Today was the first day of the Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade Show. The main Show itself won’t actually open until tomorrow (at the Orlando, Florida Convention Center). This was Media Day, when writers for the gun magazines, the hunting and fishing publications, and the military and police journals show up at the range to test-fire the newest wares of the gunmakers. Kinda like a wine-tasting.

Beretta has something new under the sun: the UGB25 Xcel, the first “break-open semiautomatic shotgun.” You thumb down the lever on the left side of the receiver, to “break” it like a conventional single-barrel or double-barrel shotgun. Then you close the action…and slip one more 12-gauge shell onto a loading tray on the right. Two pulls of the trigger will fire each shell from the same chamber and barrel. The rationale: the handling of a fine single-barrel trap gun with the soft recoil of a gas-operated semiautomatic shotgun. A definite “one of a kind.”
Some high points: Colt was a welcome if unexpected presence. This brand has so long refrained from advertising in gun magazines that shooters frequently ask on Internet gun forums, “Does Colt still even manufacture handguns?” Yes, they do, and their long-awaited re-issue of the Delta Elite 10mm pistol, in stainless, is finally here. The one I testfired on the Orange County Sheriff’s Academy range grouped satisfyingly at 50 yards. They also have a “rail gun” model of their classic .45 auto pistol.
Ruger introductions include a gold-trimmed 60th anniversary version of their classic outdoorsman’s handgun, the Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum. However, the Pro-Arms Podcast (http://proarms.podbean.com) crew I was running with voted unanimously that the big Ruger hit was probably the most innovative gun we’ve seen at the show so far: the LCR (Light Compact Revolver). Designed in-house by Joe Zaik, this is the first “plastic revolver.” It’s a snub-nose .38 Special 5-shot with specially designed Hogue grips (or Crimson Trace LaserGrips, your choice) and totally new lockwork with a very smooth trigger pull, double action only with no exposed hammer. Weight is in the 13 ounce range and it is very comfortable to shoot. Suggested retail will be $525 with those sweet Hogue grips, and $792 with the Crimson Trace laser unit.
Marlin has their latest bolt-action sporting rifle engineered to where it’s only a little over $300 retail at dealers. It has earned high points from testers for its accuracy, and the price is certainly right. There’s a version of their .45/70 Guide Gun with enlarged lever loop and extended magazine, just the thing for when you’re in the thickets after grizzly bears. I saw as more useful their lever action stainless in .338 Marlin, which spits a fat 200 grain bullet at .30/06 energy, but handles almost like a .30/30 deer rifle.
Remington now owns famed AR15 manufacturers Bushmaster and DPMS, and all their wares were demonstrated side-by-side. Bushmaster’s .50 BMG (Browning Machine Gun) caliber bolt action rifle was as impressive as it sounds. DPMS has an AR15 style semiautomatic in .308 Winchester that resembles their low-priced .223 Sportical, and which in .308 will retail for under $1000. The big news from Remington, though, was the .30 Remington AR cartridge, which is designed expressly for the AR15 platform and spits a 123 or 125 grain bullet at a velocity that far exceeds that of the 7.62X39 Russian cartridge. It had more of a push into the shoulder than a .223 when I fired it, of course, but little more muzzle rise. (Would’ve liked to have tried it on full automatic, but no such setup was available.) Curiously, the magazines were the size of .223 20-rounders, but modified to hold only four cartridges, though we are told it will be available with high capacity magazines. It was no trick to keep four shots in an inch at a hundred yards my first two tries on the Central Florida Rifle & Pistol Club range. Lots of promise here.
Among accessories, Crimson Trace now has sights that attach directly under the barrel for Glock and Kahr pistols, resembling larger versions of the ones they make for the Ruger LCP and Kel-Tec P3AT. I shot a Kahr 9mm with one, and the shots hit directly above the red dot. EOTAC has a new line of tactical clothing designed by and for women. Sorry, couldn’t test it without cross-dressing.
More to come. Back at ya tomorrow, I hope.

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The largest trade show in the firearms industry is the SHOT Show. The acronym stands for Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade. Limited to industry folks, and geared mainly to distributors and dealers, it is not open to the public.

Literally miles of aisles, SHOT constitutes the world’s biggest gun show. For gun people, it’s like a gigantic county fair. And, yes, I’m gonna be there.

I’m still new to this bloggin’ thing. I understand the rule of thumb is a short post a couple of times a week. I’ve run a bit less frequent than that, but generally with longer posts to make up for it. The SHOT Show, however, is such a huge thing in the world of the gun that it warrants some deeper coverage. I’ll have a laptop with me, and we have access to a limited number of computers in the media center, so I’ll TRY to get a dispatch into this space each day, starting Wednesday if I can. “Try” is the operative word here, because a lot of the business at SHOT (and a lot of the investigative reporting) gets done after hours, at evening get-togethers and one-on-one debriefs with the principals.

Most of my work time there will have to be devoted to the firearms areas I focus on in almost all my research endeavors except for Backwoods Home magazine, to wit, law enforcement and personal protection firearms, ammunition, and related gear. However, I’ll make an effort to gather the latest on hunting and utility firearms for y’all, too.

