The Big Tex Ordnance Podcast
This is the official Big Tex Ordnance Podcast where we talk about gear, training, and all things related to firearms and firearm accessories. The crew at Big Tex Ordnance is uniquely positioned to be able to interact with individuals from all corners of the firearms industry. Join us!
The Big Tex Ordnance Podcast
Talking Shop: Training, Holster Kits, Turkish Imports, and COVID Ammo Woes
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.
Find out more about Big Tex Ordnance at bigtexordnance.com
There's always that funny story of like well, my friends, insert something, something. There. We had a force on force class years ago. We were doing just kind of like a hit the timer. I run towards you with a knife and you have to draw and fire. This guy goes well, my buddy's special forces and he said that in that situation you should lie down, fall back onto your back and draw. I was like cool, let's try. It Did not work. He fell onto his back trying to get his gun out. I ended up getting his gun off him and I think I shot him right in the junk.
Speaker 1:I I didn't even see what watchtower had yeah because we went over and they had that, the punching, punching bag. Somebody spent their time there, both, both days.
Speaker 3:How'd you do?
Speaker 1:8.45.
Speaker 3:My buddy Ray. Ray was the one running that. I've known Ray for like 10 years yeah.
Speaker 1:I hit one. He's like well, this dude knows how to punch.
Speaker 2:It's like he tried to get me to do it, I was like no yeah.
Speaker 1:I went like two days in a row to do it. It's like so much fun to hit something.
Speaker 4:I saw one booth, so therapeutic. Had a claw machine like we have at the range? Yes, had a claw machine. Yes, I was walking down one of the aisles. I was like, oh hey.
Speaker 1:They had a claw machine with, I think like an airsoft AR in the back. Oh, I was like damn, how would you even get that with a?
Speaker 3:claw. Was that a suppressor company that did that?
Speaker 4: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 and it was on the main floor and uh, I was walking by. I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. It's like jot that down. Yeah, Big text booth.
Speaker 3:Speaking of, we were right next to them and I walked over there. Oh, was it Garrett? I think is the yeah, hope I didn't get his name wrong. I'm sorry. I apologize, because we talk from time to time. I like what they're doing with their. Like they've upgraded their rifles. I really dig what they're doing with those?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're doing a lot of cool stuff over there, for sure. Yeah, they're definitely up in the game.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's just basic stuff, but uh like H2 buffer.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Um, I just wish they wouldn't use adjustable gas blocks. Oh yeah, I told him that I was like dude, I'm weird, but please don't put adjustables. He's like no, I, you gotta sell to your audience. But that was my only complaint. But I really like what they're doing with their stuff over there, especially the rifles.
Speaker 4:Have not seen them. Totally was totally was sidetracked 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 before on-site firearms training and we got craig from temp florida fence. I'm mike, we got tara, we're here. I guess this is like a shot show, hot wash episode. We can probably, we can probably talk about shot for an hour or 10. Shot show Crud scrub. Yeah, so it's. This is. I don't know when this is going to 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.
Speaker 4:I was four for four.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I am, I'm four for four of not getting sick and Tara and I were talking about how not to get sick. Uh, um, I took the red eye. Oh, uh, like nine 59 Saturday morning. Slept two hours out on the plane. Got home 59 Saturday morning, slept two hours out on the plane, got home, hugged my kids and then crashed on the couch for like the rest of the morning and I think it still took me an extra couple of days to catch back up on my sleep. But yeah, four for four not getting sick. That's impressive, that's a streak, that's a hell of a streak.
Speaker 3:Hey, law of averages. It's bound to happen sometime.
Speaker 2:This is the second year for me that I didn't get sick. Every other year I've gotten sick.
Speaker 1:I did not get it last year and I was like I drove last year for the first time and I was like, ah, it's because I drove and I wasn't in the airplane with people. And then this year I was like Sunday or no, Saturday night it kind of hit when I got to my buddy's house in New Mexico, I got out of the truck and I was like I took a deep breath in of the, like the desert air and I was like, oh shit, it's like the altitude, the dry air, just everything kind of all hit me at once and I was like I'm screwed. So today's like the last day of it, it's kind of going away. So see what tomorrow brings.
Speaker 4:Tomorrow's class, so I better be yeah, you better be up and running.
Speaker 1:I am going today after this to get a massage because last night no, not last night, night before last I got two leg cramps like an hour apart from each other in both legs. Just woke up in the middle of the night like just in extreme pain so I was like damn it. So you know, a little spa day today Later.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 4:I know you weren't tied to a booth, Craig. You work a booth when you're up there, huh.
Speaker 3:I do so my day job. I work for SDS arms. I cover Taylor, taylor, taylor state's forum and do some do some marketing and training on the 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 like Monday while a lot of the other guys are at the range. We'll get there. Fortunately, this is the second year.
Speaker 3:The first year when I did, I worked for them. The first two years we had to set up the booths. We were down in the dungeon, we had to set up the booth and that was miserable. Moving on up, we have people set that for us, but we still have to put out the guns, and so we do that on Monday. But I think Tuesday we had to be there at 730 for like a sales meeting. The show ends at 530 and you're.
Speaker 3:All you have time is to shut down, go back to your room, change clothes, go eat, and then by that time, like I'm two hours behind, I got to call the kids, check on them, and so it's, it's work for me, check on them, and so it's, it's worked for me. I wasn't until the last day where I actually had time to get away and um saw Ben and Rachel and saw my buddies at, uh, you know, gideon and some other. Um tried to go to sons but that's just way too far of a walk for when we were in Caesars, oh God, and I was like I'm not 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 enjoy the people. Yeah, but I was glad to get back.
Speaker 1:You know it's funny, Takes a lot out of you.
Speaker 2:It does.
