My SHOT Show experience
The Shooting Hunting Outdoor Trade Show or S.H.O.T. Show features 630,000+ square feet of exhibitors. These exhibitors come from all over the world to show off their latest products.
These products range from clothing, boots, optics, tactical gear, clay target throwers to shotguns, rifles, pistols and other military and tactical style weapons.
Just about every imaginable shooting, hunting, outdoor and self-defense product is here from the biggest names in the business.
There is so much to see you can’t see it all even over three days!
But let’s start at the beginning.
As media members we were able to attend Media Day at the Range. Where many of the firearms and accessories manufacturers had firearms for us to shoot.
The Bolder City gun club is absolutely massive! With the Sierra Nevada mountains as a back stop. So naturally with a background like that they have targets setup at 1000 yards.
The range is divided into six sections, the first section we came across after registering, was approx. 1 km long with half of that distance featuring bunkers, the rest just had sand piles to shoot into from tents.
There is a covered high-power rifle range, they had targets set at anywhere from 50-1000 yards and have everything from .22lr to .338 lapua and .50 BMG. Barret brought out one of their big semi-auto .50’s and 1500 rounds of ammo, but the range decided to put a damper on the .50 cal out of safety concerns, apparently this happens every year…. Yes that is a suppressor on the front!
There were four more sets of ranges, mostly bunkers with one of those ranges being just an open line for clay target machines setup and testing shotguns on clay targets.
We started off in the Beretta rifle and pistol bunker where we shot the Beretta ARX-100, I didn’t shoot it but those with me felt that it was a bit disappointing, a bit difficult to keep on target for follow up shots.
I then checked out the Beretta and Browning shotgun displays. Beretta who now sponsors Kim Rhode, had here there with her shotguns and Olympic medals signing autographs, so if you are an international skeet fan that was pretty cool, she’s definitely one of the greatest shooters around today, better than most if not all of the Olympic men.
I shot the new Beretta 692 Skeet model with the adjustable comb. It appears to be a very solidly built gun but for competition skeet it lacks mechanical triggers and the now popular high rib options. It does feature their new extended length forcing cones which are approximately half the length of the barrel.
They gave me Federal Gold Medal shells to shoot which are soft shooting shells in their own right, so without side by side comparison, it is difficult to say if the longer cones have reduced the recoil as much as they claim. The other disappointing thing with this shotgun is the short LOP and thin recoil pad, although I don’t believe in the “this recoil pad reduces recoil by 70%” baloney, they could have installed a thicker pad to make the gun a little longer.
The 692 feels nicely balanced with the weight between your hands and well built and with a little work will likely make an excellent skeet gun.
I then tried out a Browning 725 in 20 ga. It is a nice little gun, basically a sporting gun or hunting gun. Fit and finish overall is nice but the wood on all the models I saw was very plain, especially for the price of the gun.
Both Browning and Beretta had a large selection of firearms available to try.
I then proceeded to the rifle range and shot a custom .338 lapua that was suppressed. It was INCREDIBLE!!! While very loud, short barreled .308s, .338s and .223s were being fired all around me the .338 I was shooting just made a smooth whoosh sound. The recoil is still quite strong but not as bad as shooting an un-suppressed model. Suppressor are VERY COOL!!! We were shooting at 400 yard targets and had NO difficultly hitting them every time.
Just about any kind of rifle and chambering was available to shoot.
I then made my way down to the pistols ranges where I shot several different pistols, there were many hundreds of different models to choose from all the different manufacturers.
First up I shot a couple of suppressed Kimber 1911’s one in 9mm the other in .45ACP. It was my first time firing a suppressed pistol and ear to ear grin is an understatement!
Very accurate, little noise, way less recoil and muzzle rise, the additional mass of the can reduces the recoil as well as the slowing down of the gasses by the suppressor. Although I took my time savouring every shot, follow up shots could be made way faster with the suppressors than without.
To round out my visit at the Kimber booth, I also shot a Micro CDP in .380ACP.
I have large hands and the grips is quite small I just fit my middle and third finger below the trigger guard on the grip, I was impressed by the little pistol it had a good solid weight to it, the trigger was a little heavy, but that’s to be expected on a concealed carry pistol. It was very accurate and surprisingly not very snappy, I’ve owned .380s in the past and they were also too snappy slide biters, this thing was great! Also available with crimson trace laser grips.
