Join us for an engaging discussion on the nuances of the gun-collecting world with Rick Wilson. From vintage Colts to Winchester rifles, discover the stories behind these historic firearms and their cultural significance. Get an inside look at the upcoming 59th Annual Colorado Gun Collector Show, and learn how this event brings together enthusiasts and collectors from all walks of life.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to Sportsman of Colorado, Colorado’s premier outdoor radio show heard every Saturday afternoon on KLZ 560 with insights on hunting, fishing, archery, guns, and ammo from Colorado’s top outfitters featuring the industry’s leading experts on how to enhance your experience in the great outdoors. Now, here’s your host, Scott Watley.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome back to Sportsman of Colorado. Just a quick reminder now, you miss our live show on Saturdays, which is 1 to 2. You can catch us twice on Sundays. That’s at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. And then also on the following Thursday at 9 a.m. You’ll get to hear Sportsman of Colorado. So hopefully one of those four times will work out for you. If you miss it all, of course, you can get our podcast anywhere you get yours and also at sportsmanofcolorado.com as well. Well, you’ve been hearing a lot of different folks from the Colorado Gun Collector Association over the last several months and, hey, all in promotion, a lot of, for their big upcoming show, their expo, May 17th and 18th. at the Island Grove Event Center. And this is the 59th annual Colorado Gun Collectors Show. And I have been up there a few times years back, but I’m planning on going this year. And we hope you’ll make your plans to go there as well. And glad to have Rick Wilson with us. Rick has been duly appointed the new president. Is it president, chairman, king of Colorado gun collectors? What’s the title?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, in the minutes for the meeting, we call it president, but that’s as far as it goes.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. Good deal. Well, Rick, let’s learn a little bit about you. What got you into the collecting side of things?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I was a city kid, and my uncles lived in Colorado, and they went hunting all these times, and I just thought that sounded like great fun. I was just so… uh, interested in hunting and things. I wanted to be like my uncles. I wanted to go back to Colorado because at the time I lived in Virginia.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
So I got started into hunting when we moved back to Colorado. Eventually I loved hunting. And of course, you know, with hunting, you run into guns. I just became fascinated with guns. There’s so many different types out there. Right. And so, uh, as, as along with hunting, uh, Collecting guns and having an interest in guns has just lasted my whole life, and it’s my major hobby.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow, that’s cool. And, you know, it is interesting that we’ve probably had a half a dozen different people in here from your organization, and each one of them seem to have their little favorite niche that they like to collect in. Does that make up a lot of your groups?
SPEAKER 05 :
Uh, I think that’s, that’s correct. Now, a lot of people will go around the room when we have a monthly meeting and people say, what do you collect? And they’ll say, well, I collect general, you know, a little of this, a little of that, but everybody does have a favorite. You know, like I like Winchester’s and Marlins, the old lever guns from 120 years ago, but I’ve still been fascinated with world war two military, world war one, the civil war. Um, Even brown buses from the Revolutionary War. It’s like a virus. You just, you know, you get addicted.
SPEAKER 03 :
And, you know, my wife, she’ll walk in and I’m watching some Western. She’s like, why do you watch those? And she’ll walk in. You’ve seen that. 50 times because i’ve seen it 50 times walking in here and i go i know but you know when you look back at a lot of the old western man there are some i don’t know what all the guns you probably can look at them and tell what they’re shooting with a lot of these guns but what were a lot of the cool guns so to speak with you know whether it be the handguns the pistols or you know and some of the rifles they use in the lever action
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, you’re right. I was very interested in the Westerns when I was a kid. That was the period when Westerns were a big deal. So a lot of Colt single-action .45s, the Winchesters 94 and the 92, of course. Those are the main ones. Once in a while, somebody would have a Sharps rifle, like Quigley down under, shot a Sharps.
SPEAKER 03 :
You remember the movie Tom Horn with Steve McQueen?
SPEAKER 05 :
I remember the name, and I remember Steve McQueen, but I can’t place that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Boy, there’s a rifle in that that’s so cool. I’ll have you look that up and report back because, man, that is a cool rifle he uses.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, there is one where it’s kind of sawed off, and he used it like a machine gun.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, yeah. Now, that was Wanted Dead or Alive. That was a series he was in. Okay. Yeah, that was really cool. Yeah, long top holster on his side.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. That was really neat. And the rifleman, he had a similar gun like that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
They could handle those, too. Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
But it’s interesting that a lot of those movies, if you look back now, you can tell that those were props. They’re, you know, a 94. They took the wooden forearm off so it would look like a Henry rifle or something. You know, so an advanced collector can say, oh, that’s, you know, they turned that into something else. Wow. But at the time, you know, it goes so fast, you only see it for a second. And it just fits in the movie and you don’t pay attention.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Have you ever been up to the Cody Firearm Museum?
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, many times. I belong to the Winchester Arms Collectors Association. Isn’t that unbelievable? It is.
