rlauferblog

Covering SHOT Show 2020 a few weeks ago was a lot of fun although I left with some sadness knowing some of those great products will never make it to Canada.

No need to worry about that with the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association (CSAAA) 2020 National Trade Show as it is dedicated to showcasing the newest firearms, archery, ammunition and shooting accessories hitting the Canadian market this year.

By way of background, the CSAAA supports and promotes hunting and sport shooting both as socially beneficial sporting activities and as business contributors to our economy. Ultimately, they promote and protect the legal rights of manufacturers, importers, resellers and stakeholders in the Canadian shooting sports industry. You may have seen their foundational research last year on the economic impact of the shooting industry.

The CSAAA also hosts two trade shows annually, one in Calgary and one in Toronto. As trade shows, these events are not open to the public but I was fortunate to obtain a media pass. Thank you again to CSAAA.

Ok on to the show…some aerial shots

my first stop was to check in with my good friend Gilles at Mossberg.

I am pleased to report that the Jerry Miculek / Lena Miculek re-designed 940 Pro will be coming to Canada. The new model is a considerable re-design and intended for 3 gun competition right out of the box. For example, based on Lena’s input, both the forened and magwell have been completely redesigned to allow for quad reloads. The semi-auto shotgun also now has an adjustable length of pull and a cleaner running gas recoil management system that can go 1500 rounds before cleaning.

This is the previous generation model for comparison.

I also like the 500 with the ATI Tactical kit including 6 position adjustable stock, Halo free floating heatshield, and the Add-a-Shell system side saddle.

Love the Kuiu Camo on the 590 Thunder Ranch…btw, that “tri-rail” will be replaced with M-lock.

The Flex has a quick change system to easily swap out the stock

Removable panel reveals Velcro to attach a pressure switch

The 590A1 Retrograde is a real beauty

Shockwave with corn on the cob forend

Lots of novelties at Trigger Wholesale including Lithgow black powder rifles

And .22lr precision rifles

More variations of the mag fed Typhon F12 (I think there are now 40 colour options!)

As well as the bullpup FD12

The Benelli M4 clone is now available in an elite package with two stocks and extra chokes

This shotgun uses Saiga mags! (limited to 5 rounds). I would buy it for that alone lol

Trigger Wholesale is also expanding into archery with Martin bows.

Precision .22LR, mag fed, and bullpup shotguns were also the theme at O’Dell Engineering….including the incredibly popular Derya.

The Spectre..i remember seeing the prototype of this at the first TACCOM show in 2018

Bergera

Including the new .22

North Sylva’s display focused on non-restricteds such as the Kriss Vector (which is indeed coming to Canada in .22lr), the BCL, now in burnt bronze, M+M, CZ Skorpion EVO

The new Charles Daly bullpup shotgun

And my personal favourite, the Tavor, including the 7

For those who prefer the more traditional, the FN competition bolt action gun, Norinco tranch gun, Chiappa mare’s leg, and a North Sylva exclusive Marlin.

Two new versions of the Ruger PC-9 have arrived at Big Rock, one with floating handguard and a second that also has an adjustable stock

Shown here next to the Hi-Point PCC…the Hi-Point is much lighter but limited to 5 round mags.

Another beauty at Big Rock, the 125th Anniversary Savage Model 110

 
As I reported in my SHOT Show review, Cadex has A LOT of new introductions including an R7 for hunting, new finishes, new two stage trigger, new bi-pod, new shotgun accessories etc. etc. As a Canadian company, it should be no surprise that all of these will be available locally.

New CDX-R7 SPTR

Compared to the R7 Sheepdog

And next to the chassis systems for which Cadex is so well known

New finishes such as Robin’s egg blue

The Bell outdoors booth

Their new airguns immediately caught my eye…fyi, these are over the 450 fps limit so they do require a PAL

Hatsan Shotguns

The SD12 mag fed…comes with a complete kit including mags, extra chokes, etc.

New at the Stoger booth, the Benelli Lupo (Italian for wolf), the first bolt-action from the company. The design focuses on ergonomics and recoil reduction and features seven exclusive Benelli patents.

Also new from Benelli, the B.E.S.T. surface treatment, a new proprietary finishing technology developed by Benelli to coat and protect steel with a tough, impenetrable armor that stops rust and corrosion.

