SHOT Show Archives

The biggest secret in rifleslings is the Kodiak Sling from Limbsaver. You probably know this company for their damping technology and sights in the archery business, but they have secretely created the best riflesling ever made as well. You have seen our Kodiak sling on the Ambush Rifle we use all the time in our hunting articles with our guide Dwayne Powell at Kissimee River Hunt & Fish, and now they have come out with a lighter version that uses nylon instead of rubber for much of the non-bearing surfaces. Something as simple as a riflesling isn’t usually a big story, but these slings have a handle on them, made of rubber, so you have a firm place to hold the weight of your arm up as you walk along with your rifle. They sell these at most big box stores and a lot of stocking gun dealers, so stop and try one. Also check out the new AR accessories. They have a front grip with a riflestock profile. Neat stuff from Limbsaver for 2013. Note that if you order the Kodiak online, the “crossbow” sling is the same as the rifle sling and is easier to find.

In a gunfight microseconds count. Turning on a laser can cost you a bunch of time, so several of the laser companies have come up with different ways to turn on the laser instinctively, without a separate thought operation required. Viridian’s take on it is the Tac-Loc holster, which they call an Enhanced Combat Readiness technology. Marketing terminology aside, the holster actual turns on the laser as you draw it, so you don’t have to put your finger in a certain place and press, and you don’t have to hold the gun in any particular way for the laser to go on. We have not tested this in house, so this Media Day at the range outing was the first we got at it in actual use. If you have been wondering how it actually works, it works great, but be aware that not all of their units fit all of the holsters. If you already have a Viridian green laser, make sure it actually fits the Tac-Loc holster before you buy one. We should have more stuff from Viridian this week. This is kind of a follow up to the introduction at last year’s SHOT Show because we haven’t actually gotten our hands on one over the course of the year.

Ok, before you beat our host Julie Mac up for calling this a rifle (er, twice), please keep in mind that Julie is a regular shooter here in Las Vegas, but she has never been exposed to shotguns. This was her first encounter out at Range Day, and though she shot that .375 Cheytac from APO at 500 yards and dinged the steel, she was afraid to actually shoot these three barrel shotguns. Ron Norton from Chiappa was such a gentleman for not correcting her and just saying SHOTGUN loudly twice, so do him a favor and go buy one of these silly guns. Three barrel shotgun and rifle combination guns, called Drillings, were very popular right after WWI in Europe, but I personally have never seen a three barrel sidexside+middle like this before. The Triple Crown and Triple Threat may do very well in the market because of the sheer simplicity of firing 3 rounds of 12 gauge in a home defense situation. At about $1,600, they aren’t cheap, but leave it to Chiappa, makers of that nifty, different, and great shooting Rhino revolver, to come up yet again with everyone’s new favorite oooh and aaah gun at the range.

Over 100 years later the Colt 1911 soldiered on in 2012 by capturing a huge new service contract for the United States Marines for 12,000 pistols, made by Colt Manufacturing in Hartford, Connecticut. We tried to get a review gun as soon as the news dropped, but the gun wasn’t available for the consumer market. Colts are generally tough to get anyway, because consumer demand is so high for them, yet on the handgun side, Colt is not a huge company. It is with great pleasure that we got the news here at SHOT that Colt will be producing 80 of these USMC guns per month for the consumer market. The price will probably be somewhere in 2nd mortgage land, but hey, it’s a Colt and it will only go up in value. These are actually going to be Colt Custom Shop guns, so they will be tuned and slicked up as well. Nobody thought to bring any Hoppes to the Colt tent at Media Day so we only have dirty pictures of the gun, but this is the actual gun they will be selling to the public. Eighty guns a month isn’t going to be enough, but at least we’ll have a shot a getting one. It takes a little while to process the 2nd mortgage anyway.

