We’ve re-printed her blog post from Core77.com with permission. Copyright 2012 Core77.com – Barbra Eldredge. Keep an eye out for our APO SHOT Show Wrap-Up next week. NSSF did a great job on this years exhibition.

SHOT Show 2012: APO’s Custom Firearms

Gear heads love to mod their cars and shooting sports aficionados love to mod their guns. It makes sense then that Ashbury Precision Ordnance (APO) developed a unique modular firearm that enables user customization and changeability. Their SABER-FORSST Modular Rifle Chassis System lets one choose between interchangeable options for the gun’s shoulder stock, center, and barrel/forend while sporting rails that accommodate non-proprietary accessories like sights.

I had the opportunity to fire one of the newest incarnations of the system, the ASW50. “ASW” stands for Asymmetric Warrior—asymmetric war is the kind of conflict where the combatants are not equal in resources and military power. Think guerrilla warfare. Think insurgency. The ASW50 is a long-range “precision tactical rifle” with manageable recoil and an easy trigger. It may look a little imposing, but with this rifle I was able to hit a spade-shaped target 300 yards away (and I’m no crack shot).

More interestingly, APO’s parent company Ashbury International runs a Rapid Product Development Center that helps users bring customization to a whole new level. Firearm components, just like many other industrial products, are CAD drawn and CNC produced. If I had a brilliant idea for a new trigger mechanism or a maybe bump-firing butt-stock, I can send my sketch and concept to Ashbury’s RPDC and have it made into a reality. I spotted several companies at SHOT that performed CNC machining or metal injection molding but Ashbury’s was the only one that offered to manufacture products without pre-made CAD renderings.

Obviously there is no better time to launch this site than during the SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Media Day at the Range was an outstanding success, and the first day of the show was wicked busy! We are meeting tons of new people and appreciate your interest in our products. Our new HUNTER chassis and soon to be released Modular Hunting Rifles are getting alot of attention. We are astounded with the great reception our new ASG Airsoft Sniper Rifle is receiving here at the SHOT Show. Check out this video interview we did yesterday at the show! The ASW338LM is truly the “wicked stick”! More to come from the 2012 SHOT Show.

In addition to it’s sexy appearance, the Ashbury ASW338 LM airsoft rifle will be compatible with VSR10 internals, compatible with standard AEG barrels, cast aluminum construction and weighing in at a realistic 6kg (13.2lbs). Out of the box, the ASG APO ASW338 LM sniper rifle will clock in at 330 FPS with endless upgrade opportunities. To top it off, will be adorned with authentic Ashbury Precision Ordnance (APO) licensing. ASG and VFC have done a magnificent job building a faithful representation of our rifle! Also our thanks to the Everything Airsoft website for their coverage. This ASG Airsoft Rifle is one BAMF!!

If you are a member of the media or trade press attending the SHOT Show this year, please stop by and see the ASG Ashbury ASW338LM Sniper Airsoft Rifle and shoot the real ASW338LM_20A2 Precision Tactical Rifle. Check out all the smokin hot new Airsoft replica’s at the ActionSportGames Booth #2643. We look forward to meeting you at our Ashbury Booth #26407.

Contact Bob Collins at ActionSportGames USA 805/522-7707 for information on where to purchase the ASG Ashbury ASW338LM Sniper Airsoft Rifle. You can also visit the ActionSportGames Website (www.actionsportgames.com)

Safe travels to Las Vegas!

We’d like to greatly thank Armada Magazine for including our APO equipment and information in their Armada Compendium Special Operations Equipment 2011 “Land Power= Firepower + Mobility” article that came out in December 2011 (copyright Armada Magazine). Please visit the Armada Magazine website to read the entire edition. Stay tuned for the soon to be launched new Ashbury Precision Ordnance Mfg website!

Let us all seek to make every day “Veterans Day”. Whenever we see an American Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine or Guardsman, may we all take just a few seconds to thank them for the sacrifices they make every single day to protect the United States of America.

On a personal note, we wish to express our gratitude to a great veteran from our own family who served this country during some of our most perilous times. We will truly miss you, Cousin Cliff.

Oct 25 2011

New Mexico, Rio Rancho

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Clifford William Morrow, 96, of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, died Thursday, October 13, 2011 in Albuquerque, NM. He was born March 11, 1915 to William Noah and Caroline Mae (Emmons) Morrow in Milan Ohio.