The latest swag

Canik TP8SFX with lightening cuts on slide to reduce muzzle rise

The Elite Combat variant with a threaded barrel designed by Salient Arms International

Next some great optics at the Vortex booth

Binoculars…the second from the left is the top of the line Razor UHD

Monoculars

Laser range finders, the top of which is now capable of ranging out to 4000 yards

And of course scopes

Including the new Razor HD Gen III 1-10×24 FFP…a first focal plane with an illuminated red dot at 1X that turns into a reticle at higher magnifications

Also at the Vortex booth, Kershaw knives

including the Natrix copper

The Kershaw Emerson CQC-11k based on the Emerson Rendezvous

And my favourite knife of the show, the Kershaw Emerson cqc-6k in small (3.25” blade) and large (3.9”)

Dividend with composite blade made of CPM D2 and Bohler N690

Camp knife

More knives from Ruko…

Now available with an ultra robust coating…in custom patterns or text

Ruko’s own camo pattern

Ruko also imports Muela from Spain

Hydra-X Outdoor Adventure set with exchangeable blade system

Back to guns…lightweight hunters seemed to be the theme…such as this very fine Weatherby Mark V Ti, which uses titanium to keep it below the 5 pound mark!

Available with three stock designs (two of which are shown here…the third has more adjustability)

The 3D HEX reoil reducing stock was designed by a former NASA engineer who works at the company

There are many built in safety features such as the gas venting ports in the bolt and the shroud on the back of the action that were developed 50 years ago!

More fine guns from Weatherby…note the Vanguard First Lite camo one in the front…it is used by the hosts of a popular hunting TV show.

Winchester is my favourite ammo maker…I especially like their Ranger and Defender lines. Now they have introduced the USA Ready series, every box of which includes a lot number that allows you to look up your ballistics data online, including velocity, pressure and accuracy ratings — all related to your box’s lot.

I would like to meet the gun that fits that round!

Not only do you have to feed guns, you need to keep them clean too and for that, Gunzilla is a great option. This organic cleaner is safe to use on all guns and based on testimonials, has dramatically reduced weapon malfunctions in theatre, especially in desert / sandy conditions.

And to feed yourself, Code of Arms Coffee!

Last but not least, AmChar, where I ran into Adam, who you all know formerly from FOC and TACCOM.

AmChar is the top distributor for Glock pistols

And gear

AmChar is also the distributor for American Tactical Omni polymer AR15s…these are lined with steel and fully compatible with AR15 uppers and parts.

As well as Mossberg

So to recap, the main themes around new firearms were lightweight hunters as well as mag fed and bullpup shotguns.

I should point out that there was lots of archery equipment again but I did not really cover those booths simply because I don’t know much about archery…although I would like to learn!

Ultimately as a trade show, it was great to connect with members of the firearms industry. I had long conversations about the current political climate and I am happy to report that retailers are enthusiastic. I know of a few store and product line expansions (some have already been made public), showing that the industry is optimistic….and so am I!

RL

Intro

Ahhhh it is so great to be back in Vegas…and even greater to be back at SHOT Show!!! I had such an amazing time at SHOT Show 2018 that it will be hard to beat but I am confident that I can do it!

As in the case of 2018, I have done an enormous amount of planning, even though I am more familiar with the layout. Why all the planning? Well, the main show is 690,000 square feet or 12 squares miles (the same as the base of the Grand Pyramid in Giza). It now extends to secondary venues and includes over 1,600 exhibitors on the show floor but that increases to over 2,400 if you include the Supplier Showcase and Pop-Up Preview. Access to SHOT is limited to 65,000 industry folk and 2,500 media members.

To put the size in perspective, consider that if you spend just 10 minutes at a booth (to take pics, handle guns, wait for your turn to handle them, talk to reps, get swag etc.), you could cover 6 per hour or 48 per 8 hour shift. That means in three days you would cover roughly 150 booths. But of course, you have to factor in walking time, breaks etc. so maybe 75 is more realistic. Per SHOT Show’s fact sheet, if you wanted to visit all booths, you could only spend 22 seconds at each!

Thankfully I have a co-author this year and collectively Tom and I plan to cover at least 100 booths. If we post just 10 pics per booth, that would result in a review with 1000 pics (our goal) that covers only 100/2400 or 4% of the show!!!! SHOT is BIG!

In preparation for SHOT, I picked up some cool gear such as this Otte Patrol Parka…thanks to Chris Costa for providing feedback on jacket options and to Parabellum Prime for the super speedy delivery!

I got some shirts made too…gotta look professional!

Along with a few other things that may show up during my review.

