End of Trail Wrap-Up, Austrian Gun Laws, CRPA & May 30th Auction Preview

Estimated reading time: 5 min

End of Trail Sendoff: The Week in Review

[00:38]

The crew took a moment before the final caller to reflect on the week. The show had spent the better part of the broadcast covering End of Trail 2026 from multiple angles: the competition results, the state of the sport, what it felt like on the ground, and a live call from the Wild Bunch overall World Champion driving home from Phoenix. One of the hosts thanked the cowboy action community for the welcome they received at the event, calling out fellow competitors and friends by their SASS aliases. The consensus was simple: you go for the shooting, you stay for the people. That line has been said on this show more times than anyone is counting, and it keeps being true.

Brent from LA: Iran, Freedom, and the Second Amendment

[01:11]

Brent from LA called in with the news of the week on his mind. On February 28, 2026, joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes on Iran resulted in the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Brent framed this as a moment of liberation for the Iranian people, noting reports of underground Christian churches beginning to re-emerge in a country where practicing Christianity had carried serious risk under the previous regime. The hosts engaged with the topic in the same conservative voice the show has always carried, expressing hope for the Iranian people and drawing a through-line to the Second Amendment: the ability of a citizenry to be armed is, in their view, the backstop against the kind of authoritarian control Iran had lived under for nearly fifty years.

Venezuela was also mentioned as a country where the crew sees similar dynamics at play. The conversation was brief but pointed, and it set up the segment that followed more directly than Brent may have intended.

A Warning from Austria: What Tight Firearms Regulation Looks Like

[04:04]

At End of Trail the crew had the pleasure of shooting alongside an Austrian competitor, Doc Shirewood, and a friend of his whose name they did not have on hand. Doc Shirewood’s friend told them a story about firearms regulation in Austria that the hosts found both illuminating and unsettling.

In Austria, firearms storage regulations are strict enough that a licensed owner’s spouse is legally prohibited from having access to the safe. One day while Doc Shirewood’s friend was at work, police arrived at his home and demanded to inspect his firearms. His wife answered the door and explained that her husband was at work and that she did not have access to the safe, as required by law. That turned out to be exactly the right answer. The visit was a compliance test. Had she been able to provide access to the safe, the firearms would have been confiscated on the spot, because that access itself would have constituted a violation. The regulation is designed so that the only acceptable outcome is that the spouse cannot open the safe, and enforcement is structured to catch anyone who falls short of that standard.

The crew drew the obvious parallel to where California’s regulatory trajectory points if left unchecked. The story is not hypothetical. It is a description of a functioning legal regime in a Western democracy. The California Rifle and Pistol Association exists in part to make sure that kind of regulatory architecture does not take hold here.

Join the CRPA: The Fight Is Ongoing

[05:58]

Coming out of the Austrian story, the crew made their most direct CRPA pitch of the night. If you are listening to this show and you are not already a member of the California Rifle and Pistol Association, that needs to change. The CRPA is the organization doing the day-to-day work of monitoring Sacramento, responding to legislation as it moves, and making sure California gun owners have a coordinated voice. Membership is the most direct way to support that work. You can join at gunslingerradio.com/join-crpa.

The crew’s framing was not abstract. The Austrian story had just illustrated what a regulatory environment looks like when no organized resistance exists to slow it down. The CRPA is that resistance in California. The show’s position is that membership is not optional for anyone who takes the Second Amendment seriously.

May 30th Auction Preview: Vintage Colts, WWII Militaria, and Cowboy Guns

[06:50]

With two minutes left in the show, the crew ran through what is coming on May 30th at Gunslinger Auctions. The short version: it is going to be a significant sale.

On the Colt side, the catalog spans from 1902s through a wide range of 1911 variants in .45 ACP, .38 Super, and 9mm. Among the highlights is an Ed Brown custom 1911 that the manufacturer themselves describes as a historic piece, with comparable examples selling in the $10,000 to $15,000 range. If vintage Colts are your category, this auction warrants attention.

The World War II militaria side is equally strong. The crew previewed sniper rifles from Japan, Germany, the USSR, and a British example that came in its original wood box. The German semi-automatic rifles include both the Gewehr 43 and the earlier Gewehr 41, the latter being the Wehrmacht’s first attempt at a semi-automatic infantry rifle, a design that saw limited adoption in part because it was not favored at the command level. Both are serious collector pieces.

The cowboy action side of the catalog carries everything discussed on the show this week: SKB side-by-sides, Stoeger shotguns, Uberti 1873 clones, the Japanese-made Winchester 1873 that competitors have been speaking well of, and a selection of single-action revolvers. If a full cowboy action rig is what you are after, the May 30th sale is the place to build one. The crew also mentioned the possibility of an additional summer auction if a large private collection currently in conversation comes through. No date is set, but it is worth watching.

The full catalog will be available at HiBid and Proxibid as the date approaches. Registration is free and open now.