Gun Talk Radio

MANDEVILLE, LA --(Ammoland.com)- It’s ammo, ARs and all the news that’s fit to print, er, talk about, this Sunday on Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk (R) Radio, the nationally-syndicated radio talk show about guns and the shooting sports.

Avid hunters Jason and Jennifer Smith bought the online store Ammunition To Go from a family member two years ago, and have made a name for themselves by offering competitive prices, fast shipping, and a huge inventory of all types and brands of ammunition. Based in Texas, Ammunition To Go stocks over 3000 items, including factory, custom and military ammunition, and specialty ammunition like Incendiary, Raufoss, and Tracer. Check out www.ammotogo.com.

Jim Shepherd, a 30-year veteran of the television news world, created the Outdoor Wire Digital Network that includes the Outdoor, Tactical, Shooting, Womens Outdoor, Fishing and Dealer Wires – newsletters designed to bring the latest news and products to the reader. Shepherd can often be seen reporting at events across the US, from new gun releases at Gunsite in Arizona to the SHOT Show in Las Vegas. Visit www.theoutdoorwire.com for more info.

Many people don’t think of an AR15 as a hunting rifle – and Tom Spithaler is here to change that. Sptihaler owns AR15hunter.com, a website “designed to educate the uninitiated, advise hunters, and normalize the AR platform rifle into the annals of Americas hunting heritage where it so rightfully belongs”. AR15Hunter.com offers up a variety of forums for hunters to discuss different topics dealing with various aspects of hunting with an AR, and news items on the latest and greatest out of the rifle world.

About:
Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk Radio is in its 16th year of national syndication, Gun Talk Radio airs live on Sundays from 2PM-5PM Eastern, and runs on 101 stations, plus SIRIUS XM Satellite Radio. All Gun Talk shows can be downloaded as podcasts through Apple iTunes, the Gun Talk iPhone App, the Blackberry Podcast App, or at www.guntalk.libsyn.com. More information is available at www.guntalk.com.

Frank Brownell - Brownells.com

Des Moines, Iowa - -(AmmoLand.com)- It is time to for a break from the daily grind and take a look at where you and your business is heading. Ask yourself, what are your plans for taking your company into the “short term” – the next year or so?

Then into the “long term” – the next 5 years. As you read the paragraphs that follow, think about how your actions and your words line up with these plans. The language of success or the lack of this language either moves you toward your goals or away from them.

These are most assuredly times of great economic uncertainty, and many organizations and individuals are retrenching into “safer waters”. A problem is, when everyone does this, as it seems many are right now, individual standards are lowered and ethical lines are crossed. We start to fulfill the doom and gloom prophecies we tell ourselves when we’re thinking about “what might happen”. So if you are determined to retrench to safer territories, let me give you the three top things that are guaranteed to kill a great company . . . maybe your company.

1. “We’re good enough”. Being “good enough” keeps innovation at a minimum. It keeps expectations low for both yourself and your customers; it keeps you around the average level. “Good enough” allows you to hide in a flock of companies. It makes you just like everyone else. So the only thing you can do in a “good enough” marketplace is lower your price to try to recover or gain market share. You’re now really looking just like everybody else. If you’re looking just like everybody else, and acting just like everybody else, all you have you can do is loosen your standards of performance. Be willing to accept less profit, less innovation, less risk, less growth, less customer service or support. This is the number one way to kill a great company.
2. “We’re going to save our way to profitability or we’re going to save our way out of debt.” Second best way to kill a great company is to start slashing people and services. You’ll start finding yourselves in this self-destructive cycle when you try to hold high standards but do it with fewer people. This may work for a bit, but what you soon find is your standards start to lower again; just don’t have enough staff or time devoted to keeping them at the old level. Your services become average, staff-people get tired and overworked and under-appreciated. And, because you’re providing less, your customers start to expect less from you. If you do not want to kill this great company or family you have, try flipping the situation around to a more balanced approach with a reasonably reduced list of expenditures, but still sufficient to continue the great service that brought in and kept the customers you have.
3. “We’ve always done it this way.” This is the subtle killer. Complacency. As the world rushes by “you’re not moving”. You’re holding fast. This method guarantees that when you do open your eyes, you’re going to be behind. So if you want to destroy the great company just do what you have always done; “change nothing”. OR you could realize the world of today is much different than it was even a month ago. You always have a greater capacity to give, create and change. Regardless of the economic conditions, change is imperative. It is the lynch pin that ties the old way of doing it to the way you’re doing it now. Change requires careful analysis and understanding of where you are and where you want to take your company. It demands constant attention too – finding a better way of doing business, a better way of communication or a better way of involving yourself, or working on the relationships which matter. Trying to stay complacent by not changing is a losing battle . . . a company losing battle.