SPEAKER 03 :
The curator that used to be there several years back, her name was Ashley Urbinski, and she invited us up one time and took us on a really neat tour of that place. And, man, she knew every gun that was in there. I mean, she was so sharp. And she took us through kind of the Hollywood section there of different guns, Jimmy Stewart, Winchester 73, different things like that. And it was really, really neat. So when you look at the evolvement of guns over the 100 years, what’s changed the most in them?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, a lot of things are still the same, like semi-automatic rifles, which there is a bill in there currently to ban.
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, man.
SPEAKER 05 :
Those have been around since 1900, even before 1900, 1898. They had magazine-fed semi-automatic guns, pistols mostly. So those are not that new, actually.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. And, boy, just talking about that real quick, there’s never been a time we’re under such attack for our guns than now.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, that’s really true. A lot of city people, they’re several generations away from farming or ranching. Or, you know, back 150 years ago, everybody had a .22 rifle in their kitchen for varmints or whatever. But that day is gone. And so a lot of people, they’re not around guns. They don’t understand guns. They’re afraid of guns. Right. So I think that’s kind of been part of the problem.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Absolutely. Rick Wilson is with us. Once again, he is the new president for the Colorado Gun Collector Association. Hope you will mark the dates now, May 17th and 18th. They just have so many guns there. How many exhibitors will probably be there for that show?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well… Ordinarily, we have about 750 tables of guns. So some exhibitors have more than one table. There will be 25 to 40 exhibitors that are just exhibiting their gun display. They’re not selling guns. They just have an educational display. They’re competing for prizes. Who’s got the best display? There’s several categories. There’s antique firearms. There’s modern firearms. military firearms, there’s something for everybody that would be interested in seeing those displays, I think.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. And you were kind of telling me before we came on air here a little bit about move-in and different things. So let’s kind of walk through your show there and kind of tell people what dates and how it all works.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, sure. Well, we have this show once a year. So it’s a big thing. And we probably have more displays than any show in the country. There’s a few large shows in the country. We have the most displays, so we’re kind of famous for that. So in a lot of ways, we’re the best display show in the country, which would mean the world because Europe doesn’t have anything like this. So anyway, people move in the afternoon of Thursday. I think that’s the 15th. Starting about 2 o’clock, the dealers will start to set up their tables and their displays. They can finish setting up Friday mornings. um and then once displayers are set up um all the displayers can go around and visit each other’s tables meet old friends you know talk about good times and look for bargains that’s what people love to do these dealers because it’s closed to the public on friday unless you buy one of our vip passes gotcha okay uh the vip pass is good for three days but people love to go in on fridays and find those bargains and then saturday morning it’s open to the public uh And then Sunday as well. And then we close a little bit early on Sunday because the dealers want to get on the road to Minnesota or wherever they live.
SPEAKER 03 :
Sure. And so to get a table there, any specific qualifications someone has to have or how do they go about getting a table?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, we bill our gun show as antique and collectible curio and relics. A curio and relic firearm is one that was made more than 50 years ago.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
So if it was made before 1975, it’s a curio and relic at this point. Next year, it’ll be anything before 1976. Okay. So anyway, that’s the draw to our shows. It’s about older guns. It’s not modern guns. If you’re looking to buy a modern weapon, then you need to go to one of the other gun shows. Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Man, I graduated high school in 1976, and you’re talking about it being antique almost. That’s not nice. Well, you don’t look like an antique, so how’s that? Okay. you know let’s talk about some of the when i say personalities in the colorado gun collector association like i say we’ve got to meet about a half a dozen of them doing these shows once a month but it’s it’s it’s quite the group and different you know people came from different backgrounds different things but they still have a love for collecting so kind of tell us a little bit about the group itself
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, well, you’re right. It’s very eclectic. We have people that worked at Safeway for 30 years. We have… We have lawyers. We have doctors. People from all walks of life. People in business. And you’re right. They can be very knowledgeable about one specific area of collecting. Like somebody might put a display on with a hundred Colt 1911 pistols. Or somebody might have Civil War guns. Every gun show. They’ll have a display of that. And they’re very knowledgeable. So that’s the neat thing about our show is people can come there, even if you’re not that interested in guns. If you like history, you can come in and talk to these people with these displays and learn so much and have a very entertaining afternoon.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Well, some people come to your show and maybe bring a gun or a knife or something like that, maybe from military, and try to just find out what in the world they have because they don’t know it was maybe something passed down to them.
SPEAKER 05 :
Sure, that’s exactly right. People come in, they want to know what their gun is, they want to know what it’s worth. Maybe it’s their great-grandfather’s gun, and they’ve had it for all these years in the closet, and they don’t know what to do with it, and they get it out and say, I don’t know anything about this. And so that’s a great place to go, because I guarantee you there’ll be somebody there at the show that knows about that gun, and I’ve been doing this for 50 years, and Even today, I’m learning about new guns I’ve never heard of.