The small gun market has exploded over the last few years with a vast expansion of concealed carry permit holders across America. One of the very first companies to perfect the extremely small gun was Kahr, and they carry 6 patents to that effect, many of which have actually been defended successfully in court. They are extremely high quality firearms, but the P series is very expensive, prohibitively so for many features. For this reason, Kahr started making some of their smaller guns in a C series, to bring down the overall cost. They did this by simplifying the manufacturing process, eliminating some of the more complex operations that only added marginal performance. These C series guns are still better performers than most of the other small guns in the market, at about the same price. Here at SHOT 2013 we take a look at the new CW380 and CM45. All Kahr firearms are manufactured in Worcester, Massachusetts.
This video also covers Magnum Research, which is owned by Kahr. They make their guns in Minnesota, the most famous of which is the Desert Eagle. Over the years this gun has obviously been a movie gun favorite, but it has also become very popular with gun nerds and handgun hunters. For 2013 Magnum Research will be selling a 10″ barrel for their guns, in .50 and .44, and they do swap out easily with your standard barrel. Magnum Research will also be offering a porting service for their guns. For $200 they will make it look a lot cooler.

New from FNH-USA for SHOT Show 2013 comes a long slide FNS in .40S&W made for competition. It should be priced along the lines of the existing FNS guns, but it will come with three different sight configurations for different rule sets of competitive shooting. The sights you see in the video here are the standard, drift adjustable “Svigney” sights that are also meant for holster carry. A lot of LEOs and belt holster CCW guys have come to prefer a long sight radius for daily use. When the front and rear sights are farther apart it gives you a lot more of a precision alignment for a slightly longer shot. Our test of the FNS was stellar, so much so that people thought it was some kind of PR piece from the company itself, but it wasn’t. There are a lot of great black pistols out there, but if you put your ear to the ground for range chatter, the FNS has been at the top of the pack since its release.

Also check out the new Ballista from FNH. This is one of those very high end sniper rifles that has come out of the government’s competition to replace the M24 and M40. FNH has brought their entry to the civilian market at under $7,000 in .338 Lapua and two other calibers, probably .300 Win. Mag. and .308. FNH makes more than half of all US Military arms, so you can never question that the gun will be of the highest possible standards. We hope to get one of these Ballista rifles in this year for a full review.

Mossberg has added to their MVP bolt action rifle series by expanding their Flex line of innovative modular construction. If you didn’t see the Flex Shotgun last year, the design is unique, because it utilizes a completely tool-less system. You pop out the removal lug and pop it back in. There are no parts to lose and no parts to booger with a screwdriver. The Flex system is brilliant and has nothing by great reviews.

The Mossberg MVP rifle series is meant to be a ton of gun for the money, and that succeed at exactly that. This new MVP Patrol rifle is one of those
guns that is purely aimed strait at people needing a patrol-style bolt rifle meant to put meaningful hits downrange, at a reasonable and affordable price. You may not be in law enforcement, but this rifle is light, carries well, and comes with features you’d expect to see in a much higher priced gun.

This year for SHOT Show we have scheduled currently over 50 videos coming your way over the next couple weeks. There is a crushing amount of footage to edit for our team, and some of the spirit of the show has gotten lost in prior years. We are hoping to bring you a little more flavor of the show this year, and our host Julie Mac is having a lot of fun with it. Media Day is the day before SHOT, on Monday, and it takes place out at a giant range in the desert outside of Las Vegas for more than 1,000 members of traditional and new media. We used our video and pictures from Media Day 2012 this entire past year as guns from Media Day came in for review, but 2013 was completely different. Bone chilling cold, in the low 20s, with a 30+ MPH wind, made even taking notes nearly impossible, but it didn’t dampen the spirit of the event even a little bit. This short video is worth the time to watch it, and we still have at least half a dozen more coming on specific products this week as well. Cracked and frozen hands didn’t stop Julie from shooting every gun she could get her hands on, even a .375 Cheytac from Ashbury Precision Ordnance. It was a fun day.

If you are going to actually click through on some of these companies from SHOT 2013, Ashbury Precision Ordnance wouldn’t be a bad choice. They are the “in your face” company of long range rifle chassis. We stumbled on APO last year at Media Day at the Range, and as you’ll see from the video, they have an absolutely fascinating line pf products to learn about. The rifle chassis you see here are completely modular and interchangeable, so you can go from a bare bones starter system and upgrade it to the most tricked out model they make. They also have unique features, and many of them are patented. Check out some of the new products for this year. This is a long video, but cool stuff just keeps coming so hang in there and watch the whole thing. Ashbury Precision Ordnance makes muscle cars, that fit on your long range or hunting rifle.

You may have spotted a big black rubber shooting block in some of our recent articles. It is made by this company, Range Systems. We have found it a great replacement for sandbags and traditional cloth and metal rests because you can leave it outside. This SHOT video appointment was an education in the other stuff that the company makes, and it is far more advanced than a simple shooting block. Range Systems makes whole bulletproof rooms for law enforcement training, as well as gunsmith and home range traps, all based on the same thick rubber technology as our humble little range block. Now Range Systems is even making steel target systems, check out the video.

It was 1526 when Beretta was pressed into service producing gun barrels for the Republic of Venice, and the fact the company continues to thrive speaks volumes about its dedication to producing quality firearms. One of the company’s introductions for 2013, the 692 Sporting over-under shotgun, continues that tradition, with an eye toward competitive shooters.

Employing a new style of barrel from the company called Steelium Plus, the forcing cone has been lengthened to 360 millimeters in a 76 centimeter barrel (prior to the development of Steelium technology, the typical forcing cone on competition barrels was only 65 millimeters). The change, according to Beretta, increases performance while reducing muzzle rise and perceived recoil. The 12-gauge shotgun is chambered for three-inch shells.

You may ask, “Who is Meopta?” It isn’t an optics brand that you don’t bump into much when you walk into a big box store, yet worldwide Meopta is considered to be in the top tier of optics, with the likes of Zeiss and Leopold. Meopta is an 80+ year old company based out of the Czech Republic that has made optics and related products for the likes of NASA. Over the last few years, after opening offices in the US, Meopta has gained a reputation in America for building some of highest quality and well thought out optics products in the market. Meopta designs, develops, and builds its own products, including their own reticles, glass, and tubes for their scopes. No outsourcing.
At SHOT, they introduced several new rifle scopes and two new holographic sights. In the video our host Julie Mac takes you through their flagship hunting scope, a 3.5-10 x 44 lightweight big game model that is extremely light and extremely high quality.

A year ago all the buzz in guns was about the Springfield XDS, a six round pocket .45ACP that proved to be a game changer in the concealed carry world. Everyone has asked over the past year, will the XDS be available in 9mm and .40 S&W? For SHOT Show 2013, Springfield answered for the 9mm, and the answer is yes. The XD-S 9mm is the same dimensions as the XD-S .45ACP, but it holds ?? more rounds. We got to shoot the gun today with Rob Leatham, and as little as the .45ACP kicks in the XD-S, the 9mm is even lighter shooting. Check out our Media Day at the Range video with our host, Julie Mac. No word yet on an XD-S .40, but the 9mm is going to be a big hit. Hopefully we’ll get one soon for a full review.

Bullet design is tricky. On the one hand you want to bullet to open up, but you also want good penetration. Add in some barrier materials, like clothing, wallboard, glass and car doors, and the dynamics of how a bullet behaves after it leaves the gun gets a little squirrely. The classic hollowpoint works great in gelatin, but shoot through a jean jacket and flannel shirt into the same gelatin and it will sometimes fail to open up. Law enforcement test ammo in the real world every day, and though many “carry rounds” perform very well overall, they sometimes fail on specific barriers. The FBI designed an Ammunition Protocol Test to address these issues, and this Hornady Critical Duty ammunition was the result. The “heavy duty” bullets are designed to stay together through common barriers, including heavy clothing, drywall, plywood, sheet metal and glass, yet they also open up and don’t over-penetrate. You may be familiar with the Hornady Critical Defense line of carry ammo, and Critical Duty is the next step up for the challenging needs of law enforcement and personal self defense in an urban environment.

In the blitz of demand for Ruger’s polymer pistols, it is easy to forget that America’s gunmaker has the widest line of firearms in the industry. For SHOT 2013 Ruger has introduced three new bolt rifles based on the reliable M77 platform. All three guns have a new heavy caliber muzzle brake from Ruger called the “radial-port” muzzle brake that is said to reduce recoil significantly, and we can’t wait to get one of these guns in to give them a try. The Ruger Guide Gun has an estimated street price of about $900 and is available in several .30 caliber magnums up to .375 Ruger. The new Hawkeye African with the radial-port muzzle brake is available in calibers up to .416 Rigby and is expected to be the same price. Both of those guns have open sights installed, and it appears there will be a left hand in .375 Ruger. The Magnum Hunter is currently available in only .300 WIn. Mag. at $829 expected street price, and comes standard with a Hogue overmolded stock. We also expect a few new Ruger #1 rifles this year, including maybe a .284, but they weren’t ready for the show. There is also a new lightweight American we hope to get to later in the week. Expect an exciting year for Ruger hunting rifles, made in America by Americans. This is a sneak peek with our host Julie Mac from Media Day at the Range, SHOT Show 2013.

