Talking Shop: Training, Holster Kits, Turkish Imports, and COVID Ammo Woes

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This candid and humor-filled conversation takes you behind the scenes at Shot Show while delivering practical wisdom every gun owner needs to hear.

We sit down with Craig Summers of  Templar Defense https://www.templardefense.com/
and Ben DeWalt from On Sight Firearms training ( https://oftllc.us/) while they share the physical realities of working the massive firearms industry event – from excessive indoor heating to miles of walking required each day. They offer fascinating insights into venue differences and booth traffic patterns that casual attendees never consider.

The conversation shifts to an amusing yet educational story about a student who attempted to implement a supposedly "special forces" technique during force-on-force training. The predictable failure serves as a powerful reminder about critically evaluating tactical advice rather than blindly following recommendations without testing.

Quality gear becomes a central theme as the hosts discuss holster selection, firearm standardization, and parts compatibility. They share personal experiences with proprietary systems that ultimately proved frustrating and impractical. One memorable anecdote details an improvised field repair using an AR-15 trigger spring to fix a broken magazine catch – a hack that's surprisingly continued working for over a year.

Perhaps most valuable is the panel's perspective on the post-COVID firearms market. Drawing from their industry experience, they explain why current conditions represent an opportunity for enthusiasts to stock up before the next inevitable price surge. Their seasonal training insights also provide a window into how professional instructors adapt to regional weather challenges throughout the year.

Whether you're a new gun owner or experienced enthusiast, this episode blends practical advice with entertaining stories from professionals who've seen it all. Subscribe now and join us for more candid conversations at the intersection of firearms, training, and real-world experience.

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Find out more about Big Tex Ordnance at bigtexordnance.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's always that funny story of like well, my
friends, insert something,something.
There.
We had a force on force classyears ago.
We were doing just kind of likea hit the timer.
I run towards you with a knifeand you have to draw and fire.
This guy goes well, my buddy'sspecial forces and he said that
in that situation you should liedown, fall back onto your back

(00:20):
and draw.
I was like cool, let's try.
It Did not work.
He fell onto his back trying toget his gun out.
I ended up getting his gun offhim and I think I shot him right
in the junk.
I I didn't even see whatwatchtower had yeah because we
went over and they had that, thepunching, punching bag.

(00:40):
Somebody spent their time there, both, both days.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
How'd you do?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
8.45.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
My buddy Ray.
Ray was the one running that.
I've known Ray for like 10years yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
I hit one.
He's like well, this dude knowshow to punch.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
It's like he tried to get me to do it, I was like no
yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I went like two days in a row to do it.
It's like so much fun to hitsomething.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
I saw one booth, so therapeutic.
Had a claw machine like we haveat the range?
Yes, had a claw machine.
Yes, I was walking down one ofthe aisles.
I was like, oh hey.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
They had a claw machine with, I think like an
airsoft AR in the back.
Oh, I was like damn, how wouldyou even get that with a?

Speaker 3 (01:21):
claw.
Was that a suppressor companythat did that?

Speaker 4 (01:24):
I don't, I don't even know who it was, Like I was.
I was on the way to the meeting.
I was late.
I was like almost running andit was on the main floor and uh,
I was walking by.
I was like, oh, that's kind ofcool.
It's like jot that down.
Yeah, Big text booth.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Speaking of, we were right next to them and I walked
over there.
Oh, was it Garrett?
I think is the yeah, hope Ididn't get his name wrong.
I'm sorry.
I apologize, because we talkfrom time to time.
I like what they're doing withtheir.
Like they've upgraded theirrifles.
I really dig what they're doingwith those?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, they're doing a lot of cool stuff over there,
for sure.
Yeah, they're definitely up inthe game.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
I mean, it's just basic stuff, but uh like H2
buffer.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Right.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Um, I just wish they wouldn't use adjustable gas
blocks.
Oh yeah, I told him that I waslike dude, I'm weird, but please
don't put adjustables.
He's like no, I, you gotta sellto your audience.
But that was my only complaint.
But I really like what they'redoing with their stuff over
there, especially the rifles.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
Have not seen them.
Totally was totally wassidetracked by the, went
straight for the punching bag.
Speak of that.
Before we get too far into it,do a quick intro, real quick.
Ben, he's been on beforeon-site firearms training and we
got craig from temp floridafence.
I'm mike, we got tara, we'rehere.
I guess this is like a shotshow, hot wash episode.
We can probably, we canprobably talk about shot for an
hour or 10.

(02:50):
Shot show Crud scrub.
Yeah, so it's.
This is.
I don't know when this is goingto drop, but this is the
Wednesday following shot show.
So we're all back in town.
I got back late or at last week, was sick, been sick I.
I was four for four.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Yeah, I am, I'm four for four of not getting sick and
Tara and I were talking abouthow not to get sick.
Uh, um, I took the red eye.
Oh, uh, like nine 59 Saturdaymorning.
Slept two hours out on theplane.
Got home 59 Saturday morning,slept two hours out on the plane
, got home, hugged my kids andthen crashed on the couch for
like the rest of the morning andI think it still took me an

(03:30):
extra couple of days to catchback up on my sleep.
But yeah, four for four notgetting sick.
That's impressive, that's astreak, that's a hell of a
streak.
Hey, law of averages.
It's bound to happen sometime.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
This is the second year for me that I didn't get
sick.
Every other year I've gottensick.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
I did not get it last year and I was like I drove
last year for the first time andI was like, ah, it's because I
drove and I wasn't in theairplane with people.
And then this year I was likeSunday or no, Saturday night it
kind of hit when I got to mybuddy's house in New Mexico, I

(04:04):
got out of the truck and I waslike I took a deep breath in of
the, like the desert air and Iwas like, oh shit, it's like the
altitude, the dry air, justeverything kind of all hit me at
once and I was like I'm screwed.
So today's like the last day ofit, it's kind of going away.
So see what tomorrow brings.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Tomorrow's class, so I better be yeah, you better be
up and running.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
I am going today after this to get a massage
because last night no, not lastnight, night before last I got
two leg cramps like an hourapart from each other in both
legs.
Just woke up in the middle ofthe night like just in extreme
pain so I was like damn it.
So you know, a little spa daytoday Later.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
I know you weren't tied to a booth, Craig.
You work a booth when you're upthere, huh.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
I do so my day job.
I work for SDS arms.
I cover Taylor, taylor, taylorstate's forum and do some do
some marketing and training onthe side for him as well.
But that's it.
Everybody talks about shot man,shots Awesome.
Blah, blah, blah.
It's work for me.
Yeah, um, I think the first day.
So we usually get there likeMonday while a lot of the other

(05:19):
guys are at the range.
We'll get there.
Fortunately, this is the secondyear.
The first year when I did, Iworked for them.
The first two years we had toset up the booths.
We were down in the dungeon, wehad to set up the booth and
that was miserable.
Moving on up, we have peopleset that for us, but we still
have to put out the guns, and sowe do that on Monday.