SPEAKER 1 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 05 :
So anyway, if people want to do that, learn about their gun, learn how much it’s worth, even if people want to say, I want to get rid of this gun, I don’t know what to do with it, dealers there would love to talk you out of it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Yeah, absolutely. So Winchester and Marlin.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s what got me started.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s what got you started.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Winchesters, and then I found out about Marlins. And the neat thing about Marlins is they made lever actions at the same time, but they weren’t as publicized. And they have case-colored receivers, which is case coloring comes after you quench your gun and case harden the receiver. It has these fabulous colors on it, but it wears off quickly. That’s why Winchester got rid of the case-colored receivers. 1873s and then started to blue the guns like the 92 the 94 and 86 and uh the later guns but i love marlins for the beautiful case colors and the beautiful mechanisms they eject out the side versus out the top like the winchesters did right so they’re easier to mount a scope on for instance which one would you shoot if you were in a western a marlin or a winchester
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. Which one would you shoot?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes. I’d shoot them both.
SPEAKER 03 :
I love them both. I think sometimes, too, I’ve heard of people saying, oh, I’ve got this old gun. I’m going to take it somewhere and get it re-blued and get it fixed. You really don’t want to do that, do you, to older guns?
SPEAKER 05 :
We like to see all the original marks on the barrel. We want to see what the corners look like. We want to see what the blue looked like, even if it’s worn and stuff. We can say, look at that wear spot on the forearm from the wood. Somebody’s carried that over their saddle horn. For, you know, their whole life. Or tax in it. You know, maybe it was a Native American owned this gun and they put some tax in it and a decoration that was important to them. We love to see all that history. If you re-blue it, you erase all that history and it can’t tell you anything.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Once again, Rick Wilson is with us. He is the president of the Colorado Gun Collector Association. Hey, make your plans now to attend this great event. It’s May 17th and 18th. It’s the 59th annual Colorado Gun Collector Show. And, hey, this just happens once a year, so time to come out. Great family event. Hey, sometimes it’s hard to find, but great time for the family to come out. And just see a lot of cool guns. And, I mean, I would assume it’s something from every era that has anything to do with guns, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. Yeah. We have everything from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War. up through World War II, and even some people are displaying guns from Vietnam now, some of the veterans.
SPEAKER 03 :
And Tom Hellman, the former president, he brought in one day, he brought like seven or eight different type knives and things, which are cool. So we focus on Colorado gun collector, but there will be a lot of other things there too, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, absolutely. There’s all the other things that go with guns. We call them the accoutrements, reloading molds, or… pots and beadwork from native Americans. Uh, leather goods are a collectible item, you know, pistols, uh, they go on a holster or scabbards for a horse, uh, that you put on a horse that you can fit your Winchester in. Okay. Even those are collectible. Uh, several gun makers or, um, leather goods makers were right here in Colorado, um, down in Pueblo, uh, trinidad denver here with heiser um yes there’s all sorts of things besides just guns right and tom himself he loves swords yeah that’s what he collects and i look at a sword walk right past it right past it he says wow did you see this great sword it’s from you know 1872 or something
SPEAKER 03 :
I tell you, when you do see some of these things and you think, man, this is what guys battled with. I mean, what we’ve got now, pretty easy to carry an AR or something like that. But when you look at some of these guns and the weight of them and loading, like a muzzleloader type gun, you know, where you’re shooting one at a time and bad guys coming at you. Man, that was some serious war fight going on right there, wasn’t there?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, it was. And the modern guns, I own modern guns, but they’re just tools to me. They’re not fascinating or interesting like the old-time guns because they all have a story to tell, especially the military guns. They all had inspector marks and things, and when they were refurnished at the arsenal, you know, to— help them further their career, or if the military is going to get rid of them. They have all these markings from that. They tell this whole story. Wow.
SPEAKER 03 :
And that’s how you can tell a lot about the military, especially there’s going to be special markings on many of those, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
Exactly. I have a trapdoor Springfield, and it had a number 74 painted on the stock. So I asked one of the experts in that field, and I said, what does this mean? He says, oh, that’s such a cool gun. That gun belonged to the New York 75th, 74th Volunteers, and they went to San Juan Hill. They were in the unit there right next to Taddy Roosevelt. And I had no idea.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 05 :
But I think that’s such a cool story. Yeah, no doubt.
SPEAKER 03 :
No doubt. One thing when Tom and I met and started talking about doing some shows for you guys, just to let people know who you are and what you do, Tom said, man, I’d love to get some younger folks in this. And so what do people need to do if they want to apply to be a member?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, we have a website. You can go there, fill out an application. But most people, they need to go to a show or come to some of our meetings. That’s how I started. I started going to the meetings because I was interested in the guns. So if people have an interest, most of our members do not live here in the state. Oh, really? We have people from all over the country, and they have a membership because they get a discount on tables for our show. But anyway, it’s easy to become a member. You need to have somebody sponsor you. So we want to know that you’re serious about this, you’re really interested, and you’re not just some flaky guy trying to, you know, horn in someplace. But it’s pretty easy. We’re a nice group. I can’t remember the last time we turned somebody down for membership. Sure. So if you have an interest in guns or history… I’d have you consider being a member.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. And you all have meetings once a month, I think you said?