Speaker 1:I had mentioned to Sean, because Sean and I were walking around doing videos for night fishing on Tuesday and Wednesday. Part of what I was doing there was as one of their sponsored shooters. I come kind of like the, the interview guy for everyone who's running our sites. So I said you know, we got to go back over to Caesars cause we missed something and I was like it's such a long walk and from where we were standing it would have taken us longer to walk to where Velocity Systems was than to walk where you were. But because you have to go outside and go over the bridge it just makes it seem like it's longer. Yeah, it's like half the distance. I'm like man, I don't want to walk all the way over there. Let's go see nelson at velocity systems. And I was like this is a longer walk than it would have been to get to caesars, like just the perception like if you're going basement to like, um, you know, the back, back side of the main floor that's.
Speaker 4: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:It's like a different ballroom. It's at least three or four different ballrooms. We're actually looking at trying to go back to the main floor, move back to the main floor next year. Even though the lighting and it seemed Caesars was when it temperature. It was a lot cooler, more comfortable, because we went to the main floor the last day when I was just walking around trying to see people. This got a little bit hot on the main floor but we just didn't see the amount of traffic.
Speaker 4:So I think we'll we're going to move back there, get a little bit more centralized, but caesars is definitely a more open environment, whereas like main floor shot show just always feels like yeah it always feels congested and crammed and being crushed in by the walls, but yeah, caesar's, like if it seems like the aisles are wider and the booths are more spread out, like I mean they're all obviously butted up against each other, but it just and it feels like I can breathe and have like more elbow room.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I'm in caesar's but yeah, when, like west coast people, when the temperature drops below 60, they panic and turn a thermostat up to like 95, it's wild, like I'm used to like, if it's 70 degrees outside, it's like 60 degrees inside, yeah, you know, whereas, like every time I go to shot show, if it's 50 degrees outside it is like 110 inside. Anywhere you go, like that heat is just cranked. It's wild Like I see dudes walking around with suits on. Like I saw Eric Gell house and Chuck and a couple other people like rolling around with like suit jackets and button up shirts and pants and I'm like that was me.
Speaker 1:Like I'm ready to pass out. Just looking at you guys with all those it's not so much that it's, it's.
Speaker 3:So I think tuesday I wore dress shoes, wednesday or no, yeah, I wore boot, my cowboy boots, 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 this game.
Speaker 2: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, I can't do boots all week, I have to have my tennis shoes Brutal brutal brutal, yeah, but now, like um, I was trying to think we're thinking of cool things.
Speaker 3:That's. The bad part is I can't go look at the floor on stuff. Fortunately we were pretty close to the primary optic, a primary arms optics booth, that new enclosed optic. They have the HTX. That looks pretty cool. I'm hoping I'd like to get my hands on that. Didn't get a chance to go look at the sun's booth with their new rifles. That would have been nice to do. But this is weird. Maybe this is just in the stage of life that I am. Um, one of the coolest things that I thought, and I didn't even get a chance to see it. But John Correa had posted something that Henry holsters put out. It was like a holster survival kit with, yeah, with all the different screws. I'm like that. That, to me, is like awesome like a repair kit.
Speaker 1:Yes, like an oh shit kit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like like if you're teaching a holster class and somebody's got a janky ass. Holster oh that's awesome like you can fix stuff. It's got like all the screws and washers it's almost like uh, y'all, I think uh, the white label armor used to have their field repair kit for AR-15s kind of the same thing for holsters yes, beautiful idea.
Speaker 1:Like that. I can't even tell you how many times someone's like hey, I lost the screw on their holster, and now it's like or the retention screw or whatever.
Speaker 3:I could probably put a kit together based off the stuff that I've had over the years, but that's a pretty ingenious thing. That's sad that's where I'm at now.
Speaker 1:I think that's cool. I won't mention it. But there was a, a holster company a couple of years ago that came out with a modular holster that you could put like inside the waistband. Outside the waistband, this piece comes off, this piece comes on. And we had a student buy it and he was like, oh, it's great, I can do all these different configurations with this holster, and 20 draws into the class. The whole thing just fell apart on the floor in front of him and I was like, yeah, that's why I don't like that company.
Speaker 3:Oh well, you know, I thought that but they have good advertising on amazon and facebook.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they do they have lots of good advertising, but you know who you don't see advertise a lot the holsters that stay together because they don't need it I'm a big fan of dark star gear tenor core, raven, concealment, black tactical, which is now owned by high speed gear, um 508 holsters another good, good holster company out of Massachusetts. Just plug in my pals here, you know. 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, I got this one instead, and it's like, good luck with it I, I get the same thing.
Speaker 3:on guns, we're like what, what gun should I get? I'm like you know, these are your like. Uh, for instance, I had um, uh for for females, right, let's just talk about that. So women are typically a little bit not necessarily statured, but hands are a little bit smaller. So, like PDPF, great option, the 365 series, solid option, love Glock 4843X, and so I'll recommend something like that, and then they'll come back and they're. You know, I went and got this. What do you think about it?
Speaker 4:And the first question I asked him.
Speaker 3:I was like have you purchased it yet? Yeah, great option. You're going to love it If they haven't, then I'll kind of give them my whole thing. But you know, if they've already purchased, they're just looking for validation. But that's frustrating.
Speaker 1:Well, the guy at the gun store said I should get this two-inch .357 Magnum revolver. I should get this two inch three 57 Magnum revolver, I just don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 2:Like with the holsters, a lot of people they'll they'll drop all this money on. You know certain things like their, their gun or something else, but they don't understand the value in actually investing in a good holster.
Speaker 1:So problem is if I were to ask somebody advice, like we all have the people that we go to to ask advice, like, why do you go to this person to ask them their advice? Like, think of somebody who you ask their advice a lot. Okay, why do you go to them?
Speaker 2:Cause I think they know what they're talking about.
Speaker 1:Okay. So when they give you their, your the advice that you ask them for, what do you do with that advice? Roll with it yeah, I usually roll with it, yeah imagine, if you're like nah, I'm gonna do something completely opposite, but a lot of people do that.
Speaker 2:I mean they really do it's.
Speaker 1:It's frustrating, they'll go to a gun store and they'll. There'll be a guy behind the counter who probably hasn't fired a pistol in 10 years not at bto, but not at bto, not here.
Speaker 2:Y'all are different, not here different.
Speaker 1:But I'm sure somewhere in this neighborhood, correct and I had.