(05:39):
But I think Tuesday we had tobe there at 730 for like a sales
meeting.
The show ends at 530 and you're.
All you have time is to shutdown, go back to your room,
change clothes, go eat, and thenby that time, like I'm two
hours behind, I got to call thekids, check on them, and so it's

(06:02):
, it's work for me, check onthem, and so it's, it's worked
for me.
I wasn't until the last daywhere I actually had time to get
away and um saw Ben and Racheland saw my buddies at, uh, you
know, gideon and some other.
Um tried to go to sons butthat's just way too far of a
walk for when we were in Caesars, oh God, and I was like I'm not

(06:23):
walking that far.
But it's work, man, it's work,and so I was happy to get back.
It's fun, I enjoy it, I enjoythe people.
Yeah, but I was glad to getback.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
You know it's funny, Takes a lot out of you.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
It does.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
I had mentioned to Sean, because Sean and I were
walking around doing videos fornight fishing on Tuesday and
Wednesday.
Part of what I was doing therewas as one of their sponsored
shooters.
I come kind of like the, theinterview guy for everyone who's
running our sites.
So I said you know, we got togo back over to Caesars cause we

(06:59):
missed something and I was likeit's such a long walk and from
where we were standing it wouldhave taken us longer to walk to
where Velocity Systems was thanto walk where you were.
But because you have to gooutside and go over the bridge
it just makes it seem like it'slonger.

(07:20):
Yeah, it's like half thedistance.
I'm like man, I don't want towalk all the way over there.
Let's go see nelson at velocitysystems.
And I was like this is a longerwalk than it would have been to
get to caesars, like just theperception like if you're going
basement to like, um, you know,the back, back side of the main
floor that's.

Speaker 4 (07:41):
That's almost further than anywhere on the main floor
to caesars it.
It seems to be so spread out,so it feels like.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
It's like a different ballroom.
It's at least three or fourdifferent ballrooms.
We're actually looking attrying to go back to the main
floor, move back to the mainfloor next year.
Even though the lighting and itseemed Caesars was when it
temperature.
It was a lot cooler, morecomfortable, because we went to
the main floor the last day whenI was just walking around

(08:09):
trying to see people.
This got a little bit hot onthe main floor but we just
didn't see the amount of traffic.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
So I think we'll we're going to move back there,
get a little bit morecentralized, but caesars is
definitely a more openenvironment, whereas like main
floor shot show just alwaysfeels like yeah it always feels
congested and crammed and beingcrushed in by the walls, but
yeah, caesar's, like if it seemslike the aisles are wider and
the booths are more spread out,like I mean they're all

(08:37):
obviously butted up against eachother, but it just and it feels
like I can breathe and havelike more elbow room.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, when I'm in caesar's but yeah, when, like
west coast people, when thetemperature drops below 60, they
panic and turn a thermostat upto like 95, it's wild, like I'm
used to like, if it's 70 degreesoutside, it's like 60 degrees
inside, yeah, you know, whereas,like every time I go to shot

(09:05):
show, if it's 50 degrees outsideit is like 110 inside.
Anywhere you go, like that heatis just cranked.
It's wild Like I see dudeswalking around with suits on.
Like I saw Eric Gell house andChuck and a couple other people
like rolling around with likesuit jackets and button up
shirts and pants and I'm likethat was me.

(09:27):
Like I'm ready to pass out.
Just looking at you guys withall those it's not so much that
it's, it's.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
So I think tuesday I wore dress shoes, wednesday or
no, yeah, I wore boot, my cowboyboots, and then by the third
day, like I put on my casual,like tennis shoes, I'm like, I'm
not yeah, I'm not playing thisgame.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
I absolutely have to have tennis shoes.
I actually forgot them.
Among other things, this and uh, I ordered them from Amazon.
I was like I can't, I can't, Ican't do boots all week, I have
to have my tennis shoes Brutalbrutal brutal, yeah, but now,
like um, I was trying to thinkwe're thinking of cool things.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
That's.
The bad part is I can't go lookat the floor on stuff.
Fortunately we were prettyclose to the primary optic, a
primary arms optics booth, thatnew enclosed optic.
They have the HTX.
That looks pretty cool.
I'm hoping I'd like to get myhands on that.
Didn't get a chance to go lookat the sun's booth with their

(10:25):
new rifles.
That would have been nice to do.
But this is weird.
Maybe this is just in the stageof life that I am.
Um, one of the coolest thingsthat I thought, and I didn't
even get a chance to see it.
But John Correa had postedsomething that Henry holsters
put out.
It was like a holster survivalkit with, yeah, with all the

(10:45):
different screws.
I'm like that.
That, to me, is like awesomelike a repair kit.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yes, like an oh shit kit.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah, like like if you're teaching a holster class
and somebody's got a janky ass.
Holster oh that's awesome likeyou can fix stuff.
It's got like all the screwsand washers it's almost like uh,
y'all, I think uh, the whitelabel armor used to have their
field repair kit for AR-15s kindof the same thing for holsters
yes, beautiful idea.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Like that.
I can't even tell you how manytimes someone's like hey, I lost
the screw on their holster, andnow it's like or the retention
screw or whatever.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
I could probably put a kit together based off the
stuff that I've had over theyears, but that's a pretty
ingenious thing.
That's sad that's where I'm atnow.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
I think that's cool.
I won't mention it.
But there was a, a holstercompany a couple of years ago
that came out with a modularholster that you could put like
inside the waistband.
Outside the waistband, thispiece comes off, this piece
comes on.
And we had a student buy it andhe was like, oh, it's great, I
can do all these differentconfigurations with this holster

(11:49):
, and 20 draws into the class.
The whole thing just fell aparton the floor in front of him
and I was like, yeah, that's whyI don't like that company.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
Oh well, you know, I thought that but they have good
advertising on amazon andfacebook.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yeah, they do they have lots of good advertising,
but you know who you don't seeadvertise a lot the holsters
that stay together because theydon't need it I'm a big fan of
dark star gear tenor core, raven, concealment, black tactical,
which is now owned by high speedgear, um 508 holsters another

(12:30):
good, good holster company outof Massachusetts.
Just plug in my pals here, youknow.
Uh.
But and everybody asked me like, hey, what kind of holster
should I get?
Oh, you should go get this.
Tell me if this sounds familiar.
They come back two weeks later.
Yeah, I didn't get that one, Igot this one instead, and it's
like, good luck with it I, I getthe same thing.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
on guns, we're like what, what gun should I get?
I'm like you know, these areyour like.
Uh, for instance, I had um, uhfor for females, right, let's
just talk about that.
So women are typically a littlebit not necessarily statured,
but hands are a little bitsmaller.
So, like PDPF, great option,the 365 series, solid option,
love Glock 4843X, and so I'llrecommend something like that,

(13:17):
and then they'll come back andthey're.
You know, I went and got this.
What do you think about it?

Speaker 4 (13:23):
And the first question I asked him.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
I was like have you purchased it yet?
Yeah, great option.
You're going to love it If theyhaven't, then I'll kind of give
them my whole thing.
But you know, if they'vealready purchased, they're just
looking for validation.
But that's frustrating.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
Well, the guy at the gun store said I should get this
two-inch .357 Magnum revolver.
I should get this two inchthree 57 Magnum revolver, I just
don't know what you don't know.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Like with the holsters, a lot of people
they'll they'll drop all thismoney on.
You know certain things liketheir, their gun or something
else, but they don't understandthe value in actually investing
in a good holster.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
So problem is if I were to ask somebody advice,
like we all have the people thatwe go to to ask advice, like,
why do you go to this person toask them their advice?
Like, think of somebody who youask their advice a lot.
Okay, why do you go to them?