So, what to do?
The Challenge is to understand where you are now, and decide which path to use to go forward. Obviously, “Good enough”, “Saving your way” and “We’ve always done it this way” are the paths to destruction.

The path out is: Take time to better understand your particular local market and their needs and desires, then change your store’s direction or focus – or just sharpen up that focus. Look at the overall changes in the bigger/macro market, and bring to your store the things you see out there that have potential. Like feeding the tactical accessory lust of your customers. Or teaching concealed carry classes or hunter safety classes. Carrying personal protection guns and gear. Working with the local cops and deputies to become “their” store for “duty stuff”, coffee and donuts, technical info and support. Look at “alternative” markets – paint ball or air soft, archery.

The final word – Don’t give up. Don’t take down the shop sign. Get a cup of coffee, a legal pad, a sharp pencil and draw a line down the middle of the top sheet on the pad. On the left side write down the changes – one per line – you’ve always dreamed of making, all the things that will make the business grow and prosper, all the things you learned while studying what you could do as outlined in the paragraph above. Study this list. A lot! Then, on the right side of the dividing line, copy over those items that make sense, you can figure out a way to afford, that will give you the most bang for the buck spent. Then, my friend, get to work and make it happen! Because by now you really are getting an understanding of your business and how to make it work, to survive and to grow.

Brownells 4Th Annual Gunsmith Career Fair
We are quickly approaching the 4th Annual Gunsmith Career Fair to be held April 23rd & 24th at the Des Moines Marriott Downtown, Des Moines, Iowa

Seminars range from advancing your career in the gunsmithing profession to starting or expanding a gunsmithing business.

Some topics include:

• Time = Money, the Cold, Hard Facts
• Financing your Business
• Increasing your Revenue through Engraving
• Gunsmithing for a Large Format Retailer
• Strength Development for Gunsmiths

Tom Shay, from Profit Plus, will share three dozen tips of merchandising and the essential components of a business plan. Representatives of Firearms Technology Branch of the BATF will be presenting two different seminars and on hand to answer questions. View the full seminar schedule at www.gunsmithcareerfair.com

If you’d like you would like to be one of the “displayers”, larger companies or smaller shops looking to hire gunsmiths or just wanting to exhibit at this the event, please contact: Jamie Reed, direct phone #641-623-8070 jamie.reed@brownells.com or Stacy Peckham, #641-623-5401 stacy.peckham@brownells.com

Finally, a note from Jim Shepherd’s The Outdoor Wire. www.theoutdoorwire.com

Jim’s my favorite “what the heck is going on” source. Friday – today – “both The Outdoor and Shooting Wires will feature our report on the attitudes of our readers across the United States to a simple question: “Has the Obama gun sales bubble burst?”

“The responses have been revealing, provocative and insightful. Working on the report, I can say without contradiction that it is not only our longest feature – ever – it is some of our best work at letting you know the firearms industry and gun enthusiasts are alive, alert and prepared to battle to protect their Second Amendment rights. There are insights and opportunities that will make you think…..don’t miss it.” I’m quoting Jim from The Outdoor Wire of Thursday, March 25th.

Take some advice from the old guy around these parts. Look up Jim’s article, and be darned sure you sign-up for and subscribe-to The Outdoor Wire. I’m more faithful in my reading of it that I am of always getting the first cup of coffee of the day down before I get my socks on. It’s that good and that important to you and me to keep up with what is going on both in front of and behind of “the screen” the popular press throws up between us and the facts in our industry.