The SHOT Show is managed by the industry organization known as NSSF, the National Shooting Sports Foundation. NSSF recently noted that in November, NICS checks increased an unprecedented 42%. NICS is the National Instant Criminal Background Check System run by the FBI. Last month, December, revealed a 24% increase. These firearms purchaser background checks, required by law, are a reliable indicator of firearms purchase rates. (The figures compare to NICS checks in the same months of the previous year.) Gee, I wonder if the election had anything to do with all that…?

Sales of defensive firearms have skyrocketed, while those of sporting arms have dropped. Consider one company, Smith & Wesson. In the last couple of months, sales of their polymer-framed high capacity Military & Police series of semiautomatic pistols soared to unimagined heights, as did orders for their version of the AR15 rifle. However, over the last several months, orders for their sporting arms (the excellent new line of S&W shotguns made in Turkey, and the fine blackpowder and cartridge rifles manufactured by their subsidiary Thompson/Center in New Hampshire), plummeted. We’re seeing the same pattern industry-wide.

I’ll look forward to sharing with you the new products that debut at the show, and also sharing the buzz from industry insiders as to what the imminent new Administration will bring in this area. So, I’m taking a shot at covering SHOT for the blog. Bear with me, ‘cause there may not be a dispatch posted every day.

The President-elect is now admitting that he won’t be able to fulfill the promises he made before the election. I’ve always found it easier not to promise more than one can deliver, to begin with.

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When was it, exactly, that the left became the “blues” and everyone else became the “reds”? I was from that generation that grew up huddling under elementary school desks in “atomic bomb drills” and being told by teachers that Communism was evil, and now folks like me are called “Reds” ?!?!?

A new “blue” scheme currently underway (yes, founder Dave Duffy has checked it out, and assures us it is true) is the already drafted Ammunition Accountability Act. You can read about it here.

Let’s think about that. The technology to make ammunition “accountable,” – cartridge by cartridge, shell by shell, casing by casing, projectile for projectile – is largely vaporware and almost entirely unproven. It will be hugely expensive. Affordable ammunition for practice, competition, hunting and home defense will become a thing of the past.

Notice also the very early expiration date at which all previously owned “old, low-tech” ammo would become illegal to possess. One must ask, what would the law abiding citizen do with it? It could not be sold. Property lawfully purchased and responsibly owned would become contraband: there would be huge ex post facto issues here, and some serious Constitutional issues as well. And that’s before we start looking at vast collective tonnage of “hazardous materials” that some Governmental entity would be responsible for storing or destroying. Did any of the idiots who drafted this stuff even discuss the ramifications with EPA and OSHA?

If, like most rural folks, you’re a gun owner, you’ve found an old box of ammo or maybe just a single cartridge in an unexpected, forgotten place. After a certain date, if this BS becomes law, that would make you a law-breaker. Roughly half of our population – far more than half in rural areas – owns or have owned guns and ammunition, which means that if such laws come to pass, they will unnecessarily criminalize half of our citizenry.

Look this stuff up. Find out if yours is one of the states that might put you in the crosshairs of this insanity. And start writing every elected official (and appointed official, such as chiefs of police who would have to enforce this stupidity) and let them know where you stand.

This drafted legislation reaches a literally mind-boggling level of ignorance and foolishness, and if it goes unchallenged, the “blues” will have a lot of us “singing the blues.”

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Yeah, I know…some out there are muttering, “Whaddaya mean, ‘Happy’!?!?”

Yes, the economy sucks…but people who not only read the magazine Backwoods Home, but take its advice and cleave to its ethics, are going to be more ready for that than the rest.

True, we “gun folks” didn’t get the election results we wanted…but we’ve survived hostile Presidencies before. I expect we’ll do it again.

Indeed, we can anticipate attacks on firearms owners’ rights from the “change-dot-gov” folks now at the helm, who have made it abundantly clear where they stand on those issues. But we do have the landmark Heller decision from the Supreme Court of the United States that came down in mid-2008, and I think that’s gonna help.

I just got back from a post-Christmas sojourn on the west coast with my younger daughter, her husband, and my adorable granddaughter. If I’m uncharacteristically optimistic, well, so be it. I’ll just bask in those good vibes for a while.

Lots of folks think the incoming Administration will leave law-abiding gun owners alone, maybe even for a couple of years until the interim elections. God knows, they avoided the gun issue studiously enough during the campaign, and the new team will indeed have its hands full with real issues, perhaps enough so that they’ll lay off of the “gun control” that so many of them have touted for so long.

The logical side of me is still skeptical about that, though. Rumor has it that the incoming administration wants to hit the ground running hard enough to make some very deep footprints, and their powerful majority on Capitol Hill will allow them to do that.

I figured out when I was a little kid that it was better to be a pessimist than an optimist. You see, when you’re an optimist, the best that happens is that things go as you planned, and half the time you’re bitterly disappointed. But when you’re a pessimist, the worst that ever happens is that things to exactly the way you were prepared for them to go, and half the time you’re pleasantly surprised.

With the musical babble of my two-year-old granddaughter’s voice still ringing in my ears, I’ll allow myself some cautious optimism, if only because my usual pessimism has left me prepared for the worst.

I’d be interested to know what all of you out there see coming for 2009.

And I wish you all a prosperous, safe, and productive New Year!

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