Speaker 1:I had a student rachel, and I had a student go to a local gun store and she's like I want to buy 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 and you're going to have a hard time racking a slide. Blah, blah, blah and she goes no, that's the one I want. I fired it. My instructor said that's the one I should get, that's what I want, and they're like well, I don't want to sell it to you this and they go to give her like the tiniest, littlest, smallest version of like the 365 ruger lcp.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, hellcat, whatever the fuck it was, and she's like nope, and she thankfully left without buying it yeah she's like no, I'm not doing it. She's like I'm god, I want to buy what I want to buy. So she called us and was like what do I do?
Speaker 4:I said, well, here's another store that's always wild, like when somebody walks in and like this is what I. That's always wild, like when somebody walks in and they're like this is what I want to buy. I get that. If somebody walks in and they're like, hey, I want to buy this, make a recommendation once. If they're, if they're stuck on it, then just sell them what they want. I would always ask why.
Speaker 2:You know why did you pick that one?
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You Because you've got to ask those qualifying questions. Because if they say I've done all my research, I've shot it whatever I want this, then cool, let's go that route. But if they say, well, my best friend's husband recommended that and I'm like okay, then we have a whole other avenue that we can go in to maybe start steering them in the direction more, towards something that actually fits them.
Speaker 1: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 class years ago when we were working as op four at SIG Academy and this guy's like we were doing just kind of like a hit the timer. I run towards you with a knife and you have to draw and fire sim round, utm, whatever before I get to you. It's like 21 feet. You know the tool or theory thing. This guy goes well, my buddy's special forces or he was special forces and he said that in that situation you should lie down, fall back onto your back and draw. I was like, cool, let's try. It Did not work. He fell onto his back trying to get his gun out. I ended up getting his gun off him and I think I shot him right in the junk. But it was one of those things where it's like, well, my friend says yeah.
Speaker 1:It's like just because somebody my friend says it's like, just because somebody said it and just because somebody was something at some point, doesn't mean that it's legit.
Speaker 3:That's the thing I love about jujitsu, is that people go hey, I've got this thing. Let's see if this works. Like man, this will be awesome. If I can do this, let's go. Let's try it.
Speaker 3:Let's try it, let's pressure test 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'll get a lot of. You know, you recommend something to somebody who will not take your advice and like, hey, I've got this new. You know this, this new company that 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 this route, yeah, you still have options.
Speaker 1:You still have to get accessories for it. You still have to get support gear. Yep.
Speaker 3:Parts, like part parts is a big thing, you know. Know we're talking about like the, the survival kit before. I mean now I'm about acquiring parts like bolts, springs for glock, for ar, whatever, like replacement parts. I've got enough guns but I want to be able to prepare them. Or yeah, like you said, if you find a detent, do you have enough stuff to build?
Speaker 1:I mean cleaning the house the other day and there's a little a detent on the floor and I was like, well, shit, now I gotta build a rifle. Yeah, that's some shit. No, I bought a pistol two years ago three years ago, I think. It might have been from this company where you could um, you could design every single part of the pistol. You probably know who it is.
Speaker 1:It's like a 2011 format takes oh, yeah, yeah, and you could design the whole pistol, right down to the different checkers, on the checkering being a different color. It was pretty cool, um, and I made this awesome, awesome gun and nobody made a holster for it. You're a sex son of a bitch. It wouldn't fit in a safari land. It was designed for 2011. Because of the rail size and the trigger guard, I was like damn it, like I can't even do anything with this pistol, and a buddy of mine bought it and he ended up finding a holster for it. So I was like enjoy it. I've got 100 rounds through it. It cost me over two grand, said and done, so I got my money back, but still it was just like shit. I would really have liked it, but there's no support gear for it. That's the thing in general.
Speaker 3:I'm not a fan of anything proprietary anymore, like if I can't actively go out like a new rifle system is you know proprietary? Whatever bolt system gas I'm like is that thing could cure cancer? I still don't really. I want something I can find off the shelf parts Yep, so I still like Glock. I want something I can find off the shelf parts, yep, um, so I still like Glock. I can go to a local stop and Rob and get a damn recoil spring or a Glock 19 mag.
Speaker 1: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 filled with Glock parts. Yep, Pull out a single punch. Single like eighth inch punch. Fix that shit and be back on the line in four minutes, Ready to go. Yeah, we had a gun that I carry. I was running in a class one night and the mag catch spring broke. Just that metal rod.
Speaker 1: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 bag of like spare parts and I don't have a mag catch spring. I'm like how do I not have this? I had one, it was just buried. Yeah. So I open up my other bag and what do I have? I have an AR-15 trigger assembly. You know the? Yeah. So I'm looking at it, me and sean are looking at it sean's, like I'll be right back.
Speaker 1:Runs out, grabs a pair of wire cutters from the store, from the gun shop comes back in, he goes click, let me see the gun. Just input that and holy shit, it works. So it's like essentially uh, a beefed up magazine, catch spring now like but it fits, it works, it hasn't broken again. Did you ever take that out and put it like this?
Speaker 4:is like a year ago year and a half ago.
Speaker 1:It's still in there. It it's wild. So, obviously, I went the next day and bought like four of them, four of the uh, the actual part, but still it was like you can fix that shit with the weirdest things, right? Little duct tape and a hammer.
Speaker 3:Shameless plug Find your magazine. Catch brings a big text ordinancecom.
Speaker 4:Trigger uh hammer spring slash release spring.
Speaker 1:Just get yourself some wire cutters yeah.
Speaker 3:You need. You need to. We'll sell a kit. You need to have a description of your AR trigger springs. Yeah Well it's good to know.
Speaker 4:There you go, come here, you learned something.
Speaker 1:Uh, new t-shirt design just came in. I can't really show it on camera I like that, but I like the green too, od green's my favorite color.
Speaker 4:Well, hopefully the shirt's out by the time this drops. When do you think they'll be ready?
Speaker 1:oh, probably about a month. Okay, yeah, from now we'll probably drop this, probably a month maybe I need to do like a spring run of shirts and then another spring run of hoodies.
