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This
space is a personal "blog" of sorts, which I'll
update fairly regularly -- hopefully on a monthly basis. The Hastings Company -- the pioneer and longtime industry leader in aftermarket shotgun barrels, as well as choke tubes and, in recent years, shotgun slugs -- is out of business as of Monday, Dec. 14. I talked with Hastings founder and CEO Bob Rott the previous Thursday and we'd made plans to discuss future work, but there was no hint of problems. According to insiders, the bank called in a major capital loan on that Monday and forced Hastings to close its door immediately. The inventory of barrels, ammunition and choke tubes was liquidated by Kull's Old Town Station in an on-line only auction. Sabot Technologies' Rich Knoster, who developed the Hastings slug, retains rights to the sabot molds and the slug patent and personally maintained the entire components and manufacturing process. Only the Hastings name will be auctioned. There is, I'm told, some early interest in securing the barrel import contract with Verney Caron, the French company that makes the Paradox rifled barrels for Hastings. After the dust clears, I'm confident that someone will pick up the slug design and the barrel import trade, since Hastings was the only major player in that arena since the mid-1980s. Badger Barrels is still making shotgun barrels, although on a very limited basis. Look for them on the new Badger website, www.badgerdefense.com.
Elsewhere, all the record gun sales that you heard about early this year in the wake of the Obama election were extremely focused and quite short-lived. Sales were very strong for tactical rifles and handguns and ammunition for both. Hunting and sporting firearms and ammunition, however, were very slow, although you probably never read that. For instance, DPMS, which makes AR-15s, was 70,000 units backordered at the SHOT Show in January and got to nearly 100,000 backordered shortly thereafter -- a very common situation with AR-15 manufacturers early in 2009. Hunting/sporting arms manufacturers, however, struggled mightily. While tactical sales soared, hunting/sporting arms makers were closing production lines and laying off workers since their guns in the pipeline weren't selling. By June the AR-15 manufacturers were doing the same. The huge backorders were the product of desperate distributors placing orders with all manufacturers, hoping to get any gun for customers. When their initial orders were finally filled, they canceled the others, bringing down the high ride. Hunting ammunition sales are way down across the board. I talked to several smaller manufacturers (the big guys aren't talking) and found them to be 35 to 45 percent down in sales this year.
Other industry news: Timney Triggers is introducing a fully adjustable aftermarket trigger for the Remington 870. It'll be called the "870 Trigger Fix" and will be sold as components (sear, three different springs, etc.), and it really works well. Preliminary plans call for a suggested retail of $89.95. It's adjustable from 2 to 4 pounds with no creep. And totally failsafe in terms of installation and holding engagement. If you have any knowledge of triggers at all, it can be installed in your 870 trigger in five minutes on your kitchen table. If you are not comfortable with that, Timney will also install them for you, for a fee in the neighborhood of $20 plus shipping. Those are figures off the top of the head of the Timney CEO, John Vehr, who I hunted with in December (he used one of my 870s to kill three West Virginia deer). The figures are certainly subject to change. Allen Timney, the California-based gunsmith who founded the company before selling to the Vehr family in 1981, retained an 870 design when he sold the company and marketed that trigger (entire system) through Hastings in the mid-1990s but sales were poor due to cost.
Connecticut Shotgun Mfg, which specializes in hand-built AH Fox, Winchester 21, and its own RBL and A-10 doubles, is offering a 20-gauge RBL side-by-side with rifled barrels for sabots. No information on the gun on the website but a flyer lists it as "starting" at $3,995.
I'm very intrigued by the very best by-pass of high-cost sabot slugs that I've run across -- www.SlugsRUs.com. Handloading slugs with easily-done roll crimps that really shoot. They offer a $49 kit with everything you need, including instructional DVD.
Took Winchester's new DualBond slug to Alberta this spring and killed two nice black bears, one 7-plus footer that was the biggest I ever killed. Three of us took five bears with the slug, all pass throughs but one-shot, very clean kills. On the range, I've found that the new slug shoots to virtually the same point of aim, with excellent accuracy, as the Remington Accu-Tip. Both are 1,850 fps and weigh in the 375-, 385-grain neighborhood.
I'll be making appearances at the Michigan (Lansing), Illinois (Bloomington), Ohio (Columbus), and Wisconsin (Madison) Deer & Turkey Expos this year. Check my schedule elsewhere on the website for specifics.
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