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Cause I think they know what they're talking about.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Okay.
So when they give you their,your the advice that you ask
them for, what do you do withthat advice?
Roll with it yeah, I usuallyroll with it, yeah imagine, if
you're like nah, I'm gonna dosomething completely opposite,
but a lot of people do that.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
I mean they really do it's.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
It's frustrating, they'll go to a gun store and
they'll.
There'll be a guy behind thecounter who probably hasn't
fired a pistol in 10 years notat bto, but not at bto, not here
.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
Y'all are different, not here different.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
But I'm sure somewhere in this neighborhood,
correct and I had.
I had a student rachel, and Ihad a student go to a local gun
store and she's like I want tobuy a glock 17 gen 5 and the guy
behind the counter was like oh,it's too big for your hand.
You don't want that gun andyou're going to have a hard time
racking a slide.

(15:10):
Blah, blah, blah and she goesno, that's the one I want.
I fired it.
My instructor said that's theone I should get, that's what I
want, and they're like well, Idon't want to sell it to you
this and they go to give herlike the tiniest, littlest,
smallest version of like the 365ruger lcp.

(15:31):
Yeah, uh, hellcat, whatever thefuck it was, and she's like nope
, and she thankfully leftwithout buying it yeah she's
like no, I'm not doing it.
She's like I'm god, I want tobuy what I want to buy.
So she called us and was likewhat do I do?

Speaker 4 (15:42):
I said, well, here's another store that's always wild
, like when somebody walks inand like this is what I.
That's always wild, like whensomebody walks in and they're
like this is what I want to buy.
I get that.
If somebody walks in andthey're like, hey, I want to buy
this, make a recommendationonce.
If they're, if they're stuck onit, then just sell them what
they want.
I would always ask why.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
You know why did you pick that one?

Speaker 4 (15:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
You Because you've got to ask those qualifying
questions.
Because if they say I've doneall my research, I've shot it
whatever I want this, then cool,let's go that route.
But if they say, well, my bestfriend's husband recommended
that and I'm like okay, then wehave a whole other avenue that
we can go in to maybe startsteering them in the direction
more, towards something thatactually fits them.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
There's always that funny story of like, well, my
friends insert something,something there, and he says we
had a.
We had a force on force classyears ago when we were working
as op four at SIG Academy andthis guy's like we were doing
just kind of like a hit thetimer.

(16:44):
I run towards you with a knifeand you have to draw and fire
sim round, utm, whatever beforeI get to you.
It's like 21 feet.
You know the tool or theorything.
This guy goes well, my buddy'sspecial forces or he was special
forces and he said that in thatsituation you should lie down,

(17:05):
fall back onto your back anddraw.
I was like, cool, let's try.
It Did not work.
He fell onto his back trying toget his gun out.
I ended up getting his gun offhim and I think I shot him right
in the junk.
But it was one of those thingswhere it's like, well, my friend
says yeah.
It's like just because somebodymy friend says it's like, just

(17:26):
because somebody said it andjust because somebody was
something at some point, doesn'tmean that it's legit.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
That's the thing I love about jujitsu, is that
people go hey, I've got thisthing.
Let's see if this works.
Like man, this will be awesome.
If I can do this, let's go.
Let's try it.
Let's try it, let's pressuretest this right now.
But no, so going back to, like,the whole gun thing, another
reason why I also recommend,like standard, like you know,
glock 19 M&P 2.0, because I'llget a lot of.

(17:53):
You know, you recommendsomething to somebody who will
not take your advice and like,hey, I've got this new.
You know this, this new companythat just came out with this
brand new polymer pistol, but,man, I can't find a holster for
it.
We call that a clue.
Mm-hmm.
If you would have gone thisroute, yeah, you still have

(18:15):
options.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
You still have to get accessories for it.
You still have to get supportgear.
Yep.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Parts, like part parts is a big thing, you know.
Know we're talking about likethe, the survival kit before.
I mean now I'm about acquiringparts like bolts, springs for
glock, for ar, whatever, likereplacement parts.
I've got enough guns but I wantto be able to prepare them.

(18:42):
Or yeah, like you said, if youfind a detent, do you have
enough stuff to build?

Speaker 1 (18:46):
I mean cleaning the house the other day and there's
a little a detent on the floorand I was like, well, shit, now
I gotta build a rifle.
Yeah, that's some shit.
No, I bought a pistol two yearsago three years ago, I think.
It might have been from thiscompany where you could um, you
could design every single partof the pistol.

(19:06):
You probably know who it is.
It's like a 2011 format takes oh, yeah, yeah, and you could
design the whole pistol, rightdown to the different checkers,
on the checkering being adifferent color.
It was pretty cool, um, and Imade this awesome, awesome gun
and nobody made a holster for it.

(19:27):
You're a sex son of a bitch.
It wouldn't fit in a safariland.
It was designed for 2011.
Because of the rail size andthe trigger guard, I was like
damn it, like I can't even doanything with this pistol, and a
buddy of mine bought it and heended up finding a holster for
it.
So I was like enjoy it.

(19:48):
I've got 100 rounds through it.
It cost me over two grand, saidand done, so I got my money
back, but still it was just likeshit.
I would really have liked it,but there's no support gear for
it.
That's the thing in general.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
I'm not a fan of anything proprietary anymore,
like if I can't actively go outlike a new rifle system is you
know proprietary?
Whatever bolt system gas I'mlike is that thing could cure
cancer?
I still don't really.
I want something I can find offthe shelf parts Yep, so I still
like Glock.
I want something I can find offthe shelf parts, yep, um, so I
still like Glock.
I can go to a local stop andRob and get a damn recoil spring

(20:29):
or a Glock 19 mag.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
You can have your gun break in the middle of a class
and they'll still run.
Walk over to your kit.
Pull out your DACA pouch filledwith Glock parts.
Yep, Pull out a single punch.
Single like eighth inch punch.
Fix that shit and be back onthe line in four minutes, Ready
to go.
Yeah, we had a gun that I carry.

(20:51):
I was running in a class onenight and the mag catch spring
broke.
Just that metal rod.
Yeah, the one that goes inside,the grip Snapped in half.
Huh, it's like son of a bitch.
Oh yeah, this is genius.
So I'm digging through my bagof like spare parts and I don't
have a mag catch spring.

(21:12):
I'm like how do I not have this?
I had one, it was just buried.
Yeah.
So I open up my other bag andwhat do I have?
I have an AR-15 triggerassembly.
You know the?
Yeah.
So I'm looking at it, me andsean are looking at it sean's,
like I'll be right back.
Runs out, grabs a pair of wirecutters from the store, from the

(21:34):
gun shop comes back in, he goesclick, let me see the gun.
Just input that and holy shit,it works.
So it's like essentially uh, abeefed up magazine, catch spring
now like but it fits, it works,it hasn't broken again.
Did you ever take that out andput it like this?

Speaker 4 (21:57):
is like a year ago year and a half ago.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
It's still in there.
It it's wild.
So, obviously, I went the nextday and bought like four of them
, four of the uh, the actualpart, but still it was like you
can fix that shit with theweirdest things, right?
Little duct tape and a hammer.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
Shameless plug Find your magazine.
Catch brings a big textordinancecom.

Speaker 4 (22:23):
Trigger uh hammer spring slash release spring.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
Just get yourself some wire cutters yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
You need.
You need to.
We'll sell a kit.
You need to have a descriptionof your AR trigger springs.
Yeah Well it's good to know.

Speaker 4 (22:38):
There you go, come here, you learned something.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Uh, new t-shirt design just came in.
I can't really show it oncamera I like that, but I like
the green too, od green's myfavorite color.