Speaker 4:So if you want to see the new special OFT shirt that you heard about here first on the Big Ticks Hornets podcast, we'll have it. They'll be available OFT.
Speaker 1:OFTLLCus Okay.
Speaker 4:I knew there was something after the OFT OFTLLCus I don't was a.
Speaker 1:I knew there was something after the OFT, oft LLC, dot U S. I don't know how we ended up with dot U S. Don't ask.
Speaker 4:That's probably better in Canadian.
Speaker 1:I think Canada C, a, c A.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's actually spelled C A N dash U H dash D U H Canada.
Speaker 4:Hey, hey.
Speaker 1:I ran into a guy from Canada at SHOT Show we were talking about.
Speaker 4:I actually ran into a Canadian dude too.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So this dude is a lawyer up there fighting for their Second Amendment, which they don't have. And you know, we're talking about free health care and all that stuff that they have and all these free programs and it's like have you ever bought anything in Canada? It's like this thing costs 10 bucks but you've got $7 in tax by the time it's all rung up and it's like, yeah, healthcare is free.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But everything else is overtaxed.
Speaker 4:It's like Well, the UK, I think, isn't like the VAT included in, like sales tax included in your in the price, like they don't even cause, like here you, it's like $10. You go ring it up, it's, you know, $10 and 8 cents or whatever. Yeah, or 80 cents, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Over there it's just like tax that tax province tax, fucking Canadian tax. Funny story about that, or not really related to that, but just in sales tax in general the Houston Astros a long time ago like 2005,. You would go to the pro shop there and all their prices would end in like $23 or whatever. They basically calculated it back when you added sales tax.
Speaker 3:So your total was round numbers.
Speaker 4:Even $10 or even $20. That's pretty smart. Yeah, I thought that was kind of interesting, but they took the time to back calculate all the taxes. That's wild Houston Astros circa 2004. When they were bad yeah, actually, no 2005, they went to the World Series Trying to think Okay, and then they got bad.
Speaker 1:I think when I was about 10 years old, my uncle took me to a Houston Astros game because 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:or Joe. It was Joe, I don't.
Speaker 1: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 the dugout and he threw the glove down. Phil Necro, I guess, signed it and then threw it to this other dude, tall, skinny guy who was the pitcher. I think he signed it, threw it back up and I'm trying to make out the. There's an N there and an O and something 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 baseball sucks threw it out. It was nolan ryan. I had the glove signed by phil necro and nolan ryan going back, I think oh five, you're correct.
Speaker 3:That was the year year Brad Lidge got rocked by Albert Pujols and he was never the same again after that. Yes, I remember that.
Speaker 4:Oh man, I hadn't heard those names in forever. Yeah, lights out. Lidge man, he used to be like that, 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 touch him and then after that, like it just he was. He was horrible, Couldn't close the game to save his life.
Speaker 3:You want to start talking to Charles Barkley, talking about like penetrations and stuff? Whoa, hey, that's what he does.
Speaker 4:Charles Barkley always says some wild stuff, man, he does man that's what he does.
Speaker 1:Charles barkley always says some wild stuff, man. He does man, those guys are nuts. I love it. I love listening like you hear him and shack go at it. Oh, it's hysterical were you.
Speaker 3:Uh, do you ever get a dome dog back in the day at the astrodome?
Speaker 4:I don't know. I remember going to the astrodome as a kid. You don't remember getting a dome dog? Well, we probably did. I remember orbit and getting cotton candy and stuff are you from houston?
Speaker 3:do you go watching the astros games? Okay, we used to do that as kids growing up we used to go to enron field when it still existed it was cool for a hot minute.
Speaker 4:I liked baseball when I was real little yeah, I've been out of it for a while, but and then I was like all the way through high school. I was pretty big into it.
Speaker 1:Found my first soldier fortune magazine at the newsstand and then found like inside inside Kung Fu or something next to it and I was like there goes my life.
Speaker 4:Throw out this Nolan Ryan glove.
Speaker 1:I don't need this baseball glove anymore. That's probably worth. I don't even want to know.
Speaker 3:I think I think growing up dad had a ball. He was a big New York Yankees fan, but he had a baseball I mean my brother would play with and he got pissed because we were throwing it around, like why he's like it's signed by Mickey Mantle.
Speaker 1:Oh, I would have beat you with an inch of your life.
Speaker 3:I think we lost it.
Speaker 2:Oh, no, yeah, went down.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Went down like, yeah, that's brutal. Sorry, dad, that's brutal. Yeah, the things that we realize now that we should have should have hold on to. But shit happens, it's all right, I just sold my comic book collection.
Speaker 3:I've still got a bunch of baseball cards that me and my brother collect, like we used to get the Beckett's and all that stuff.
Speaker 4:Yeah, oh yeah, look at the pricing guides.
Speaker 3:And I want to see because we're not into that anymore, but I want to see what the value of our stuff is.
Speaker 4:I've got a bunch. They're in the attic. They're probably all melted together right now. I gave some to the kids a while back. They're into Pokemon cards now, so I gave them a little some baseball cards too, like my.
Speaker 3:Billy Wagner trumps your Charizard.
Speaker 2:Yes, uh, like my Billy Wagner, trump's your.
Speaker 4:Charizard yeah, so yeah, they. They've been playing with baseball cards and I guess Pokemon cards now too.
Speaker 1:It's wild. So what do you guys got coming up for the next year?
Speaker 4:Man, we got all kinds of stuff in the works that you're talking to the events coordinators right here she's.
Speaker 1:she's the one that puts everything together BTO and then BTO range. What do you got?
Speaker 4:on this side. So we're about to launch armor services for ARs and stuff.
Speaker 3:I highly recommend that. Josh helped me do a. I said a pin and weld the gas block. Yeah, and I've never seen anybody. And that's one of the things I enjoyed about your get your the Kratos gas block is how that that top witness mark allows you to verify alignment. But the amount of detail that he went in in order to set, screw and cross pin that thing, yeah. So I highly recommend that.
