NRA brings historical 1911 pistols & engraved long guns to Nevada

Kayne Robinson, Executive Director of NRA General Operations, reviews the National Firearms Museum display of 1911 pistols with Senior Curator Phil Schreier at the SCI Convention.

With no Curator's Corner running tonight, we're taking the opportunity to let you know exactly what the National Firearms Museum has on display at the Safari Club International Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Under the watchful eye of Senior Curator Phil Schreier, you'll be able to catch a look at:

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A Smith & Wesson Model 2 revolver presented to General William Tecumseh Sherman by the officers of his personal staff in 1869. It now resides in the National Firearms Museum.

As Supica explains it, they started referring to the Model 2 as the Old Army revolver when Smith & Wesson started producing the Model 3. A new guy would ask if this was the right gun to ship and a factory veteran would say, “No, that’s the Old Army revolver.” Makes sense.

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As Lars told you yesterday, we had the honor of welcoming a group of wounded warriors from Project Enduring Pride as they visited NRA Headquarters here in Fairfax, Virginia. The group of nearly 40 included combat disabled veterans and their family and friends. After a quick lunch at the NRA Café, half of the group went to the range with Lars, and the second half came with me to the National Firearms Museum.

Senior Curator Doug Wicklund took the group on a tour of the entire National Firearms Museum, explaining the significance of certain firearms, particularly those relating to the military. The tour began in the Petersen Gallery and included a stop to look at the guns of Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. The group also looked at galleries containing the guns of the first and second World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and firearms used in modern warfare in the Middle East. But what were the group's favorite guns? Those contained in the Ruger Gallery's "Hollywood Guns" Exhibit.

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The National Rifle Association welcomes wounded warrior group

Project Enduring Pride creates recreational and educational opportunities to wounded service members. Founded at the Walter Reed Army Hospital back in 2006, Enduring Pride helps bridge the return of our wounded service men and women to the civilian world. One of those event took place today at the National Rifle Association.

With a group numbering around forty, including volunteers and family members, Enduring Pride arrived with plans to experience what some of us here at NRA Headquarters see every day. Among the stops were the NRA Cafe, the Headquarters Range and the National Firearms Museum.

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Outdoor Channel host helps say goodbye to SHOT Show

I was only a couple of months into my tenure at the NRA when Michael Bane arrived with cast and crew to film a few sequences of his Outdoor Channel show Shooting Gallery. Shooting inside the National Firearms Museum, it was a thrill to see everything come together right there in my new backyard.

Later that night, a contingency of NRA staff and Bane's crew met for dinner where we talked about the genesis of his show, his background in firearms and how the two groups might work together in the future.

Since that day, we've run into the Shooting Gallery crew at events like the Bianchi Cup, the NRA Annual Meetings and, of course, SHOT Show. Funny thing is, there was no sign of Bane or the others as I made my way through the Sands Expo Center halls this year ... until the last day that is. In fact, Bane and producer extraordinaire Marshal Halloway were the last people I saw before exiting the Expo.

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3-Gun Nation's Rumble on Range highlights top multi-gun competitors in Las Vegas, Nevada

Special to NRABlog by Philip Schreier, Senior Curator, National Firearms Museum
Clark County Shooting Range, Las Vegas, NV

One of the great things about any shooting match, or shooting industry events like the SHOT Show, are the side-matches or side events. The SHOT Show is no exception and Wednesday evening at the Clark County Shooting Range, 3 Gun Nation held their "Rumble on the Range" National Championship. The $50,000 Championship was the shoot-off between 8 nationally ranked 3 Gun champions and was quite the exciting event well attended by over 450 spectators. The venue, The Clark County Shooting Range is considered to be one of the newest and finest ranges ever built in the country and offers platforms for nearly every conceivable shooting event from Sporting Clays, Cowboy Action Shooting, Mounted Cowboy Shooting and numerous others. The facility also has numerous classrooms, a cafe and a pro shop. Lights provide a well lighted range so shooting can take place well after the sun sets in the Nevada mountains. The combination of artificial light, Nevada desert and concrete berms gave the event an aura of taking place on the moon.

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Norma USA opens ammo operations in America

I’ll be the first to admit that I know very little about about guns. If there’s a question about a particular firearm, either I’ll place a call to the boys over in the NRA National Firearms Museum or run over to the NRA Publications office down the hall. And Brinkman, yes, sometimes I’ll ask NRAblog’s Kerrin Brinkman too. But when it comes to ammunition, the first place I go for the info is NRA General Operations Executive Director Kayne Robinson.

Whether you’re target shooting, varmint hunting or heading out for an African safari, Kayne can tell you exactly what ammo you’re going to need. That’s why I went to him when we started talking about writing a post on Norma USA.

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We're back in Tulsa tonight for another episode of Curator's Corner. This evening's segment focuses on the Belgium Garrucha Pistol and a European Garden Gun brought to Tulsa by Shari Patterson. I'd like to tell you we have some great shots of those guns, but after having a quick look through the Museum inventory, I came up empty handed. So instead of showing you pictures of the guns, I'm just going to tell you a little about them.

The Belgian Garrucha, popular in South America, is a double barreled pistol. An inexpensive firearm, the Garruchas were usually small in caliber.

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Smith & Wesson Volcanic Pistols are among the most prized collectables in the firearms community

  A Smith & Wesson volcanic pistol on top & a New Haven Arms pistol on the bottom.

Based off the designs of American inventor Walter Hunt, the production of the volcanic pistol was, in the words of Supica, pivotal.

"It was the first use of self-contained ammunition (the rocket ball) instead of the standard ball, powder and primer, the first Smith and Wesson partnership, and the first use in lever action mechanism," said Supica. "Ultimately the venture failed and they sold the patents to a shirt manufacturer by the name of Oliver Winchester. As most people know, Winchester soon got out of the shirt business and made pretty good use of those patents."

For more of the story on Smith & Wesson's volcanic pistol, tune in tonight at 10:40 p.m. as Supica is joined by Don Kull of ArmsBid.com and Executive Producer John Popp at the Tulsa Arms Show on NRANews.com or Sirius/XM Patriot Satellite Radio.