If this is the first time that you have received this STI update, you may want to go to the website and check back issues. You also dealt in just in time for what is definitely the longest one we’ve ever published.

I need to say it again! We had a REALLY GREAT S.H.O.T. SHOW.

The Buyers Club shows that we attended were the best we’ve ever had, too.

IWA just blew us away! No "tire kickers" at the booth! Everybody came to do business! And did! More on this later.

Same story from IWA as from SHOT: The entire previously introduced product line was appropriately appreciated and the entire new product line was immediately embraced by the segment of the market that the product was designed to impress. The "concealed carry" crowd loved the "Rogue", the "speed shooters" were all over the "SteelMaster", the "into really cool 1911’s" group was very pleased with the "Sentinel Premier", and the knowledgeable SASS style shooters (and everyone who really appreciates fine machinery) were overwhelmed by the "Texican". (If any of you have received a Texican without a manual, just holler at us. They are in stock now.) The biggest surprise at IWA was the reception of the "Off Duty". At this rate, it’ll be in the product mix for a long, long time. The biggest surprise here at home is that Texicans are finally beginning to roll off the line. We should have most backorders satisfied by early April and have all orders filled and some in the Dealers’ hands by early May. YeeeeeHaaaaa! If you haven’t handled one of these or read the editorials that it has received, you’re missin’ a treat. Most of the story links are on the website and the latest "American Handgunner" has a GREAT article by John Taffin. I’m told that there is an "Evil Roy" quote floating around out there somewhere; just haven’t found it yet.

We got several requests to develop new products while at this show. Probably the one that makes the most sense is a pistol about the size of the old Colt "Pocket 9". If we do it, we’ll probably do it in 9mm or, maybe, .380ACP. It’d still be a "single action only" pistol. We’re just not yet ready with our DA/SA mechanism and the way the business continues to grow, we’re not likely to get time to finish its’ development in the near future. The only other that we are seriously looking at right now is one being suggested by John Caradimas of the M1911 forum.

The GP6 made it to IWA and was damned well received by the attendees! It looks like Europe is off and runnin’ good with Asia and North America just waiting on us! As reported previously, we now have the BATF approval to import the GP6 so that we can submit it to the BATF for their approval to import it! Our Slovak partner has all his permits in place and approval samples are in transit. Purchase Orders are in place and guns are being manufactured. Thanks to you guys, export sales are going very well and we have more than 100 GP6’s on order here for the domestic market, sight unseen. If you’re not familiar with the product, please go to www.grandpowerusa.com and to www.stiguns.com on the GP6 page. For further information on our partner, go to www.grandpower.eu but do not think for a minute that we are going to be inventorying all of those marvelous products this year. Once we have our joint projects up and running, we’ll consider our next steps.

We had a successful drawing for a Spartan at the first of our Buyers Group shows. The winner is Ronnie Hallmark from Clifton, Texas. He joins John Allchin (our SHOT Show winner) as the proud owner of a Spartan.

Don’t forget, if you didn’t attend the shows, you’ve still got time to send a card here to the factory if you hurry. We’ll be doing a separate drawing for another "Spartan" on March 28. The winner of this one may have a short wait as we’ve sold out completely and are awaiting the next production run.

Speaking of ordering something: Those sneaky folks in our Sales Department (you know, the ones you talk to regularly) have been keeping a list of those of you who have been asking for the DISCONTINUED "Special Edition". That was the 24ct. gold plated pistol, remember? They’ve also reminded me that I sold my own to the last person who really wanted one. They’ve almost got enough of you on their list to warrant one LAST special run. I’ll have to re-check the price (only because gold has gone up since the last time that we did this) but I’ve told them to go ahead and take solid orders from now through the end of June. If there really are enough of us, we’ll do it.

Well, it’s World Shoot time again, this time being held on Bali in Indonesia. This will happen in November. As usual, we’ll be there, and as usual we have a major sponsorship position. We’ll be hosting two "Areas" for this one. I think that covers about fourteen stages. If I understand correctly, the entire U.S. Open Team is comprised of young men who were, at one time, "STI Juniors". They’ve made us very proud.