Speaker 4:And we're getting another mill next Thursday. We're we're getting that, we're adding that so up to. But yeah, so we're going another mill next Thursday. We're getting that, we're adding that as well too. But yeah, so we're going to be offering the ability to pin your gas block to your barrel. So that's dimpling it with two set screws and driving a pin through the gas block into the barrel just to keep it steady. So we're going to be offering that upper and lower assembly, muscle device installation, all that good stuff. That way you know there's you might like good components and stuff, just don't have the proper tools or don't have, you know, the time to put something together. You can set it off. We don't charge a whole lot. Get it done professionally.
Speaker 1:Test fire and all that stuff and then send it back and you buy the parts here too.
Speaker 4:So, and you buy the parts here too.
Speaker 1: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 own lowers and back ends, but, like I'll always just buy, yeah, complete upper, because usually with like an ar, anything that's going to go wrong with that gun and have it not work properly is in the upper. Yeah, so I'm like ain't nobody got time to work on that shit, 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 of headaches, yeah, but I would like to really get into that whole thing.
Speaker 2:So I would, too, like really get into, like getting into that whole thing. But so I would too, because I've never, I've never built an ar, never, you know, really done anything with that. So I really, I really want to get in the lower.
Speaker 1:You're just you're building just a click and a hinge. Right with the lower, it takes like 10 minutes to put that shit together. But the uppers where, like all of the science happens. So I'm like I'll shoot them and I'll clean them. Maybe clean them once in a while, um, but I don't want to build the uppers, not not right now.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Especially like if your barrel isn't dimpled you're having to do that. That's not really something you can do. I mean, anything's possible with a with a impact and a, beat it to fit and paint it to match, uh. But you know, it's best if you have the specialized tools to be able to do that.
Speaker 3:And then if you want to pin it, you know, yeah, you again, that's probably not something you should do with a, with a milwaukee drill andrew, yeah, or even to be honest with you, even if you've got a, I mean just the runouts and drill presses yeah, you're gonna have some issues with that. Yeah, I've got my. Ask me how?
Speaker 1: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 tomorrow and that's it, and I don't have to worry about it because they know what they're doing. I don't with that, so don't mess with it. I can't tell you how many people come in. Well, you probably have a good idea 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:Let's start there.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, that's probably what it is. And then I'll tell everybody like oh, did you build that? Yeah, yeah, I built it myself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, buy a complete upper next time.
Speaker 4:I can't tell you how many times I've seen a gas block misaligned. Oh yeah, and that that'll cause it. Your gun won't run Like it's if it's a single shot. It's like you only need a parachute to skydive. No, you need a parachute to skydive twice. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's usually the gas block or, ironically, the buffer spring. I've seen like people go through the whole gun Like I can't figure out what's going on. I'm like, put a different buffer spring in and they'll put a different buffer spring in and it'll work great. It's one of the other end of things, I guess.
Speaker 3:That's kind of my issues with most inexpensive AR manufacturers is they'll put a carbine buffer in there. Oh yeah, or they won't even stake 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: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 man it is.
Speaker 1:You mean these anodized parts from Strike Industries won't work. Let's not get into that. I know, I know it's funny. There was a company around the time of COVID that came out with an AR. I forget what they were called, I mean I don't want to drop the name anyway, but it was a $600 AR-15. Okay, and it was technically considered an other because it had a pistol brace on it and they were kind of coming out left and right in New York. Was it one of those ones where it was a smooth bore and there was no rifling in it? Oh, the franklin, yeah it was that?
Speaker 3:no, okay, it wasn't the franklin. Yeah, it's almost. Uh, the oh gosh, what, what was?
Speaker 1:it was like a nerf ball yeah, you can launch it fins, yeah, back so that was that was, had a kid come out to a class with one of those and it would fire one round and it wouldn't cycle and it was dry as hell, 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. They were being sold at my local store for like 600 bucks and I was like dude, where'd you get this? And he gave me the name of the store. It was another store a couple of towns over that. Nobody likes this store. And I was like how much did you pay for it? Oh, 1750. I was like go get your money back, kid, like 1750, you could have gotten.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:But wild, it was wild. There were so many like like the whole covid guns, all the turkish stuff, oh, yeah, hey, I got stories on that. If you want, I mean turkish shotguns were coming out um they were everywhere, you'd be surprised.
Speaker 3:The stuff that people think is like 100% made, like either European or whatnot. That includes like Turkish barrels and Turkish parts, 100% yeah. Yeah, y'all would be surprised.
Speaker 1:And I don't care. If it's quality stuff, that's great. It's all about the key.
Speaker 3:So if we enact a 25% tariff on Turkish imports, y'all will see. If there's all of a sudden a 25% increase in this pistol that you think is American made, there's a reason for that. Watch out for price changes. So like there's a lot of stuff people don't realize. But primers, yeah, but no, I'm just 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 before that.
Speaker 3:But and we talk about this If COVID didn't exist, if COVID didn't happen, we wouldn't exist as a company. Oh, really, because at the time the American market, anything that you could bring over, anything, they would buy it. And so importers were just any factory overseas in Turkey or whatnot, that could create any product they would, they would fill that, ship it, and then distributors and dealers were just, it did not matter, yeah. And so, yeah, there was a lot of bad stuff that came over here at that time. There was a lot of. But we also found out who were the good people to work with and then we kind of fine tune that we used to call it, covid ammo.
Speaker 1:There's a whole whole list of companies and making ammunition that we never saw before, like if you go on target sports, right, we play, so we buy. That's where I use. We buy a ton of ammo from them every month and you'll have, you know, your CCIs, your mag techs, you know federal Winchester, and then there'll be a whole bunch of brands. You're like these weren't here five years ago. Yeah, I was like yeah, because that's all like eastern european brands, and some of them worked, some of them weren't good.
Speaker 1:I had bought a case of one company's ammo and fired five, five, maybe 500 rounds of it and every other round was bang, click, bang, click, just misfires. So you ended up function clearing. Yeah, I mean, we got a lot of that in. But and then I was like I thought, maybe all right, maybe it's me. When I talked to a buddy of mine. Oh yeah, same shit happened when me. So there was a whole list of them. It was crazy, it was wild, crazy times. We've definitely seen some crazy stuff and I don't think it's over. I think we're going to see a lot of weird stuff the next four years.
