I have been looking forward to the Guns and Tactical (GAT) show for weeks. Billed as a “live fire trade show”, the aim is to let you try before you buy. Hosted by Lanz and Code of Arms, the three-day event held at Silverdale started today and continues on Saturday and Sunday.
I arrived early and decided to check out the displays first before heading out to the shooting line. Let’s start with the host Lanz Shooting Supplies’ display.
Next, Fishing World, including some high speed crossbows
Long guns
Howa precision rifle
And Canuck shotguns
Including my personal favourite, the Renegade in a scabbard
Lots of love at Patch Panel
Though this guy at J-Tac Gear didn’t look too happy
Lovely hosts at Bunker Down
It was great to finally meet Archie Luz of Ferrun Tactics who has a stellar reputation in the knife community as a certified Guro in Kalis Ilustrisimo….I hope to train with him soon!
True North Arms…an authorized Hperfire dealer…I tried these at SHOT show and they are great! You really notice a difference in how your AR shoots and I highly recommend them
Other goodies at the TNA table…fauxpressor
Dedicated tool for the BCL102
Maccabee Defense SLR
Anti-tank
Nas Guns and Ammo with Vortex Optics
Sigs
Canuck
Youth gun
Representing us gun owners, and probably fielding a million questions about the “handgun ban”, the CSSA
And CCFR
Powertac Flashlights
3000 lumens
It was quite busy by the time I finished, and I believe there will be even more vendors tomorrow…certainly there will be more people than the 300 limited VIP tickets sold today!
By now the lineup for ammo was starting to form so I decided to walk the line first to see what was available. Fortunately, GAT show organizers put out a list of the demo guns in advance so I had a good idea of what I wanted to shoot beforehand but you never know what surprises you might find on the line.
Once I did the tour and got my ammo, I did stick with my plan of starting out at Houlie Precision. I met the team at past events and was looking forward to trying their rigs as I want to get into precision rifles. They brought two rifles for us to try, both SERIOUS pieces of equipment lol. The first was a Sako TRG-22 in a Cadex Dual Strike chassis with leupold MK5 (with Horus Tremor reticle) and downrange systems EDOPE card on a leophoto tripod.
The second was a Cadex Kraken multi-caliber system with Schmidt&Bender PMII 5-25…you can see why I wanted to try these first lol. As a relative newbie to precision rifles, I was pleased with 5/5 hits to the steel gong at 200M.
Thanks again Houlie for all the great info!
My next stop was O’Dell to shoot the F1 AR15. These have a reputation for being very light and I would say that it did not feel as light as I expected (perhaps given the scope) when simply holding the gun but it DID feel lighter when shooting it! A very interesting sensation…nice gun for sure.
The Radical is also super light, and much more economical at $799.
Ok back to the first range…here North Sylva brought a Kriss Vector, FN 509, IWI X95, and Girsan along with optics from Meprolight.
Tactical Imports had the Type 81 (one of the most popular guns of the day with big lineups), the BRS-99 (thankfully as it was on my list), SAP6 and 1919 shotguns and a BIG surprise, an HK G36!!!!
I put four mags through the BRS-99 and I was SUPER impressed! It exceeded my expectations in terms of feel and accuracy and I really liked the Shield optic as well.
The reason the NFA was not in the display tent is because they were on the line with a huge array of guns! These included Kris Vector, Canuck regulator, Skorpion, and a Steyr HS50!
The next range over was the Lanz Big Gunz with Cadex Tremor
Revolvers in .500 S&W and .460
As well as some AR15s
Kodiak Defense with the WK180c, also super popular
Sadly I missed the SIGs, I would have liked to try the 716 and the Ritter and Starck
So far I can tell from Day 1 that the show will be a great success! The try before you buy idea is a great concept in general and especially great for guns. As for me, I liked all the guns that I tried and would buy all of them lol. I know there are plans to make this an annual event and I cant wait for the next one.
BTW, thanks again to all of those who come up and say hi and sorry I ran out of swag to give out…next time I will bring more! lol
RL
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Originally Posted by shakeyjake