SPEAKER 05 :
We have meetings once a month. We put out a newsletter every month. I’m trying to get back to where we have an interesting topic discussed in the newsletter. Okay. So just from reading the newsletter, you can learn things about something else that you have no experience with. We also have a Facebook page. More people are visiting our Facebook page, and we link with other gun collectors groups. So there’s always something interesting on there, even if it’s the Virginia weapons collectors. I love to read about their latest meeting and guns they talked about.
SPEAKER 03 :
So do most states have some form of an organization like yours?
SPEAKER 05 :
I’d say most of them do, not all of them, and some have more than one. But most people live within a couple hundred miles of an organization that has a show. Okay, right.
SPEAKER 03 :
And Dave Wedel, I know Dave. I’ve known Dave for a long time, and we used to have his store on Broadway. You know, he wore a lot of cowboy action stuff there. Yeah, Dave’s a really great guy, so we’ve got to get him on sometime as well. But anything else we want to mention today on it?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I think that’s pretty good. I think if people have to drive a few hours to see the show, they might think about doing something else. Personally, since I love history, I love to hit all the museums on the way to someplace or on the way home. But, you know, people can come up for a few hours or they can come up for the weekend.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. And, hey, you may think you’re coming for a couple hours and end up spending the whole day because it’s going to be a pretty cool show.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, right. For me, I couldn’t even see the whole show in two days because I want to look at everything. I want to look at all the displays. Right. Other people say three hours is enough. But one thing I would like to say is the gun control that’s coming at us this year is the most severe I’ve seen in a long time, and it’s affecting our show. They want to eliminate people from gun shows that don’t have a federal firearms license, which is most of the collectors. We’re not dealers. We don’t sell guns. So most of us don’t have a license. So we’re working on that. They’ve instituted this law where you have to have not just a federal firearms license, but you have to have a Colorado license. licensed to deal guns and so that’s going to eliminate a lot of our dealers so we’re fighting for our existence i hope this is not our last show this year so come and see this show if in case it’s not there next year but i’m going to work as hard as i can to make sure we’re trying to do everything we can you know right on fighting the battle too so
SPEAKER 03 :
rick congrats on uh being the president and uh man hey that’s that’s that’s a good tag with your name right there rick wilson president all right so man we appreciate it thanks for coming in oh thank you scott i’ve really enjoyed it you bet it’s the colorado gun collector association may 17th and 18th at the island grove event center 59th annual show hey make your plans now to attend again we’ll be talking about it still more here before that date so Thanks for being with us today for Sportsman of Colorado. Hope you have a great rest of your day. Leave it right here on KLZ 560.
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SPEAKER 11 :
KLZ 560 AM, your home station.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome back to Sportsman of Colorado. Again, thank you so much for being with us. Well, the first of every month, our next guest will be our guest. Every Saturday, first of the month, of course, catch our replays as well. And I’ll go ahead and mention that. Our live show is Saturdays 1 to 2. Then on Sundays, 8 in the morning, 8 at night. Hey, you can catch us twice on Sundays. Then the following Thursday at 9 a.m. So four times a week. And, of course, you can get our podcast anywhere you get yours. Our good friends from LT Arms in studio. Our very first show we did, I actually went over there and we recorded the show on location, but wanted to get the guys in the studio with us. So good to have you guys. Kyle, how are you, sir? Doing great. And that is Kyle Willey. He’s the owner. And Evan Lee. Evan. Good to see you again, Scott. Good to see you. And the man, Brandon Anderson. He told me to say that. Okay, so he told me, he said when he introduced me, just say the man. All right. Thanks. Good to be here. Brandon Anderson.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Good to see you. All right, Kyle, for those that maybe missed the first show with you guys, tell us a little bit about how LT Arms came about.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, so as far as LT Arms, we’re a one-stop shop for everything hunting. I tried to gear the shop towards that so that people could have a nice, warm environment to come to with knowledgeable staff to help them with all their hunting questions.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re still looking for that knowledgeable staff? Yeah, it’s hard to find.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, and you know what? It is really cool because every store – I mean, hey, there are some good gun stores in the area, okay? But every store kind of has their niche a little bit, you know? And what I’m picking up from you guys is you can’t be everything to everybody, but yet, man, what you’re putting together there with kind of a team from the gunsmithing side of things to some – different types of guns, periods of guns that you’ve got, a little bit with reloading. I mean, you’re kind of getting that whole big old picture there.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I mean, with the staff that we have, between everyone there, we can – meet anyone’s needs that they have anything from complete restoration to you know new builds to you know reloads and having everything that needs to be done in the firearm industry we can easily help them with all the knowledgeable staff that we have right they are located 8119 shaffer parkway in littleton and uh what are your hours So Monday through Friday is 10 to 7, and then Saturday we’re open 10 to 4.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, good deal. All right, we could kind of make this a roundtable discussion or whatever, but, man, if we would have looked back a few years ago when you started this, we could have never dreamed the assault, I’ll call it, on guns and gun ownership. Yeah. man and you speed it up to where we are right now and of course some things have been signed but those actually don’t go into effect and hopefully they won’t but until next year but let’s kind of just open that up and just kind of talk and you know all you guys talk to customers on a daily basis and things so brandon i’ll let you open it up what do what are you seeing with this gun laws and what are people talking about when they come in the store
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, the SB3 got signed in about two weeks ago now. We get a lot of people coming in that they think that as soon as that was signed, it is concrete law right away. And, I mean, we’ve been getting a lot of phone calls with people asking, am I still allowed to buy these things? You know, when can I take the class so I can – get my permit to carry a detachable magazine semi-automatic gun. And it was signed into law. It doesn’t actually go into effect until August of 2026, like you were saying. So you can still come in and get any of the stuff that you’ve previously been able to get. There aren’t any restrictions yet on anything. There’s a couple of lawsuits going on. So it looks like hopefully that will be tied up in court for the next few years and won’t actually become a law. So there’s, you know, a few organizations like the Colorado state student shooting association, gun owners of America and NRA, they’re all teaming up to start a lawsuit. There’s already a lawsuit going against proposition KK, which is the sales tax on firearms. So they’re, they’re trying to push back against that. The, uh, the social media bill that they tried to get going, got, vetoed and they tried to override the veto yesterday and that got shot down in the house so that’s nice at least one you know one of the 15 gun bills they’re trying to pass this year got shot down but they’re yeah they’re going they’re going pretty hard with the the anti-gun legislation this year what are most people saying i mean when you evan i don’t know if your interaction with customers too i mean what what are most people saying when they when they come in
SPEAKER 12 :
At first, we saw some panic buying from some of the newer customers that are getting into the firearms world for the first time. But a lot of the old guys who have seasoned and been through this a few times, the general consensus is this is ultimately going to get overturned. There’s a Supreme Court precedent on this in New York and B.C. with previous decisions. It’s clearly government overreach at the local level. And even some of our clients who do, let’s just say, lean left a little bit more are even wildly opposed to this entire thing. Just they can’t believe that this actually happened.
SPEAKER 03 :
Because I don’t even see a way to even – if it got to – to even administrate it. That, too.
SPEAKER 12 :
Dude, it could take – The cost of this alone.
SPEAKER 03 :
I mean, the time it could take someone to actually, you know, from the time they fill out paperwork to do all the things that they were listing there and then how CPW is going to manage that and orchestrate that. I mean, we can’t even get like a –
SPEAKER 10 :
hunter safety class you know locally for some people to tell they’re way backed up yeah yeah and so i mean how in the world is that going to work well the best part is with a lot of the laws now because for the concealed carry classes uh the sheriffs all the instructors have to be licensed with the sheriffs now That is in full effect now, and the sheriffs still have no clue how they’re going to certify these instructors. So that was last year when that passed, and they still haven’t figured it out. So it’s like, how are they going to figure this out too? So they’re passing all these laws, and then no one has any clue how to enact them or enforce them or anything like that. So it makes it harder for us gun shops.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, right. And we’re going to try to keep you informed as best we can with folks like this that are in it day to day but um i’m just telling you right now it’s time to go buy a gun all right hey that’s an easy thing to come right now and again we’re talking to lt arms 8119 schaefer parkway in littleton all right um you got a cool event coming up i think in wyoming
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, so we’re going to the Central Wyoming Machine Gun Shoot. That’s kind of middle of nowhere between Medicine Bow and Casper. As far as that, anyone’s welcome to come. You just pay your admission and then there’s going to be a ton of people there with machine guns. And you just pay for the ammo that you want to shoot. So it could get real expensive or you could have a fun time. Either one.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think it’s going to be real expensive to have a fun time. So let’s just say somebody wanted to shoot, you know, a couple hundred rounds. I mean, any idea what kind of price tag we would just let them know that they would spend?
SPEAKER 10 :
So, I mean, for that, you could be, I mean, if you just stick with shooting 9mm machine guns, that could be fairly cheap and affordable. $200, you could easily have a fun day shooting 9mm. If you want to get into, you know, shooting the bigger calibers, you know, old historic World War II guns, .50 cals, all that, then you’re getting a little more pricey. I mean, so I would say low-end, $200 to high-end, I mean, you could easily drop $10,000 if you wanted to go crazy.
SPEAKER 03 :
Sure, sure. Now, do they buy tickets just at the gate, so to speak?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, it’s a $20 admission fee for a day pass, or they do have camping passes where you can stay. It’s the 6th through the 8th of June, so you can spend all three days there, and it’s $40 to camp all weekend. But, yeah, beyond that, you pay your admission fee, and then it’s like a price per booth where you can go. There’s tons of vendors up there. We’re not going to be the only one. So you can make your way down the line. And, I mean, there’s everything from old Gatling guns to miniguns. They have a night shoot with incendiary rounds like tracers and stuff with explosive targets and old cars and washing machines and Tannerite and all of the— All the fun stuff.
