and Joe will make the proper adjustments where need and make things better the next go around. Also I've had a great time meeting other TGO'ers and it was nice to place a face with the name that posts on here.

I agree with everything you said. I'm sure the shows will only get better from here.

[Ropin4gold]

Well I didn't come home with anything that went BANG, but did buy a "tactical" christmas stocking...................Complete with MOLLE!!!!!!

I am not dissappointed in the show, it was as advertised. No beef jerky, indian crafts, or other junk. All in all it was a good starting point. What I would like to see are more individuals with tables and thier used guns for sale. I don't buy very many new guns. Hero Gear had a nice setup and a good special going on for the show. They had a good selection, representative of thier shop. I would go if it was offered again. It was about a 1.5 hour drive one way for me.

[Guest jjp]

I was a little disappointed. I went looking for a belt and a new holster. Unfortunately, I found neither. I think only one vendor was selling belts (which weren't what I was looking for) and I didn't see any holsters for my gun (granted I didn't ask, but I did take my time looking around).

They had plenty of rifles and many handguns, if that's what you're looking for. As far as accessories, I guess there could be some improvement with regards to variety. I saw many accessories for Glocks, though.

This is only my second gun show/expo. My first was in south Florida about a month ago (when I bought my handgun), where the population is much more dense, so it was maybe 2-3 times bigger than this one, and with fewer hunting rifles. I can't imagine the amount of work that it took to put something like this together so I won't sit here and be overly critical. However, in the future, maybe a little more information beforehand on the vendors that are going to show up and the type of gear they plan on bringing would be a huge help.

Edited December 12, 2009 by jjp
clarification

[Guest JHatmaker]

For those thinking of coming, take into account this. It's not Bill Goodman's, so yeah, there aren't as many tables as the fairgrounds show, but how many honestly like looking at 1000 old crappy knife guys booth, or dreamcatcher and cheap flashlight lady's booth, or "you might be a redneck if..." t-shirt guy??

Where else can you talk face to face with Smith & Wesson, Beretta, and Barrett reps? Joe literally brought his store here, and has huge discounts. And the best part?? I'll ride you around in the Big Red ATV thing.

[Guest ArmyVeteran37214]

However, in the future, maybe a little more information beforehand on the vendors that are going to show up and the type of gear they plan on bringing would be a huge help.

From what David and Joe said at the beginning of the day to the event staff is that "the vendor list changed so often that it was tough to nail down a list of vendors that were actually gonna show up". Hell even a vendor cancelled an hour or so before the doors were scheduled to be open. David or Joe, sorry if I said to much.

[extremescene]

I think Middle Tennessee vendors have really missed a good opportunity with this show. The venue has room for impressive amounts of vendors to spread out with nice displays and they blew it. It seemed to be promoted well enough, the place is nice enough, close enough to drive to, and TGO people, including myself, were definitely excited and waiting for this one.

There are definitely cool things to see there but most of it is way out of my price range.

I heard a few people at the show talking about a specific vendor bailing at the last minute (I won't name them). This vendor would have added a great table, based on their reputation and my experience with them. Perhaps others bailed as well, maybe it was out of their hands. There are people there willing to buy, just not a ton of people to buy from.

[JPS]

My two cents worth:

It was a 160 mile round trip for me, and I live in south Nashville. I’m curious as to why this location was chosen – I’m guessing that it was for the benefit and convenience of the sponsoring vendors. I’m willing to make the drive, but I think that holding it closer to a larger metro area (or maybe a different one each time) would make me happier and mean that more people would attend.

It was a great opportunity to speak with the firearm company reps – for example, I had a good conversation with a gentleman from Beretta. (Really cool stickers for the kids by the way!) That doesn’t happen at a typical gun show.

I agree with some of the other posts about not seeing things I for which I wanted to shop. I was looking for a couple of holsters, some gun oil, and a (relatively low-priced) home defense shotgun. The only thing I ended up buying was a ‘tactical’ cell phone case. A couple of the vendors selling guns did have some really good prices, but they didn’t have what I needed.

I have never bought the jerky at a gun show, but I have bought wallets, gun grips, and ammo boxes. I have also had a knife sharpened. I missed those things today.

[Kenstaroni]

I'm gonna give my honest opinon here...

I was very excited about the idea of a new style of gun show and appreciate the guys for putting it on. You could call it a starting point, and I'm sure it would have been better if more companies were involved. All in all it was out with the beef jerky, and add in the ATV and binocular guys....

Negatives:

1. I found little to nothing that I wanted....only items purchased were from Haversack Ammo.

2. There were no accessories really, no optics (unless you wanted to spend $1,000+), not much AR 15 stuff, not a decent bipod in the room except for the shooting stick guy I guess. Couldn't find a collapsable butt stock for my rifle...at least with the buffer tube and spring as no one had it all except for a couple cheap Tapco's. No one seemed to have any good stuff to buy, just really expensive stuff to look at, or overpriced stuff I can get anywhere. I saw a small molle pack on one table for $120.00....you can buy one that size for less than $30. I didn't even bother looking at anything else on thier table as I couldn't concieve that I would be getting even a fair deal.

3. Vendors brought stuff to show, which is cool, however if I wanted to see $2,000+ rifles I could just go to a local gun store. Barret was there....cool The ATV gun rack people....I mean really? Anyone ever been to Bass Pro Shops? 15 gun safes lined up....I mean cool to look at I guess, but who's gonna buy one at a show like that?

4. I could have found more to look at that I actually wanted to buy If I would have just gone to the Outpost Armory's store and wouldn't have had to pay $8 to get in.

5. It was like a tradeshow more than a gun show. And we're not gun dealers, we are consumers so this format doesn't really benefit most people.

