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Gun sales killed by the $100,000 Grand ?

11K views 76 replies 46 participants last post by  dhip 
#1 ·
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How many high end trap gun sales were lost when the 13-year-old eighth-grade elementary-school boy won the $100,000 Grand American Handicap challenge with a plain old Browning Citori ?

Could it have been worse if he had done it with a fixed-choke BT-99 ?

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#7 ·
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So it is the collective wisdom of the entrepreneurs and business minds of this forum that the fact that the most publicized shooting competition in recent memory, the only one to obtain any serious television coverage in years, was won with one of the cheaper, popular-priced guns used in serious competition, will not have one iota of effect on the future sales of relatively high-priced Caesar, Blaser, Kolar, Perazzi, Krieghoff, etc. nor a change in relative market share of the admittedly small trap gun market.

I have been very successful in business for 35+ years, but I am not in the gun business.

But if I was Browning, if my marketing people in my company couldn't make hay out this, they would everyone be fired and quickly replaced by folks who could. (But, then again, Browning is the only gun company not to make hay of the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the Colt 1911 designed by their namesake, John Moses Browning.)

This is the stuff that marketers dream. Billion dollar businesses have been built on less.

But I guess I must accept that trap shooters are different.

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Wish all of you a very Happy New Year and the best of everything to you, your family, and your friends in 2012.

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#8 ·
Hammer, I'm sure that Browning will try to make hay out of it.

But I'll maintain it won't hurt the sales much on the big names. The gun is the CHEAPEST part of the equation BY FAR when it comes to trap shooting. You amortize the cost of a P gun over a few HUNDRED THOUSAND SHELLS, and it just doesn't matter.

Some folks can't shoot Browings (or SKBs, or Perazzi's or whatever)...so they shoot what they like or do better with.

The best singles shooter in Alaska shoots a beat up old browning that the rib has fallen off of three times and he just JB welds it back on, or puts a new screw in it, or something. He averages north of 99. And he's owned Perazzi, SKB, Alferman...can't shoot any of them better than the Browning.

The second best singles shooter up here shoots a ljutic or an Alferman. He averages about 98+. The third best shoots Perazzi. Me...I'm middle of the pack, with a Perazzi, but I used to shoot an SKB. My averages are "slightly" better now...we're talking tenth's of a percentage better is all....

And a few shoots ago...another guy who alternates between a SX-1 with electricians tape and a block of PINE for a comb and wheel weights taped to the barrel or a beat up BT-99 with electricians tape all over it beat them all.....
 
#10 ·
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I am thinking that Browning will not even try, now that I think of it.

As I commented, Browning did not make any hay out of the 100th anniversary of the 1911 pistol designed by John Moses Browning.

My own trap guns include multiple Krieghoffs, Perazzis, etc. But I don't think I can in honest discussion claim my scores are better with them than with my Browning Citori. But I guess you're right that demonstrated performance has nothing to do with trap gun sales now that I think a little more about it.

Agree with you that the gun may be the smallest amortized cost in the sport of trap, but it is the largest one-time cost the spouse of a trap shooter sees.

Guess I was just excited about the young man's accomplishments and how he did it. And thinking about all my businesses over the years and how we would have leveraged this event into business growth. And we would have.

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But, don't want to upset the holiday season for anyone.

So, once again, a pleasant rest of the holiday season to you all.

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#11 ·
DUH! How many were won with 1100s-870s- M12s-etc.? And they continued to sell high grade K-guns and P guns didn't they? Probably did give Browning a boost from some who were considering a different gun but don't have that much disposable income. I have had over the years several mid priced SBTs & O&Us that I just "had to have" found out they didn't shoot any better than my Rem.31 TC that I bought 2nd hand 35+ years ago so I sold them. Still shooting The M 31 TC (notice I didn't say well) just still shooting it. Ross Puls
 
#13 ·
Most shooters that want to upgrade from a Browning or other less expensive shotguns, aren't going to care what a 13 year old kid did at the 22 yard line.

It's funny but when I was a kid, most people shot Winchesters, Remingtons, Ithacas, Savages, Stevens, etc. When somebody showed up with a Browning, everything stopped so we could look at it.

Wayne
 
#14 ·
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Thinking of gun brands winning and their resulting market sales performance...

I don't see Beretta DT-10s out and about, but Leo Harrison III has one of the biggest names in the sport and his Beretta is prominantly dispayed in his videos.

I hear more about Leo achieving his status using a Remington 1100 than I do his current Beretta DT-10.

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#15 ·
Wayneo...

LOL..when i was a kid the "hot" gun was a Remington 3200...if you had one of those, you were spoken about in revered whispers...

on my high school trap team, I was the ONLY one of us that had a "real" trap gun - it was an 870 LH TB Trap. Everyone else shot field guns of one variety or other.

And we won the Nebraska state high school team singles title in 1984.

with a score that folks would LAUGH AT today.
 
#17 ·
How many new trap guns are sold in a year?

Who cares other than the people who build and try to sell them?

I wandered through Jaqua's once about 20 years ago and was told they were a factory clearance store. Are there any similar "close-out" trap gun centers in the country? I don't get out much.
 
#23 ·
Hammer, the kid may have won the big money with a Browning because that is probably all his parents could afford but rest assured he will not be shooting a Browning this coming year. I have owned most of every combo made and in my eyes there is no better trap gun than a Krieghoff. Mine has taking me to a 97.65 singles average and to the 27 ydl in the one summer I have shot it.
 
#25 ·
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First, think it is great that Browning is promoting the young shooter's success on their website.

Have there been many magazine articles or magazine ads sharing the Browning aspect of the story ?

No one in marketing would call a single page on your own website "making hay".

Second, think the "1911 commemerative" is a 22 rimfire, not a 45. Its appearance resembles a 1911 45 but not sure the internal workings are John Brownings. Other companies actually produced bona fide 45 ACP 1911 pistols. Don't know how Browning came out on that compared to a real 45 ACP 1911.

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