This is the peak of the Anti-NRA protest on Saturday Afternoon during the 2013 NRA Annual Meeting and Convention in Houston, Texas. The mainstream media were reporting 35-40 protestors, but when you looked closely, you could tell that there were several pro-rights people engaging the antis, most likely leading to an overinflation of the count.
As I was taking this picture, a gentleman walked up to us and said, “Where are the protesters? I was looking forward to a good argument!”
Heh.
On Sunday at 10am, there were no protestors to be found.
By the middle of the day on Sunday, less than a handful of protestors decided to show up. They looked pretty lost and dejected, and just paced around in small circles for a few hours.
And for some big picture perspective:
Here I am on Friday afternoon with Larry Houck at the FNH booth. (Many thanks to Larry and the other awesome Team FNH shooters for taking the time to give me an amazing detailed lesson on 3-gun shotgun reloading).
The important thing to note here is that There are more people in the background of this picture than there were anti-gun protestors at the NRA Convention.
The La Rue Tactical BBQ Stage at the Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun match was the absolute best stage of the match. Nobody ran out of ammo, incurred penalties, or walked away from this stage with their shotgun broken in half.
LaRue Tactical BBQ Stage Dillos
Mmmmm, free BBQ beef brisket wraps, sausage wraps, and beverages. It really was all that and a bag of (free) chips.
Last week at SHOT Show’s Media Day at the Range, I couldn’t help but notice that the MKA 1919 12 gauge semi-auto shotgun was receiving a great deal of attention. This unique, AR-15 style shotgun is made by Turkish company Akdal Arms, and was being showcased at the range by U.S. importer RAAC. Stock MKA 1919’s are currently available online for around $700-800.
In addition to the stock models, they also had a model customized for 3-gun competitions in the open division by Firebird Precision, which was incredibly popular for those that wanted to give one of the MKA’s a try. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to test it out, but I talked to a few people that shot the race gun version, and they were surprised by the lack of recoil and said it was very fun to shoot.
The MKA 1919 ships with two 5-round metal detachable magazines, 3 internal chokes, and almost all of the controls are identical to an AR. The barrel is 19.7 inches, and it weighs only 6 1/2 pounds when empty.
I expect the MKA 1919 shotgun to give the Saiga-12 shotgun a run for the money in 3-Gun competition. It’s two pounds lighter than the Saiga, would make transitioning from rifle to shotgun almost effortless, and aftermarket competition accessories are already available. The tricked-out race gun will set you back somewhere around $1800, and you can expect to wait approximately 8 weeks for delivery.
Check out 3-Gun champion Patrick Kelley’s video clip of the super tuned, competition model MKA 1919 in action at the 2012 SHOT Show Media Day at the Range:
