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The AR-10 finally is available with a non-proprietary magazine, it takes Magpul P-Mags now. Also some new uppers from Armalite as they charge ahead with a 7.62×39 and 6.8SPC upper for their iconic rifles.

If you carry a .40S&W duty pistol and would like to be able to use all those extra rounds in your backup revolver, Charter Arms has finally come to market with their affordable line of revolvers for rimless cartridges. The guns are currently available in gunshops and from what we saw at SHOT Show this year, they work great, even in the blowing sand of the desert with dirty cheap surplus ammo.

Every gun used for daily carry deserves a quality and comfortable leather holster system, and these belts and holsters from Aker Leather are second to none. Aker is a small company with big products, and these are new for SHOT Show 2012.

This is a company we bumped into on Media Day before SHOT Show 2012, and they seem to have nailed the whole plastic cased ammo thing. It is a dream come true if it is what they say it is, but from what we could tell these were just test rounds made for the show. Hopefully we’ll see more of PCP Ammo, and hopefully the stuff works as good as it appears to.

The Ruger firearms tradition is about to experience nothing short of a slam dunk. What else would you call a six and a half pound 22″ barrel Ruger deer rifle that has a modern design polymer stock, trigger safety, four round rotary magazine, aggressive recoil pad, shoots into about an inch at 100 yards consistently, and has an MRSP of $449? Ruger calls it the American Rifle, and I call that a slam dunk.

Over and over we are hearing from manufacturers in the American firearms industry that they are bringing to market a “completely new gun.” I think it is actually because of the internet. Because where it used to be that a product succeeded or failed, and the reason for the success or failure was largely a mystery. The ubiquitous voice of the internet now can and does let you know almost immediately what consumers like about your product and what they don’t like, and this gives you the power to change your product to better meet their needs.

Stag Arms had two new products at SHOT that are going to take a lot of the guesswork out of self-defense and 3-Gun competition for shooters who want “turn-key” solutions. The 2012 Executive Survivor’s Kit (ESK) is a special project done in partnership with Stag distributor LAN World and specifically marketed toward affluent people who have themselves, their family, and assets to protect during a “survival” situation. The kit is not set up for surviving a zombie apocalypse or an end of the world scenario, but instead for the more plausible scenario of being displaced for a few days by some disaster. I’ll be the first to admit that the whole “Katrina” thing has been done to death, but there never fails to be some new natural or domestic threat to make you realize that you need a gun. With social movements such as “occupiers” who think they’re somehow entitled to “their fair share” of what YOU own, I don’t blame people for being concerned about their safety.

SHOT Show is always an exciting time for us gun enthusiasts, as we wait with baited breath for new models. This year is no different, but Colt did one better, they re-introduced a longtime favorite, while continuing to build on their winning line of 1911-style pistols.

So far the biggest story I have seen at SHOT Show 2012 is the XDS from Springfield Armory. It is a single stack .45ACP that holds 5 rounds in the magazine and 1 in the chamber. The barrel is 3.3 inches, and the overall length is 6.3 inches. It is only one inch thick. Empty the XDS weighs 21 ounces, and it is a striker fired pistol in the tradition of the XD and XD(M), with a polymer frame and forged steel slide.

I don’t know how many times we need to say that Springfield Armory is always raising the bar, but Springfield Armory is always raising the bar. Last year at SHOT Show about a half a dozen companies came out with single stack 9mm ultra-compacts. Over the past year they have all come into the market, with mixed reviews on most (our favorite was by far the Walther PPS). This year some of those guns have now been released in .40S&W, and it is common for 9mm and .40S&W to share the same frame in pistols. But when you want to make a pistol that small in a .45ACP, you have to go back to square one and make a whole new gun, and that is what Springfield Armory did.

Every gun nut looks for that perfect .22 pistol that will always be a staple of their gun collection. Even if you have more than one, and most of us do have several, a .22 pistol is lifetime purchase, so even though they are less expensive than most centerfire pistols, you have to choose carefully.

The “old” Ruger .22LR pistol, currently called the Mark III, is one of those guns you can always advise someone to choose and they will never regret it. The classic Luger lines of the gun and the hefty weight of 30oz. and up make it easy to shoot for novice shooters, and steady and accurate for a lifetime of punching paper and eliminating the dreaded grey squirrel. The Ruger Mark III will never let you down. But the world has moved on from steel guns, and most people want a .22LR pistol that looks and feels like the centerfire pistol they use for home defense, concealed carry, or competition.