Monday Industry Day at the Range

Apart from being able to take pics, one of the greatest benefits of a Media Pass is that you get to attend Industry Day at the Range and shoot everything from super compacts to full auto to suppressed with no limits on ammo.

And the amount of ammo consumed is staggering! Consider that there are 2,500 media folks and if each one shoots 20 guns with 10 rounds each, that would be half a million rounds! I can’t remember the exact round count but from what I recall, it was even higher than that.

Here is an aerial view of the incredibly beautiful range, courtesy of SHOT. I will have more of my own range shots below.

Industry day was awesome! We shot a ton of guns and many exceeded our expectations. Tom and I took about 400 pics and shot lots of vids. I suspect you are anxious to see them so I will start with some of my pics and let Tom chime in with his.

We started at the Geissele booth expecting to see some AR15s fitted with their legendary triggers…we were half right! I was not aware that Geissele soft launched their own in-house made AR15 last year and is fully launching the lineup at this year’s SHOT show. Needless to say, the triggers on them were great.

Next, OSS suppressors…I opted for one mounted on an AK and it was one of my favourite guns of the day.

It was great to get an explanation of the internals of the OSS suppressors. I dare say that I enjoy shooting suppressed firearms more than full auto!

My absolute favourite of the day though was the B&T USW-A1 with its collapsible stock and platform specific Aimpoint site. It made such a difference to shoot it with the stock extended! I will definitely get one of these!

The Alien was certainly the most unique gun of the day…it has the lowest bore axis on the market with the fixed barrel and the interchangeable slide top allows you to swap optics in a breeze (with 90% zeroing)…it can also reliably fire any load of 9mm with its piston system. It is an expensive gun for sure but a lot of thought went into the unique features.

I was quite anxious to try the re-introduced Colt Python…it was available with 4” and 6” barrels and I opted for the longer while Tom shot both. It was nice but not something I would buy.

Another re-release high on our “must try” list was the HK SP5…available in several configurations, Tom and I opted for the traditional profile with iron sights….so satisfying to do that HK slap lol…and it shot great!

No surprise that the Glock booth was all about the new 44 in .22lr…now I have shot Glocks with .22 conversion kits so I kind of had an idea of what it would be like but I have to say the 44 exceeded my expectations! It was lighter than I expected while the trigger was better…I would not hesitate to buy one.

We also ran into Glock shooter Michelle Viscusi

I have read a lot of good things about the sub-compact Springfield Hellcat…it offers the largest mag capacity (13+1) in the smallest package. I tried variations with red-dot and iron sights and I actually shot better with the irons. I really like micro-compacts like the Glock 26 and the Hellcat felt just as good.

It was great to meet Rob Leatham at the Springfield booth

During the course of my research for SHOT, I came across the Rock Island Armory TCM22…a very intriguing round! It is essentially a .22 that moves at 2000 fps!

Here are some 1911s chambered in this round

It creates quite the fireball with no felt recoil!

Next we visited the long range section where I was happy to meet Rob Furlong, who has EXCELLENT taste in jackets lol

He must have given me some good luck as I hit both of my shots on target at 1090 yards out of a Cadex in 300 Norma Magnum…three times longer than I have ever shot before! That Cadex is quite something…and thanks to the Cadex team.

Tom and I were both impressed with Ruger’s latest offerings. First, the 5.7…it is much thinner and easier to hold / control than the FN

Next the Wrangler revolver…an aluminum (very light) frame .22 single action at a very affordable price (under $300 I believe)

Speaking of .22s, how about those long barrels!

More nice Rugers

By now you must have heard of the new Kriss Vector in .22LR…it does not use the Vector recoil mitigating system, rather a more conventional design. However, with a .22 you really don’t need it as there is no recoil anyway. Also, the quad rail allows a light to be mounted on top without obstructing the sight. It costs about a 1/3rd of a centre-fire Kriss.

Vs. the centre-fires in 9mm, 10mm, and 45acp

Just next to Kriss at Maxim Defense I ran into Kris “Tanto” Paronto

Pics of the spectacular range

Tuesday SHOT Show 2020 Day 1
OMG this is so incredibly frustrating! I have hundreds of pics to upload but this internet connection is not cooperating….i will share what I can for now…

The Media room is open an hour before the show so I hung out there for a bit and ran into none other than Hickock45!!!!

