Gagnon Shooting Centre’s Glock and Aimpoint Day Open House was a phenomenal event! Open to new and experienced shooters alike, the event featured live fire demos, exclusive product showcases, the opportunity to speak with industry experts, as well as giveaways and prizes all from Glock, Aimpoint, Tactical Ordnance, Streamlight, and North Sylva!
To keep things interesting, the Glock table had a “rotating” display in the sense that the pistols were switching in an out from static display to live fire on the range to give people the opportunity to try as many models as possible. What a neat idea! As such the static table also changed throughout the day, starting with some shared space with Tactical Ordnance (more on them in a moment) to the Glock training guns and field knives you will see in later pics.
I heard Glock’s new COA collaboration with Aimpoint would be on display so I was especially interested in checking that out.
As part of the collaboration, the Aimpoint COA optic is factory installed using the new Aimpoint A-CUT™ interface. The combo is available with the G43X, G48, G19 Gen5, G45, and G47 models. The Aimpoint COA optic is sold exclusively with this package and is not being sold separately at this time.
The Aimpoint A-CUT™ interface mounting system has A LOT of advantages. It allows the sight to be mounted deeper into the pistol slide for extreme stability in all directions eliminating movement of the optic to ensure repeatable accuracy. Built to withstand the extreme stress of recoil, the COA optic has been extensively tested and proven with vibration tolerances rated to 40,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition! The low-profile design allows for easier unholstering and enhanced concealability. Perhaps my favourite feature is that the wide window on the Aimpoint COA sight combined with the low mount allows the dot to co-witness with the factory back up sights!
Of course, as an Aimpoint it has all the features you would expect from the brand like 50,000 hours (over 5 years of constant operation), 4 night vision compatible settings and 8 daylight settings, a 3.5 MOA dot size, and electronics that are completely sealed to withstand rain, snow, or dust, and allow submergibility to 25 m/82 ft. The optic’s quick access compartment allows you to change the battery without removing the sight from the pistol – eliminating the need to re-zero.
I was really looking forward to trying the COA on the line.
These are the training Glocks that I mentioned, made to exact specs.
Glock Type 81 Field Knives
And the Glock Entrenching Tool. This is much more than a mere shovel! The main blade has no welding or rivets and can be locked in three different positions turning into a shovel or a spade. A hardened saw blade with screwdriver tip is stored in the telescopic polymer handle and can be attached to the handle. When folded up, the GLOCK Entrenching tool has an extremely small footprint and can easily fit in a backpack.
As I have said in many past reviews, Tactical Ordnance is among the best when it comes to customizing shotguns.
The top one here is showcasing the Canadian premier of the Aridus Industries Imperium Handguard with its Patents Pending milled in texture. The one piece integrated heat shield provides 360 degree protection from hot barrels during shooting, loading, and handling
Feels great in the hand, as expected since it was designed to provide great grip in hot, cold, wet, or dry.
ceriksson liked it as well
And with the man himself, Casey!
I also really liked this tricked out Benelli M4!
Speaking of shotguns, Amchar is also the distributor for Kel-Tec and they brought a KSG Tactical for display
You might have noticed that many of the Glocks on display were fitted with Streamlights, and for good reason as they make a huge array of weaponlights to fit any of your lighting needs.
The TLR-7X is now multifuel accepting either rechargeable or CR123 batteries. It offers 500 lumens with 5,000 candela for a 140M throw.
The TLR-7® HL-X is a higher power version with 1,000 lumens, 22,000 candela, and a 297M throw.
If you want a wide, peripheral beam, the TLR-1 HL®-X provides 1,500-lumens with 20,000 candela and a 283M throw.
If you need more throw, the TLR-1® HP-X has 1,300 lumens with 77,000 candela for a 555M beam distance. Like the flood beam version, it also features a front-loading battery compartment for rapid battery replacement without removing the light from the firearm.
Streamlight also makes weaponlights for long-guns, such as these rail-mounted lights
Their lineup of handhelds is also huge, with a very small sampling shown here.
My personal favourite Streamlights are the Wedge series. Made of rugged anodized aluminum, these are designed to fit in your pocket like a folding knife.
The full size Wedge has a rotating thumb switch that provides tactile control over the constant-on (300 lumens, 69M beam) and THRO® or Temporarily Heightened Regulated Output modes (1000 lumens, 110M beam in 35 second bursts).
The more compact Wedge XT is USB-C rechargeable and has a push-button tail switch. In high mode it has 500 lumens, 1,900 candela, and 87M beam distance.
Ok on to the range! I headed straight for the COA guns on the line, the first of which was the Glock 47, which is similar to a G17 but with a shortened dust cover.
To give you an idea of the Streamlight
Our target
Here we go! The red dot is so easy to find.
ceriksson liked it as well
Next the Glock 48 with its Slimline frame and rail.
The G48 rail is of similar length and height as the G19 but the width of the pistol is reduced for increased concealability and better carrying comfort. It also has features of the Slimline series such as short trigger distance, built-in beavertail, a reversible magazine catch and the incredibly accurate, match-grade GLOCK Marksman Barrel (GMB) of the Gen5 series. Perhaps that’s why I shot much better with this than the G47!
ceriksson gives it a whirl
Now for some Tactical Ordnance! A couple of 870s
Though I opted for the Beretta 1301 as I had never shot one before! And WOW it was incredible! Zero recoil! I liked as much as my Benelli M4 (dare I say more? Gulp)
look at the size of the loading port!
All done shooting we went back into the exhibit area. By now a pretty big crowd had formed and it was like this all day.
The CCFR was there to educate new shooters and promote our rights
Before heading into the store area, I wanted to give special thanks to gadget for bringing his Winkler Shadow Strike to show me. This is from the limited run that came with an autographed copy of Beast Three Six by Jason Kasper.
Love the felt lined sheath
We wanted to do a little shopping before heading out. I didn’t take any store pics this time, although I have to say this Extrema Ratio Ant was pretty cute lol. I wasn’t familiar with this model.
Also, I was super happy to find a Sitka Balaclava and buy my very first piece of their kit. I have always been impressed by the way Sitka matches their “camo” patterns to the visual spectrum of the game you are hunting. In fact, not only do they consider visual spectrum, they also consider the animals’ perspective, for example, waterfowl looking down as they fly overhead or ungulates looking up at a hunter in a tree stand! BTW, Sitka refers to their proprietary patterns as “concealment” not “camo” and the company is owned by Gore (as in Goretex).
My swag from the event
Once again, fantastic job by the organizers. It was great to see old friends again.
RL
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