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This past weekend I drove out with the wife to the shoot and met up with our good friends Robert and CJ. I am really glad they started it at ten, and not eight. Albeit, we arrived ahead of schedule and spent a good 15 minutes trying to figure out which line to get in, there were only two, and there was not a single staff/official event person to be found AT ALL -it was more annoying than the wind. After running late (because of the thirty knot gusts) the skydiver's finally got to a decent altitude and kicked off the event by dropping out with a flag tethered below.
At this point a woman started singing something that sounded like the National Anthem, I know ragging on a singer is a mean thing to do, but she absolutely sucked. The line finally started to move at this point.
After getting around the gate we passed almost every venue. The lines were all over forty-five minutes long, so we went to the shortest one, the 3-Gun competition. While standing in line a Magpul ninja tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a windowless PMAG. My wife decided she wanted to go first and shoot the ~50yd targets with the AR15, followed by me on shotgun, and our buddy Robert on pistol. We flew through the course each of us nailing each target on the first shot. Fun, but not quick enough according to the judge.
At just about the time we finished shooting, it was time for a raffle. To be honest, I think LaRue could have done one large raffle instead of three throughout the day. Seriously, who wants to be standing in the sun, 30 knot winds, dust all up in everything, from ten to five?
They raffled off a couple items, nothing LaRue though, which was really annoying to me. After the raffle another helicopter showed up and shot at some stationary targets on the ground, missing all the tannerite. They tried a couple times, it was cool to see a guy in full camo shoot from a heli though </sarcasm>.
We got some lunch, but we were limited to two very small bbq wraps a piece after waiting for thirty minutes in line. The food was excellent, but the quantities were shit. We headed over to the blacked out cargo container and messed around with night vision. I would have better photos but I didn't have time to mess with the shutter speed, the optics were very clear.
While standing in line at the next event, Aimpoint's wireless weapon mounted camera, we listened in on another raffle. The event staff had no idea what was going on, some events were hot and firing during the raffle, others (ours), ceased fire the entire time the mic was on. Again a few items were raffled, but nothing LaRue was given away. Finally we got through the line, here is a pic of Kristen using the wireless camera system. It was terribly fun.
All in all, I want to advocate that it was not worth the 20-30 bucks per person. I had an excellent time hanging out with my friends and trying some new equipment, but LaRue left a ungenerous and very bad taste in my mouth. These types of events IMHO, are built for advertisement, not for making money, and I left feeling like LaRue made out on top. LaRue didn't hand out free tshirts or hats, instead they had a booth setup for swag that costs ridiculous prices! They had three raffles throughout the day, instead of one, and plenty of people left (including us) before the last and major one. We were tired of standing in line all day, all of us were sunburnt to hell, and covered in dirt head to toe. No one knew what was going on, the event staff was near non-existent. When LaRue calls me this week about the two +$100 mounts I signed up to receive 10% off of, I am strongly considering declining the purchase, that's how terribly executed this event was.
Magpul was the talk of every line we stood in. They handed out free pmag's like they were candy. Everyone who wanted one pretty much got one (some two) -and several times Magpul staff left the event to get even more. So great job to Magpul, I think they really stepped up to the plate and made quite a few people, including myself, smile.
You guys let me know if I am being too critical.
At this point a woman started singing something that sounded like the National Anthem, I know ragging on a singer is a mean thing to do, but she absolutely sucked. The line finally started to move at this point.
After getting around the gate we passed almost every venue. The lines were all over forty-five minutes long, so we went to the shortest one, the 3-Gun competition. While standing in line a Magpul ninja tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a windowless PMAG. My wife decided she wanted to go first and shoot the ~50yd targets with the AR15, followed by me on shotgun, and our buddy Robert on pistol. We flew through the course each of us nailing each target on the first shot. Fun, but not quick enough according to the judge.
At just about the time we finished shooting, it was time for a raffle. To be honest, I think LaRue could have done one large raffle instead of three throughout the day. Seriously, who wants to be standing in the sun, 30 knot winds, dust all up in everything, from ten to five?
They raffled off a couple items, nothing LaRue though, which was really annoying to me. After the raffle another helicopter showed up and shot at some stationary targets on the ground, missing all the tannerite. They tried a couple times, it was cool to see a guy in full camo shoot from a heli though </sarcasm>.
We got some lunch, but we were limited to two very small bbq wraps a piece after waiting for thirty minutes in line. The food was excellent, but the quantities were shit. We headed over to the blacked out cargo container and messed around with night vision. I would have better photos but I didn't have time to mess with the shutter speed, the optics were very clear.
While standing in line at the next event, Aimpoint's wireless weapon mounted camera, we listened in on another raffle. The event staff had no idea what was going on, some events were hot and firing during the raffle, others (ours), ceased fire the entire time the mic was on. Again a few items were raffled, but nothing LaRue was given away. Finally we got through the line, here is a pic of Kristen using the wireless camera system. It was terribly fun.
All in all, I want to advocate that it was not worth the 20-30 bucks per person. I had an excellent time hanging out with my friends and trying some new equipment, but LaRue left a ungenerous and very bad taste in my mouth. These types of events IMHO, are built for advertisement, not for making money, and I left feeling like LaRue made out on top. LaRue didn't hand out free tshirts or hats, instead they had a booth setup for swag that costs ridiculous prices! They had three raffles throughout the day, instead of one, and plenty of people left (including us) before the last and major one. We were tired of standing in line all day, all of us were sunburnt to hell, and covered in dirt head to toe. No one knew what was going on, the event staff was near non-existent. When LaRue calls me this week about the two +$100 mounts I signed up to receive 10% off of, I am strongly considering declining the purchase, that's how terribly executed this event was.
Magpul was the talk of every line we stood in. They handed out free pmag's like they were candy. Everyone who wanted one pretty much got one (some two) -and several times Magpul staff left the event to get even more. So great job to Magpul, I think they really stepped up to the plate and made quite a few people, including myself, smile.
You guys let me know if I am being too critical.
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