Per the SHOT Show 2019 fact sheet, the total weight of goods delivered for the show exceeded 7,000,000 pounds! This included more than 15,000 firearms, which were all inspected and tagged before being put on display. Did I mention that SHOT is big?

STI was the first booth that I visited in 2018 so I thought I would keep up the tradition, especially since there was a chance of seeing the actual movie gun from John Wick 3! Of course, I love my own JW3 gun but handling the real movie gun is still a special experience for me.

Sadly it was not there but I would get a related surprise later on in the day. In the meantime, STI briefed me on their totally new lineup of no less than 7 Staccato variants! Based on customer demand of people wanting to carry their competition guns, STI is moving more toward “tactical” as opposed to a pure competition gun. They have even brought back a single stack!

From a quality standpoint nothing will change as the guns will still be hand fitted and will retain features such as island barrels.

Next on my list, B&T, which was my favourite booth of the show so far. As I mentioned, I REALLY liked the USW-A1 at range day so I wanted to have a closer look.

I also REALLY liked this in SPR in 300 blackout with integrated suppressor!

As well as this grenade launcher.

Just great product from B&T.

I shot IWI’s T12 shotgun at 2018’s Range day but I missed their booth at the show to get better pics and to see a real UZI in person so I wanted to correct those issues.

And here is the micro Uzi!

The Tavor shotgun with rotating magazines.

Loved the cut-aways

I visited the Ed Brown booth to see two things in particular…first the new “Fueled by Ed Brown S&W M&P collaboration…while there are lots of custom Glocks out there, not as many people are doing custom M&Ps…this one has Ed Brown parts and is hand fit just like a custom…US$1999

And second, the Jeff Cooper re-release…the last time this model was available, I chose my Molon Labe over it…glad that I can have another chance

I got to meet / re-meet a lot of celebrities and industry icons today….such as Les Baer (he was not at the booth when I visited in 2018), who I also ended up seeing a second time in the hotel elevator later in the day lol.

I am holding the new American Handgunner

While he is holding this one

I also got to meet the founder of Freedom Arms…who had this very special set made in his honour

To me though, all of their great big caliber revolvers (and a single action) are works of art

I know a lot of people are into chassis systems, when I hear the words “precision rifle” I immediately think of the H-S Precision HTR. I especially like the take-down version.

H-S was showcasing many new, lighter hunting models in various finishes.

I especially liked this one.

That having been said, I’d be very happy with a Desert Tech lol…especially the Covert

Or for larger calibers…

The MDR is now available in multiple calibers.

I stopped at the Kel-Tec booth mainly to check out their KSG line of shotguns. Yes, they introduced some new handguns but the focus of my review is on things that I like not necessarily reporting on every new introduction lol.

I liked the ultra compact, which would be prohibited here I think but there is a version with an extended barrel that I handled recently at Bulls Eye London

Speaking of, look who I ran into at the booth! None other than Scott from Bulls Eye.

I knew that Tom was visiting Cadex so I wasn’t sure that I would but their booth sure caught my eye! (that happens at SHOT lol). LOT’S of great new products here.

The Sheepdog was introduced last year

…and now there is a lighter version for hunting.

The Kraken with interchangeable calibers…you can see the take down tools to make the switch in the second pic

And if you think that suppressor on the Kraken is big, check out the one on the .50BMG Tremor!

My personal favourite, the C.P.S with quick release stock

New colours

New two stage trigger (vs. single stage)

New rail mount

New bi-pod

And new shotgun accessories!

As you may know, I am just as much into knives as I am into guns, maybe even more so! I did visit several knife booths, such as Benchmade.

I took the opportunity to look at their latest Balisongs, since we don’t really see those here. The handles on these three are G10, steel, and titanium respectively. The magnetic latch on the titanium model was pretty cool (pretty much pops open when you squeeze the handles).

Apart from their Balisongs, my favourite Benchmade of all time is the Stryker designed by custom knifemaker Allen Elishewitz (who is at SHOT as he designs knives for Hogue), now only available as an auto.

I did like their new out the front auto a lot though

SHOT exclusive scales and S90V blade steel on this one

This gentlemen’s folder is expected to be their biggest new introduction…no pocket clip, it comes with a sheath

Continuing with knives…I was hoping to see Ernie Emerson and update our comparison picture but sadly he was not at the show.

I did get to see the new smaller Sheepdog, shown here next to the original size.