Add this to the old “you learn something new every day” column. If you are wondering what is that strange logo on that Colt, it is the logo of Colt Competition Rifle, and Oregon based company licensed by Colt to make extremely accurate and reliable versions of their AR-15 platform rifles. This was our most interesting story today at Media Day at the Range. These rifles are made with special Colt parts, made to exacting tolerances that are too tight for a military specification M4. Priced from about $2200 to $3500, the guts of the guns, in both .223/5.56 and .308/7.62, are the same regardless of price, and each rifle is hand crafted by one gunsmith regardless of price. The price difference is a function of what components go on the guns, and almost every part you see on these guns, from the forends to the scope mounts, are custom crafted by Colt Competition Rifle in Oregon. No rifle leaves the factory until it is tested on a bag with a human shooter at under 1 MOA using factory ammo, and the laminated target comes with the rifle. Several of the actual competition guns at the show were tested with the inexpensive steel cased Hornady Steel Match. These are real Colts, not just licensed copies, and Colt engineers sign off on all the mods built into these stock rifles from Colt Competition Rifle. This is a really cool story and a pleasant surprise. Check out our Media Day at the Range with our host Julie Mac on a few of the ten models this year from Colt Competition Rifle.

Every year at SHOT Show we try to get to some of the more interesting stuff first, and the Smith & Wesson Custom Shop is always in that bunch. When you think of Smith & Wesson, you usually think of production guns available at just about any gunshop, but the Custom Shop is a whole other thing. If you are of the bent to buy something like a standard Smith & Wesson 1911, then bring it to your local gunsmith to have it tricked out, the Smith & Wesson Custom Shop is meant to save you the trouble of rolling the dice to find a good gunsmith, then potentially getting some questionable advice about Smith & Wesson firearms. Custom Shop guns are hand tuned out of the box. These 1911s even have hand lapped rails and select custom parts. If you plan to compete with a 1911 or you just want the most accurate carry gun that money can buy, check out the labor of love you’ll find at the Smith & Wesson Custom Shop. These guys aren’t just gun nuts, they are Smith & Wesson nuts.

Smith & Wesson re-launched their “E” Series of 1911s this year and they have been very well received in the market. With an MSRP in the $1300 range and street price much less, you get a lot of advanced features in this new 1911 that you would have to pay a gunsmith for with most other guns. These are 100% “nextgen” 1911s, and besides the modern looking fish scale serrations and the accessory rail that many of the guns have, the intereals of the gun appear to have the best of the good of the classic 1911 design, without including some of the bad ideas that have crept into the gun over the years. The Series 80 firing pin safety has been replaced with a titanium firing pin, so rather than block the pin with a problematic safety device, they just made the firing pin too light to set off a primer when the gun is dropped. They have also cleaned up the trigger housing and each of these guns has a hand fit trigger. Is it truly the quality of a $1,000 1911 with $2,000 worth of work as is claimed in the video? Could be, but we hope to see one of these come in the door for some real-world testing. They look to be a really great buy in a 1911, and hey, they say Smith & Wesson on them, so they will retain their value and eventually become collectible. That’s a lot of selling points on a gun that has so many variants and options out there. Check out the video, and please don’t harp on George in the comments. He’s a big, tough, sensitive guy!

This is one of the brands in the Lyman family of products, Pachmayr, perhaps the most recognized name in aftermarket grips. The Pachmayr Grip Glove is an aftermarket grip company’s answer to the one piece polymer grip, one that you wouldn’t think would be a candidate for aftermarket grips. The plastic on a lot of the new polymer pistols is slippery, and even the ones that are as slippery are going to leave a lot of people wanting for something more substantial to grap onto. The ruberized grip sleeve has been around for a while to fill this purpose, but many of them tend to twist and turn as you shoot the gun. We have not had any of these in for review yet, but in general, if there is going to be one grip sleeve that doesn’t do this, it will be a Pachmayr, and we hope to follow up with them and get some review product in soon. Note that the models are gun specific, so they will be much likely to be ergonomically friendly than a “one size fits all” kind of thing. This video introduces three new models into the line, for the Smith & Wesson Bodygaurd, Ruger LC9 and Glock subcompact models.