About:
Brownells is the world’s largest supplier of firearm parts, gunsmithing tools, reloading equipment and accessories. Stocking more than 30,000 items, the company supplies armorers, gunsmiths, and shooters worldwide. All of their products are backed by a 100% satisfaction, unconditional, lifetime guarantee. For more information, or to place an order, call 800-741-0015 or visit Brownells.com

Supreme Court

Down Range TV with Michael Blain

Howard, KS - -(AmmoLand.com)- Today and tomorrow, Down Range TV will be covering the McDonald v. City of Chicago Oral Arguments with commentaries from Michael Bane, Jim Shepherd, Dave Kopel and Dave Hardy.

Down Range Radio will also have the oral arguments as one of the topics in this week’s edition airing from midnight.

http://www.downrange.tv/blog/?cat=354

About:
DOWN RANGE Television (DRTV) has quickly become the gold standard for Internet firearms sites. Founded in February 2007 by television personality and journalist Michael Bane and his partner Marshal Halloway founder of the first Internet firearms social community — CAS City — in 1995, DRTV offers original short-form video, original articles, moderated forums, gun giveaways, links to blogs and original weekly audio podcasts.

U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance

Washington, D.C - -(AmmoLand.com)-Sportsmen understand that hunting is not just a tradition that is passed along from generation to generation, but is also the cornerstone for wildlife conservation programs throughout the nation. They compliment and thrive because of each other.

This thought came to me as I read an excellent blog post from a good friend of the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, Tammy Sapp, editor of The Women’s Wire, explaining that hunting is also essential for wildlife conservation around the world. Her “Wire” is one of three that we always read from Jim Shepard, the other two being The Tactical Wire and Outdoor Wire.

In that post she interviewed Peggy Vallery, president of the National Wild Turkey Federation. Peggy has hunted around the world from Africa to New Zealand and from Bulgaria to China. As an accomplished hunter, she has seemingly seen it all and has been able to observe that hunting provides innumerable conservation benefits everywhere. As in America, hunting abroad spurs management of wildlife populations, but it also does something else that a lot of people might miss.

It helps to increase the worth of game animals. Often, big game in other countries are seen as dangerous to local communities, especially those cultures that are dependent day by day on what they farm. Historically, many locals felt compelled to kill majestic animals like elephants and rhinos due to fears over crop destruction. Animals would also fall prey to poachers who were looking to make an extra buck regardless of the consequence to the animal population.

But with several generations of hunters having traveled abroad, a transformation has taken place. Hunting brings much money into the local economies in communities around the globe. That simply has made animals worth more to locals thus reducing poaching. Additionally, the locals understand that the animals are not their enemy, but a major part of their future well being.

So understand that this “fireworks and the 4th of July” relationship can be seen not just in Pennsylvania, Texas and California, but in Ethiopia, Botswana, and numerous other places too.

Make sure to check out this and other blogs from Tammy. Feel free to leave comments and send us your thoughts at info@ussportsmen.org.

About:
The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) and the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation (USSAF) work nationwide, representing over 1.5 million sportsmen through member clubs and individual constituents. The organizations provide legislative, legal defense and public education services to defend and advance sportsmen’s rights in Washington, D.C. and in all 50 states. Visit: www.ussportsmen.org

Gun Talk Radio

Natchitoches, Louisiana – -(AmmoLand.com)- The Scottsdale Gun Club is a world-class facility offering everything from handgun, rifle and machine gun rentals, to gunsmithing, to training courses and shooting leagues.

Members and Non-members can shoot at the range, which features 32 lanes and a tactical bay to practice drawing and shooting in defense situations.

Tom’s broadcast at the Scottsdale Gun Club is part of a strategic planning session for the new group, Knife Rights, and he will be talking with that group’s founder, Doug Ritter. Knife Rights was formed to prevent in the U.S. the restrictions on knife ownership and use such as those in England, where even pocket knives are outlawed.

Tom also will interview Jim Shepherd, of the Outdoor Wire and Shooting Wire; Pete Brownell, President of Brownells and Sinclair International; and Ethan Becker, wilderness survival instructor, knife designer, and co-editor of The Joy of Cooking.