Other interesting knives at his booth…the Seax fixed blade neck knife

CQC-7 fixed next to the folding version

The P-SARK trainer

And my personal favourite, the Super Commander

Back to guns….I put myself on the “the list” for a Springfield FBI gun almost 2 years ago without ever having handled one in person…now I can say that my instincts were right because it is stunning in person

Next stop, Colt

Of course all the talk about Colt is around the re-released Python, but as I mentioned after shooting it at Range Day, it didn’t excite me enough to want to purchase one.

The cut-a-way was pretty neat though

The King Cobra

Or if you prefer your revolvers to be more dressy

To me the most interesting gun at Colt was the M16

Vs. the more modern M4

And M5

I started the day with a celebrity sighting and will end with a few more…Lou Ferrigno at Brownell’s booth

Taran Butler at Benelli with the actual John Wick movie guns!

On the way to dinner at Gordon Ramsey’s Steak (which I will cover later) I ran into Lovie Malespin in the parking lot!

Then at 11:30 at night I went down to the convenience store in the hotel lobby to get a drink and ran into Royce Gracie!!!

Quite a good start to the show!

 
Wednesday SHOT Show 2020 Day 2

First stop on Day 2, Silver Shadow to check in with Lovie and see the Gilboa double AR-15!

I liked it a lot more than the Arsenal double 1911

I knew about the Gilboa but a big surprise was that Silver Shadow also brought a Corner Shot, which I have always wanted to see in person so I was pretty happy about that!

Lovie doing some demos of how it works to shoot around corners

I always feel safer when Lovie Malespin provides cover

I have a Battle Blades Tops Wolfhawk mounted to my HK MR223 and there are a few disadvantages to the design. In my opinion, the Gripknife is a much better way to have a blade mounted to your gun. The intriguing design is a spring mounted blade that deploys out of a rail mounted fore-grip.

It comes in two sizes in multiple finishes

Thanks to Lovie for demonstrating as well

And thanks to the Gripknife team as well…great guys.

I love catching up with old friends at such shows…such as knife designer Liong Mah…I have a few of his older, more radical designs

His new lineup is geared more toward EDC and utility

For example, the Field Duty with drop point, flat ground blade and frame lock

It looks like an integral but is actually made of two pieces…either way, super solid

Next, the Lanny

KUF

Warrior 2

Forgot the names of these two

It was also great to see Michael Janich again…and update our comparison pic lol

Spyderco now offers an all black version of Michael’s Yojimbo 2…I really like how the lock-bar on the compression lock is coated black as well

Shown here with the Chinook 4

The Chinook 4 closer to James Keating’s original design (I have a Chinook 1 with box signed by James)

Another new interesting knife from Spyderco, the Nightstick single edged dagger

As I have reported in the past, F-1 Firearms are my favourite AR15s. I dare say I like them more than my HK MR223! They are known for feeling “light” when you shoot them and I had the same sensation whenever I have shot one.

They are also known for their wild finishes, although those have been toned down this year.

This finish changes colour depending on the angle of light

More examples

Proof carbon fiber barrel

PCC

Their newest model is more discrete and geared more toward law enforcement than competition

Shown here by Tom, who tests / tunes the guns that go out (thanks for all your time!)

My favourite is the Dynamis collaboration

Here was a big surprise for me…F-1 is getting into handguns! Right now they are based off Shadow Systems guns but they are gradually transitioning to completely in-house.

And suppressors!

A Cabot would be a good pairing with an F-1 lol…sadly they did not bring their $4.5 million meteorite guns of even the Trump gun they had at SHOT Show 2018. Fortunately they brought my personal favourite, the Ultimate Bedside gun

Of course, if you are going to buy a Cabot, you may as well buy a pair to benefit from their clone technology…their guns are made to the thousandths of an inch and unlike other custom guns that need to be hand fitted, you can interchange the parts on a cloned pair.

Some of you may know that I have a fetish for trainers, even going so far as to have custom knifemakers build training versions of their live blades for me. In the world of firearms trainers, Blue Guns is on top. There is a Blue Gun for EVERYTHING, and if not, they will custom make one for you! In fact, Blue Guns makes props for movies as well as mock ups of prototypes before they are launched. They do not use lasers, rather they make physical molds of products.

Love the 249

And the pipe wrench! Lol

Black Aces Tactical was not on my original list but thanks to online coverage of the show, I found out about their new lever action shotgun…it also caught my eye as I passed by their booth (I guess I am susceptible to shiny new things at SHOT show after all!)

