NRA Natl Meeting 2013, HOUSTON

[jayinsat]

My wife and I were there from 2-430 pm. Was pretty crowded. Saw Sarge and Rick Santorum. Didn't see any txchlforum members. Anyone staying at the Omni Houston?

Congrats Wodathunkit.

[LikesShinyThings]

We were there from just after it opened until they kicked us out. Had a great time. Crowded, absolutely. But some really good deals were available, as well. We got a great Brunton scope for our crossbow.

Walked past the "protest" around 6:10, and there was one woman speaking at a podium, with about a dozen folks sitting behind her. I think one person had stopped to listen to her. We just kept walking.

Saw one other forum member. Hopefully we'll see more tomorrow.
LST

[Divided Attention]

OK, we are going tomorrow, I had to laugh. As I was reading this threads folks were staying just a few hours. I see "Shiny" saying there ALL day I love it! I think there will be a lot of shiny to hold my interest tomorrow! Looking forward to it. If you us with our TFC badges showing you will likely have to get my attention because with all that shiny I will likely have "divided attention".

[OldCannon]

My wife and I were there from 2-430 pm. Was pretty crowded. Saw Sarge and Rick Santorum. Didn't see any txchlforum members. Anyone staying at the Omni Houston?

Congrats Wodathunkit.

I'm here. Pm me if you want to say howdy. I'll check my forum messages as often as I can. Reception, unsurprisingly, is lousy, so be patient :)

[Crossfire]

We were there all day. Saw a few forum members and lots of pretty things.

Getting ready to go back today. See y'all there!

[Beiruty]

Finally I am in the convention. Getting oriented. If any member wants to meet pm me.

[jayinsat]

My wife and I were there from 2-430 pm. Was pretty crowded. Saw Sarge and Rick Santorum. Didn't see any txchlforum members. Anyone staying at the Omni Houston?

Congrats Wodathunkit.

I'm here. Pm me if you want to say howdy. I'll check my forum messages as often as I can. Reception, unsurprisingly, is lousy, so be patient :)

Sorry. I just saw this. I'm back in San Antonio now :(. Had a great time.

[Ron7624]

I spent the day there Saturday. There was an unbelievable turnout and it was really crowded and hard just walking and looking at all of the Exhibits. That huge hall was packed. I enjoyed actually being able to handle things that I have looked at In magazines for years but not been able to hold and evaluate. In spite of the crowds it was a very, very positive experience. And we were provided a nifty holder at registration that will be of great use at the PSC range for displaying our badges while on site.

[Divided Attention]

Hubby, youngest, her "sweety" and I were there from about 10AM until after 3PM. We had a ball! YES it was crowded! However, for the most part everyone was very pleasant. I can now go to the grocery store and load my groceries and support the 2A proudly as I have a jillion reusable shopping bags!

We made a nice donation to the Wall of Guns, and it was fun to watch the guys win that won; however it would have been more fun to win

Only saw one other forum member - or I should say she saw me! I was on a mission looking for a working ATM as the troops were hungry and I forgot to get cash in advance and wasn't sure if they took my card. I hear someone say "Ma'am are you a forum member?" I was a little confused at first and felt really "smart" when I finally clicked as to what she was asking. Nice to meet and chat with TexasGal for a bit - thanks for being an eagle eye - it is always fun to put a face with a name.

There was so much to see and touch and look at. I tried to watch for the TFC badges, and wondered if some of the twisted ones weren't ones that had turned around, I figured that there had to be more of us there. I even ran into a few students, LOL! The looks on their faces was pretty priceless, I swear they think I live at school.

Hope everyone else had a great time as well. Understand they will be back in 7 years. My legs may have recovered by then! And I have to admit one of my favorite things was the sign for AirForce "Protect your Nuts"

My favorite thing to "touch" was the UTS-15 a double mag tube 15 shot shotgun with the mag tubes on top, barrel in the middle, and light underneath. It is a "bull-pup" configuration if you will, so light and felt really manageable. Very intriguing! I also VERY much liked the takedown 45/70 lever action by Wild West Guns. A thing of beauty, and a trigger to lust over. SOOO many nifty things!!! My wish list grew exponentially!

[Skiprr]

Chatter has it that the 2013 Houston meeting broke all attendance records.

Watch for updates.

[jmra]

Chatter has it that the 2013 Houston meeting broke all attendance records.

Watch for updates.

That's awesome. Wish I could have made it.

[TexasCajun]

Wife, 9mo old, and I went yesterday. It was crowded, but we were able to navigate the stroller through the crowds with very little difficulty. Of course, we weren't in a hurry either. I went solo today. My wife has this weird idea about to much of a good thing being a bad thing....

Overall it was a wonderful experience. I'm not sure if I can get the Mrs to go for an out of town trip for one of these, but I'm sure we'll be at the next one in Houston!

[TexasGal]

Wow, My legs may need a while before I head out on any hikes! I spent most of each day there. As Divided Attention says, I spied her badge and enjoyed chatting with her, but she was the only one I was able to pick out of the crowds. I did run into Crossfire and June in the NRA Store. I am certain there were a lot more, but too crowded to see badges easily. As someone else said, I was tickled to be able to look at products directly that aren't seen at local gun shows. I was particularly interested in looking at handguns and holsters for women. Picking up so many handguns was the most fun you can have getting a repetitive stress injury

I truly appreciated talking to Justin at the Crossbreed Holsters booth about the slight modifications I would need on a holster to make it just right for me. He was so helpful and making the changes was no problem at all. He gets the top honors for most approachable and helpful to a lady.

I have to give a thumbs down to Kahr's booth design. It was the only one I saw that had one gigantic poster after another of scantily clad women in provocative pose with guns. It was way over the top. They should have followed the examples of all the other major manufacturer's who had classy professional looking areas.

It was such an overwhelming thing to see so many people, but I have to comment that they were unfailingly polite everywhere. Really nice to talk to several of them. It really is true that an armed society is a polite society.

[Charles L. Cotton]

Chatter has it that the 2013 Houston meeting broke all attendance records.

Watch for updates.

I'll get the final numbers at the Board meeting tomorrow. I'm pretty sure we broke numerous records, but I'll post the results tomorrow.

Chas.

[JustMe]

I worked a register in the NRA store all weekend(Thursday afternoon-Sunday night!) and it was FANTASTIC!! SO many people--and not a single incident that I saw or heard of----and imagine--all of those defective guns(not ONE of them jumped out of holsters or off shelvs & attacked anyone!) Looking forward to the next one--just wish it wasn't where it is going to be!