In addition, instructors and managers from the Scottsdale Gun Club will join Tom on this week’s broadcast.

Gun Talk Radio is in its 15th year of national syndication. Gun Talk Radio currently runs on 89 stations and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio (channel 139 on XM and channel 108 on Sirius). All Gun Talk shows can be downloaded through Apple iTunes or at www.guntalk.libsyn.com.

Find more information available at www.guntalk.com.

Frank Brownell - Brownells.com

Montezuma, Iowa --(AmmoLand.com)- Shot show 2010 just ended Friday, last week. It was a show of mixed results with 1,023 vendors and 56,000 show attendees.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation says this was the largest show to date, and we certainly had huge crowds at both our Law Enforcement and Gunsmithing booths with people 2 to 3 deep most of the show. We especially want to thank everyone that stopped by to say Hello. I only wish Pete and I had been able to spend more time in the booth meeting and chatting with you.

There was some drama at this year’s show. . . The layout and navigation of this year’s Shot Show held at Sand’s Convention Center, was terribly unorganized and could probably be used as the bench mark for the worst laid out Shot Show ever. I suppose this probably has to do with the Sand’s expo not delivering on their promise for a new convention center when the contracts were signed.

We also had 23 people in the industry arrested on the Shot floor the very first day for some export bribery schemes. The FBI was certainly using something other than the NSSF map to find the bad guys; Pete and I were well into our 2nd day before we could find our booth without a guide using the same map! Then there was the unfortunate circumstance where some high-profile vendors boycotted renting a booth space from NSSF and decided to “backpack” their products to the industry, which means they would put all their products in backpacks and go from booth to booth selling or set up rooms in a near-by hotel for a “off-campus show-and-tell”. Both No-No’s with NSSF.

All the above notwithstanding, the primary mission of all the folks we take along to Shot Show is to get to know our customers and our vendors and the other great people in the industry. From this point of view, we had an enormously successful show!! Here are some of the industry bits of this and that we picked up and would like to pass along to you. (For some wonderful in-depth, detailed reviews of this annual bash, I recommend you go to Jim Shepherd’s website for his “The Shooting Wire”, and check back through the archives for the past couple of weeks. Jim’s a great writer with a finely tuned ear who does a great job of “nailing it”!)

The firearms market took a very deep breath after running the 2009 sales marathon, and are a little apprehensive of what 2010 will give us.

Factories, wholesalers and buyers are looking for “Value” this year. Last year it was all about “delivery”. Value does not mean “cheap”. It means how we can all do business better if we work together.

Everybody seems to be focusing on their “Core”.
The most important for all levels of business is to communicate with your customers, spend the time understanding what they are looking for and why. This is the best way you can learn, and you can direct your business to provide the service/product/solution they want and will pay for.

In retrospect, 2009 was the year for deliveries – getting things actually in the hands of the customers. 2010 is going to be the year of “I don’t know what’s next”. With this big mystery staring us in the face, the best way to go into the next 12 months is to focus on communicating with your customers, finding out what they want. And focus on defining what your Core business really is all about, and make it as streamlined and as efficient as possible.

With these two handled well and under tight control, you’ll be able to face – and deal with – whatever comes at you.

Finally, one of the services we provided at Shot Show this year came from the partnership we made with E-Myth Benchmark, the business development consultant. E-Myth was presented at Shot Show University during a seminar on “How To Grow Your Business”. Essentially, E-Myth is a very regimented and systematized coaching method that has been used world-wide in many different industries over the past 30 plus years. If you feel the gunsmith shop or the business you are running is really driving your schedule instead of you driving your business, this is something you need to check into.

I would recommend first buying the book “The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It” by Michael E. Gerber (you can find it on http://www.amazon.com/ or buy at a discount from E-Myth Benchmark at number below).

It’s an inexpensive investment and yet gets the point across of how to take your business and your life to that next level. After you have read the book and want to explore E-Myth further, please contact Benchmark Coaching Center at 1-888-959-0621 if you are a business owner. Please mention you are responding to Brownells WebBench e-mail. The E-Myth team will contact you with a web link to an Online Assessment followed up with a personal phone call to follow-up this assessment with a Business Check-up session. Or go to http://www.e-mythbenchmark.com/ on the web and check out all the ways you can get further involved with the program.

