Mesquite Gun Show - Checking Air Levels
Sat, Sept 6th, Mesquite, TX
Mesquite Rodeo and Convention Center
Checking air levels.
Typical of most Texas gun shows, the air was low.
Airguns just don’t get their due respect here in Texas. While almost everyone in Texas, or their friend, owns a firearm, ask them if they have a pellet or BB gun and watch the look you get. “Ya mean like a toy?” is a common response, almost as common as the, “Hmph and snicker”.
My wife and I went to the Mesquite Gun Show out of curiosity if airguns would be represented. I was looking, hopefully, for a local manufacturer like RAW and AirForce Airguns out of Fort Worth, TX, or someone from perhaps an airgun accessory leader like Buck-Rail out of Santa Fe, TX.
I was disappointed, but not surprised. As we walked around, I was thinking, “Air is the furthest from these people’s minds”, simultaneously watching a father show his son the proper way to carry his AR when at the show.
There was one notable vendor, Joseph with Aries Arms, down from Oklahoma City. Not the same
AriesArms.com the shotgun company, but a small local Big Bore Air Gun vendor. Mostly customized AEA airguns. Big Big bore, double barrel .72 CAL! Almost as insanely huge as the monster behemoth, customized
4 tank AEA Zeus Gen 2 Tactical, complete with his own can. Joseph claimed he had 7,500psi on it there at the show, but was adding a new design to get to 9,000psi. 1,400fps the claim. You would think at least something that big would draw the attention of at least one firearm enthusiast, but no. Good for us as we had Joseph to ourselves for the conversation. Photos and videos were not permitted ;-(, no social, no address, no website, Joseph maybe is a gun show traveling salesman, so hopefully we’ll run into him again at another show.
My wife had her eyes out for eye protection and general gun safety related booths. Also somewhat disappointing. While the show has very specific safety rules for how firearms needed to be prepped for the show and how attendees, if they were bringing their guns to the show, to sell, trade, or just show off, how they needed to be prepped to get in the door.
However, gun safety awareness in general, was almost absent. Two massive rooms, hundreds of vendors, thousands of arms, no-one offering safety glasses, hearing protection, nothing on general gun safety unless you had a specific chat with a vendor. One very notable call out goes to Baylor, Scott & White hospitals who had a booth? Ya, the ONE representing gun safety were the people who deal with the results when we ignore safety. Partnered with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, they have started a program called
Project CHILDSAFE. Better yet, other than gun vendors giving away candy (lots and lots of candy), Baylor, Scott & White was giving each person a $5 gun lock. My wife and I each got one. Big props to these folks.
We were also on the look out for glass. The hunt was for low mag, 1-10 at most, FFP because life should be easier, light weight, sub 16 ozs ideally with nice smooth zoom. There were scopes everywhere, and small 1-10x24 seemed popular for a small scope until you started to focus on their lack of FFP. Did I mention I also need something in a budget, ideally under $400.
We ran into our local ATN District Training Manager, Zachary Moore from their Grapevine, TX location. He tried to sell us until I told him ATN had gifted me an X-Sight 5 5-25 D/N LRF scope which I had been using almost exclusively, and overdue for a real review. I also use an ATN ThoR 4 LRF scope my wife purchased for me. We chatted for a bit and I explained to Zachary a few things I had run into in testing. If you own an ATN scope, and it freezes when using, be aware, it
IS a software bug and it
MAY be related to the double-recoil of an airgun. I have found this freezing problem is a systemic issue across their software and scopes. In both the 4 and 5 series, I’ve experienced the problem. Anyway, I digress, the point of going to the gun show wasn’t to harp at my local ATN rep about how I couldn’t use their built-in Ballistics Calculator because it won’t go below 10.0gr; unusable for most .177 ammo.
We also met with startup glass maker with SWAT OPTICS. He showed us a very clean SWAT Optics HSS DMR 308 1-10x FFP LPVO that was exactly what I was looking for, except one thing. Never been tested on an airgun. However, I think his prices reflected his need to recover some start up and R&D costs. At $650 for the “gun show price”, I just couldn’t do it. Knowing his scopes had never been tested on an airgun helped my decision. I really don’t want a $650 Show Special scope, ruined after it failed to handle my airgun’s double-recoil. I offered, if he wanted his scope tested with an airgun, I’d be glad to run a few hundred rounds through it and share the results. We’ll see if that goes anywhere ;-)
We did take some time to look for a Sig Sauer P322 LR my wife was interested in. My wife loves the .22 for target shooting and the new Sig P322LR is a nice, very light on the hand, addition. She’ll need to do some comparison shooting, P322 vs G44, before deciding.
Other than some awesome smoked meat and cheeses, that was pretty much it for air at the Mesquite Gun Show.
The problem in my opinion, not enough
“Texas” airgun awareness.
Has the time finally come for the “
Big Texas Air vs Fire Competition” ?
Categories are:
Indoor Range 10-100yd
Outdoor Range (300y)
FT
<2 lb Varmint Hunts
>300lb Big Bore Hunts
???
- See you on the dark.
Eric Stewart
Night Plinkers
FB: Night Plinkers:
Night Plinkers
@nightplinkers
nightplinkers@gmail.com
. I dialed it back to where I thought it was and packed it in. Today I finally got it all doped from 10-60Y and I was pleased that from 10 to 30 it was barely any holdovers. When I hit 40Y (zero) it was 2 inches low on paper
. Lol always start at your guns zero and work up or down from there!