You couldn’t miss Caracal at SHOT Show 2012. They had a big booth at Media Day, and all of the buses to and from the hotels from the show were wrapped in Caracal artwork. Their booth was downstairs with us, but it was very impressive, and this could be a gun that makes it to the US market this year. At $500, however, it will most likely be a non-starter.

We already saw the new Ambush hunting line from Daniel Defense and these are their new tactial guns. The .300 AAC Blackout round is getting widespread attention accross all of the shooting disciplines because it can be shot as a subsonic, meant for work with suppressors, and a supersonic for .30 caliber ballistics from a small package round. There is also a new Daniel Defense in 6.8 SPC, and some lighter options on their existing popular models. This is an end of the day interview and a little subdued, but you can see that it’ll be a strong year for Daniel Defense.

Scott Mayer pics up a few more interesting products to close out SHOT Show 2012. McMillan CS5, KleenBore, Cleaning Kits, TUFF1 Grips

Ruger’s rifle is a well-loved firearm and enjoys a loyal following for its rugged reliable properties. Many people love the traditional look of a wood stock and blued barrel. It’s also just a light and handy rifle for many as their “truck gun”. And for some, it’s the only legal semi-auto .223 rifle for civilians in states that ban rifles such as the AR-15.

Two videos in this post from Beretta at Media Day at the Range, SHOT Show 2012. One is the .22LR version of the groundbreaking ARX-160 assault rifle from Beretta, and the other is a sneak peak at the Beretta Nano, a thin little semi-auto pistol for concealed carry that should be a big hit in the market. Beretta is full steam ahead for 2012 with great new products and unique innovations.

Finally nobody has to believe GunsAmerica that the Teludyne StraightJacket is nothing short of a miracle for rifle accuracy over sustained fire. If you read our original article, Ultimate Accuracy Makeover, but didn’t send your gun to Teludyne, you may want to beat the crowds now because they have enlisted the H.P. White testing organization to certify the results, and you can download the PDF of the report.

The Swarovski EL Binocular is considered the product to beat when it comes to clarity, performance, durability, and value. Now Swarovski has added a rangefinder to this legendary product, and for those of us who carry a separate rangefinder and until now a lesser-quality bino, this could be the thing to get us to finally go out and invest in high quality Swarovski binos. This vidoe doesn’t have a lot of information in it so we went fishing around online and found that the 8×42 and 10×42 are 32 oz. and have a 61 degree field of view. The 8x has an MSRP of $3076 and street price just under $2800 and the 10x about $100 more. Investing in a Swarovski Binocular is a big decision for most sportsman, but for an extremely dedicated and loyal customer-base, they are purchase not known for regret. Swarovski optics are truly top of the line. This is a short video and worth watching if you are a serious hunter in the market for a quality binocular. And don’t forget that Swarkovski maintains a facility of over 20 people in Rhode Island, and that their customer service is second to none just like their optics.

Viridian has a nifty new product idea this year. They are called Enhanced Combat Readiness(ECR) holsters, and they have some kind of hold button built right into the holster. You set your light, laser, or combo, and when you put the gun in the holster it shuts off. When you then draw the gun it turns back on, in the configuration you chose, strobe, light on, light off, whatever. Also check out the micro light/laser combo in the traditional Viridian green laser. If you have wondered where to find a holster product for your rail pistol that includes a place for your front rail accessory, this complete package from Viridian is very impressive.

Some products just don’t deserve to stay in the file and closing our coverage of SHOT Show 2012, it would be a crime to not include mention of these incredible bleeding zombie targets we found at Media Day at the Range. Every shooting station at Media Day pretty much had at least one of these extremely unique targets, and they aren’t as cheesy as you may think. Not only do they bleed, they are also designed to “mutilate” with dozens or hundreds of rounds fired into them, so even dumping mags into them is somewhat pleasing as a reactionary target, with ongoing deterioration of the dummy as it slowly gets chewed away.

A first look a the new Rock River 1911 with a polymer frame and machined slide. It feels a little different than a standard steel 1911, but this was just a first look on a prototype gun. At the projected price point of about $800, this new 1911 will be a formidable competitor in the market at that price point, and higher price points. Rock River doesn’t mess around with anything they do and this gun is truly impressive.