Gun Nuts Media

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I started day two of the SHOT Show at the Glock/Lipseys breakfast, as the guest of Ryan Horsley from Red’s Trading Post. For a guy that’s like a foot taller than me, Ryan’s not bad. Actually, I learned a bit about the actual industry of selling firearms for a living, as well as having a bit of discussion about Ryan’s current ATF woes. The neat thing about the Glock breakfast was that the entire Glock shooting team was there, as well R. Lee Ermey, aka The Gunney. I got to me Ermey as well as the Glock shooting team.

But no one ever made any money in this business lingering over free coffee and sausage so I headed out to the Ruger booth to get a look at some new products. You can listen to my description of the new products by clicking this link for exclusive audio coverage. The two biggest pieces of news from Ruger are the new NRA Mini-14, which has a 16 inch barrel and comes standard with two 20 round magazines; and of course the LCP. DownRange TV has some great coverage of the LCP, as well as Michael Bane’s thoughts on it. I did manage to get a picture of the LCP in my hot little hand.

As you can see, it is a little itty-bitty gun; and bears more than a passing resemblance to the Kel-Tec pistols. I personally think this is a fantastic choice for Ruger, and really does show that Ruger is producing the guns that people want. Everyone wants compact carry guns, and the new LCP from Ruger is small enough and light enough to carry practically anywhere. It’s priced right as well, going for a mere $330 retail.

After Ruger, I headed over the North Hall to check out LaserShot, H&K, and FNH. Unfortunately, the pictures of the cannon I reference in the audio clip didn’t come out; so you don’t get to see the giant-ass gun H&K brought with them.

I wondered over the Kel-Tec booth, where I got a look at the bullpup rifle they announced at last year’s SHOT. According to the guys at the booth, they’re looking to actually go into production this year in Q3, with a retail cost around $2000 for the base model. Additionally, in the next couple of months, Kel-Tec is going to release a new version of the SU-16 rifle. The SU-16, or “Sport Utility” rifle, is a 5.56mm NATO rifle with a folder stock, that’s also pretty light weight and handy. The new version of the rifle keeps the standard features that made it popular, but add a pistol grip stock for added control.

We rolled to the FNH booth, where we got a look at the new FNAR rifle; it’s a 7.62×51 NATO rifle based on the Browning BAR design, but accepts FN FAL mags. It’s been updated for the 21st Century with the addition of a pistol grip, a new buttstock design, and superb accuracy. Every FNAR must meet a 1 MOA or better accuracy standard, to quote FN’s literature, you have bolt action accuracy in a semi-auto rifle. Plus, it looks cool.

FNH also has a new rifle series, the PBR or Patrol Bolt Rifle. Essentially, it’s a lighter, more portable version of the PSR series of rifles. FNH appears to be trying to get this rifle into police cars as an alternative to the AR patter rifles. I’d imagine that the thought there is that some departments may be uncomfortable issuing “assault rifles”, or may simply desire a bolt action platform. It’s available in .308, .300 Winchester Magnum, and .223 Remington. My thoughts on that and the new FN pistols are here in audio.

After FNH, I made my way over to EAA’s booth. I mentioned yesterday that EAA had a big new product for 2008, and I wasn’t kidding. Can you say .50 BMG?

EAA is now the exclusive importer of Zastava firearms, which includes the Black Arrow rifle you see above. I don’t know if you can call any .50 BMG entry level, but this is a good rifle for that. Zastava makes excellent products, and with the possibility of an anti-gun White House, .50 BMG rifles are something you should get while they’re still legal.

Some time in there, I ate lunch, as well as met Jim Scouten from Shooting USA, as well as Michael Bane from the Outdoor Channel. I had wanted to meet both of them for a while, so this was a pretty neat opportunity for me. I actually got to talk to Michael for a while, which was one of the highlights of my weekend. Of all the people I met, he is easily one of the most passionate and dedicated to the shooting sports; if he has a bottom line it’s that our sport and rights continue.

After I got all my fanboy out of my system, I gallivanted over to the DSA Inc booth to check out their MP-9 pistol. Their newest upgrade to the MP-9 is a folding stock, which technically makes the weapon NFA, so you’d have to register it as an SBR. But even with the folding stock, it still fits in the standard holster for the MP-9, giving you a compact 9mm carbine in a small package. Now if I could just get one chambered for 5.7mm…

Other new products are from Beretta, which has a limited edition USMC M9 pistol available in Q2. It’s neat looking, with limited run grips and custom engraving.

As you might have heard, Federal has introduced the new .327 Federal Magnum round, which exceeds the ballistics of a .38 Special +P in a package that gives you another round in a pinch. Charter Arms, making of the .44 Special Bulldog, as well as the only true lefthanded revolver on the market, have released a .327 Magnum version of their popular, and affordable snub nosed revolvers.

My last real stop of the day was the Stoeger booth, which was also part of the Uberti booth; since they’re both owned by Benelli (which was right next door). Stoeger has their excellent lines of afforable shotguns, from the Condor over/under to their autoloaders.

The last thing I’m going to leave you with for today is a video I shot at the Uberti/Stoeger/Benelli booth. If you like single action wheelguns, you might want to look away, as you’ll probably cry a little bit from all the beauty you’re about to see.