Speaker 4 (22:52):
Well, hopefully the shirt's out by the time this
drops.
When do you think they'll beready?

Speaker 1 (22:56):
oh, probably about a month.
Okay, yeah, from now we'llprobably drop this, probably a
month maybe I need to do like aspring run of shirts and then
another spring run of hoodies.

Speaker 4 (23:06):
So if you want to see the new special OFT shirt that
you heard about here first onthe Big Ticks Hornets podcast,
we'll have it.
They'll be available OFT.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
OFTLLCus Okay.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
I knew there was something after the OFT OFTLLCus
I don't was a.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
I knew there was something after the OFT, oft LLC
, dot U S.
I don't know how we ended upwith dot U S.
Don't ask.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
That's probably better in Canadian.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
I think Canada C, a, c A.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
It's actually spelled C A N dash U H dash D U H
Canada.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Hey, hey.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
I ran into a guy from Canada at SHOT Show we were
talking about.

Speaker 4 (23:47):
I actually ran into a Canadian dude too.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah.
So this dude is a lawyer upthere fighting for their Second
Amendment, which they don't have.
And you know, we're talkingabout free health care and all
that stuff that they have andall these free programs and it's
like have you ever boughtanything in Canada?
It's like this thing costs 10bucks but you've got $7 in tax

(24:11):
by the time it's all rung up andit's like, yeah, healthcare is
free.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
But everything else is overtaxed.

Speaker 4 (24:18):
It's like Well, the UK, I think, isn't like the VAT
included in, like sales taxincluded in your in the price,
like they don't even cause, likehere you, it's like $10.
You go ring it up, it's, youknow, $10 and 8 cents or
whatever.
Yeah, or 80 cents, I guess.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
Over there it's just like tax that tax province tax,
fucking Canadian tax.
Funny story about that, or notreally related to that, but just
in sales tax in general theHouston Astros a long time ago
like 2005,.
You would go to the pro shopthere and all their prices would
end in like $23 or whatever.
They basically calculated itback when you added sales tax.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
So your total was round numbers.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
Even $10 or even $20.
That's pretty smart.
Yeah, I thought that was kindof interesting, but they took
the time to back calculate allthe taxes.
That's wild Houston Astroscirca 2004.
When they were bad yeah,actually, no 2005, they went to
the World Series Trying to thinkOkay, and then they got bad.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
I think when I was about 10 years old, my uncle
took me to a Houston Astros gamebecause he knew Down here.
Yeah, down here, oh Down here,he knew Joe Necro, oh yeah, or
Phil Phil Necro.
No, was it Phil?

Speaker 4 (25:34):
or Joe.
It was Joe, I don't.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
I think it might have been Phil, whoever was at the
Astros back then like 1980.
Yeah, and I had my glove,baseball glove.
So we went down towards thedugout and he threw the glove
down.
Phil Necro, I guess, signed itand then threw it to this other
dude, tall, skinny guy who wasthe pitcher.

(25:59):
I think he signed it, threw itback up and I'm trying to make
out the.
There's an N there and an O andsomething else.
I'm like I don't know who.
That is About five years later,I think I threw the glove out
because I was like baseballsucks threw it out.
It was nolan ryan.
I had the glove signed by philnecro and nolan ryan going back,

(26:24):
I think oh five, you're correct.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
That was the year year Brad Lidge got rocked by
Albert Pujols and he was neverthe same again after that.
Yes, I remember that.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
Oh man, I hadn't heard those names in forever.
Yeah, lights out.
Lidge man, he used to be likethat, yeah, he was.
Yeah, I remember that when,when two holes took him deep,
yeah, so, like Liz used to be,lights out like just couldn't

(26:54):
touch him and then after that,like it just he was.
He was horrible, Couldn't closethe game to save his life.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
You want to start talking to Charles Barkley,
talking about like penetrationsand stuff?
Whoa, hey, that's what he does.

Speaker 4 (27:05):
Charles Barkley always says some wild stuff, man
, he does man that's what hedoes.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Charles barkley always says some wild stuff, man
.
He does man, those guys arenuts.
I love it.
I love listening like you hearhim and shack go at it.
Oh, it's hysterical were you.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Uh, do you ever get a dome dog back in the day at the
astrodome?

Speaker 4 (27:18):
I don't know.
I remember going to theastrodome as a kid.
You don't remember getting adome dog?
Well, we probably did.
I remember orbit and gettingcotton candy and stuff are you
from houston?

Speaker 3 (27:28):
do you go watching the astros games?
Okay, we used to do that askids growing up we used to go to
enron field when it stillexisted it was cool for a hot
minute.

Speaker 4 (27:40):
I liked baseball when I was real little yeah, I've
been out of it for a while, butand then I was like all the way
through high school.
I was pretty big into it.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Found my first soldier fortune magazine at the
newsstand and then found likeinside inside Kung Fu or
something next to it and I waslike there goes my life.

Speaker 4 (27:59):
Throw out this Nolan Ryan glove.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
I don't need this baseball glove anymore.
That's probably worth.
I don't even want to know.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
I think I think growing up dad had a ball.
He was a big New York Yankeesfan, but he had a baseball I
mean my brother would play withand he got pissed because we
were throwing it around, likewhy he's like it's signed by
Mickey Mantle.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Oh, I would have beat you with an inch of your life.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
I think we lost it.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Oh, no, yeah, went down.

Speaker 4 (28:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Went down like, yeah, that's brutal.
Sorry, dad, that's brutal.
Yeah, the things that werealize now that we should have
should have hold on to.
But shit happens, it's allright, I just sold my comic book
collection.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
I've still got a bunch of baseball cards that me
and my brother collect, like weused to get the Beckett's and
all that stuff.

Speaker 4 (28:43):
Yeah, oh yeah, look at the pricing guides.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
And I want to see because we're not into that
anymore, but I want to see whatthe value of our stuff is.

Speaker 4 (28:53):
I've got a bunch.
They're in the attic.
They're probably all meltedtogether right now.
I gave some to the kids a whileback.
They're into Pokemon cards now,so I gave them a little some
baseball cards too, like my.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
Billy Wagner trumps your Charizard.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yes, uh, like my Billy Wagner, trump's your.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
Charizard yeah, so yeah, they.
They've been playing withbaseball cards and I guess
Pokemon cards now too.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
It's wild.
So what do you guys got comingup for the next year?

Speaker 4 (29:18):
Man, we got all kinds of stuff in the works that
you're talking to the eventscoordinators right here she's.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
she's the one that puts everything together BTO and
then BTO range.
What do you got?

Speaker 4 (29:30):
on this side.
So we're about to launch armorservices for ARs and stuff.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
I highly recommend that.
Josh helped me do a.
I said a pin and weld the gasblock.
Yeah, and I've never seenanybody.
And that's one of the things Ienjoyed about your get your the
Kratos gas block is how thatthat top witness mark allows you
to verify alignment.
But the amount of detail thathe went in in order to set,

(30:00):
screw and cross pin that thing,yeah.
So I highly recommend that.

