One of the first organizations that I want to note is “Kids & Clays”. http://www.kidsandclays.com/

This is a charitable foundation which holds sporting clay and other events to benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities.

There is a Ronald McDonald House at virtually every children’s hospital in the country and they provide valuable services to families of hospitalized children. As a pediatrician, I recognize the importance of this service, and encourage you to go to the website and see if there is a match near you – or perhaps you’d like to set one up yourself – contact them!

I also had a great visit with Black Hills Ammunition http://www.black-hills.com/  .

I’ll be writing some more about their products in the future and look forward to working with them.

I stopped by the Maxpedition booth  http://www.maxpedition.com/

– mostly because I am enjoying so much, the bag that I picked up at a gun show the other month. I wanted to see more of their line. 

Some of my pics were just too dark to show up ( you’d think the lighting at an event that is supposed to sell subdued color products would be a tad more illuminating). But this model caught my eye nonetheless. The mom and peds doc in me looked at the fold down flap and thought , “Hmmm, you could almost use that as a changing pad” LOL! I did actually suggest that to the rep – maybe even selling an extender to the pad to use it that way. Hey – product innovation comes from suggestions!

Another stop I made, was at 5.11 Tactical. They have some women-specific range clothes now, and I wanted to check it out. I liked the V-neck collared shirt – except I made the suggestion to add a velcro or snap tab to close it up more if desired, as “some” of us have a handy brass-catcher in the front that doesn’t like V-necks. My boobage and hot brass are unfortunately well-acquainted, so I speak from experience.

The 5.11 rep also showed me a nice softshell jacket that has a reach-through pocket to enable you to get to a concealed weapon. It’s called the Sierra Softshell. Some gals may also appreciate the Cirrus pant. With my build, this cut sits a little too low on the waist to adequately contain middle-age bulges, but for more slender younger gals, this might be just the ticket for a feminine fit.

As neat as all that stuff was, the highlight of my morning today was my stop at the Benelli booth. Not only because I could check out the new 828U over and under shotgun (a first for Benelli), but also because by pure serendipity, a fellow struck up a conversation, who happens to own and run Brown’s Hunting Ranch in South Dakota. 

If I understood the gentleman correctly, the Benelli folks used his business for product testing this shotgun. I mentioned my interest in learning wingshooting, and he said that they could run a women’s only hunt for a group, if I had a group that was interested. Holy, cow, am I interested! LOL. I can’t say that this would happen tomorrow, but I am completely excited by the prospect! This business sure does seem to run on personal contacts and random encounters, doesn’t it? Unbelievable.

Well, that’s enough for now. I’ve got still more visits and more photos to take, which I’ll be adding in future posts. I am having a blast!  Stay tuned.