Received in the mail: the NRA’s latest sweepstakes details — “Win 44 guns!” or something — which works as follows:
Out of a total of 44 guns, First Prize Winner must select 12 guns from Group A, 2nd Prize Winner 10 guns from Group B, 3rd Prize winner 8 guns from Group C, and so on.
Sounds good, but there’s a HUGE problem with the way it’s set up. Here, for example, are the 18 guns from the 1st Prize selection, which I’ve grouped for easier comprehension:
Semi-Auto Rifles
Armalite M-15 Tactical Light Carbine (5.56mm/.223)
Bushmaster XM-10 Standard (7.62mm NATO)
Savage Arms MS Recon (.224 Valkyrie)
SIG M400 Elite TI (5.56mm)
Benelli R1 (.338 Win Mag)
Bolt-Action Rifles
Browning X-Bolt (6.5mm Creedmoor)
Remington 700 XCR (.308 Win)
Winchester 70 Extreme SS (.30-06)
Semi-Auto Pistols
Colt Delta Elite (10mm)
Desert Eagle (.44Mag)
Kimber 1911 Raptor II (.45 ACP)
S&W SW1911 Performance Center (9mm)
Revolvers
S&W 500 (.500 S&W Mag)
Colt King Cobra (.357 Mag)
Shotguns
Benelli Vinci (12ga)
Beretta A440 Extreme Plus (12ga)
Remington 870 (20ga)
Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen (16ga)
It’s a decent-enough selection of guns, I suppose — but the problem is that I would only want to own a few of them (4/18), namely:
- Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen (16ga)
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- Remington 870 (20ga)
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- Kimber 1911 Raptor II (.45ACP)
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- Colt King Cobra (.357 Mag)
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,,,and I’m kinda iffy about the short barrels on the last two anyway. The rest of the guns are either in the wrong chambering (.224 Valkyrie?), duplicates of stuff I already own (.30x bolties), or a type of firearm I don’t care to own anyway (AR-15 variants) — even for free. (If I were promiscuous when it came to guns, then I could take any of the eighteen, but I’m not That Guy.)
The same, by the way, is true of every other group of guns they’ve arranged for the prize winners: 3/10 in 2nd Prize, 5/8 in 3rd Prize, 3/6 in 4th Prize, and 1/4 in 5th Prize. And of these prize guns, only a couple get me really panting.
But here’s what’s interesting. If you add up all my choices across the prize groups, you’d get 16 in total — and if pushed I could easily trim that to 8 or 10.
So why shouldn’t the NRA ask contestants to rank their top 10 favorites (out of the 44) on their entry forms, with a guarantee they’d get at least eight guns for 1st prize, six for 2nd, etc. That way, contestants would get at least some guns they actually want/need, instead of moaning that all the guns they wanted were in 4th Prize and they’d won 2nd instead, which contained only one favorite.
Yes, there might be a duplicate or two, but that’s not important. And the NRA could share the “favorites” aggregate with the various gun manufacturers — and let me tell ya, that info is valuable.
Here’s the thing: right now, I have little inclination to enter the sweepstakes, not only because I know it’s just a ploy for the NRA to get extra donations, but also because quite frankly, I don’t care for many of the guns they’re offering and even if I won a prize, it’s not worth my time to fill in the stupid form.
And because this wouldn’t be a Kim post without at least some kind of “favorites” list, here are my Top 10 Guns from all prize offerings in the NRA’s Stupid Sweepstakes, in order of “want”:
- Auto-Ordnance M1 Carbine (3rd Prize)
- Remington 870 in 20ga (1st Prize)
- Savage 110 in .300 Win Mag (3rd Prize)
- Remington 1911 R1 in .45 ACP (4th Prize)
- Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen 16ga (1stPrize)
- Marlin 1895 in .45-70 Govt (4th Prize)
- Henry Golden Boy lever rifle in .22 LR (2nd Prize)
- Ruger SP101 in .38 Spec (5th Prize)
- CZ 557 in .243 Win (2nd Prize)
- Winchester 94 carbine in .30-30 (4th Prize)
Feel free to add your own thoughts in Comments.