Brownells.com

About:
Brownells is the world’s largest supplier of firearm parts, gunsmithing tools, reloading equipment and accessories. Stocking more than 30,000 items, the company supplies armorers, gunsmiths, and shooters worldwide. All of their products are backed by a 100% satisfaction, unconditional, lifetime guarantee. For more information, or to place an order, call 800-741-0015 or visit Brownells.com

Guns & Gear TV

Brownells.com

Brownells.com - -(AmmoLand.com)- After searching for the right opportunity, Brownells is taking the plunge to sponsor a TV show; Tom Gresham’s Guns & Gear on the Versus Country cable channel.

“We’ve been approached many times over the years but nothing seemed to be the right fit,” said company President Pete Brownell, “Tom is not only a highly respected author and outdoorsman, he’s been a friend for years. The ‘Gear’ portion of his show seemed to fit our market perfectly.”

Guns & Gear airs Wednesday mornings from 8:30 to 9:00 a.m. (Eastern time zone) with a repeat showing on Thursday at the same time.

The six, 15-second spots were produced by Brownells in-house video production team and will rotate throughout the season. Each highlights a different part of the Brownells experience.

About:
Brownells is the world’s largest supplier of firearm parts, gunsmithing tools, reloading equipment and accessories. Stocking more than 30,000 items, the company supplies armorers, gunsmiths, and shooters worldwide. All of their products are backed by a 100% satisfaction, unconditional, lifetime guarantee. For more information, or to place an order, call 800-741-0015 or visit Brownells.com

FOX Sports Network

FOX Sports Network - -(ShootingWire.com)- Three broadcast veterans have come together to create a new type of firearms television show designed to display new products in innovative ways to a large audience. Beginning in July, “Guns & Gear” will air on the Fox Sports Network, available in 69 million households.

The show has been described as “Jay Leno in a gun room” and “Modern Marvels with guns”. Viewers will get high-tech, fast paced, demonstrations of the interesting and innovative products from the gun world. “As we know, gun buyers are interested in how their guns and gear work and what makes them better. The things that make a new gun or piece of gear new and innovative, are usually things that are small or hard to explain. That’s what guns and gear will feature,” says Ryan Gresham of Guns & Gear.

Hosting the show will be longtime outdoor and firearms television celebrity Tom Gresham, who has created, directed and hosted programs on ESPN, ESPN2, Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel and Fox Sports. Gresham also created and hosts “Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk,” a nationally-syndicated radio talk show.

Tom Munson, director of sales and Marketing at Trijicon, said, “Trijicon is pleased to be partnering again with Tom Gresham, one of the preeminent shooting sports authorities. We have long enjoyed our association with GunTalk Radio, and GunTalkTV.com and are excited to expand that relationship to include Guns and Gear.”

Jim Shepherd will be the producer/director. Shepherd is the publisher of the Outdoor, Shooting, and Tactical Wires. Jim was also one of the founding members of CNN and the first Executive Producer of Business News there. His productions have aired on the History Channel, PBS, NBC, TBS, and ABC.

Handling the sales as well as hosting the field segments is Ryan Gresham, who has worked in marketing and advertising for cable, radio, print and network television. Ryan also helped create, shoot and host the online video website, Gun Talk TV, featuring hundreds of how-to videos on guns, shooting and hunting.

Guns & Gear will run on FOX Sports cable network, which means a new audience that sponsors may not have reached on smaller outdoor networks. FOX Sports is available on basic cable systems, Direct TV and DISH Network.

Bob Morrison, president of Taurus Firearms, said, “We’re excited to be able to show off the innovative things we are doing at Taurus on this new and exciting platform. It’s great to be reaching a new audience on Fox Sports to put Taurus and the shooting sports before a completely different set of eyes.”

Guns & Gear will air on FOX Sports for 26 weeks during the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2009.

