Recently I spoke with Piercy, getting an update from him on the road with the AoA van in Florida.<\/p>\n
![\"PAD](\"http:\/\/198.154.244.69\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/12888605_1029314737127099_5682781497426533502_o.jpg\")
<\/a>PAD Van ocean side in Florida!<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going well,\u201d he said. \u201cbut with a slightly different emphasis than we initially thought. We\u2019re doing more support and education. We\u2019ve been supporting a lot of shoots \u2013 benchrest, 10 meters, and field target. And we\u2019ve been doing education. We went to the California duck calling championship. There were 4,500 to five thousand people there, and most had no idea that airguns have advanced to the level that they have.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing stuff with some of the younger kids, going to some of the ranges and opening up the van, working with different clubs and sponsors, and letting the kids shoot different guns from the van.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piercy has also been supporting Precision Airgun distribution network dealers. Several of the dealers are working on airgun ranges, and Piercy has been consulting with them on what kind of guns, safety and other considerations associated with setting up a range. \u201cMy NRA certified instructor and range safety office training comes into play there,\u201d Piercy says.<\/p>\n
He adds, \u201cWe have established some additional dealers, but not as fast as we had hoped. Everyone is amazed at the state-of-the-art in airguns, but they are typically slower to react and do something about it. Still, it is better to have one good dealer than five who are in it half-heartedly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the existing dealers have picked up their sales as well. Some haven\u2019t been dealers that long, so I have been doing a lot of education,\u201d Piercy says.\u00a0 \u201cOften they want to know \u2018how fast does it shoot?\u2019 and I have to point out that fast isn\u2019t necessarily accurate, and if you are not accurate, you are just blasting lead. A better question to ask is \u201cHow many foot-pounds will it shoot accurately?\u2019 They also want to know how many shots a gun will deliver, and I always tell them how many good<\/u> shots it will give.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piercy has also visited many events: the field target nationals, the US air rifle benchrest nationals, the Cajun Spring Classic, several local benchrest and ten meter events, filling tanks and sometimes repairing guns. \u201cI found out that if you offer free tank fills, that\u2019s like offering free food \u2013 the shooters definitely show up!\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a>PAD van photobombing the 2016 Cajun Spring Nationals!<\/p><\/div>\n
As to helping people in need, Piercy has been handing out one-gallon zip bags stuffed with soap, toothbrushes, razors, socks, water, and other goodies. One chilly fall morning in Albuquerque, Piercy gave a bag to a gentleman who was asking for help, and as Piercy drove away, he could see in his rearview mirror the fellow wolfing down the breakfast bars and drinking the water.<\/p>\n
The biggest surprise for Piercy is that \u201cthe general public has no idea that airguns have advanced as far as they have. Another surprise is the demand for information about airguns for nuisance wildlife control.<\/p>\n
So far, Piercy is enjoying the project. \u201cI\u2019ve met a lot of nice people, seen a lot of beautiful country, and helped some airgunners and dealers along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a>Larry in the Everglades.<\/p><\/div>\n
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.<\/p>\n
– Jock Elliott<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back in June, 2015, I interviewed Larry Piercy, who was about to embark on a really cool adventure traveling the U.S. with the Airguns of Arizona van. Initially, the project had four goals: To establish additional dealers in the Precision Airgun distribution network. To help existing dealerships be more successful. To interface with the airgunning…»<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3832"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3849,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions\/3849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}