I also spent the weekend there. The show seemed very different this year. While previous posters comments are accurate, the crowd seemed way down in numbers, no problems navigating the aisles. By noon Sunday, many booths were packing up. I purchased the remains of one, optics, shelves, everything !! I was most disturbed by the lack of knowledge and sales skills of several vendors. More than once I walked in and out of booths without being approached by an attendee ( yes, I showered ). Often they never looked up from their table, one woman was knitting, a man was on his computer, in full view of attendees, trying to score a date for the night, The State of Idaho rep was seated in his stool, sound asleep !!!! Even many of the large companies had nice displays, but were staffed by outsource reps that were there to collect info, so sales guys could contact you after the show.....
OK, enough of the critique...
HIGH POINTS - I spent a good 20-30 minutes with a guy I did not expect to be there, Tommy Milner, CEO of Remington !! He is an absolutely wonderful, candid and down to earth individual.
Made the trip worthwhile on its own !!
Was in the S&W booth, looking at a very nice, brand new ( although no internal lock ) engraved revolver ( model 40 I believe ) that was on a podium in an open, glass topped presentation case. A man came up, asked if I would like to hold it. He introduced himself ( for the life of me I cannot remember his name - something like Huntington ?? ). He is some big gun journalist I guess, the gun was just being presented to him by S&W. Came home with lots of info and a load of new books also.