Speaker 4 (30:04):
And we're getting another mill next Thursday.
We're we're getting that, we'readding that so up to.
But yeah, so we're goinganother mill next Thursday.
We're getting that, we'readding that as well too.
But yeah, so we're going to beoffering the ability to pin your
gas block to your barrel.
So that's dimpling it with twoset screws and driving a pin
through the gas block into thebarrel just to keep it steady.
So we're going to be offeringthat upper and lower assembly,

(30:27):
muscle device installation, allthat good stuff.
That way you know there's youmight like good components and
stuff, just don't have theproper tools or don't have, you
know, the time to put somethingtogether.
You can set it off.
We don't charge a whole lot.
Get it done professionally.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
Test fire and all that stuff and then send it back
and you buy the parts here too.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
So, and you buy the parts here too.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
So we're about to launch that that'll probably be
up before this gets released,but we're excited about that.
Yeah, I've never built an upper.
Um, I'll build all my ownlowers and back ends, but, like
I'll always just buy, yeah,complete upper, because usually
with like an ar, anything that'sgoing to go wrong with that gun
and have it not work properlyis in the upper.
Yeah, so I'm like ain't nobodygot time to work on that shit,

(31:14):
I'm just going to buy one.
How much does it cost?
Cool, here you go.
Thank you very much.
You've saved me hours ofheadaches, yeah, but I would
like to really get into thatwhole thing.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
So I would, too, like really get into, like getting
into that whole thing.
But so I would too, becauseI've never, I've never built an
ar, never, you know, really doneanything with that.
So I really, I really want toget in the lower.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
You're just you're building just a click and a
hinge.
Right with the lower, it takeslike 10 minutes to put that shit
together.
But the uppers where, like allof the science happens.
So I'm like I'll shoot them andI'll clean them.
Maybe clean them once in awhile, um, but I don't want to
build the uppers, not not rightnow.

Speaker 4 (31:55):
Yeah, Especially like if your barrel isn't dimpled
you're having to do that.
That's not really something youcan do.
I mean, anything's possiblewith a with a impact and a, beat
it to fit and paint it to match, uh.
But you know, it's best if youhave the specialized tools to be
able to do that.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
And then if you want to pin it, you know, yeah, you
again, that's probably notsomething you should do with a,
with a milwaukee drill andrew,yeah, or even to be honest with
you, even if you've got a, Imean just the runouts and drill
presses yeah, you're gonna havesome issues with that.
Yeah, I've got my.
Ask me how?

Speaker 1 (32:31):
I know I've got my guys from Delta level defense
that are like an hour away.
So I'm just like gun in bag,drive over.
Hey, can you guys do this, this, this and that?
Cool, I'll pick it up tomorrowand that's it, and I don't have

(32:53):
to worry about it because theyknow what they're doing.
I don't with that, so don'tmess with it.
I can't tell you how manypeople come in.
Well, you probably have a goodidea what's going on with your
gun.
I don't know.
It's not cycling.
How come?
I don't know Where'd you get it?
I built it.

Speaker 4 (33:02):
Let's start there.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Okay, well, that's probably what it is.
And then I'll tell everybodylike oh, did you build that?
Yeah, yeah, I built it myself.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, buy acomplete upper next time.

Speaker 4 (33:11):
I can't tell you how many times I've seen a gas block
misaligned.
Oh yeah, and that that'll causeit.
Your gun won't run Like it's ifit's a single shot.
It's like you only need aparachute to skydive.
No, you need a parachute toskydive twice.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
It's usually the gas block or, ironically, the buffer
spring.
I've seen like people gothrough the whole gun Like I
can't figure out what's going on.
I'm like, put a differentbuffer spring in and they'll put
a different buffer spring inand it'll work great.
It's one of the other end ofthings, I guess.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
That's kind of my issues with most inexpensive AR
manufacturers is they'll put acarbine buffer in there.
Oh yeah, or they won't evenstake the castle nut and my guys
just take 40 bucks.
Go put an H2 in that sucker,it'll save your heartache, it's
a whole $40 though man.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
an H2 in that sucker.
It'll save your heartache.
It's a whole $40 though man.
It's a lot of money.
That tungsten's expensive manit is.
You mean these anodized partsfrom Strike Industries won't
work.
Let's not get into that.
I know, I know it's funny.
There was a company around thetime of COVID that came out with

(34:30):
an AR.
I forget what they were called,I mean I don't want to drop the
name anyway, but it was a $600AR-15.
Okay, and it was technicallyconsidered an other because it
had a pistol brace on it andthey were kind of coming out
left and right in New York.
Was it one of those ones whereit was a smooth bore and there

(34:56):
was no rifling in it?
Oh, the franklin, yeah it wasthat?

Speaker 3 (34:57):
no, okay, it wasn't the franklin.
Yeah, it's almost.
Uh, the oh gosh, what, what was?

Speaker 1 (35:00):
it was like a nerf ball yeah, you can launch it
fins, yeah, back so that wasthat was, had a kid come out to
a class with one of those and itwould fire one round and it
wouldn't cycle and it was dry ashell, pull back the charging
hand there.
And it's like.
So we lubed the shit out of it,still wouldn't cycle.
And they were.

(35:21):
They were being sold at mylocal store for like 600 bucks
and I was like dude, where'd youget this?
And he gave me the name of thestore.
It was another store a coupleof towns over that.
Nobody likes this store.
And I was like how much did youpay for it?
Oh, 1750.
I was like go get your moneyback, kid, like 1750, you could

(35:47):
have gotten.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
But wild, it was wild .
There were so many like likethe whole covid guns, all the
turkish stuff, oh, yeah, hey, Igot stories on that.
If you want, I mean turkishshotguns were coming out um they
were everywhere, you'd besurprised.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
The stuff that people think is like 100% made, like
either European or whatnot.
That includes like Turkishbarrels and Turkish parts, 100%
yeah.
Yeah, y'all would be surprised.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
And I don't care.
If it's quality stuff, that'sgreat.
It's all about the key.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
So if we enact a 25% tariff on Turkish imports, y'all
will see.
If there's all of a sudden a25% increase in this pistol that
you think is American made,there's a reason for that.

(36:45):
Watch out for price changes.
So like there's a lot of stuffpeople don't realize.
But primers, yeah, but no, I'mjust coming from Europe, but not
at that time.
So that's kind of like how my,the company I work for, got
started is I got started beforethat.
But and we talk about this IfCOVID didn't exist, if COVID

(37:07):
didn't happen, we wouldn't existas a company.
Oh, really, because at the timethe American market, anything
that you could bring over,anything, they would buy it.
And so importers were just anyfactory overseas in Turkey or
whatnot, that could create anyproduct they would, they would

(37:28):
fill that, ship it, and thendistributors and dealers were
just, it did not matter, yeah.
And so, yeah, there was a lotof bad stuff that came over here
at that time.
There was a lot of.
But we also found out who werethe good people to work with and
then we kind of fine tune thatwe used to call it, covid ammo.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
There's a whole whole list of companies and making
ammunition that we never sawbefore, like if you go on target
sports, right, we play, so webuy.
That's where I use.
We buy a ton of ammo from themevery month and you'll have, you
know, your CCIs, your mag techs, you know federal Winchester,

(38:05):
and then there'll be a wholebunch of brands.
You're like these weren't herefive years ago.
Yeah, I was like yeah, becausethat's all like eastern european
brands, and some of them worked, some of them weren't good.
I had bought a case of onecompany's ammo and fired five,
five, maybe 500 rounds of it andevery other round was bang,

(38:31):
click, bang, click, justmisfires.
So you ended up functionclearing.
Yeah, I mean, we got a lot ofthat in.
But and then I was like Ithought, maybe all right, maybe
it's me.
When I talked to a buddy ofmine.
Oh yeah, same shit happenedwhen me.
So there was a whole list ofthem.
It was crazy, it was wild,crazy times.
We've definitely seen somecrazy stuff and I don't think

(38:56):
it's over.
I think we're going to see alot of weird stuff the next four
years.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
Who knows?
I just know.
I know within the industry ingeneral, we're back to like 2019
levels and then we just got tobe smart as an industry in
general about what we bring tomarket.
You know what dealers, whatthey stock, you know if, if,
like, if you haven't sold thatduring COVID, you're never going
to sell that thing.
And so just being smarter aboutwhat's on the shelf and you

(39:24):
know, be more cautious aboutinventory turns and things like
that and be more cautious aboutinventory turns and things like
that.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
I got an email today about price drop in ammo from an
ammunition distributor.
It was like 40, 45 ACP,something else.
Price drop.
Now Everybody's lowering pricesfrom that spike that we had,
it's a good time to buy ammo.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
Yeah, or people are sitting on inventory and they're
just trying to get their theirmoney back of whatever they can.