 Lieutenant Colonel “Cliff” Morrow graduated from Milan High School in 1933 and attended Georgetown University. Colonel Morrow entered the armed forces with the 145th Infantry of the Ohio National Guard’s 37th Division. He commanded L Company, 145th Infantry in the assault of New Georgia in the Solomon Islands and was awarded the Silver Star Medal for Gallantry in Action.

 During the defense of the American forces beach head on Bougainville, Colonel Morrow commanded G Company, 145th Infantry, in defense of Hill 700 and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Valor. Later, he left the South Pacific Theater of Operations and was assigned to the 7th Army Headquarters as an air-ground liaison officer with the 324th Fighter Bomber Wing of the U.S. Army Air Corps.

 During the Korean Police Action, Colonel Morrow commanded the 1st Battalion, 31st Infantry, during the action on “Pork Chop Hill” and was awarded a second Bronze Medal for Valor. Colonel Morrow also held other military decorations including the Combat Infantry Badge with Star for service as an infantryman in two wars and the Distinguished Marksman Badge for excellence in marksmanship competitions.

 For a time, Cliff served as a conservation officer with the Ohio Division of Natural Resources. He was instrumental in creating the preserve known as Magee Marsh Wildlife Area near Lake Erie. He also served as a training officer for the Ohio National Guard. In 1963, Colonel Morrow began working for the National Rifle Association (NRA) as the coordinator for their national matches. He later became the director of Hunting and Conservation Activities for the NRA and organized the Hunting and Conservation Division, which was later named the Hunter Services Division. Colonel Morrow retired in 1977 and made his home in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. He was the published author of three books.

 Private services will be held with interment at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. The date is to be determined.

By the time colonists declared themselves free of British rule on July 4, 1776, they had the highest standard of living in the world, higher than that of England itself.

In the 167 years since the first 500 settlers landed in Virginia to carve a society out of the wilderness, their number had grown to more than two million. A majority could read and write.

They had established colleges – including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia universities and the University of Pennsylvania – in five of their thirteen colonies.

They had developed a postal system that from Maine to Florida and from New York to Canada. A public hospital had been established in Pennsylvania and one was evolving in New York.

And, having largely governed their colonies to their liking for more than 100 years, they had come to think of themselves as Americans – though they paid taxes, as well as penalties, to the motherland.

First it was one thing, then another: The Iron Act limited the growth of the American iron industry. The Currency Act banned the issuance of paper money. The Sugar Act applied duties to imported sugar and other items such as textiles, coffee, wines and indigo, doubled the duties on foreign goods reshipped from England to the colonies and forbade the import of foreign rum and French wines.

The Stamp Act imposed taxes on all printed materials, including newspapers, pamphlets, bills, legal documents, licenses, almanacs, dice and playing cards. The Quartering Act required colonists to house British troops and supply them with food. The Townshend Revenue Acts imposed taxes on paper, tea, glass, lead and paints. Fishing had been banned in the North Atlantic, the colonial government in Massachusetts had been suspended, and the English infantry had come ashore at Boston Harbor, firing pointblank into a crowd.

The First Continental Congress formed the Continental Army under the leadership of George Washington, and appointed a committee to draft a declaration of independence.

Called upon to write the draft, Thomas Jefferson expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people at that time. The political philosophy expressed in the document was not new; its ideals of individual liberty had already been expressed by Continental philosophers.

Jefferson summarized this philosophy in “self-evident truths” and set forth a list of grievances against the King of England in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country. That summary would become this country’s most enduring document.

It reads, in part: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights … that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

“Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government … when a long train of abuses and usurpations … evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Two hundred seventeen thousand died for that conviction between the time the “shot heard ‘round the world” was fired across Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775 and British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown, Virginia on October 17, 1781. More than 6,000 suffered non-mortal wounds.

The fight for those convictions has been ongoing.

Statistics show that all told, as of March 2010 more than 42 million Americans have served in the nation’s military during times of war. More than 650,000 have died on battlefields, another 540,000 have died in service, and nearly a million and a half have suffered non-mortal wounds.

And, there are more than 17 million American military veterans still living.

Ashbury International Group salutes them all and God bless the United States of America!

The 2011 SHOT Show opens today! We are looking forward to seeing many old friends and meeting new ones. Please stop by booth #26407 and be sure to say hello!

Ashbury International Group SHOT Show booth #26407