SPEAKER 12 :
Target-rich environment. Yeah, it’s going to be American hard out there. And each of the participants is going to be bringing a particular sort of interest. A lot of these guys are collectors, and they’ve got older firearms. A lot of them are going to have more modern arms. The particular things that we offer, everything from modern 9mm AR platform type things, and we’ve got historic guns such as a German MG42, Browning 1919. Really neat stuff. Really neat stuff. And not a lot of times you get the opportunity to fire such a firearm.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, it’s amazing. I’ve been able to do it a few times, but it’s amazing. And I guess just use the term how much, if you’re not familiar with that, how much that gun will walk on you. I mean, rise up. I mean, really quick. I mean, it’s cool, though, man. And it’s hard to even describe what it feels like just to hit that trigger and, man, just see holes fly. not experience full automatic it’s the best roller coaster ride oh absolutely and people can’t hey people say can you buy a machine gun yes you can right yeah yeah you can what are some that you guys maybe have or can get or for sale yeah yeah so as as far as some machine guns out there uh it has to be a post ban machine gun is one is the requirement for civilians to own them
SPEAKER 10 :
And as far as what options are out there, there’s a handful of M16s and stuff like that. A lot of your old World War II machine guns are on the registry, so you can buy those. Your cheapest option is going to be around $30,000.
SPEAKER 1 :
$30,000.
SPEAKER 10 :
So that’s the hard part there is it’s supply and demand, simple economics there. Yeah. They’re not making anymore, and as people use them, they die off and get worn out. We can restore them and get them back to working condition, but some of them are beyond repair, and so… The supply is dwindling, and the demand is going higher than ever. Sure.
SPEAKER 03 :
Once again, we’re visiting with a crew from LT Arms. We’ve got Kyle Willey, the owner, Evan Lee, and Brandon Anderson with us. If you haven’t been by the store, hey, highly recommend you go by. One cool part in the store, a lot of times you just walk in a store, and there’ll be some guns on the rack or in cases or whatever, but you guys got what you call the library. So who wants to take that?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, so the library, it was kind of when I first started, I wanted to have a place to have people come and relax and enjoy. Because when I first started, background checks were only a couple of hours instead of the three-day wait that we have now. So I wanted a place where people could just sit and wait and relax. So I built it out to look real nice. So we have all of our old historical firearms on display. We have a ton of books. We have a nice cooler with some drinks in it that people can grab. And it’s just a nice environment for people to come and sit and enjoy their time.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. And you got some pretty cool guns in there.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So one of the collections that I tried to get was a general progression of military rifles. So I have everything from the, you know, flintlock rifle down to the M16. We don’t have the MCX spear yet, but maybe we’ll have that on the wall eventually.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. Be sure and follow them on social media as well, especially their Instagram page and Facebook. What else, Erica? I’m sorry, what’d you say?
SPEAKER 12 :
Twitter.
SPEAKER 03 :
Twitter. Okay. We call it now. All right. X. Yeah. All right. Be sure and follow them in there. And Brandon, I guess I’ll turn this one to you. But I saw, I think just a couple of days ago, you were talking about, hey, if folks were struggling in some areas, maybe, you know, mental health, different things like that. Sometimes there are some things you can get into legally where maybe you have to Can’t have guns in the home for a little bit. You guys are offering a service there.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, we offer storage for people. So, yeah, if it’s a mental health issue or if, yeah, there is a legal issue like domestic violence cases and things like that, we do offer storage for people. So, yeah, you can call us up or email us and set up an appointment and bring your stuff down, and we’ll store it for you so that way – Whether it’s court mandated or if it’s just a personal issue where you want to get them out of the house, yeah, we’ll do that for you and get them stored in a safe location so they’re accessible in the future.
SPEAKER 10 :
And one of the big things there is no questions asked. We’re not going to hound you and all that. We could care less. We just want people to be safe and have a good place to go home to. That way, nothing bad ends up happening. So that’s something that we try to offer and just give them a safe space to come to.
SPEAKER 03 :
LT Arms, 8119 Schaefer Parkway in Littleton. You’re listening to Sportsman of Colorado. We’ve got to hit a quick break, and we’ll be back with more right after this.
SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
AM 560, KLZ, your home station.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome back to Sportsman of Colorado. If you’re just joining us, LT Arms is in the house. 8119 Schaefer Parkway in Littleton. We’ve got Kyle Willey, the owner, Evan Lee, and Brandon Anderson with us. And Evan, you were mentioning during the break, you know, in the library there, a few extra added values there. So tell us how you kind of set that
SPEAKER 12 :
People think library, they think you’ve got to stick your nose in a book, and that’s not necessarily the case. There’s a few screens around the shop, and there’s a big one on the wall in the showroom and a big one on the wall in the library. And a lot of that content you see on there, those historical treatments about vintage gun riders or famous hunters or particular firearms or just characters from the Old West, we create a lot of content for our YouTube channel regarding those sorts of historical aspects of the firearms world. And they get a lot of play. People really, really enjoy those historical treatments. So those are playing in the shop all the time. And if you’re sitting in the library waiting for a spot repair on a shotgun, you can enjoy a neat video and learn something about an old character from the Old West or an old gun writer from the middle of the 20th century.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow, that’s cool.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, it’s neat stuff.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, I think it is cool because, I mean, I follow you guys, of course. And just seeing little things you put out there, I mean, I don’t care how long you’ve been hunting or shooting, whatever. Man, there’s always something you don’t know. It’s a lifetime of learning, isn’t it? and i mean it’s cool to have you come on you know i’ve watched a lot of yours as far as from the reloading side and talking about cartridges and different things like that so let’s talk about that area of it just a little bit from a reloading standpoint is that something that’s that’s on on the rise uploading or is that kind of leveled off these last years not too many people do
SPEAKER 12 :
It’s funny you mention that because I had a class last Saturday and they just had the idea. Husband and wife came in and took a course from us and I got another one that’s coming up next weekend. The interest seems to be getting up there again. They say about 10% of shooters are reloaders, but I’d like to see that jump up because once people learn the benefits to it. It’s not much of an economic aspect. You’re not saving any money. You’re just going to shoot a lot more. But you’re going to have a lot more accurate loads for your rifle. Another aspect of it, other than the classes, is we offer the loading of obscure and obsolete ammunition for older firearms to get them up and running again. We’ve had some really neat projects come in lately, and we can get those old rifles moving again for you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. So if people want to get in a class, what do they do?
SPEAKER 12 :
I just call the shop. We book them at your convenience. We used to have a booking system online where we had them set scheduled on there, but a lot of folks just have these tight schedules these days. So you just call us, tell us when you can do it, when you want to do it, and we will book a three-hour window and do your class at your convenience.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow. All right. Big test. Phone number?
SPEAKER 12 :
720-727-0400. All right. Hey, you pass.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. Somebody says, I want to get into reloading. Mm-hmm. What’s going to be that initial investment to really get what they need?
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, we carry a couple of different options for that. You can get a really nice introductory starter kit from some of the larger companies like Redding and RCBS for around $500. And that’s going to be everything you need except for dies and a case trimmer. And a case trimmer you can kind of get into later. But under $600 for the tools you’re going to need. Get a nice bench or a setup in a closet at home even. And then it’s reloading. Your brass is the most expensive aspect of the ammunition. Cartridge cases, that’s why we reload them. That’s the most expensive part. So once you start getting a pile of cases built up from all your shooting, you can reload them for pennies compared to what you’re spending on a round of loaded ammo from the factory.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. You know, you hear that a lot that, hey, hand loads are more accurate. Why is that? When you’ve got a factory supposedly with all the—
SPEAKER 12 :
I mean, factory ammunition has never been better.
SPEAKER 03 :
Really?
SPEAKER 12 :
It is great. It really is. And it’s going to do everything you want it to do. But if you want your rifle to do a little bit more, rifle barrels are kind of like thumbprints. Each one’s a little bit different. Even though they’re all made at the same factory, each one’s going to react a little different. And once you figure out by experimentation and hand-loading with different powders and different projectiles. What that particular rifle likes, you can tighten up your groups. Wow, very cool. I’ve seen it done many, many times, and I’ve done it with many of my rifles, and it’s a fun pursuit. One hobby feeds the other.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, absolutely. All right, hey, give the store a call at…
SPEAKER 12 :
720-727-0400. All right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Sounds good. And, Kyle, another thing, again, I talked about, boy, you’re kind of putting all the pieces to the puzzle when somebody thinks of a gun store or one area that’s gunsmithing. And you guys kind of got that area covered in a great way, too.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, yeah, definitely. As far as gunsmithing, all of our gunsmiths come from a gunsmithing school, one or the other. We have one outlier that went to Trinidad, but the rest of them graduated from Colorado School of Trade here in town. It’s a great option for people that want to get into the game, but the first thing people learn in school is they don’t learn a lot when they get into the real world. And so that’s one of the nice things is the expertise that we have. After they get out of school, they can progress and learn kind of, you know get more hands-on experience because with guns the biggest thing is everything’s different i mean you can’t it’s not a textbook thing you can learn because there’s so many different things that could go wrong and you have to be able to you know diagnose and repair right yeah absolutely once again it’s lt arms 8119 shaffer parkway in littleton open monday through saturday for you and again great great group of folks there um and i’m telling you we can’t well i’ve started i’m telling you i can’t tell you now but we do have some news that will be coming right yeah uh great big news that uh is going to be coming down the pipeline here uh just a little teaser for those people out there you know make sure that you follow us and see what’s coming and what’s going to happen it’s going to uh really catapult us into the next uh next level yeah absolutely now with the gunsmithing real quick you guys do cerakote you guys yeah i mean yeah so yeah we do complete uh finishing uh cerakoting case hardening bluing all that stuff in-house uh we have sources to do nickeling plating all that stuff uh depending on what someone wants their gun to look like uh i always tell people the only limitation is your imagination so wow okay