Speaker 4 (39:54):
I know during COVID a lot of people were buying
shipping containers full of ammoand stuff and then they're like
for a while they were stilltrying to move all that, like I
mean, I remember you know ninemillimeter being crazy expensive
, you know For 9mm being crazyexpensive $40 a box or something
for a Winchester white box1,000 rounds for $1,000 at a
store by us.

Speaker 3 (40:16):
Damn.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
There is a For like bullshit 9.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
There is a store and I'm not going to name names in
the Houston area that they didthat.
That they did that.
They got pallets of 9mm duringCOVID and they are still sitting
on.
They had their entire floor.
Last time I was in there waslike six months ago.
They had their entire floorjust lined with cases of 9mm and

(40:43):
what they have to sell it fornow.
I mean, they're going to losetheir ass.
Were they selling it for $1,000?
Oh gosh, it was like $500 or$600 for a case.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah, that was Six months ago, so that was a good
price during COVID.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah $600.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
That was a really good price.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
I used to order from Natchez.

Speaker 4 (41:02):
Yeah $599 for a case of Blazer they were trying to
sell six, seven hundred dollarsa case, wholesale is.
What there is like is how badit got.
So they were buying it,probably five or five hundred
dollars a case.
They were trying to sell it tous for 600 a case and then you,
or first there was like 900 acase what they're trying to sell
for.
Then they start coming down asthe bottom crap fell out of the

(41:23):
market.
They're.
They're like I'm in it for 500,I gotta sell it like they're
still trying to turn a profit.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
Well, the thing was is at the time is we had so many
brand-new gun owners theydidn't know what the market
naturally was.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
They didn't know what the price was, and so oh a
dollar around Nah.
Box of 50, 50 bucks.

Speaker 4 (41:39):
That's not that bad.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
Yeah, not a problem and same thing with guns.
Like could find you know itwould, whatever.
So, like, talking about ammo, Iwas.
It was the Friday when Trumpcame on talking about the 15
days, this to stop the spread.
Me and my buddy Michael weredriving to San Antonio for one

(42:04):
of Scott J Lindsay's classes andTrump's on you know he's on the
radio talking about this andI'm I'm on you know texts or
Facebook or whatever an ammostarting to fly off the shelf.
And so I I stocked fairly deepand I had, I had what I thought
was a good ammo and I orderedthe last few boxes of like some

(42:24):
soft point.
Uh, two, two, three and um.
I asked my buddy Mike, who's ahe's a dentist down in Pasadena
and he runs an FFL out of hisdental office.
And uh, I was like yeah man.
I was like I think I'm okay.
I was like I got maybe aboutlike seven, eight cases of of
nine at the house.
It's like I think I'm fine.
It's like how many of you gotMike?

(42:45):
He's like I.
It's like how many you got Mike?
He's like I got about 30.
I was like God dang.
And then I went and looked back.
I had ordered ammo literallythe February and the January
before COVID hit Dude, I wasgetting Fiocchi for $165 a case
shipped to my house.
Yeah, just to buy nine.
Those days are long, long gone.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
$154 for a case of like spear lawman.
Nine millimeter JeezHeartbreaking.

Speaker 4 (43:12):
So actually I was one of the guns that we bought.
I think there's a hundred.
There's a Brownie, a fiveshotgun from 1961.
The receipt we have originalreceipt, everything in the box.
Dude paid $144 for it in 1961,but it's guys, it's actually
kind of cool.
It's got the whole picture.
We have the whole receipt.
Then there's a little pamphletit's hunting safety tips,

(43:34):
presented by the Ford MotorCompany.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
Look at all those old Sears catalogs from the 40s and
50s.
It's like Colt 1911 automatic$75 shipped to your house.
Like wait what?
How did I miss this?
Yeah, $75 shipped to your house.
Like wait what?
How did I miss this?
Yeah, wasn't born yet, damn it.

Speaker 4 (43:55):
Had their own firearms line.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Yeah, yeah, they were big into.
They were big into the rifles.
You had a lot of Sears andRoebuck shotguns out there
Floating around, but times hasdefinitely Changed into a gun
yeah, pretty much.
Yeah, checks, checks pleasemail order but that's that's.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
that's the thing that I've kind of trying to been
telling everybody within withinthe industry is is you know, now
we're on, things have kind ofleveled out man, buy, buy your
magazines, buy your ammo.
Now's the time.
If you've ever wanted an AR-50.
Like, buy your ARs right now.
Don't wait for the nextcraziness to happen, something

(44:37):
to kick off, something to kickyou in the pants, to urge you to
go.
Like now is the good old days.
Yeah, don't wait for something.
And so like like stock deep.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
Well, that was.
That was the thing with COVID.
Like Rachel and I would buy acase of ammo a week of something
nine millimeter, 45, two, two,three, whatever it was, and
COVID hit and I was like, ohshit, cause.
I remember 2008, when Obama camein, that was that was like the
first real big crunch that wesaw and we were like oh shit.

(45:09):
Cause I remember 2008, whenObama came in.
That was that was like thefirst real big crunch that we
saw and we were like oh shit.
I was like I think I knowwhat's going to happen here.
So I would go from our houseout to Pittsburgh to our house
out there and I would stop atall the Dunham sports and
sportsman's warehouse along theway and I would pick up like a

(45:30):
case of this, a case of that,and like I'd come home with like
eight or nine cases ofsomething by the time I made my
way back home.
So when COVID kind of exploded,people were like oh man, I
don't have ammo, I don't haveammo, how are you taking classes
?
I'm like, bro, I got like ahundred thousand rounds of nine
millimeter and they're likewhere did you get all that?

(45:54):
And I'm like it's not where,it's when.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Yeah, yeah, we were we were sitting on.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
You know enough ammo to get us through COVID.
I have that ammo still unopened.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
All that shit's still in our ammo trailer, Like we
never even touched it.
Because we were still able toget.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
Right, see, I was lucky through COVID because the
store that I worked for we veryseldom like we had pallets of it
was PMC, but we had pallets ofthat stuff coming in so we
stayed stocked on ammo throughit and so every time we'd get a
pallet in I would you know buycases, buy as many cases they
would let me.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
So I still we we're just now running out of the ammo
that we had from covid, I thinkwe have like 5 000 rounds left,
so yeah, I remember my localstore, my buddy scotty um good
dude, but I called him like Iwent in, bought a case of spear
lawman for a buck 50, right.

(46:56):
Called him two weeks later.
I'm like hey, you got any moreof that lawman left?
He goes yeah, man, come on in,I got a whole stack of it here,
400 bucks a case.
And I was like did you say 400bucks a case?
He's like yeah man, 400 bucks acase.
I'm like what the fuck dude?
And he goes it's what I got topay for it, man.
He's like.
He's like do you not knowwhat's going on right now?

(47:17):
And I'm like, yeah, but Ireally didn't think ammo was as
valuable as toilet paper.
Like are people fighting eachother for ammo in the parking
lot like they are in a grocerystore?
People fighting each other forammo in the parking lot like
they are in a grocery store.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Now this is wild.
There were stories I heard of,you know, dealers putting in.
You know they might have had anammo order put in and 2020 like
COVID happened, but it reallyhadn't gotten that bad, like we
really didn't know the severityof it, and it would take six,
seven, eight months to ship.

(47:49):
And then, once it finallyshipped, they would invoice it
at the current price, which wasalmost two, three.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
X over.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
And I'm like man.
That is no if I put in my PO atthis date you need to honor
that and fulfill that, but itwas like I got to have it and so
, man, hearing those horrorstories, that's poor bastards,
yeah.
So stock up on ammo.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
We have a story.
Buy your stuff today.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
Yes, well, it's cheap .
So what's going on with therange?

Speaker 2 (48:25):
All right, let's see, we have classes coming up, we
have a cool class coming uptomorrow.

Speaker 4 (48:29):
Yeah, we have the coolest class ever coming up
tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
I can't remember what they're called, but I'm just
kidding, just kidding.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
Well, it's not Templar Defense, it's going to
be somewhere else.
Sorry man.
Whatever bro, it's show season.
Whatever bro, it's show season.
Whatever man, Sorry.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
The OFT Pistol Skill Builder tomorrow.
We've got let's see GreekPerformance AR Proficiency
coming up February 22nd.
We've got one of our manymaintenance classes that we do,
six-hour maintenance class,march 1st.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Does Andrew put those on?

Speaker 2 (49:03):
Yeah, so we've got something coming up that we just
recently started doing Andrewgot certified in this but it is
the LTC Holder Advanced CarryCourse.
So it's basically for firstresponders if they want to
actually carry while they're onduty, but it's also it goes
further than that.
It's actually kind of likeelite training.

(49:23):
It's kind of like that nextlevel training, but we started
doing that.
The next class is going to beMarch 7th through 9th and that
class is only $250.
So it's a three-day class.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Which one's Andrew.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
Andrew's the GM at Big Tech's BTO range.
Okay, yeah, I'm sure you've methim.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Older guy, yes, yes, he has the office behind yours,
I guess.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
Okay, yeah, good dude with ashley yes, a little bitey
thing which is a dog, not a,yes, female and then uh, we've
got the complete combatant, uhin our game of shooting coming
up in March 15th.
And I could keep going, but Ithink that's good enough.

(50:11):
The boss is like, can I?

Speaker 1 (50:14):
call you for a second .
I'm like not right now.
This is going on.

Speaker 3 (50:18):
Andrew's a wealth of knowledge.
I always enjoy talking with him, andrew is like an encyclopedia
of all things.

Speaker 4 (50:23):
That's the best way to describe it I love it.
That's the best way to describeit.
I love it.
That's cool.
I'll be like, hey, what do youknow about this?
He's like oh, this is like a 63.
And you know, in 64, theystopped using.
This spring, they switched over.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
It's wild.
I don't it's so wild for half a63.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
They did this and clearly yours made june to july
about that time, because it's alittle known fact.
That's back in the and, like youcan see by the slotted screw
here, you see how it's kind ofat a 45 degree bevel instead of
a 46.
That means it was.
It's like holy cow dude, likehe's forgotten more about guns
than I'll ever know, like he andit's all on demand too, like he

(51:01):
just knows like all theserandom like down to like the
year and the month yeah, theyear, like on when they made
this change on this, literallyon this screw for this pistol or
something.
It's.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
It's insane and he's just off the top of his head.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
That's good though.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Oh, it's amazing.
It's good.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
It's good to have knowledgeable people on staff.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
Just nerd out on that stuff.
Yeah yeah, we got a good crowdfor tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
Yeah, what do you have coming up?
I know you're.
I guess you're making the tripback.
Got a Connecticut class thisweekend.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
What's the next tour kickoff here Friday, hopefully
make it home in time forConnecticut Sunday night, and
then it all starts over again.
It all starts over again.
So we go from Connecticut,massachusetts, new Hampshire,
ish area, pennsylvania, new York, I think I'm relatively in the

(51:57):
Northeast until until like Apriland then I've got some.
Actually, now we're going totack on in March, ok, tack on in
March, okay, tacon in March,and then a bunch of stuff in
Virginia in the spring and inNew Hampshire, so kind of
bouncing back and forth.

(52:17):
I fear that I may have bookedto Northern Virginia on a
Saturday and then New Hampshireon a Sunday.
It's going to be a real pain inthe butt.
I didn't realize I did that.
But, um, but yeah, just youknow, going all over the place,
florida in january again nextyear, coming back out here.

(52:37):
Um, just came from a class onsunday at tim heron's range in
Stanley, new Mexico.
We did accuracy uh, accuracyand accountability pistol and
that had 14 people in it, whichwas weird, like I've never been
to New Mexico before.
But here we are with 14 peoplein the class, like weird things.

(53:02):
Weird things are happening.
So I'm not complaining, but Iwas just really surprised when I
originally booked it with Tim.
I was like look man coming backfrom shot just trying to pay
for the trip If I get fivepeople.
I said if we can get fivepeople I'm psyched.
And then we got 14 on the line.

(53:23):
I was like I'll take it.
I don't know if you know AndyMontoya Sounds familiar.
Him and Jeremy Gill.
They're from out there,Instructors from out there.
They were in the class, Gooddudes.
They do some classes out thereat some of the other ranges for
guys that need to qual and somepeople getting permits and stuff
.
They're pretty good dudes.

(53:44):
They were in the class so it'sgood to see those guys.
But uh, interesting thing thatwas happened, that happened in
the class.
There's a dude in the classnamed Tom wall from out there
and you know I've related toPaul wall.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
I knew you were going to say that even better, Um, as
as a lifelong martial artistEven better as a lifelong
martial artist.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
We started talking and he says, oh yeah, when I
signed up, did you recognize thename?
And I said Tom Wall?
No, I said, unless you'rerelated to Bob Wall, and he goes
, that was my brother.
And I was like no shit.
So Bob Wall was the dude thatwas in Enter the Dragon with

(54:29):
Bruce Lee White guy.
He had the scar on the side ofhis face.
I forget what his character was, but if you ever watch Enter
the Dragon, the big ceremonialfight scene, he was one of the
guys in that scene, verywell-known martial artist for
back in the 80s, and it was likeno shit, that was your brother.
He's like, yep, he goes.
You can't imagine what it waslike growing up with him.

