Must have, but won’t buy

“Oh, I need this,” I blurted out to my shooting pals as one of the exhibitors for the Shooter Technology Group fired off five fast shots, all scoring direct head shots on a cardboard cutout. It helped that the software was hooked up to a big speaker that roared with the shots.

“That’s pretty cool,” said John, who knows more about guns than anyone else. He handled one of the laser shooters made to look and feel like a Glock pistol and took a few shots. “Pow, pow, pow,” screamed the speaker as he easily found the target with the high-tech training system.

“I’ve been looking at those online. I want to get one, too,” said Tom.

“How much?” we all asked.

“With the show discount, about $350 including the gun,” said the exhibitor. “You have to use your own speaker.”

We all nodded enthusiastically, feeling it was a pretty good deal. John for sure was going to buy it, and I was leaning pretty heavily toward getting a system too.

We said we’d be back after we thought about it. Translation: We need time to talk ourselves out of it.

We make an annual pilgrimage to the show, which has been run by the NRA only in recent years. But this year, as in past years, our pockets were full of cash and credit, our minds frenzied about what we’d see. Tricked out trucks, glittery bass boats, outfitters pushing Maine bear and Canadian moose hunts.

The #GAOS, as organizers call and tweet it, is a mess of exhibitors debuting the gizmos hunters, anglers, and outdoor fanatics can’t resist over acres and acres of floor space. Dollars seem to slip out of pockets with ease at the show.

Just not ours.

As sure as we were to run across a pro-Trump booth, two, actually, I just knew we’d leave with most of our treasury unspent, save for those I exchanged for a few silly gadgets I’m a sucker for.

This year it was a crazy-looking deer-and-turkey call named the “Tree Thrasher” that sounded like bushes rustling. The other was “Z-Clear” that made eye glasses look like new.

We stopped at a jerky and Slim Jim maker for some samples. Three sticks for $5 seemed a bit steep, especially since I had brought a bunch from home but left them in my pickup.

One of the big-ticket items we eyed was a $400 infrared system that can be added to a regular rifle scope to find targets at night. We have been talking about hunting coyotes for a while and infrared is essential. It was another good deal, surely cheaper than the thousands a real night-sight system would cost. But John offered that he didn’t have his coyote caller anymore, so we saved $400 there.

Next, we huddled around a table selling suppressors from Freedom Armory Machine Works. All of us talked about how much better it would be to practice with silencers. Better yet, I could hunt in areas near homes without waking up the neighborhood.

But you have to apply for a permit to get one, and that takes months, so we moved on.

I spent half an hour with the Flycraft inflatable fishing boat guy. For just $3,500, I could spend evenings and weekends on the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers casting for bass. I guess he thought I was serious, because I’m still receiving emails offering the show price.

When we ran out of expensive, must-have gadgets that we felt we desperately needed but wouldn’t buy, we decided to leave the show, carrying mostly free brochures.

John said he wanted to go get the laser system. It took a while to find it, but we eventually saw the Laser Activated Shot Reporter system and John played with it again.

As he shot, Tom and I talked off to the side. Tom thought we could train just as easily, and cheaper, with BB guns. I mentioned that to John, and he added, “Yeah, I can just shoot targets in my backyard with real bullets.”

At that point, I realized we were going home, again, mostly empty handed.

I looked at John with a smirk and said, “Well, we just saved $350. Let’s go next door to Appalachian Brewing Company to celebrate.”

Paul Bedard is a senior columnist and author of Washington Secrets.