NRA Bowie Knife

[MaterDei]

I upgraded my NRA membership sometime late last year and low and behold, today I got a Bowie knife in the mail. I'd forgotten all about the offer and truth be told wouldn't have cared it they didn't send it. Nevertheless, it really is a decent looking knife. It will look nice hanging on the wall next to the Minie ball I got the last time I upgraded my membership.

Anybody else recently get the knife?

 

[Fburgtx]

I'm still waiting on mine (I upgraded about the same time you did). In the pictures, it looked like a Bear MGC knife with bone handles. Is this what it is??? Made in USA??????

 

[hso]

Who made it?

I've heard Bear made a batch for NRA promotions and Silver Stag made a batch as well.

Sadly, every knife I've gotten from the NRA has been Chinese crap. Not even the quality of the Rough Riders, but the junky ones. Let's hope these are something that is worthy of your support.

 

[Hawkflyer]

Still waiting on mine

 

[Hawkflyer]

Finally arrived

Well, the NRA promo knife finally did arrive about a week ago. The knife is made in China, but there is no information as to who specificaly made it. This is of course not designed as an actual field use knife and on close examination that fact shows. There is no sheath, but it will work just fine as a wall decoration and after all that is what it was designed for.

If I were advising a friend, I would not suggest upgrading an NRA membership just to get this knife. But if you plan on upgradeing anyway, and you have a vacant spot on your wall that you just can't find anything to fill, it is a nice item.

 

[edSky]

I got mine about a month or so ago, and didn't join to get the knife. It is "okay", definitely something to hang up in my reloading closet. It scares me to have it hanging up anywhere else in the house, it's so huge.

Guns don't scare me as much as huge knives. I guess I have Michael Myers from "Halloween" to thank for that!

 

[hso]

I'd recommend telling NRA to quit sending out wall hangers and save the money for the cause.

 

[Motega]

I just found my "life member" knife today after being stashed in a junk pile and thought this would be the place to +1 the above comments and add that I find it kind of ironic they would send out this POS Chinese knife considering the values of most of our membership.

Also a reminder to those that aren't life members already- consider it- around $400 I think which is less than many of us spend on ammo a year. If you aren't an NRA member at all and own firearms, shame on you.

 

[jahwarrior]

something about the NRA giving cheap Chinese made Bowies as a reward for giving them more money strikes me as being very, very wrong.

 

[dirtykid]

Last year i signed-up for a 3-year membership and they were promoting a free "range-bag" with 3-yr membership,, never did see it !! I ran across my "reciept" for membership and made a copy and mailed it back to them wondering if this was still available(as my range-bag is pathetic) we'll see what happens but not holding my breath ,,

 

[hso]

Let's try to stay focused on the embarrassing knives they, and other organizations send out.

A senior manager in my company, who should have known to ask me, ok'd a promo giveaway logoed knife. It turned out to be a Chines knockoff of a SAK. The quality was poor and it was even badly imprinted. Quite the piece of junk.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Case For America

Couple years back, Case (the XX people) did a combo package with Brooks & Dunn. It included a Case Peanut in red bone with a presentation tin and a CD of B&D music, the American-leaning kind.

Cost something like $30, which is less than the usual going rate for a Case Peanut alone.

I cannot comprehend that the NRA cannot somehow contract with an American knife maker to come up with a reasonably priced working knife to include with the membership swag.

I got a "red white and blue" (well, red-silvery-&-blue) Chinese piece with my renewal a couple years back. Very unremarkable. I never carry it. It's in the kitchen "random cutting tools" drawer for opening boxes and stuff.

Someone in marketing has seriously misjudged the shooting community.

Why do you join the NRA? Because you have gone out and bought something costing anywhere from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand bucks, and you have likely spent time researching it, asking for advice, and finally plunking down hard-earned cash for a hunting, home defense, or CCW gun. So with an average outlay of maybe $400-$500, the happy gun owner decides to protect his investment with an NRA membership.

If I'm staff at the NRA, and I'm the "swag selection" division of the marketing department, I'm going to expect that the membership will be somewhat more discriminating than the average bear, and I'm going to make a point of ensuring the quality of the swag will make the member happy to publicly carry or display the item, and tell his friends, "hey, if you had signed up with the NRA, you've have one of these, too."

And if I can't accomplish that with the marketing budget, then some other approach is used, because I'm not sending out junk to people who spend hundreds or thousands for their firearms.

Frankly, I don't care if the reality is that a majority of shooters are satisfied with shiny junk. I would never predicate my marketing strategies on an assumption like that. To do so would telegraph a contempt for the membership, and if I'm gonna do that, I'd rather close my doors.

But that's just me. I could be wrong.

 

[jahwarrior]

If I'm staff at the NRA, and I'm the "swag selection" division of the marketing department, I'm going to expect that the membership will be somewhat more discriminating than the average bear, and I'm going to make a point of ensuring the quality of the swag will make the member happy to publicly carry or display the item, and tell his friends, "hey, if you had signed up with the NRA, you've have one of these, too."

And if I can't accomplish that with the marketing budget, then some other approach is used, because I'm not sending out junk to people who spend hundreds or thousands for their firearms.

this would be sound logic, except that many gun owners, NRA members or not, aren't "knife" guys. i've seen plenty of guys at shops who wouldn't think twice about spending a month's pay to re-barrel their bolt action hunting rifle, but (mistakenly) believe that a $20 Winchester Bowie is just as good as a $200 Fallkniven.

i think the NRA knows this, because their core membership are sport shooters and hunters, not people who take self defense seriously enough to consider ALL options, including edged weapons.

i don't mean to slight hunters and sport shooters in this post, either, so don't jump all over me for it. in my own experience, most of the ones i've met wouldn't know an Emerson from a Taylor Cutlery, or a Benchmade from a Jaguar. i've often taken guys aside and given them advice on what knife to buy.

the point is, the NRA will give people junk, because they don't know any better. that's not cool.

 

[lemaymiami]

I haven't belonged to the NRA since I was a kid (back in the Stone Age), but I'll bet if they heard from members directly about this particular promotion they'd take the hint....