Speaker 3:Who knows? I just know. I know within the industry in general, we're back to like 2019 levels and then we just got to be smart as an industry in general about what we bring to market. You know what dealers, what they stock, you know if, if, like, if you haven't sold that during COVID, you're never going to sell that thing. And so just being smarter about what's on the shelf and you know, be more cautious about inventory turns and things like that and be more cautious about inventory turns and things like that.
Speaker 1: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 prices from that spike that we had, it's a good time to buy ammo.
Speaker 3:Yeah, or people are sitting on inventory and they're just trying to get their their money back of whatever they can.
Speaker 4:I know during COVID a lot of people were buying shipping containers full of ammo and stuff and then they're like for a while they were still trying to move all that, like I mean, I remember you know nine millimeter being crazy expensive, you know For 9mm being crazy expensive $40 a box or something for a Winchester white box 1,000 rounds for $1,000 at a store by us.
Speaker 3:Damn.
Speaker 1:There is a For like bullshit 9.
Speaker 3:There is a store and I'm not going to name names in the Houston area that they did that. That they did that. They got pallets of 9mm during COVID and they are still sitting on. They had their entire floor. Last time I was in there was like six months ago. They had their entire floor just lined with cases of 9mm and what they have to sell it for now. I mean, they're going to lose their ass. Were they selling it for $1,000? Oh gosh, it was like $500 or $600 for a case.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was Six months ago, so that was a good price during COVID.
Speaker 2:Yeah $600.
Speaker 4:That was a really good price.
Speaker 1:I used to order from Natchez.
Speaker 4:Yeah $599 for a case of Blazer they were trying to sell six, seven hundred dollars a case, wholesale is. What there is like is how bad it got. So they were buying it, probably five or five hundred dollars a case. They were trying to sell it to us for 600 a case and then you, or first there was like 900 a case what they're trying to sell for. Then they start coming down as the bottom crap fell out of the 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:Well, the thing was is at the time is we had so many brand-new gun owners they didn't know what the market naturally was.
Speaker 2:They didn't know what the price was, and so oh a dollar around Nah. Box of 50, 50 bucks.
Speaker 4:That's not that bad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, not a problem and same thing with guns. Like could find you know it would, whatever. So, like, talking about ammo, I was. It was the Friday when Trump came on talking about the 15 days, this to stop the spread. Me and my buddy Michael were driving to San Antonio for one of Scott J Lindsay's classes and Trump's on you know he's on the radio talking about this and I'm I'm on you know texts or Facebook or whatever an ammo starting to fly off the shelf. And so I I stocked fairly deep and I had, I had what I thought was a good ammo and I ordered the last few boxes of like some soft point. Uh, two, two, three and um.
Speaker 3:I asked my buddy Mike, who's a he's a dentist down in Pasadena and he runs an FFL out of his dental office. And uh, I was like yeah man. I was like I think I'm okay. I was like I got maybe about like seven, eight cases of of nine at the house. It's like I think I'm fine. It's like how many of you got Mike? 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 literally the February and the January before COVID hit Dude, I was getting Fiocchi for $165 a case shipped to my house. Yeah, just to buy nine. Those days are long, long gone.
Speaker 1:$154 for a case of like spear lawman. Nine millimeter Jeez Heartbreaking.
Speaker 4:So actually I was one of the guns that we bought. I think there's a hundred. There's a Brownie, a five shotgun from 1961. The receipt we have original receipt, 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 pamphlet it's hunting safety tips, presented by the Ford Motor Company.
Speaker 1: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:Had their own firearms line.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they were big into. They were big into the rifles. You had a lot of Sears and Roebuck shotguns out there Floating around, but times has definitely Changed into a gun yeah, pretty much. Yeah, checks, checks please mail order but that's that's.
Speaker 3:that's the thing that I've kind of trying to been telling everybody within within the industry is is you know, now we're on, things have kind of leveled 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 next craziness to happen, something to kick off, something to kick you 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:Well, that was. That was the thing with COVID. Like Rachel and I would buy a case of ammo a week of something nine millimeter, 45, two, two, three, whatever it was, and COVID hit and I was like, oh shit, cause.
Speaker 1:I remember 2008, when Obama came in, that was that was like the first real big crunch that we saw and we were like oh shit. Cause I remember 2008, when Obama came in. That was that was like the first real big crunch that we saw and we were like oh shit. I was like I think I know what's going to happen here. So I would go from our house out to Pittsburgh to our house out there and I would stop at all the Dunham sports and sportsman's warehouse along the way and I would pick up like a case of this, a case of that, and like I'd come home with like eight or nine cases of something 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 have ammo, how are you taking classes? I'm like, bro, I got like a hundred thousand rounds of nine millimeter and they're like where did you get all that? And I'm like it's not where, it's when.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we were we were sitting on.
Speaker 1:You know enough ammo to get us through COVID. I have that ammo still unopened.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All that shit's still in our ammo trailer, Like we never even touched it. Because we were still able to get.
Speaker 2:Right, see, I was lucky through COVID because the store that I worked for we very seldom like we had pallets of it was PMC, but we had pallets of that stuff coming in so we stayed stocked on ammo through it and so every time we'd get a pallet in I would you know buy cases, buy as many cases they would let me.
Speaker 1:So I still we we're just now running out of the ammo that we had from covid, I think we have like 5 000 rounds left, so yeah, I remember my local store, my buddy scotty um good dude, but I called him like I went in, bought a case of spear lawman for a buck 50, right. Called him two weeks later. I'm like hey, you got any more of 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 400 bucks a case? He's like yeah man, 400 bucks a case. I'm like what the fuck dude? And he goes it's what I got to pay for it, man. He's like. He's like do you not know what's going on right now? And I'm like, yeah, but I really didn't think ammo was as valuable as toilet paper. Like are people fighting each other for ammo in the parking lot like they are in a grocery store? People fighting each other for ammo in the parking lot like they are in a grocery store.
