Texas Gun Fest

[TX69]

LaRue Range Day was truly an awesome day.

Range Day 2011 | LaRue Tactical

If it was so great why hasn't it been done again? or has it?

 

[AustinN4]

LaRue Range Day was truly an awesome day.

To each his own, but I found both LaRue range days to be awesomely crowded with very long lines at the shooting bays and vendor tent. The sausage sandwiches, howerver, were great, but that was about it.

Context: I admit I hate to be in crowds, which is why I belong to ARC and shoot on weekday mornings when hardly anyone is there.

 

[country_boy]

Larue hosted two of these back to back years . I was going to go this time but that's just too much money and I also don't like crowds, people irritate me. No offense. I'll be at the gun show though with my cousins


Hoping for 8 when they pull that gate..

 

[Reelthrill]

I went to the event on Sunday and had a blast. The crowds were minimal, the day was gorgeous, and very little wind in the morning. The wind picked up a bit in the afternoon. Here is a run down of what happened to the best of my recollection.

When you enter, there was the Barrett and Lapua stations setup on the right side of the 750/1000 yard range. Tracking Point had a setup on the left side of the same range. The line was about a 3 hour wait, so we bi-passed that and went towards the other displays. First one up was FNH. They had SCAR available to shoot. A 5 minute wait and we were given 5 rounds. Move over to the next table and shot a handgun, it was early in the day and I don't remember the model, but I liked both guns.

Next moved over to the SilencerCo Booth. They had suppressed Glocks, a silenced shotgun and various AR platforms in 556 and 300 Blackout to shoot. They mentioned how Sunday was significantly less crowded than Saturday. The Glocks were having trouble going into battery. People were having to push the slide all the way in. They admitted they have not cleaned the guns since they opened and they are all dirty and fouled up. Either way, the suppressors were very impressive. They said a 4 month wait from time of application. One of the other suppressor companies said a 60 day wait. I don't believe either of them, but who am I to judge. No need for hearing protection at their booth. Moved to the shotgun thinking who needs a suppressed shotgun? It sounded cool and I was amazed at how well it worked. Last table in the bay was a 556 and 300 blackout, 5 rounds in each. Again the product seemed to work great. In fact of the other suppressor products out there, I thought theirs was the quietest. That is not a scientific opinion, it was my perception.

Next up was Sig. Let me start out by saying I like Sig's so I will try not to be too biased here. First up, shot the 716 DMR. I loved it. The Geiselle Trigger was perfect. The gun pushed very little. The current model is on the way out as they made changes to lighten the incoming model by 2 pounds to meet military requirements. So they are looking to move remaining inventory to clear shelves. Went to the next station and shot the MPX. They loaded it up and said, "tear it up". It was freaking cool. So easy and fun to shoot. Moved to the other tables and fired P320, 226, and 229. All very good guns.

Next we moved to the Winchester booth. No line, no people. Stepped right up. Since nobody else was there, they loaded up 10 in the magazine. They were demonstrating their Train and Defend rounds. They had personal defense rounds mixed in randomly with training rounds. They asked you to discern a feeling difference between the rounds. I could not feel a difference, but I could hear a difference. The hearing protection filtered out some sound difference. My buddies and I finished our magazines, still nobody in line, so they asked us if we wanted to shoot again. Don't ask us twice. They had a M&P Pro Series and M&P (I didn't look at the model). Both shot very nice, but the Pro Series felt better. I don't know if it was the trigger or what, but it just felt better. Both felt excellent, and hey, I fired 10 free rounds through each. They also had some ballistic gel with a .40 round in it showing how the bullets expand after going through denim, cotton, and some other layers. Pretty cool to see.

Next up was Slide Fire. For those of you haven't seen this (I had not), holy cow. It converts your semiautomatic AR platform to feel like full auto. It uses the recoil of your gun to reset the trigger and gives you the feeling of shooting full auto. It takes some getting used to as you need to push the gun away from you in order for it to work. They said it takes several magazines to get used to it. What a kick, and they were selling it for $250 at the show. Crazy as it looked like some shot over the berm.

Next up was Beretta. We shot the PX4 Storm. I will say I did terrible with the gun. 1 for 5, and my buddy shot 5 for 5. I like Beretta's (the 92FS was the first gun I paid for), but the PX4 and I just couldn't get together. I left disappointed.

Oh well, on to the Walther booth. There we shot the PPQ. Wow, 5 for 5 with PPQ 4" vs. 1 for 5 with the Beretta. Guess which one I like better? In any event the PPQ was a very nice gun. It held nice, it fit nice, the sight picture was easy to acquire.

Next on the line was a new gun manufacturer Republic Forge. The guns shot very nice, and they are made one at a time 100% in the USA. Their base model starts at $2,700 and goes up from there. I was thinking if I was going to pay that much, I am going to be considering a Wilson Combat, Les Baer, any of the big manufacturers custom shops. I don't know that I could drop that much on an unknown. The gun shot great. It was heavy, but you knew you were holding a piece of steel, but $2,700 to get in the door?

Next up we ate lunch. Good food choices (BBQ, Grilled Cheese, Stuffed Hamburgers, and Mexican) were all available.

There were 5 more booth we visited. Suppressor and local AR manufacturers from the area. We stopped at every booth, and shot at every booth. All guns shot great (except the Glocks which were fouled due to no fault of their own) and were a blast. Shooting iron sights at 50 yards was fun, my first time doing that.

We all agreed we wanted to go back to the Sig booth and shoot again. It was about 2:30 and there were no lines anywhere. They were open until 5 and said they didn't want to ship ammo back. So we shot the 716 again, the MPX, and then the MPX yet again. The hell with plinking 22, plink 9mm with that thing.

I told my buddies I wanted to go shoot on the long range, and they agreed. It was about 3:00. We went to the Barrett line and were told the wait is about an hour. We waited. First up was the MRAD 338 Lapua at 1,000 yards. 2 rounds with a spotter. Wind coming from right to left, so he said hold right. I shot, and hit just left. He said correct another foot to the right, I did that, and it landed just to the right. 0 for 2 bummer. But, I shot a frigging MRAD in 338 Lapua at 1,000 yards, hell yeah! Next on the station was an MRAD in 308 at 750 yards. Scope was sighted in for windage, 2 for 2. I thought the .308 kicked harder than my deer rifle .308, but he said it was all in my head. Weird because it felt different. Next up was a .308 at 500 yards. The guy before me was shooting and consistently hitting left. The spotter adjusted the scope for windage and he hit his last one. I stepped up, and consistently shot right. As I finished my last shot, I asked her what she adjusted for the previous shooter, and she apologized and reset it. The next shooter up hit 3 for 3. She offered me to shoot again with the adjusted scope, and I went 3 for 3. Was the first shooter flinching and shooting left, did the wind change, who knows. They were using Leupold Mark 4 scopes on all of them.

At that point we would not be able to get to the tracking point gun, so we called it a day. Highlights for me 716 DMR, MPX, Walther PPQ, and getting the long range gun bug. I will attend next year, and try like hell to get my wife to attend.

 

[BG1960]

thanks for the report.

 

[benenglish]

Thanks for the info. My takeaway? Go on Sunday.

 

[Domineaux]

I was there Saturday and it was busier but still not too bad. Longest line I ever had to wait through was about 25 people.
Absolutely beautiful day for it and I had a lot of fun pulling triggers and checking out cool gear and guns.

Now I really need a few suppressors, including the 12g model, a Sig MPX and an SBR AR in 300 Blackout.