I’ve got a lot more updates to come; new products from Remington, Kahr/Thompson, Walther, you name it!

What a day, what a day.  From the front doors of the convention center, out to the Gold Hall; I have never walked more in one venue without seeing the entire thing.  I honestly walked for almost 8 solid hours, and I didn’t see the entire thing.  I honestly couldn’t believe it.  On to the content, though.

A general walkthrough of the area, and by general I mean “wandering slack jawed”, I actually started to gather some content.  I made stops at Ruger, FHN, German Sports Guns, Walther, S&W, Russian American Arms, and many more.  One of my first stops was at TDI, to check out their new Kriss Super V Vector CRB/SO .45 ACP Carbine.  Click the any of the pictures below to view full size.

I chatted with Tim Lindsay from TDI about the gun; if you haven’t read about TDI’s proprietary function system then head over to their website to do so.  The carbine itself accepts standard .45 ACP Glock 21 magazines, however according to Tim they haven’t been able to get the aftermarket 30 rounders to work correctly yet.  However, TDI makes a kit to convert a G21 mag to a 30 rounder for use with the Kriss carbine.  I’ll have a special post on the Kriss Vector Carbine later this week.

I also took a swing by the Smith & Wesson booth, which wasn’t a booth so much as a small city.  While at the S&W booth, I saw about the fastest reloads I had ever seen.  S&W’s competitive shooting team was there doing demonstrations, and Doug Koenig did some pretty fast reloads.  That’s fast, even on a cell phone.

Link to video here.

Also at the S&W area, I got to meet Jerry Miculek, which to me was a pretty big deal.  Ever since I saw him break pretty much every revolver record ever, I’ve always admired him.  Getting to meet him was a pretty big deal, which was almost as cool as watching him dry fire six times, reload, and dry fire six more times all while blindfolded.  That was cool.  Still at S&W, I caught their new Night Guard series of revolvers.  These are scandium framed serious carry guns.  They come chambered in .357 Magnum, .45 ACP, .44 Special, and .44 Magnum.  They’re extremely light with great triggers and a new rear sight which allows for faster acquisition of the sight picture.

You can see the new rear sight in that picture, it’s not quite a traditional revolver gutter sight, but it’s a lot faster to acquire than a standard adjustable sight as well.  To paraphrase, “I don’t know what it is, but I like it”.

Over at Pearce Grips I got a look at their 1911 style grip for AR pattern rifles.

Changes the grip angle to that of a 1911, which also allows you to use any aftermarket grip panels on your AR rifle.  If you have an A1 style, you could also use a 1911 Crimson Trace laser grip, but on later style rifles the laser is obscured by parts of the rifle.  According to Lane Pearce, they’re also working on a +2 magazine extension for the Glock 30.

We’ve got a lot more coverage of SHOT Show 2008 coming for you; a Big (think .50) Surprise from EAA, proof that good things come in small packages from Ruger, and more tacticool black rifles than you can shake a stick at.  More coming tomorrow!

My wife will be happy to see that I’m zero-indexing blog posts like a real man.  Today was pre-reg day for the SHOT Show, I picked up my badge and guide materials, as well as did a quick walkthrough of the still-under-construction exhibit hall, which opens at 8am tomorrow morning.

I picked up a couple of good leads on new products that I’m definitely going to check out; one of those that I’ll share with you now is a new compact 9mm handgun, which uses a unique locking system to pack a 4.2 inch barrel in a package smaller than a compact Glock.  That will be one of my first stops tomorrow, I hope the pistol can meet the expectations created by the brochure.

We’re going to have coverage on everything from new products from Cimarron, Fiocchi, Walther, and many others; new gear for your guns, you name it.  Just click the banner at the top of this page every day for new coverage, and all past updates on the 2008 SHOT show!  You’ll find it at Call me Ahab before you find it anywhere else.  You can also contact me with questions and requests at my email address, listed in under the “Contact” information on this page.

Tam was right about one thing, when I got a look at the scope of the exhibit hall, I really was like an Ethiopian at a grocery store.

One of the things that are available at SHOT Show are hour long seminars held during the noon to 1pm hour.  I was looking over the website, and I found one that I will definitely be going to, and reporting on.

In light of all the recent hubbub over the BATFE harassing FFL holders such as Red’s Trading Post, when I saw a seminar with the title “Firearms License Revocations and Non-Renewal” I had to check it.  The description of the seminar is this:

Experts Richard Gardner, Esq. and retired ATF Deputy Assistant Director Wally Nelson will discuss how to protect yourself and your business from an FFL license revocation or non-renewal.  A must seminar for firearms dealers!

I wonder if they’re going to talk about which specific i’s you should cross and which t’s to dot.

Another item to add to my “to-do” list for the ’08 SHOT Show: confirm the rumor that Cerberus Capital, the holding company which owns Remington, Bushmaster, and a whole bunch of other stuff is going to acquire Heckler and Koch.

As far as unconfirmed rumors go, this is pretty juicy, since Cerberus has a rep for shaking things up in the companies it acquires.  It might even mean that HK could actually start selling stuff to the civilian market, heaven forbid.  Personally, I’d love to see a semi-automatic pistol version of their MP-7.  Take the stock off, make it semi-auto only and bam, ATF legal.