While this bullpup looks similar to others on the market, it is actually 2 inches shorter

As I mentioned in my intro, I got an Otte Patrol Parka in anticipation of this show. I discovered this great piece of kit through some past SHOT show videos showing Todd explaining its various features so I wanted to stop by Otte and meet him in person. Todd gave me a similar rundown on the HT Insulated Parka that he is wearing.

Also in terms of tactical clothing, I am a big fan of Crye Precision…I have a G3 Combat Shirt and am waiting (for six + months!) for my G3 Combat Pants. It was great to see their Loft jacket in person and I have to say that G4 Field coat looks awesome (sadly I did not get a pic).

I left the show a bit early today in order to attend Doug Marcaida’s seminar on karambits…it was very educational! Once again, it was great to update a comparo pic lol

 
Thursday SHOT Show 2020 Day 3

Let me start today’s coverage with yet another gun that far exceeded my expectations…the Full Conceal Glock 19! My first impression is that it is far more “solid” than I anticipated…also the way it is designed, it is completely safe to carry with one in the chamber as it is impossible to fire when it is in the folded position. One of my favourites of the show.

Easily fits in the pocket

This year Full Conceal introduced a more economical model built off a proprietary frame instead of a Glock.

As I mentioned earlier, B&T has been my favourite booth of the show so far…I knew they had a second booth but I didn’t actively look for it so was pleasantly surprised to come across it. It was great to have another look at the USW and SPR 300…and to finally see VP9 pistol as well!

Team Wendy has a stellar reputation for helmets. In case you were not aware of the back-story of the company, it was founded after the owner’s daughter died from a head injury suffered while skiing. Their comfort and safety features were quickly noticed by law enforcement / military and the rest is history.

They had a set-up showing how some testing is done.

I tried on an Exfil Ballistic helmet…super comfortable and Level IIIA protection

The “Team Wendy” comfort can now be retrofitted to your other brand of helmet via their “cloud liner” system…note the strategically placed cushioning and ratchet tightening system

My timing for visiting the Winkler knives booth was great as both Daniel Winkler and James Williams were at the booth!

James puts his martial arts / combat training to good use designing application specific knives…

such as this one

More great Winkler knives

My personal favourites were the Tactical Cleaver

And weapon retention tool

For fans of Alien and Judge Dredd, digital round counters are now a real thing! The Radetec system requires changing three components of your Glock, the slide, backstrap, and one internal part of the trigger group as well as the follower on your mags.

They also offer a rail mounted “armourer’s tool” which is meant to keep track of shooting sessions…not only does it count the number of rounds fired over the life of the gun, it also keeps track of every shot to the 1/100th of a second…so you could check your splits etc. with the mobile app

Another cool piece of high tech gear, the new Trijicon Ventus …it uses Doppler LIDAR to measure headwind, tailwind, crosswind and vertical wind components at six different distances up to 5000M and includes a ballistic calculator as well

In case you were wondering what a $100,000 1911 looks like, Nighthawk has your answer!

Nighthawk is continuing their collaborations with Agency Arms

Their double-stack is much thinner than others on the market (such as STI) and features a full dust cover and compensator

Some new finishes such as this “triple black camo” with three shades of black…and nice stippling on the top of the slide (like the Bob Marvel model)

This is actually a Colt tuned by Nighthawk

Nice Officer sized gun, the Counsellor

Nighthawk Korth revolvers

Including this 8 shot .357

Ok ok HK HK….in my review of SHOT Show 2018, the HK booth seemed to get the most response so here
is another picture dump lol….

First some military hardware

my favourite was the M27, which is based on the 416

My favourite handgun, the Mark 23 SOCOM

And from the civilian line…

SP5

.22LR

.556

Last but certainly not least of my booth coverage, Kalashnikov!

The new Komrad semi-auto shotgun

Vs. the KS12

Lot’s of variations of KR-9s

And the new American made AK, the KR103 (on top)

Ok that’s it for my booth coverage. I will follow up later today with random cool things, more celebrity spottings, and yes, food pics.

Tom is also working on additional booth coverage and I will add that when ready as well.

Random Cool Stuff and More Celebrity Sightings

The Press Room for those with a media pass

The famous “back pack”

The Throne of Freedom

Mini-gun at Elite Defense, the Official Sponsor of the Good Guys

GPNVG-18

MTM watches, including my favourite, the RAD with its built in Geiger counter

Gun DMC

I ran into the Ballistic Ink guys at Cabot guns…LOVED that Gustav shirt so much that I already ordered
one lol…along with another hoodie…such great designs!