After that I made my way to another booth featuring some sort of holo sight, I didn’t pay too much attention to the holo sight as there are tons of laser and holo sight makers showing of their products.
They had a tricked out glock with all their sight product on it. The glock it self was had everything on it modded. It featured a silencer brand suppressor, which had a really unique sound, just like the ones you hear in the movies, kind of higher pitched rubbery squeak. It was very cool and a lot of fun, they had a plate rack to shoot at and we all have fun trying to clear it.
After all that the best was saved for last, we lined up at the slide fire booth.
We all ended up shooting an AR-15 with the slide fire stock. SF generously provided every shooter with 60 rounds of ammo. Though not a real full auto it was close enough for me!! It was awesome!!!
A bit of a mind bender as you keep your trigger finger through the trigger guard and hold it again as stop on the other side and then with your left hand push the forearm forward to fire.
There were also AK-74’s to shoot but we all went with the AR. Very awesome and thanks to slide fire for a very memorable experience.
Action targets provided steel targets on all the ranges, so we were slapping steel all day long.
There were range officers on every range and several on the big ones, I didn’t see any really serious infractions and for the amount of people and firearms that is certainly an achievement.
The next day at the Sands convention centre the main event where all the exhibitors are there with their full line up of products. From what I understand there is roughly a three year product cycle and we are in year three this year so there are not too many new and spectacular launches this time, but there is no shortage of things to see.
I walked in and first thing I came to was the Lyman booth where I had a request to look at the new Lyman Sharps 1878 in .45-70 government.
It appears to be quite a nice rifle, the fit and finish is quite good, but I felt for the $2050MSRP price tag it was a bit steep for the actual quality of the gun, it is nice but not $2050 nice.
After that I spied the Winchester ammo booth but before getting there caught sight of the Perazzi USA booth and honed in on it like a fat kid on a smartie.
Beautiful shotguns ranging in price from $6900.00 to $300,000.00 for a four gun sets.
MX12 and MX2000's
I was very interested in the New for this year MXS it is based on the MX5 action with a few downgrades. The trigger is no longer removable. I am slightly concerned with this as perazzi is some what well know for needing their springs replaced often with heavy use.
With the drop out trigger is was always easy and fast to change the springs if necessary. But with these fixed ones, the stock will have to be taken off and I have no idea what tools will be necessary and how difficult it will be to remove and replace the springs.
The gun comes in blued and matte silver finishes, the wood can be upgraded to SC2 an adjustable comb can be had for an additional $368 and Screw-in chokes can be added for $569, you can select between 14 ¼” LOP or 14 ½ LOP and 28-30-32” barrels. Custom stock dimensions or any other options or alternations are not available on this model.
Production is to be limited to 100-120 guns per year as they have received great interest in it and don’t want to take away from their higher end models sales.
Their other “New” gun for this year is a Skeet Model MX-8 with a fixed 4mm raised rib which is 7x7mm parallel.
It is available with light an heavy barrels to make a carrier setup. A stock made to your dimensions of course is standard to the price of the gun.
Depending on wood upgrades and other options the gun is priced between
$8900 and $13900
After being enamored with the Perazzi’s I rejoined the massive crowds to peruse everything else.
A.Uberti
I have never had the chance to handle many Uberti products in the past but have been interested in them for some time.
I was VERY surprised by the level of quality, fit and finish and the value being offered by these firearms.
They are made with the quality of guns costing more than $5000, yet you can purchase them from anywhere between $500 and $1500
I was in awe of the quality of these firearms.
The 1873 falling block rifle was exquisitely made, silky smooth action, every surface polished and blued to perfection.
The 1873 is available in many different configurations and calibres ranging from .357mag, .44 mag, 45LC and others.
They also had their huge lineup of handguns there though I didn’t take down specific details each one was a nice as the next whether it cost 600 or 1600
The fit and finish, the mechanism, the bluing or chrome is all perfect.
