The first half of 2004 closed up 34.8% over the same half of 2003! Gun shipments were up 45.5%. How ‘bout Joe and his STI gunsmith crew? We're gaining on it!

The "Custom Shop" must stay closed for at least another 3 months.

O.K.! We are adding a complete rifle with a molded Hogue stock to our Model 22XX lines of assemblies. We have added the price to our price list and have it available on request. It's pretty reasonable. What other fine products can we provide you?

We're probably going to shorten the "Duty One" dust cover to make it look more like everybody else's. Any problems with that? And, maybe, the "Tactical"?

The "RangeMaster" and "Duty One" style frames, slide to frame fits, and shortblocks are now available due the improvements in the next paragraph.

Ed, Wes, et al, have improved our slide-manufacturing throughput by a factor of 2.4X. (That's about double and a half) Charles is on the threshold of a two fold average increase in "2011" frame throughput. "1911" frames are rockin'. We're still pullin' ourselves up by our shorts on small parts production and firearm assembly, but we'll get there. One way or another!

Congratulations to Bob and Inge Londrigan of Brazos Custom for attaining Domestic Distributor status volumes. That feat is not an easy one and they managed it before mid-year. Like Dave Dawson, of Dawson Precision, Bob has developed products of his own that we don't offer.

With the guys mentioned above, along with Brownells, Shooters Connection, and Midway on board, (so that Dealers and Retail purchasers have a place to go for parts and more personal service) we'll probably once again increase the minimum order level that we will process through the factory. We are considering a major bump from our current $250.00 minimum to a $500.00 minimum level. How will this affect you all? We think that it will probably help you, but we are interested in your input. If we do anything, it will be effective Jan. 1, 2005 . We'll give you plenty of warning.

In our continuing efforts to help you make your business better, (which in turn makes our business better) I'd like some input from you on another front. Over the course of the last five years, we have invested over $1,400,000.00 in promoting the product for both of our benefits. Just under $600.000.00 on media advertising, just over $400,000.00 in Match Sponsorships, well over $300,000.00 in shows and personal appearances, and almost $150,000.00 in the Contingency Program. What of these do you feel has done you the most good? From what do you see the best results? Is there anything that I'm missing that would give us all more "bang for the buck"? The budget is pretty well locked in for the balance of this year (none of which is reflected in the above figures) but we have a couple of months to plan for 2005. Input?

For you "Domestics", Don will be at A8 this weekend and A5 over Labor Day. Pauletta and I will be in Columbia , MO for A3 the first week of August. We'll all be at the Nationals. For you Europeans, we'll be at EC2004 in Tabor , Czech Republic for the whole thing. For you Asians, we are putting the wheels in motion to do Thailand and Bali in November. See y'all on the range!

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