(54:50):
It's like I don't want to know,but that was uh, that was a
cool thing.
But yeah, just looking atclasses for the year 2025, I've
got like three, four days off amonth.
So I'm not, you know, get itwhile you can get it.
Yeah, I always say like if theiron's in the fire and the

(55:13):
fire's hot, go after it.
But if you're like, you know,running yourself into the ground
, maybe take a couple days off.
So I've got next week.
I got a couple days off afterthat Connecticut class, so I'm
going to go home, hang with thedog, hang out with the wife,
throw snowballs at the dog inthe backyard and have a good
time.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
What about you?
So heck, we'd actually have youdown this weekend, but I had
got to head up to Fort Worth fora show, so I'm sorry about that
Always leaving me.
Anyway, my apologies.
I had a class in January andI've only got two in February.
I've got a rifle class Rifle 1,on February 22nd out in just
west of Katy, but usuallyJanuary, february pretty show

(55:56):
heavy for us.
March I've got a full schedule.
March 1st and 2nd, matt McGuireI'm hosting.

Speaker 4 (56:01):
Matt.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
Oh, awesome, yep, so I'm hosting Matt out.

Speaker 4 (56:04):
The way forward training right.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
Yep, yep.
So I'm hosting Matt out the wayforward training right?
Yep, yep.
It's his defensive performance,defensive pistol.
And I love that because there'slike a dichotomy in the
training community where you'vegot people who are like
defensive focused and if youshoot faster than point five
splits like you're going to goto jail.
And then you've got other guyslike Hunter Freeland, who are
like do you just burn it down,right?

(56:27):
And Matt, I think, does a goodjob of basically combining the
two and saying, hey, yeah, Iunderstand, this is a defensive
class, but that doesn't mean youhave to be like a horrible
shooter and slow, like we can bedefensive focused, but you can
also shoot fast and accurately.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Right.

Speaker 3 (56:46):
So I love that.
So yeah, the way forward is hiswebsite.
You can also sign up through mywebsite, templar Defense.
I was accepting bookingsbecause he hadn't set his up yet
.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Yeah, we did the same thing he's coming to yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
So we got him first and second and then I've got
classes all throughout march andapril.
I'm doing our intro to red dotclass, our concealed carry one,
which is an intro to holsterclass.
It's really designed for peoplethat have their ltc um but they
really want to take that nextstep and learn how to draw from
the holster um.
So we've got those.
And then I'm trying to make ita point this year to get more

(57:23):
training in for myself.
Uh, like, we've got Matt comingin March, hunters coming in in
November, and then I got to getout to range master for to try
to get my advanced certificationUm.
And so I I'm trying to make ita point this year to um balance
classes and then my myself,cause I did not do that last

(57:45):
year.
I did not get enough time outon the range for myself.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
But yeah, so good, you got to take care of yourself
.
You know I mean yeah, you do.

Speaker 3 (57:54):
But so, yeah, february, march is a busy April
and May We've got some stuff,and then summer, summer dies
down down here in East Texasbecause it hot, as as chris
greenfield like to call it.
I mean, it was like he.
It was that that one time hecame out to the range.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
They still talk about that it was the worst weather
you could ever have, and sothat's just been ingrained into
his yeah his psyche, it's likethis range equals hell so that's
why remember the class we had,the last class I had at you came
in october and you claimed itwas hot, he said he told me he's
like I was gonna go, but Ithought it would be too hot.

(58:34):
I'm like it's october.
That's why he didn't go so itwas.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
The weird thing was it doesn't really get.
So.
This was I think the class wasjune 10th and I think it was
John Valentine's class, I thinkanyway.
But it doesn't really startgetting hot, hot until like late
June, July.
Yeah, it was 100 degrees, like90 percent humidity.
Yeah not a cloud in the sky andthe wind was not blowing.

(59:02):
We had a lot of guys here showup, um, and we literally every
single tent that we had.
We just lined it up and we shotunder the tents.
All right, move it back to 10yards.
I moved the tents back, so itwas yeah, it w.
It was an anomaly, um, so it'snot going to be like that in the
spring.
But now to give him credit,that class was.

(59:24):
It was miserable and it wouldyeah, I have the opposite
problem.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
We have, like December, january, february,
march by us that we used to bookall year round, as long as the
outdoor range was open.
There we were Standing in up toour knees in snow holding
rifles shotguns, whatever, andabout five years ago I said we

(59:53):
ain't doing this anymore, Iain't doing this shit Too old
for this?
Too old for this shit.
Totally, totally, channeling myMurtaugh like get too old for
this shit.

Speaker 4 (01:00:03):
That was a pretty good impression.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
And then the next year, guess where I'm at old for
this shit um, that's prettygood impression.
And then the next year, guesswhere I'm at, back out on the
range standing in the snow,going too old for this shit um.
The last two years, however, Ipulled the plug on that shit.
Yeah, been spending, you knowtime either at indoor ranges or
or down here in the south.
You know spending my spendingmy month of January going from

(01:00:27):
Florida to Vegas and back andI'm just, I'm just done with it.
Like you won't catch me downhere in the summer and you won't
catch me in the snow and in thewinter, you got to figure out
where to be.

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
So the problem down.
Like our, our, our weather isbipolar and like January and
February, so like during shotright, I'm at shot and my kids
are playing in the damn snow.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
Right.
So you could have great weather, or it could be cold as hell.
You get to March, april and May.
You could have great weather,or it's raining its ass off.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
It's like pick your poison, so yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
Steve takes off, I think July, Takes the month of
July off and then takes, I think, January or December off.
And I'm like got to follow thatbusiness plan, Like you know,
work your ass off so that youcan take, like, the ugly month
of the year off and not have toworry about dealing with it.
But you know, trying to findindoor ranges, that's a tough

(01:01:29):
one, that is tough.

Speaker 4 (01:01:31):
We got an indoor range and we got your book, so
we're ahead of the game.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
We got to do a weekend, though we got to get a
weekend, saturday.
Sunday going on to reallymaximize potential.
But we got a good crowd fortomorrow.
I'm psyched for it.
Yeah, it should be pretty good.
Are you shooting tomorrow?

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
I don't know.
We have an event on Friday thatwe're they're setting up for
tomorrow.
So if things go smooth, yes.
If not, then I won't be able to.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
So just stand there with a rifle.
Things better go smooth.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Yes, thank you, that would be much appreciated.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
Well, guys, thank y'all for coming on, thanks for
having us Sit down and talkingwith us.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
Yeah, always good to see you and chat for a bit.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
So we love you guys and me and this dude are like
buddies, so you know I'd lovehanging out with him every
opportunity I get.

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
So, oh, even if I'm boring at shot show and I don't
like to go out and party, he'slike you, come to this party.
I'm like man.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
I'm going to sleep Everything I did.
I was there for like 30 minutes, 45 minutes max, and I was, I
was out.

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
We, we did not not to hijack.
We did go to Chinatown onenight I think it was Wednesday
night with a couple of our guysand we took an Uber out there
and I'm like Holy shit there itis right there.
And then you see Chinese food.
Chinese food restaurant massageparlor.
Chinese food massage parlor,massage parlor.
You can have a good time onthis street.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Don't Google new room massage, Just don't.
I know you're going to, youcan't resist it.
There's all kinds of massagesthat you can get on.
Is that the kind you're gettingtonight?
No, no totally.
Pg thing.
This is a therapeutic massage.
But but my I have a friend ofmine who goes to Vegas and tells
me about all the differentmassages that he gets.

(01:03:17):
So I'm like and I look at himlike, no, I'm good.

Speaker 4 (01:03:23):
Well, that note yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
Outstanding.
Thanks for watching.

Speaker 4 (01:03:27):
Well, you'd like subscribe all that good stuff.
I got to say it Go follow theseguys.
Yeah, we'll have links to thedescription.
You know what to do.
Yeah, we'll see you next time.
Absolutely See ya.