I really left their booth impressed, something that is not easy to do as I am mainly interested in high end shotguns and am familiar with very high quality firearms, these guns for their price just blew me away. I WILL be adding Uberti products to my safe ASAP!!
I made my way down to the Merkel, Anschütez and Steyr booth. They had many nice models available, I was particularly interested in the Anschütez rimfire rifles.
For this year they have taken their Biathlon straight pull action and make a sporter plinker in .22lr and .17 hmr. They seem very nicely made and the action very smooth and quick.
The rep says that the action can take much more powerful loads and maybe in the near future developing some centre fire chamberings using the straight pull action.
They also had some of their bench rest, general purpose and biathlon rifles on display, their prices are mostly in line with what we pay in Canada, the odd model a bit cheaper.
I then made my way over to the Caesar Guerini booth where I was pleased to see better fit and finish and improvements in the steel quality compared to their guns of just a few years ago.
I was mostly interested in the CG summit impact type-s skeet model. It featured an adjustable rib and comb, fit and finish was very good. It looks like this gun will make a very good competitive skeet gun. The POI Adjustable rib can be adjusted from 50/50 to shoot a pattern 100% high. This gun could easily fill the roles of a trap, skeet and sporting clays gun, it weighs in around 8-8.5 lbs. depending on wood density. Price was between 5900-8300 depending on wood grade and engraving options. The booth staff were excellent, which can’t be said for all of them.
After getting a good dose of high end shotguns and precision rimfire. I made my way down to the basement to fill another request to inquire at the Berger bullets specifically about their new 195 gr. 7mm hybrid projectile. The booth staff informed that they have not put that projectile into production yet and no new products or R&D will be done until they are caught up on all their backorders. No timeline was offered but expect something in the six months to a year time frame.
I then retreated from the basement as it’s mostly just hundreds of exhibitors peddling lube, bags and knock-off optics and other junk.
I checked out many other booths offering things from knives to commercial reloading equipment to clay targets.
I made my way to the Kimber display, they had TONS of 1911’s of course. The guns seem very well made and very good looking my only disappointment is the triggers are a bit heavy and gritty. I am sure the triggers would smooth out with use, but the triggers won’t get any lighter and when you are paying nearly $2000 for at target model with adjustable sights it should really have a great trigger.
There were several International Pavilions around the show floor featuring products for England, Germany and Italy.
At the British Pavilion there were several manufacturers, the two Eleys one making shotshells the other making rimfire ammo that we all know well. Other companies making boots, optics and software.
Webley and Scott had a booth at the pavilion featuring some high and lower end SxS O/U and air rifles. The higher end sidelock SxS start around 5000 pounds not too bad all things considered. The quality and fit and finish is not as good as the guns from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. But that is not an uncommon thread through most manufacturers today.
At the German Pavilion Blaser, Mauser, several optics companies, geissle automatics among other could be found there.
Benchmade knives had a large display as well were offering free repairs, sharpening and laser engraving to passersby, there booth is constantly packed.
Beretta had a very large booth on the floor, featuring everything from their pistols and black rifles to their highest grade SO series shotguns. They were featuring new subcompact pistols and new autoloading shotguns as well as the ARX 100 and 692 Skeet model.
The DT 11 is being offered in a large range of models from sporting to trap to skeet in several variants in each of those categories.
They also had their new A400 28ga. Shotgun, I am sure it will prove popular being 28 gauge and will likely be reliable be a Beretta, I however didn’t like the narrow rib, poor quality wood and short LOP. I know firearms manufactures have to build guns for the average person, but come on I am tall but not that tall, make something for me!!!!
They had some very pretty SO series gun a SO 5 6 and SO 10 ranging from $20,000.00 to $50,000.00 in price.
The Sand’s expo centre is huge there is tons to see and there are thousands of people everywhere.
It has been a great experience so farm and you really don’t realize how big the industry is and how many people make their living making, selling and communicating about firearms their accessories and other outdoor related products.
Thanks to GT for taking to Las Vegas and SHOT Show an experience I’ll never forget and will always be grateful for.
I will try to add some pics in a few days if any of them turn out.
Cheers
gwagen
Sorry I didn't get pics of everything I tried!
As per special request I present the Duck Commander Mossberg Pistol
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Originally Posted by Nine
