The 2024 Wish List

This past weekend, we had  what we called a “Unicorn Sale.” We’d ended up with a large selection of guns that have been recently hard to get ahold of and highly sought after. We had fancy-grade Browning rifles and shotguns, an entire case of Desert Eagles, including a one of twenty “Steampunk” edition collectors gun, Nighthawk pistols, and a variety of limited edition of AR rifles.

All weekend long, I watched customers come in to see, hold, and go home with some of their grail-guns. I couldn’t help but think, if I were to make my first big gun purchase of the year, what would I settle on?

I have no shortage of ideas, as I’m constantly sitting in a shop full of high quality guns. I ended up compiling a list of my main wants and needs that fit into my upcoming year. It’s entirely possible I’m just rationalizing another gun purchase to myself, but in any case, these are some of the items I came up with! 

Thermals and night vision optics have been on my mind for years. I’ve thought about it, rethought about it, and circled back to the beginning. Choosing a high-quality thermal typically comes along with a high-quality price tag, so making sure you’re getting the right one for your needs is something that you don’t want to be second guessing. Luckily, after years of researching, testing, and stressing the sales staff out with an absolute overload of information about what makes the thermal optics we stock unique from each other, I’m almost ready to narrow it down.

But on a serious note, with another predator season in full swing, it would certainly check a box and put a lot of indecision to bed to finally make this the year I pulled the trigger on a quality thermal optic.

PDWs, SMGs, PCCs, Pistols, whatever you call them, I love them. Over the years, I’ve owned nearly all of them at one time or another. Currently, I don’t have one, and I think about that every time I’m packing for a range trip. It might be time to fix that.

For those of you who don’t know, or have never experienced owning a PDW style firearm, the customization is as endless as the AR platform, and building one into exactly what you want can take a lot of time and money. What you end up with on the other side however, is a multifunctional gun that’s a joy to shoot, and is oftentimes cheaper to feed than their rifle counterparts. 

There’s plenty of practice and drills to be run that make this type of setup ideal for the range. Oftentimes, I recommend this style of firearm for home defense as well, due to the readily available suppressors, lights, and optics you can bolt on, while still being able to put in quality training time with a bulk pack of pistol ammo.

We’ve had HK, CZ, MPA, and several others hanging on our display racks lately, and I can’t help but think, for my money, this might be worth making a project out of soon.

I love long range shooting. I love hunting. I love rifles. I have hunting rifles and depending on who you ask, I may have too many. Having accepted that fact, and deciding not to change, I decided to instead obsess over finding the most perfect, capable, one rifle to do everything.

While I may not ever decide on one single rifle that does all that I ever want, I can look at my upcoming year and try to plan out a project that will give me a lot of mileage. I have a lot of big game hunts on the horizon, and would like to see something that has power, durability, and enough weight to keep me grounded behind the rifle comfortably, but not enough to make me regret it many miles down a trail.

We have plenty of rifles, and browsing the rifle racks and optics case for a combination that fits your 2024 adventures is both a good way to get the gears turning, and if you’re like me, a dopamine hit that lasts for the entire day.

The photo above is a STRONG candidate at the moment. An ultra-light Christensen arms rifle in 7mm PRC with a Leupold Mk 5 on top, a setup with enough power and range to tackle anything I may throw at it this year.

Suppressors, because of their NFA status, can be a difficult commitment at times. For me personally, they’re a piece of a project that I can put off pretty easily. So what I’ve ended up with, is a few completed guns in my safe that are missing the suppressors that I had in mind when the idea was freshly born.

Right now though, the process for purchasing some of the ones I’m missing is easier than ever. The forms are handled electronically here in the store from fingerprints to submissions, and the cans are safely stored away until the approval comes through.

I use suppressors for everything, and my list of needs isn’t getting any shorter. A part of me is happy to have waited, because right now there’s a load of new suppressor design and technology on the market. Ultralight titanium cans to complement my hunting rifles, new flow-through options for my ARs, even stronger and lighter pistol cans for the small guns, all starting to fill the shelves. It’s a good time catch up and get some of the cans I’ve been missing.

These are just a few items from a long list of things I’ve had on my mind for the past few years. Encouraged by the promise of a new year, a calm lull in the industry, and the availability of our layaway program, I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to cross a couple off my list early in 2024.

What’s on your list? Do you have a grail-gun or a project you’ve been putting together in your head? What do you want to add to your collection this year? If you want to try one of our new features, you can leave a comment below, or as always, email me at cj@fuquaygun.com and let me know!