Speaker 3:Now this is wild. There were stories I heard of, you know, dealers putting in. You know they might have had an ammo order put in and 2020 like COVID happened, but it really hadn't gotten that bad, like we really didn't know the severity of it, and it would take six, seven, eight months to ship. And then, once it finally shipped, they would invoice it at the current price, which was almost two, three.
Speaker 1:X over.
Speaker 3:And I'm like man. That is no if I put in my PO at this date you need to honor that and fulfill that, but it was like I got to have it and so, man, hearing those horror stories, that's poor bastards, yeah. So stock up on ammo.
Speaker 4:We have a story. Buy your stuff today.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, it's cheap. So what's going on with the range?
Speaker 2:All right, let's see, we have classes coming up, we have a cool class coming up tomorrow.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we have the coolest class ever coming up tomorrow.
Speaker 2:I can't remember what they're called, but I'm just kidding, just kidding.
Speaker 1: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:The OFT Pistol Skill Builder tomorrow. We've got let's see Greek Performance AR Proficiency coming up February 22nd. We've got one of our many maintenance classes that we do, six-hour maintenance class, march 1st.
Speaker 3:Does Andrew put those on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we've got something coming up that we just recently started doing Andrew got certified in this but it is the LTC Holder Advanced Carry Course. So it's basically for first responders if they want to actually carry while they're on duty, but it's also it goes further than that. It's actually kind of like elite training. It's kind of like that next level training, but we started doing that. The next class is going to be March 7th through 9th and that class is only $250. So it's a three-day class.
Speaker 1:Which one's Andrew.
Speaker 2:Andrew's the GM at Big Tech's BTO range. Okay, yeah, I'm sure you've met him.
Speaker 1:Older guy, yes, yes, he has the office behind yours, I guess.
Speaker 2: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, uh in our game of shooting coming up in March 15th. And I could keep going, but I think that's good enough. The boss is like, can I?
Speaker 1:call you for a second. I'm like not right now. This is going on.
Speaker 3:Andrew's a wealth of knowledge. I always enjoy talking with him, andrew is like an encyclopedia of all things.
Speaker 4:That's the best way to describe it I love it. That's the best way to describe it. I love it. That's cool. I'll be like, hey, what do you know about this? He's like oh, this is like a 63. And you know, in 64, they stopped using. This spring, they switched over.
Speaker 2:It's wild. I don't it's so wild for half a 63.
Speaker 4:They did this and clearly yours made june to july about that time, because it's a little known fact.
Speaker 4:That's back in the and, like you can see by the slotted screw here, you see how it's kind of at a 45 degree bevel instead of a 46. That means it was. It's like holy cow dude, like he's forgotten more about guns than I'll ever know, like he and it's all on demand too, like he just knows like all these random like down to like the year and the month yeah, the year, like on when they made this change on this, literally on this screw for this pistol or something. It's.
Speaker 2:It's insane and he's just off the top of his head.
Speaker 1:That's good though.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's amazing. It's good.
Speaker 1:It's good to have knowledgeable people on staff.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Just nerd out on that stuff. Yeah yeah, we got a good crowd for tomorrow.
Speaker 4:Yeah, what do you have coming up? I know you're. I guess you're making the trip back. Got a Connecticut class this weekend.
Speaker 1:What's the next tour kickoff here Friday, hopefully make it home in time for Connecticut 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 Northeast until until like April and then I've got some. Actually, now we're going to tack on in March, ok, tack on in March, okay, tacon in March, and then a bunch of stuff in Virginia in the spring and in New Hampshire, so kind of bouncing back and forth. I fear that I may have booked to Northern Virginia on a Saturday and then New Hampshire on a Sunday. It's going to be a real pain in the butt. I didn't realize I did that. But, um, but yeah, just you know, going all over the place, florida in january again next year, coming back out here.
Speaker 1:Um, just came from a class on sunday at tim heron's range in Stanley, new Mexico. We did accuracy uh, accuracy and accountability pistol and that had 14 people in it, which was weird, like I've never been to New Mexico before. But here we are with 14 people in the class, like weird things. Weird things are happening. So I'm not complaining, but I was just really surprised when I originally booked it with Tim. I was like look man coming back from shot just trying to pay for the trip If I get five people. I said if we can get five people I'm psyched. And then we got 14 on the line. I was like I'll take it. I don't know if you know Andy Montoya Sounds familiar.
Speaker 1:Him and Jeremy Gill. They're from out there, Instructors from out there. They were in the class, Good dudes. They do some classes out there at some of the other ranges for guys that need to qual and some people getting permits and stuff. They're pretty good dudes. They were in the class so it's good to see those guys. But uh, interesting thing that was happened, that happened in the class. There's a dude in the class named Tom wall from out there and you know I've related to Paul wall.
Speaker 2:I knew you were going to say that even better, Um, as as a lifelong martial artist Even better as a lifelong martial artist.
Speaker 1:We started talking and he says, oh yeah, when I signed up, did you recognize the name? And I said Tom Wall? No, I said, unless you're related to Bob Wall, and he goes, that was my brother. And I was like no shit. So Bob Wall was the dude that was in Enter the Dragon with Bruce Lee White guy. He had the scar on the side of his face. I forget what his character was, but if you ever watch Enter the Dragon, the big ceremonial fight scene, he was one of the guys in that scene, very well-known martial artist for back in the 80s, and it was like no shit, that was your brother. He's like, yep, he goes. You can't imagine what it was like growing up with him. It's like I don't want to know, but that was uh, that was a cool thing.
Speaker 1:But yeah, just looking at classes for the year 2025, I've got like three, four days off a month. So I'm not, you know, get it while you can get it. Yeah, I always say like if the iron's in the fire and the 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 after that Connecticut class, so I'm going to go home, hang with the dog, hang out with the wife, throw snowballs at the dog in the backyard and have a good time.
