HaHaHa!!

I hear ya, John!

By the way, in the gun business it is not uncommon at all to have to purchase guns, parts etc from the companies EVEN IF YOU ARE DOING THEM A SERVICE IN ADVERTISING THEM OR REVIEWING THEM. Years ago I used to write for gun rags and ditched the gun thing for the same reasons CE Harris noted; You'd have a thousand bucks wrapped up in a piece you made 300 for. Even with volume sales you can't make discrepancy that up!

Only the upper crust in the gun writing biz get regular and total freebies.

I switched to knife writing because the economics of part-time gun writing was a bust. Have had lots of fun and the hobby pays for itself. And the folks are actually, dare I say it...far more "hail-fellow-well-met", too!

Just my experience, others' may vary.

As for this Ivan guy, if he likes it and it works for him, all the power to him. He looks a bit long in the tooth like the rest of us and if peeking over the top keeps him in the field I commend him for it.

As for Trijicon, I have always wondered about them and John's assessment does not surprise me. A few of the tactical companies have similar attitudes in that they bow and scrape for .mil and .gov contracts and seem to have the policy that they can do without the civvy sales, which who knows, maybe they can.