By David E. Petzal

by David E. Petzal

The 2011 SHOT Show was mobbed, as it always is, and among the crowd were platoons of New York Times reporters looking for extended Glock magazines. But that’s not important now. Here are a couple of random notes having little or nothing to do with guns.

The Chris Reeve Knives booth is not only a good place to ogle terrific sharp instruments, but for good conversation. While loitering there I spoke with a trauma surgeon who had recently amputated the leg of a farm worker who had gotten tangled in some kind of sinister machine. The doc did not lop the limb in a hospital; he did it right there at the scene of the accident in order to save the man’s life, and he used an extremely sharp Lone Wolf folder, the same knife that won a Best of the Best award a number of years ago. He recommends it highly for ad hoc limb-lopping, and suggests that if you work on a farm you do not wear loose clothing.

There was no shortage of excellent booth babes, and as I lurched from aisle to aisle on the lower floor of the show where the ventilation is scanty, a particularly fine blond one slunk up to me and purred,

“Excuse me, sir, do you do CNC machining?”

I replied that I did not, but that if I got into a second career I would be glad to consider it for her benefit.

By Philip Bourjaily

About the Video: Every year at SHOT I spend some time looking for the gimmicks and off-the-wall products to make fun of. This year I found one, except guess what? It’s the real deal. If you want to call a moose, the Quaker Boy BullDozer is what you need. Bob Wozniak of Quaker Boy speaks fluent moose and he showed me how the call works.