Miscellaneous Whining From The 2007 SHOT Show

Editor’s Note: Dave is reporting live from the 2007 Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show in Orlando, Florida.

I’ve been wandering the aisles, dodging curses and punches. Jeff Foxworthy has his own line of jerky. You may be a redneck if you have enough money to come up with your own line of preserved strips of dead cattle.

A company that I will not name is not only selling John Wayne commemorative rifles, but John Wayne commemorative ammo, it being the Duke’s 100th birthday. I don’t get the John Wayne craze. He was a fine and much-underrated actor, but that’s all he was. Wayne never punched a head of cattle, or fought in a war.

If someone would like to put out commemorative guns for a real hero, they should do it for Audie L. Murphy. In case you haven’t heard of him, Murphy was a scrawny Texas kid who grew up dirt poor and became the most decorated American soldier of World War II. He won every medal we had to give, including the Medal of Honor. He went on to become a reasonably successful movie actor, but died in his 40s in an airplane crash. Murphy was what Wayne pretended to be, and we should remember him.

A Cold Steel Bargain
The SHOT Show abounds in cutlery manufacturers, and Colt Steel is always one of the most interesting. They make all sorts of lethal stuff, but also some very good hunting knives, and some very fine bargains. Shown here is one of the latter. It’s a knockoff of a very famous design called the Russell Canadian Belt Knife. There have been plenty of imitations of the RCBK, most of them worthless, but this one is terrific. It’s very light, razor sharp, comes with a good sheath, and costs only about $16, or so I’m told. It will not hold an edge forever, but then you resharpen it.

No need to thank me; it’s my job.