This is the week of the SHOT (Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade) Show, where the lion’s share of new guns for the given year are introduced.  I was scheduled to be there and had to cancel at the last minute, darn it, but fortunately lots of news is emerging from there daily on the blogosphere.

Monday was “Media Day” when the writers and bloggers get to test-fire new products at the range.  One excellent report is here: http://www.shotshowblog.com/media-picks-favorite-products-press-media-day/.

The new .17 caliber Savage rifle is the first semiautomatic I’ve seen so chambered. For the shooter who has lots of small, fast varmints and therefore needs rapid delivery of small, fast bullets, this sounds most promising. For hunting deer and such, I’m intrigued to learn that “the Christiansen Arms .308 with its carbon fiber barrel has almost no recoil, yet it weighs just six pounds, and its titanium muzzle brake does an outstanding job of keeping muzzle rise to almost nothing.”

The SHOT Show is in Las Vegas, and if I was there and they were taking bets on such things, I’d put my money down that the single best-selling new introduction mentioned in the dispatch from the front linked above will be Ruger’s drop-in trigger assembly for the incredibly popular 10/22 rifle.  Said to be light and sweet, affordable and easy to drop in, it’s going to be a huge hit with target shooters of all types. I expect a lot of them to show up at the great Appleseed events, which we at Backwoods Home enthusiastically support.

12 COMMENTS

  2. Mas, I’m sorry that you can’t make the shot show. I hope it’s nothing serious. I believe you could not make it last year either.
    Speaking of the 17 hmr; I have a savage In 17 HMR. I picked it for the gophers in my back yard. Instead of the ,22rf, which is well known for it’s tendency to ricochet. Nearest houses are 1/2 to 1/4 mi. away, with brush and trees in between. My thinking is that the 17 would rupture and disintegrate with very little chance of ricochet.
    Do you know of any studies done on the 17 HMR along these lines? Thanks

  4. Brian Gumbel: “There are a few things I hate more than the NRA,” Gumbel said. “I mean truly. I think they’re pigs. I think they don’t care about human life. I think they are a curse upon the American landscape. So we got that on the record.”

    I served in Vietnam, the anti-war protesters may have been dupes of the communists, they may have been out to destroy American society but at least they were in it for a cause, they had their (warped) values. Gumbel is just a piece of shit.

  5. The anti-gunners have certainly been showing their true colors lately, haven’t they, Lew? Millions of people he’s never met are “pigs”?!? It shows the world how shallow the prohibitionists are. I hope they keep it coming. They’re hurting themselves with this childish rhetoric more than they’re hurting us.

  7. I don’t consider Gumbel a has been, but rather a never really was. He and numerous other faces on television of his ilk got their start during a period in our history when the main criteria for new television talent wasn’t necessarily talent. Now, as new people who meet that special criteria, and actually have talent, have taken over the plum jobs, leaving the Gumbel’s of the world as bitter refuse in the media’s trash heap of affirmative action, political correctness left-overs. His only chance at increased face time on TV comes from speaking out, angrily, against one of the left’s favorite whipping boys, the NRA.

  8. Life’s too short to pay attention to the likes of Gumbel. Cherish your family, enjoy your friends, and practice, practice, practice either on the range or via dry-fire.

  9. Leftists are all emotion driven, knee jerk reactionaries. They can’t argue using reason, logic and facts (because they have none) and get upset and start calling names as soon as they encounter reason, logic and fact.

    They never accomplish anything, and, in fact, usually make things worse with their meddling. But, they never have to accomplish anything in order to give themselves the warm fuzzies. All they have to have are good intentions.

    “Lord, save me from the tender mercies of a liberal with good intentions.”
    Don’t know who first said that, but truer words have never been spoken.

  10. WT – your words are those of a wise man. If we live by those words, we will be happier folks. Dennis – good observations and a “spot-on” assessment – of the gumballs of this world. Ya know, if gumball plays his cards right, he could get a chance at Celebrity Apprentice with HIS kind of people, like Piers Morgan and Geraldo. They toss their $$$ in our faces as an indicator of their superiority, but you know, the farther I get down this beautiful highway of life, the less that means to me – it is a measure of nothing that really matters.

  11. Don-Pa, agreed. Seems as I went through life, no matter how much $$$ I made, it was always barely enough, but no matter how bad things got, financially or otherwise, we always seemed to make it ok. I’ve got no complaints. As I’ve said before, I believe a loving God has watched over me all the way.

  12. Once again, I am grateful to be able to discuss things with the gents on this site. You fellas have endured so much due to your choices – your professions – trying to make the world a better place. Me? From approx. 18 – 40, I was so self-absorbed in discovering new ways to pleasure myself that I cared not for anyONE or anyTHING else. Fortunately, the loving God Dennis speaks of – saw fit to “touch” me. It IS easier to see with the lights on.

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