Oh, no! New TV Gun Show Season

[WhistlinDixie]

It's making firearms more mainstream. That's how it's good for the cause.

 

[Rembrandt]

Two shows that design & build mechanical solutions for problems that don't exist.

 

[303tom]

Top Shot is about all I can do !!!!!

 

[FourTeeFive]

It's making firearms more mainstream. That's how it's good for the cause.

I think this is an important point. Remember Harleys or tattoos before they became mainstream? All guys with tattoos riding Harleys were "dangerous bikers" in the minds of many people. Now they're very likely to be your accountant. The look and appearance of Harleys and guys in leather with/without tattoo have now been accepted by the general public. Sons of Guns, like the show or not, is helping get "Evil Black Rifles" accepted by the general public. Hopefully people will start looking at them as "oh, that is one of those guns that is fun to shoot" rather than the current "only the military should have them" mentality that exists for a lot of non gun owners.

Having guns become a bigger part of the general public's mindshare is a good thing for us gun owners. Associating firearms and "fun" shooting is a win for us.

 

[cbrgator]

Regardless of how good or bad the show is, I don't think we have too much to worry about with negative perceptions. It isn't like anti's watch the show anyway...

How many people who have no interest in cooking watch the food network? If you don't care about home improvement, you don't watch those DIY shows, etc. Antis aren't going to watch a show about guns.

Plus, with all the negative imagery seen in movies and TV shows, even if they did everything right on Sons of Guns it would make 0 difference.

 

[goon]

I watch Sons of Guns.
I'm not a gunsmith but I can still tell that some of their problems aren't really problems, some of the stuff they do isn't that big of a deal.
For instance, the search for 6.5 Arisaka ammo. When that episode came on and they started making a big deal of finding this ammo, I started searching online. I hit the "hard to find" places first, but ultimately found it on Midway in less than 5 minutes - and it's in stock!
What's so hard about that?

Still, they're on TV and they're showing people that shooting stuff isn't inherently evil. They're having fun with all kinds of guns, including machine guns. They do show a lot of respect for veterans and it definitely takes more skill than I've got right now to do a lot of what they do with guns. And there are some cool historical guns that make their way on to the show too. I'm mildly irritated with some of it, but overall I'm a supporter of the show.

 

[Plan2Live]

Ditto on the opinion that both are junk shows, double ditto on the change the channel/hit the big red button comment.

I watch very little TV and when I do it is either morning network news or one of the "cable channels". If I could choose my own cable package it would be limited to less than 12 channels.

I have seen some portions of Sons of Guns and I'm not sure I agree that they are a positive example of gun folks. Three ARs combined into one weapon, talk about making a liberals head explode.

 

[goon]

I have seen some portions of Sons of Guns and I'm not sure I agree that they are a positive example of gun folks. Three ARs combined into one weapon, talk about making a liberals head explode.

I'm more than less a liberal these days. My head did not explode. You should be more careful about assuming that politics = automatic stance on gun ownership. I've been shooting since I was four years old and have owned more AK's than many "What do you need that for? You can't hunt with it!" type conservatives have seen in their entire lives.

On the episode you describe, I thought it a pointless use of three perfectly good lower receivers, but I wasn't offended.
It certainly wasn't any "worse" than the belt-fed 1919, MG-42, or M2 HB that I saw being fired in that same episode.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Television numbs the mind. I saw one episode of Son o' a Gun and it was too dramatized. Give me a modest non-showman professional who narrates as he works. PISCO's Robert Dunlap would be a good candidate for it. He's the fellow who puts out all those American Gunsmith Institute CDs. He was my teacher at Lassen College.

 

[goon]

Gary - what you describe is education though, not entertainment. I agree that there's too much unnecessary drama added, but how big of a market would there be for a purely educational based gun TV show?
Lots of guys of a certain age bracket don't watch much TV to begin with and some don't even own a TV! Can't say I blame them because there is so much crap on TV anymore that it's usually not worth watching.
But if people are going to watch it, maybe it does "us" some good to see guns being built and used for recreation (which seems to be what a lot of the guns on this show are used for).

 

[pikid89]

id watch a show with Larry Potterfield working a gun from top to bottom...i love his videos on youtube

some of the stuff sons of guns does is too crazy for me (hack up a correct 1919 into a short barrel SAW type deal)(arrow shooting .410??? sounds more than a bit dangerous)(.410 gator kill stick, aka zip gun)
the claim old ideas/existing products as their own (master key shotgun, idea by Knights armament)(folding flashlight gun, already invented by Magpul)
as well as some projects that just make you say why? (converting a normal submachine gun into a blank only gun)(Rocket array for a "contractor")(double M16 for a naval gunner?) ( Saiga 308 with a match barrel and a trigger job with a scope thats high enough off the barrel to be measured in inches...all for 2,800 bucks???)

 

[susasusa]

does anyone know when the casting for season 5 will begin. I missed casting for season 4.

 

[jmresistance]

Boy..you ain't kiddin! I'm doing the same!

Same here! Don't tell my boss...

 

[jmresistance]

I watch it, but I sometimes they drive me crazy! I basically watch it to fill the need for gun related programming when the Military Channel is playing another episode of Great Planes or that show where the refurbish tanks...

I agree that "reality TV" and guns don't mix (see Top Shot). We need more real gun programming and less hype and drama. I had high hopes for Top Shot and Sons of Guns, but they both disappointed. On the other hand, they both have guns, so if I can get my wife to watch them instead of Toddlers and Tiaras or Cupcake Girls I will be a happy man.

 

[kozak6]

It's a little obnoxious how they push their SBS Saigas. It still bothers me that they tend not to discuss the legalities of such.

 

[Hawthorne2k]

I think this is an important point. Remember Harleys or tattoos before they became mainstream? All guys with tattoos riding Harleys were "dangerous bikers" in the minds of many people. Now they're very likely to be your accountant. The look and appearance of Harleys and guys in leather with/without tattoo have now been accepted by the general public. Sons of Guns, like the show or not, is helping get "Evil Black Rifles" accepted by the general public.

The Harley-Davidson craze started long before Biker Build-Off and the rest of the "biker" shows on Discovery Channel, but your point is still valid. If anything, Sons of Guns, Top Shot, 3 Gun Nation, et al, are an acknowledgement by the media that there is money to be made in TV shows about guns. Without eyeballs, there are no ads, and without ads, there are no shows. We can talk about how good/bad these shows are for gun rights, but those shows are there to make money first and foremost. And judging by how similar shows are popping up all over the place, they do.

 

[DukeNukem]

Anyone know what happened to Mrs. Hayden? There's never been mention of Stephanie's mother on the show.