Outdoor Wire

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — In recognition of the unprece­dented demand for firearms by nervous consumers, The Outdoor Wire, the nation’s largest daily electronic news service for the outdoor industry, has named President-elect Barack Obama its “Gun Salesman of the Year”. With the selection, Outdoor Wire publisher Jim Shepherd says it is time the firearms industry recognizes the fact that without President-elect Obama’s frightening consumers into action, the firearms industry might be suffering the same sort of business slumps that have befallen the automotive and housing industries.

“It’s credit where credit is due,” says Shepherd, “Mr. Obama has consistently voted against individual rights to firearms, appointed a re-tread Clinton administration full of gun banners, and made it plain to anti-gun groups that despite what he might say to the contrary, he’s on their side.” That history, along with the unquestioned support of anti-gun organizations, Shepherd says, has spooked consumers into a buying frenzy for firearms that could be outlawed in another Assault Weapons Ban.

“Manufacturers are months behind on orders for semi-automatic pistols, AR-style rifles, and anything with so-called ‘high-capacity magazines’,” Shepherd says, “buyers we’ve surveyed across the country seem to have a single explanation for their rush to purchase firearms – Obama.”

“The buying panic is not limited to people you might be described as aficionados or even ‘gun nuts’. Recently, I was in a gun store when a gentleman came and said he’d never wanted to own a gun before, but wanted to get one while he still could.”

Since the November Presidential election, firearms sales have been at unprecedented levels. For December 2008 the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) recorded a twenty-four percent increase in background checks for 2008 (1,523,426) over December 2007 (1,230,525).

This follows a forty-two percent (42%) increase in November 2008, the highest number of NICS checks in the system’s history. Those FBI background checks are required under federal law for all individuals purchasing firearms from federally licensed firearms retailers. In other words, gun sales have never been better.

Sales are so good that on Tuesday, January 6, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued a notice to all federal firearms licensees that “an unprecedented increase in demand for ATF Form 4473” had run supplies low enough that dealers were temporarily given permission to photocopy the form until supplies caught up with demand. Completion of a form 4473 is required whenever a federal firearms licensee sells a fire­arm.­

As a journalist with more than two decades of national newsgathering experience, Shepherd says he’s never seen anything approaching what he calls the “Obama effect”. In fact, Shepherd says, gun and ammunition sales are at such frantic levels that they have surpassed the panic-buying of Y2K or anything during the Clinton years when the first Assault Weapons Ban was passed. This time, he says, concerned consumers are buying guns and ammunition in anticipation of Obama Administration actions to prohibit certain types of firearms.

“In 1999, the fear was that computers would shut down, crippling the world,” Shepherd says, “Those fears were unfounded. I don’t think the fears of an Obama administration banning guns are unfounded. His record speaks for itself. He’s never failed to support an anti-gun measure, despite saying he supports the Second Amendment.”

According to Shepherd, moves to prohibit firearms sales would drastically impact a billion-dollar industry that is not only healthy, but pours more than one hundred fifty million dollars annually into conservation programs through an eleven percent tax collected on guns and ammo.

“The Pittman-Robertson Act provides the vast majority of funding for wildlife agencies at the federal, state and local levels,” says Shepherd, “and that money comes directly from the tax levied against gun owners. Damaging the firearms industry won’t just put workers in the gun business out of work, it will severely impact wildlife and conservation efforts nationally. That damage could take decades to repair – if it can be undone.”

Choosing President-elect Obama as the Gun Salesman of the Year, says Shepherd, is a lot like a good-news, bad-news joke. “His election has driven gun sales into the stratosphere,” Shepherd says, “but his opposition to guns and gun ownership may be the biggest threat the industry has ever faced. If he puts scoring political points with anti-gun groups ahead of economic realities, he will be deliberately putting thousands of people out of work. I don’t see that as an economic stimulus plan with much of a future.”

“Today, however, the facts are indisputable,” Shepherd says, “Barack Obama has spurred gun sales in a time when the entire economy seems to be tanking. If that doesn’t make him the gun salesman of the year – if not the decade – I don’t know what would.”

About:
The Outdoor Wire: The Outdoor Wire is the flagship electronic news service of The Outdoor Wire Digital Network, specifically targeted news services delivered to more than 400,000 outdoor enthusiasts and industry leaders. Headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, the OWDN has editors in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Virginia and Missouri, with technical facilities in Washington