Speaker 3:What about you? So heck, we'd actually have you down this weekend, but I had got to head up to Fort Worth for a show, so I'm sorry about that Always leaving me. Anyway, my apologies. I had a class in January and I've only got two in February. I've got a rifle class Rifle 1, on February 22nd out in just west of Katy, but usually January, february pretty show heavy for us. March I've got a full schedule. March 1st and 2nd, matt McGuire I'm hosting.
Speaker 4:Matt.
Speaker 3:Oh, awesome, yep, so I'm hosting Matt out.
Speaker 4:The way forward training right.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep. So I'm hosting Matt out the way forward training right? Yep, yep. It's his defensive performance, defensive pistol. And I love that because there's like a dichotomy in the training community where you've got people who are like defensive focused and if you shoot faster than point five splits like you're going to go to jail. And then you've got other guys like Hunter Freeland, who are like do you just burn it down, right? And Matt, I think, does a good job of basically combining the two and saying, hey, yeah, I understand, this is a defensive class, but that doesn't mean you have to be like a horrible shooter and slow, like we can be defensive focused, but you can also shoot fast and accurately.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:So I love that. So yeah, the way forward is his website. You can also sign up through my website, templar Defense. I was accepting bookings because he hadn't set his up yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did the same thing he's coming to yeah.
Speaker 3:So we got him first and second and then I've got classes all throughout march and april. I'm doing our intro to red dot class, our concealed carry one, which is an intro to holster class. It's really designed for people that have their ltc um but they really want to take that next step and learn how to draw from the holster um. So we've got those. And then I'm trying to make it a point this year to get more training in for myself. Uh, like, we've got Matt coming in March, hunters coming in in November, and then I got to get out to range master for to try to get my advanced certification Um. And so I I'm trying to make it a point this year to um balance classes and then my myself, cause I did not do that last year. I did not get enough time out on the range for myself.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so good, you got to take care of yourself. You know I mean yeah, you do.
Speaker 3: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 Texas because it hot, as as chris greenfield like to call it. I mean, it was like he. It was that that one time he came out to the range.
Speaker 1:They still talk about that it was the worst weather you could ever have, and so that's just been ingrained into his yeah his psyche, it's like this 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 it was hot, he said he told me he's like I was gonna go, but I thought it would be too hot. I'm like it's october. That's why he didn't go so it was.
Speaker 3:The weird thing was it doesn't really get. So. This was I think the class was june 10th and I think it was John Valentine's class, I think anyway. But it doesn't really start getting hot, hot until like late June, July. Yeah, it was 100 degrees, like 90 percent humidity.
Speaker 3:Yeah not a cloud in the sky and the wind was not blowing. We had a lot of guys here show up, um, and we literally every single tent that we had. We just lined it up and we shot under the tents. All right, move it back to 10 yards. I moved the tents back, so it was yeah, it w. It was an anomaly, um, so it's not going to be like that in the spring. But now to give him credit, that class was. It was miserable and it would yeah, I have the opposite problem.
Speaker 1:We have, like December, january, february, march by us that we used to book all year round, as long as the outdoor range was open. There we were Standing in up to our knees in snow holding rifles shotguns, whatever, and about five years ago I said we ain't doing this anymore, I ain't doing this shit Too old for this? Too old for this shit. Totally, totally, channeling my Murtaugh like get too old for this shit.
Speaker 4:That was a pretty good impression.
Speaker 1:And then the next year, guess where I'm at old for this shit um, that's pretty good impression. And then the next year, guess where I'm at, back out on the range standing in the snow, going too old for this shit um. The last two years, however, I pulled the plug on that shit. Yeah, been spending, you know time either at indoor ranges or or down here in the south. You know spending my spending my month of January going from Florida to Vegas and back and I'm just, I'm just done with it. Like you won't catch me down here in the summer and you won't catch me in the snow and in the winter, you got to figure out where to be.
Speaker 3:So the problem down. Like our, our, our weather is bipolar and like January and February, so like during shot right, I'm at shot and my kids are playing in the damn snow.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3: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:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's like pick your poison, so yeah.
Speaker 1: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 that business plan, Like you know, work your ass off so that you can take, like, the ugly month of the year off and not have to worry about dealing with it. But you know, trying to find indoor ranges, that's a tough one, that is tough.
Speaker 4:We got an indoor range and we got your book, so we're ahead of the game.
Speaker 1:We got to do a weekend, though we got to get a weekend, saturday. Sunday going on to really maximize potential. But we got a good crowd for tomorrow. I'm psyched for it. Yeah, it should be pretty good. Are you shooting tomorrow?
Speaker 2:I don't know. We have an event on Friday that we're they're setting up for tomorrow. So if things go smooth, yes. If not, then I won't be able to.
Speaker 1:So just stand there with a rifle. Things better go smooth.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you, that would be much appreciated.
Speaker 1:Well, guys, thank y'all for coming on, thanks for having us Sit down and talking with us.
Speaker 4:Yeah, always good to see you and chat for a bit.
Speaker 1:So we love you guys and me and this dude are like buddies, so you know I'd love hanging out with him every opportunity I get.
Speaker 3:So, oh, even if I'm boring at shot show and I don't like to go out and party, he's like you, come to this party. I'm like man.
Speaker 2: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:We, we did not not to hijack. We did go to Chinatown one night I think it was Wednesday night with a couple of our guys and we took an Uber out there and I'm like Holy shit there it is right there. And then you see Chinese food. Chinese food restaurant massage parlor. Chinese food massage parlor, massage parlor. You can have a good time on this street.
Speaker 1:Don't Google new room massage, Just don't. I know you're going to, you can't resist it. There's all kinds of massages that you can get on. Is that the kind you're getting tonight? No, no totally. Pg thing. This is a therapeutic massage. But but my I have a friend of mine who goes to Vegas and tells me about all the different massages that he gets. So I'm like and I look at him like, no, I'm good.
Speaker 4:Well, that note yeah.
Speaker 1:Outstanding. Thanks for watching.
Speaker 4:Well, you'd like subscribe all that good stuff. I got to say it Go follow these guys. Yeah, we'll have links to the description. You know what to do. Yeah, we'll see you next time. Absolutely See ya.