SHOT SHOW DAY 4

Burnout is setting in. Yesterday I mis-typed LCP (Lightweight Compact Pistol) when I meant to write LCR (Lightweight Compact Revolver) in reference to Ruger’s new polymer .38 snubnose. And today, the most memorable product I saw was the fixed bayonet on a Glock pistol, courtesy of Laser-Lyte. A buddy of mine, a police academy firearms/officer survival instructor, bought one. He’s going to bring it to class as an only slightly humorous reminder of why you fight, fight, fight and never give up. Hell, I’m thinking of buying one of these pistol bayonets to cure students from shoving a pistol down the front of their waistbands…

I’m told that Navy Arms is now offering a replica Springfield 1903A4 rifle, complete with World War vintage telescopic sight, the scope being a Chinese copy. With the new administration, it’s possible that soon, pre-WWI-vintage bolt actions like this will be the only kind of military rifles allowed. If so, this Navy Arms flashback would be a choice example. I will try to get my hands on one tomorrow.

The SHOT Show is always alive with highly skilled demonstrators. I watched world champ Todd Jarrett give a gun handling demonstration at the ParaOrdnance booth: awesome, as always. At the Smith & Wesson complex, revolver wizard Jerry Miculek joined the precise Doug Koenig and the graceful Julie Goloski-Golub for a speed demo. Dave Sevigny, Jessica Abbate, and young Randi Rogers were signing autographs at the Glock booth – great shooters all, freely dispensing good advice to any shooter who cared to ask. Among them all is one common thread: a lack of the arrogance we often see in superstars in other sports. It makes us all the prouder to have them as the champions of our chosen sport.

Another of the great champs is Rob Leatham, and if all goes well I’ll record a podcast with him tomorrow. Rob won many of his world championships with target pistols with triggers as light as one pound, but when I asked him this afternoon what he actually carries nowadays, he told me it was a Springfield Armory EMP 9mm with a four- to five-pound trigger pull. He knows that target guns with target triggers belong on the range, and that on the street you need a street gun with a street trigger.

We recorded a ProArms Podcast with Charles Brown, the guy who markets low-priced guns such as the old Charter Arms revolver and the often-maligned Hi-Point semiautomatic pistols that start at $119 suggested retail. The Hi-Point product was the focus of an active and very two-sided discussion on this blog a while back, and when this particular podcast is up, I’ll post a link here.

Federal has reintroduced their excellent 125 grain Nyclad hollow point .38 Special load. If you own Grampa’s antique Smith & Wesson .38 Special made in the year 1902, or the new little six-shot Taurus Magnesium six-shot .38 Special that barely weighs enough to keep it from floating out of your pocket, you know that modern +P ammunition is too hot for either one. Within that range of needs, your best standard pressure .38 Special round for defensive purposes is, I’m convinced, that long-since discontinued Nyclad load. We’ve seen it expand reliably in flesh and bone, even when fired at low velocity from short barrels, many times. Its return is most welcome.

More tomorrow after the 2009 Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show passes into history on its last day.