The 1 Millionth Sig P320

Bullpup Beretta

The Magnum Research BFR with 17” barrel!

Serious truck

I ran into a buddy and he got the prototype for the CRKT Provoke Stormtrooper edition! Let me know when you are ready to sell bro!

It was a real honour to meet Jerry Miculek and his family at the Mossberg booth..such nice people! And I am sure my shooting performance improved exponentially just by shaking his hand!

JM Edition Mossbergs

Glock’s new spokesperson, Chuck Norris!

All done with SHOT Show, we headed to PVK, an incredible knife store.

Thanks to PVK for letting me have a look at the Microtech John Wick special edition set

My second favourite was this Microtech OTF rescue hook prototype…with a $4800 price tag to reflect its
rarity

Finally the Microtech

I picked up a Strider SLCC by Warren Thomas in his signature carbon fiber laminated and bonded to titanium and impregnated with carbide lol

And a set of John Wick assassin coins!

The obligatory swag pic

Coming up, the food of SHOT!

Friday

Despite all my planning, Mother Nature threw a bit of a curve at us with the biggest snow storm of the season. As a pre-caution, we flew out two days early to beat the storm. That is ok as we wanted to get some “Vegas time” and this gave us two extra days of that and I will be covering some of that as part of this review (we will see if I have time to make it to the Adult Video Awards lol).

The first thing we did after arriving was to have our first Vegas meal at In-N-Out burger!

How fitting that I was customer #1 lol.

Saturday

Today we started with lunch at Jack in the Box, my first time eating here. I had the classic buttery burger, which is essentially like an egg Chalah bun.

Then we headed over to Boot Barn to pick up some Lucchese boots that I pre-ordered for delivery to the store. I have always wanted Lucchese cowboy boots and when I saw their new hybrid cowboy/work boot I had to pull the trigger. I love the concept! Although everyone raves about the Lucchese fit, I had never tried on a pair so was a bit worried and sure enough they were way too tight!

So I ended up buying these Dan Post boots in rough suede.

I also got a proper cowboy hat, a Rodeo King in “grizzly” style fur. It was an open crown

So I had them custom form it to a Gus crown with Rodeo brim…very cool to watch that being done!

I have to say Boot Barn has AMAZING customer service!!!

Next we went to the Shelby Museum. I had been to their old location and compared to that, I would say their museum is smaller and more focused on older cars while the factory and store are bigger.

We both signed the wall

Our nice tour guide

Lots of gear in the store including clothing, travel goods, signs, and even knives.

I got a few things.

Finally we went to watch the UFC bout between McGreggor and Cowboy at Tilted Kilt. It was quite surreal to watch it here knowing that the fight was going on live down the street! The crowd went bananas (I have some vids I may post later). We also ran into some guys headed to SHOT Show from OSS Suppressors, Sig, and a company that makes custom hearing protection.

Food at the Tilted Kilt….mozzarella sticks

Wings with Kilt Burner sauce (not very hot)

The Celtic Knot, a giant pretzel (the best part of the meal)

Our lovely server

$5 shots

Sunday
We didn’t do much today…just picked up my Media pass

And then went for dinner at Heart Attack Grill, which I will cover in the food section at the end.

I am so glad that Select Shooting decided to stay with Oxford Fish and Game club as the venue for their Annual Range Day as I really like the open layout of this range.

We arrived to a decent lineup of people and as we will see later on, it did get quite busy.

Select Shooting’s display with the raffle prize Canuck shotguns donated by O’Dell

And raffle cases generously donated by Nanuk

Returning exhibitors Black Rifle Coffee and the CSSA

And great to see my colleagues at High Capacity have a table this year…I picked up several copies of the two editions with my articles.

I also sampled Code of Arms new coffee. While Black Rifle Coffee uses proceeds to support veterans, Code of Arms Coffee supports competitive shooters…and they offered to sponsor 17 year old IPSC Grand Master Ryan Dobbs at the Code of Arms Golden Bullet Awards dinner at TACCOM.

The Code of Arms guys doing what they do best…filming an interview with Dean for CCFR Downrange Season 2 TV show

Canadian Historical Arms Museum is also a returning exhibitor although this year we were not allowed to handle the guns. Still, after seeing Canadian Gun Vaults prohibition kit at TACCOM it was great to see a real Tommy Gun for comparison.

Other hardware on display

Last year I focused on precision rifles so this year I decided to start with handguns.

