Public Service Announcements...

• Helpful hints for being a customer of gunsmithing services, as well as tips for being a good provider of gunsmithing services as a small FFL. I've worked in four retail gun shops: Three had a mill and a lathe and at least one guy with a diploma from a real gunsmithing college in the back room, while the first was a pawn shop that had a part time gun plumber who swung through on Mondays and Thursdays to pick up and drop off work. Don't oversell your shop's abilities, and when it comes to turnaround times, underpromise and overdeliver. Weaponsman has a good post and it's worth reading and digesting in its entirety.


• At last Saturday's bowling pin match, there was one shooter who brought his teenage son and a sprinkling of guys in their late twenties or early thirties, but I'd say that I was comfortably in the bottom half of the age demographic and I'm dangerously close to having to throw away my first AARP mailer. Some of this is that it's not a cheap hobby and requires time, cash, and personal mobility, which are three things that are often not had at the same time in one's early twenties. I remember long stretches where I had plenty of free time, but no money, while my friends who were making the money had no free time. Still, like Kevin and Caleb are always pointing out, the Call of Duty generation is full of easy converts to the shooting sports. Keep recruiting.