Past that trip, the current plan has us to be in Philipsburg, Germany in May for the "STI European Open Championship" with a side swing through Spain with our historically solid Distributor "Borchers", too many June and July things happening to make definitive decisions yet, and the US Nationals in Tulsa in September. If I’ve promised anybody else anything else, please remind me. As usual, Don "Mr. Give Away" Kemble will be all over THIS country.

Speaking of sporting competitions; while in Germany one of our respected U.S. peers asked if our business was still primarily competition shooters (USPSA, IDPA, IPSC, Bianchi, Steel, Bullseye, 25 meter, PPC, etc.) and seemed surprised when we reported that our business in those sports were less than 15% of our total volume and had been for several years. It was, therefore, great when we got home to find our latest copy of "Front Sight" magazine, the USPSA house organ, on our desks with the reports from the USPSA National Championships for last year. We’re delighted to report that we have again increased our percentage of those championship caliber sports persons competing in that prestigious event with our firearms. In "Limited Division" we have increased to about 64.7% of the National competitors and in "Open Division" we grew to, right at, 67%. We are truly gratified by that level of acceptance. We certainly wish that the other sporting organizations would report their statistics. Just like that portion our customer base, we’re competitive too!

And, again, speaking of the shooting sports; rumor has it that IPSC is considering a "Soft Air" Division, at least on a provisional basis. As most of you are aware, this type training aid is HUGE in Asia and in countries with long nights and frigid weather. We’ve been working with ActionSportGames A/S of Denmark for almost five years now to get a STI style Soft Air gun to market. We picked these guys because of their commitment to quality (among other things) and are not at all disappointed with their first offering. We are a little surprised that their first production model for us is the "Tactical" rather than the "Edge", but they are the professionals in that field and we’ll bow to their experience. The new STI style products that they demonstrated for us are as we expected them to be: of monstrously fine quality! If you can imagine a Soft Air pistol (green gas powered) with a CNC’d aluminum frame and magnesium (I think) slide, perfect in every detail, with the same balance as the real thing for around $200.00 or so, retail, then you can understand our pride in having selected this fine company. AND, they are nearly complete on a CO2 model! Charles Hardy of C.E.D. fame and STI are both very eager to help bring these products to the U.S. While the STI product is still too new to show on their website, www.actionsportgames.com, a visit to that site will demonstrate that we’ve chosen wisely.

Well, I started this by reporting the strength of our receptions at each of the buying/selling events this year. To be candid, we’ve only tentatively added one Export and one Domestic Distributor this year. These were simply to replace the two Domestic and one Export Distributor that we separated with last year. No great gain in forces there. We probably replaced last years’ lost Dealers with approximately the same number of Dealers this year. The growth we are seeing is due to you guys, the same guys that have been with us for a while.

Apparently your customer base has increased confidence in you, and you have increased confidence in us. We’ve damn sure been impressed by your efforts!
If you are one of these new Distributors or Dealers, welcome, you’re now in fine company. You probably need to go to the website and check your particulars for accuracy. If there is an error or you aren’t there, please let us know.

Here’s our status at this point: We’re still quoting you 12 weeks or thereabouts for lead times, 14 on chrome, and most of you have a pretty good inventory right now. Compared to last years high, at one point a 22 week lead time, this ain’t bad. Everything that you have on order, scheduled to deliver by the end of June, should be close to on schedule at our current rate of production. Those stocking orders that you have in place for monthly deliveries throughout the last half of the year are in the schedule already and won’t be displaced by any new orders that we receive.

The "wild cards" in this deck are two SUBSTANTIAL orders that are to be scheduled throughout the second half of this year. At this point they have no negative impact, but we recognize that you folks are going to be placing repeat orders throughout the year and we are planning accordingly. For planning purposes, we are making the assumption that your business with us in the second half of this year will be equal to that which you scheduled in the first half year. We are adding 40% to that number for planning purposes toward the second half.

Those of you who have been with us for a while have witnessed our growth abilities in previous years. Like a fine wine we get better with age! And wiser with experience.

Do good. Sell a bunch. Have fun. Not necessarily in that order!