Positives:

1. Haversack had a booth there selling HSM ammo. This ammo is really nice and unfortunately most people in the South haven't heard of it as it's made in Montana. They have match grade ammo for the same price as you would pay for a box of Remington at a gun store...how can you go wrong. They were the only booth with a good variety of ammo except for the Armory who had a few calibers of Wolf for better than normal prices, but still $75-$100 more per case than you can buy it for online.

2. Met some people from TGO and passed on a rifle to one of them. Hope you enjoy man!

*The highlight of the trip, and the only reason it was really worth while was that I met up with TNRobocop and picked up a DPMS Tac-20 from him Friday night on my way into town. Thanks for the great deal man..can't wait to play with it!

All in all...I like the idea of a new style of gun show, but I think this show made baby steps at best in that direction.

Hopefully the next one will be better...

Edited December 14, 2009 by Kenstaroni

[valv6]

well i just thought there was going to be lots of retail gun shops set up like hero gear.

[DavidD]

I think it was a fine show and I drove 172 miles round trip. Already better quality of product, Actual Manufacturer Rep.'s which were great, no junk, no thugs and this was the sponsors first effort. Can't wait to see their second effort.

[56FordGuy]

Rightwinger and I made the trip down this morning. It was a roughly 2 hour trip one way. Overall, I think it was worth it.

I expected more vendors. However, it seemed like most of the vendors there were making deals. Hero Gear was offering up to $200.00 off brand new handguns, and the suppressor booth had .22 suppressors for $199.00. I liked the safe company being there also. There aren't many places that you can walk in and compare several different types of safe side by side, while discussing them with someone that's an expert on the subject.

I would've loved for a holster company to have been there. I'm looking for an OWB holster for one of my guns, I probably would have brought one home (or at least ordered and paid for one) if I'd been able to find one. Likewise, I need a good case for my AR. The only case I recall seeing was either at or right beside the S&W booth.

Overall, I enjoyed it. Met several TGO members, no jerky, no gutter guard, no vendors with blinking strobe lights on top of their booths and cheap, crappy flashlights. If y'all can pull off another show like this in a few months, I'd make the trip again.

Most importantly, no HCP badges! Jcochran88 and I both did a double take at one vendor that had badges displayed, but upon further investigation found that they were not the elusive HCP badge. No wolf shirts, either.

[xd shooter]

I have to say I enjoyed the show. The vendors that were there like others said had great displays. I din't have any cash to play with for this one otherwise Joe had some great deals going.

As far as the all groneing I thing it was a great firs effort. The ones that were complaining about the prices I guess never took the time to talk to the vendors.

Most of them have their own "retail" shop & were not going to relable everything they had to come to the show only to do it again back at their shop.

[bukowski548]

The first time you pulled the trigger, did you hit the bullseye?

If you expected this to the the end-all-be-all of gun shows, then you were fooling yourself. This was a great first show, that will improve with time. It also suffered from some vendors bailing at the last minute. With RK shows gone and Goodman having a questionable future, this show could really grow.

If you take the jerky/gutterguard/elcheapoknives/indianjewlery booths out of a Goodman show, is it much better?

buk

[Guest mustangdave]

I think it was a fine show and I drove 172 miles round trip. Already better quality of product, Actual Manufacturer Rep.'s which were great, no junk, no thugs and this was the sponsors first effort. Can't wait to see their second effort.

I'm right there with you David...pretty darn good for the first one out of the barrel...absolutely no junk...its to bank my bank account can't take a 5K hit...or there would be a BARRETT under the bed right now...

[10Kilr]

If you took all the out of the other gun shows this is what would be left. There may not have been as many vendors but most were selling quality wares. For a first effort it was great and I'm sure it will improve with each show.

[BimmerFreak]

I want to thank all of the people that took the time to come out and visit the Expo today.

A few thoughts:

1. I am smoked! Who would have ever thought that putting one of these things on would take some much time, energy, and money!

2. We all need to remember the original intent of this show:

Offer a blend of retail sales, factory reps, trainers, 2A organizations, and most importantly- kill all of the junk and flea market crap.

Did we succeed?

Retail sales- We were pleased to have people like Hero-Gear, The Outpost, C3 Defense, Tactical Response, and another 3 or 4 major retailers there.

Did we suffer from major retail shops bailing out at the very last minute?

YOU BET! We had no less than 6 major vendors bail at the last minute for various BS reasons.

Will we have tons more at the next Expo? YOU BET!

Factory Reps?

When is the last time you saw factory reps at your daddy's gun show? Never?

The following manufacturers were present:

C3 Defense

Trijicon

Benelli

Beretta

Surefire

5.11 Tactical

ASP

Not bad eh? We will have MORE at the next Expo.

Trainers?

We had the only AIS Prisim Simulator in civilian hands

We also had several other trainers present.

I feel we missed the mark here, and we already have plans in place to offer several paid and free classes and clinics at the next Expo.

2A and other organizations?

We had NRA recruiters, TGO, the U.S. Army, and the NRA March present.

We plan on adding more of these types of vendors next Expo.

*Keep in mind that we DONATE all of the space and support for these types of vendors.

So, all in all, I think it is a very good start.

Remember that Rome wasn't built in a day.

I feel that we have a great concept, and are working very hard to make each and every Expo event bigger and better than the last.

[strickj]

Working on pics now!

Should have them up shortly...

[56FordGuy]

Where was the SureFire rep at? I would've loved to have talked to him for a bit. I saw Beretta and C3, but I thought the booth on the back of the middle aisle was a S&W rep?

I really enjoyed the C3 guy being there. I learned a bit from him, and would've bought a .22 can if I had a threaded gun. As it is, I'm now waiting for them to release their .223 suppressor.