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, and we can even do… We’ve been doing a lot of motorcycle parts and things like that. We do a lot of automotive stuff like exhaust manifolds, pistons. I mean, pretty much… Pretty much anything you can do Cerakote, because there’s high-temp Cerakote that you can use for automotive stuff that, you know, performance parts and things like that. So, yeah, a lot of guys who build race cars, they get their pistons Cerakoted just because it makes them more durable and makes them last a little bit longer. Eric has gotten some motorcycle parts done recently, so, yeah. Motocross guys, car guys, anything like that, anything even beyond firearms, we can do for you, so…
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, cool. Suppressors, last year or so, have really gone.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, the suppressor game has really blown up in the last year or so. I think one of the things about that is the e-filing. It’s so much quicker now to get a suppressor. Instead of waiting the year plus to get a suppressor, now, I mean, they’re coming back anywhere from a week to a month. I think the longest one we’ve had has been – We’ve been pushing two months on some right now, but that makes it a lot more enticing for people. Because having to drop $1,000 on a suppressor and then wait a year and a half to get it, that wasn’t fun. But also, now that it’s becoming more available for people to get, one of the benefits is… It cuts back on recoil and sound mitigation. So the downside to a muzzle brake is it destroys your ears. And so this gives you the best of both worlds and people are seeing how it is. And so it’s just, you know, word of mouth is working very well as far as the suppressor game.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep, absolutely. How’s the process work in your store if they come to your store?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, so how the process works is they come in. Just like any other gun, you have to decide what you want before you can start the paperwork because that serial number for the suppressor is tied to you. So they come in, pick the suppressor, and then we’ll do your fingerprints and picture in the shop for you. And then we submit the paperwork, get all that picked out. You can pick between doing it individually or in a trust. Mm-hmm. And depending on how you want to do that, we can help you out with that as well. But I try to push people towards the trust because it just gives you the most versatility and user-friendliness. But from there, then it’s just a waiting game once we submit it. And once it’s approved, the customer will get an email. We’ll get an email saying that it’s approved, and then they come in and pick it up.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s $200 for the tax stamp, plus the cost of the suppressor.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. And then if they want to do a trust, depending on how they want to do the trust, there’s fees in that as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, right. What do you guys like in the suppressor world? Who are you kind of leaning towards? You think good suppressors these days?
SPEAKER 06 :
We just got a Lone Star from Texas. Yeah, we just got a new company in. It’s a small company from Texas. It’s making stuff. They come in nice wood presentation boxes. So, yeah, they’re doing some really nice stuff. Dead Air stuff is, I mean, that’s probably the one at the top that we do.
SPEAKER 10 :
Dead Air and Silencer Co. are the big. brands right now that we’re selling. And then yeah, Lone Star in Texas, they’re a great option as well. But then a budget-friendly one would be Aero. Your Aero suppressor, it’s not titanium. Titanium gives you a lighter can, but it costs a lot more. Aero’s making a steel can for half the price of what most suppressors are. So that’s a good option as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow, all right. Last couple of minutes, let’s talk about some of the classes that you’re either offering or you’re going to be offering. What are just some different classes that folks can contact you for?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I mean, honestly, if you can think of it in the gun world, we probably have a class for it. But we offer reloading classes, an hour with a gunsmith to learn anything you want about a firearm. That’s an option that we offer as well. And then self-defense classes, concealed carry classes, stuff like that. And then kind of just random oddball classes that we’re offering starting in June. We’re going to have two different kind of segments of just get to know what’s going on. So there’s a bunch of different options. If you can think of it, we probably have a class coming for it. So that’s one of the nice things.
SPEAKER 03 :
Cool. Guys, our time goes too quick, man. But thank you guys for coming over to the studio and everything. Really looking forward to having you on here with us. And, folks, once again, great store, great group of folks working there. And I’m telling you, if you haven’t been able to find some answers, maybe at some other gun shops, hey, Try LT Arms. Got a feeling they’re going to be able to help you. 8119 Schaefer Parkway in Littleton. Hey, when you go in, let them know you heard them here on the show, and we would appreciate that as well. And, hey, great selection of ammo, different things. A couple of things in the store you’ve got good selections on.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, a huge selection on bolt actions, ammo, reloading components, cleaning components, everything to take care of your firearms. And then we’re also hunting necessities as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. And you’re going to be making some rifles.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes, we will be. Yep, we’ll have our own line of bolt-action rifles on the shelf here pretty soon.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, we’ll save that until next time. All right, thank you guys so much. Once again, it’s LT Arms. Get by and see them, and let them know Scott sent you. Thanks for being with us today for Sportsman of Colorado. Hope you have a great rest of your day. Leave it right here on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 09 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