Lineup for the handgun range…

At least we had some cool scenery to admire while we were waiting

Quite busy inside!

I have skipped Smith and Wesson in my previous reviews so wanted to show them some love this time around lol. First up, the SD9, S&W’s entry level offering

Shoots pretty well…a good bargain for under $500

Next the Victory Performance Centre .22LR…

being a .22 it was super easy to shoot, as shown by this young lady (thanks to her father for permission to take the pic)

Smokey ammo…looks good in pics imho lol

I really liked the super bright sights and I would say this gun had the best sights of all the ones I tried in the day.

Meanwhile Tom shot the M&P and .357 revolver

Next, the North Sylva booth for one of my favourites, the X95..in 9mm…I definitely want one of these and to take a course with Lovie, who I had the pleasure of meeting at TACCOM

Yup, definitely my favourite of the day.

As I mentioned in my TACCOM review, I intended to try the FN 509 here as I knew it would be on the
line. It shoots well but I would mount a red dot on it…those suppressor sights would take some getting used to.

Also from North Sylva, Girsan

And Walther.

I have heard so many positive things about the Q5 Match that I had to give it a try.

It was definitely nice but it did not “wow” me.

By contrast, Tom shot the P99 and it was his favourite gun of the day…said he would “look up pricing” when he gets home lol

The P1 was super fun but it would take me some practice to do speedy reloads with that heel mag release.

Next up, Grand Power….

i tried the Q100, which now has a flat trigger with a 3.5# release weight and a shorter reset than the original version.

And the X-Calibur Match, also a next generation model featuring a heavier steel dustcover for even greater muzzle rise reduction. …and I MUCH preferred this one. In fact, I liked this one much better than the Walther Q5 Match.

The fluted rotary barrel helps with recoil management and it feels great to shoot.

At the end of TACCOM, Wolverine Supplies generously provided some demo guns for today’s event, one of which was a Bruger & Thomet GHM-9….this one was near the top of my list to try. Too bad I embarrassed myself by hitting the mag release instead of the bolt release lol (apparently I was not the only one to do so)…the bigger issue was the small size of the aperature on the rear sight. I would definitely need to mount a red-dot on this.

Next my biggest surprise of the show, the Freedom Ordnance FX-9! Zero recoil and super accurate (the great Vortex glass helped too), plus it uses Glock mags…next to the Tavor this was my favourite gun of the day..i would definitely buy one of these!

Last but not least in terms of handguns, Glock!

The G19X was the most popular gun at their booth…while I have shot it before, I thought I would give it another try.

I must say that I liked it more than in previous outings…perhaps because I have been shooting my Glock lately so am more accustomed to the trigger.

Other Glocks on the line (note the American Tactical Omni AR with polymer frame that I covered in my TACCOM review)

All done with handguns, we headed to the rifle range….which was also super busy

Some of the guns available for us to try

Again I wanted to start with Smith & Wesson.

I watched Colion Noir’s video on the M&P 15-22 .22LR last night as I knew Select would have one on the line (thanks for putting out the list Select!)…he concluded that while an AR in .22 may seem silly, it is super fun to shoot and a great training tool…I concur! Once again, another gun I would buy!

As for the standard M&P AR, I wanted to try the one with classic furniture…while I like the look, I have really gotten used to shooting ARs with quad rails so I think I will stick to those.

Of course, S&W offers those as well..shown here with Tom and another guest.

I wasn’t planning to shoot precision rifles this time but they had the new Daniel Defense Delta so had to give it a try. Unfortunately, there were some issues with the gun, either it was over-heated of didn’t like the available ammo but the bolt had to be forced open after every shot so I only got one round out of it.

Fortunately the Daniel Defense AR was functioning flawlessly and I really liked it!

Finally, the trap range featuring shotguns by Mossberg

Browning

From O’Dell, Derya and Canuck

And Benelli / Beretta (sorry no pics)

Tom (not shown in these pics) got 3 out of 4 (or was it 3 out of 5? Lol…who is counting)

Select graciously invited us to stay for the RSO shoot after the event closed to the public and I brought out my John Wick guns for the team to try…

Here is our host, Dean, shooting my JW3 TTI STI

I have another 70 pics of the after-shoot and will perhaps post those later.

For now that sums up my great day at Select Shooting Annual Range Day 4…kudos to Dean and team for putting on another great event just one week after the craziness of TACCOM..we are all still recovering lol.

RL