This year’s SHOT Show was pretty optimistic compared to the last couple years. Last year it felt more like a funeral as there was a heavy cloud over everything. Year before, the ATF arrested a bunch of guys from S&W, which put a wet blanket on a lot of folks. This year… The table was turned.
Our friends at Tannerman’s Trading Company snapped THE PHOTO that captured the Spirit of SHOT this year.
Ryan Horst spotted this and nudged Travis Bishop who snapped this classic picture that has gone viral. It’s all over Facebook and hitting the blogs now. (Even mine!) Agree with this or not, it’s a good example of Peaceful Resistance. One of the ATF Agents did admit he laughed at it.
I’ve posted on Facebook my impressions of some of the guns I took the opportunity to check out.
Glock 42. It’s the best .380 Auto now. Take that for what its worth… There is no reason that wasn’t a 9mm. Glock will own the .380 Market – Yippy Skippy. 4 years late, Gaston.
The Glock 41 is awesome and I must have one. Points and feels better than a 21SF in my hands. I will have one. I’m a sad Ogre that it will not be available in 10mm. Glock seems to be done with 10mm. Hopefully Lone Wolf can make a conversion slide/kit for that.
I really can’t tell you how much I dislike the Remington R-51. The feel of it in the hand was disappointing. Longer than a Solo, and a little taller… but the action when I pulled the slide back was just terrible. Notchy doesn’t begin to describe it. The grip safety is horrible too. Oh, it will sell. For awhile. I wouldn’t take one as a gift. I’d rather have a blister on my belt line than an R-51. I consider it suspect they would let a few people shoot it at Gunsite, but not let the gun press shoot it at the Media Range Day. Disappointed and Suspect move. Now, if they got rid of the Grip Safety and the stupid action and made it with a normal lock system… the gun would be good. Maybe.
Sig’s 320 really is an adhock mashup of putting a striker system in a P250. It was disappointing and I was hoping for better from SIG. Trigger felt Twangy. The gun felt more like a toy than a serious weapon to me. If this is SIG’s push for future pistol development… I find it very sad. I heard one guy say that S&W and Springfield better take note! I about laughed until I saw the dude was wearing a SIG badge. Yeah, no bias there.
Walther has a 5″ barrel version of the PPQ. THIS is the Sleeper of the SHOT SHOW. No fan fare. No glitz. Just a quiet presence in the small Walther booth. I freaking love it. I’ll get one of those too, one of these days.
The other weapon that I am impressed with and ogled was the Desert Tech’s MDR. A Caliber Changeable Bullpup that can be run ambi. Very well thought out, and handles well. Feels good. Looks good, and you can shoot it right or left handed without changing anything. It’s impressive. To say the least, I want it. I think I’m going to have to start saving up. Because it can go 5.56, .300 Blackout… and .308. I’m quite smitten with it. Photos of that are found here.
I’ve heard Federal is putting out a “full” 10mm cartridge for hunters. Any impressions?
Never got near that. Let’s hope that’s true.
I’d love to see them develop loads like the original Norma offerings. Those were awesome.
The SIG P320 might just be the most uninteresting, half-assed gun to come from a major manufacturer in recent memory. A striker-fired version of a failed gun with a pointless gimmick. Hurray.
The three pistols I’m most interested in is the:
Springfield Range Officer 9mm. the Ruger GP100 Match Champion and the S&W 686+PC 2.5″ bbl. Those three have a lot of promise!!
I guess Glock is looking to be more competitive in the gun games with the G41? Can’t wait to handle one.
With the slimmer slide, you probably need more slide weight or a dual recoil spring assembly if you want to run 10mm Auto out of the G41. I’d like to see it tried.
You nailed it. It handles and points better than a 21 yet gives you more barrel and sight radius. It’s very good.
The Sig 320 looks like an unpolished steaming turd.
Thats disappointing considering I’m a huge Sig P series fan and a Glock and Steyr striker fired pistol fan.
Are the Sig executives and designers shooters? Whats up with that bore axis?
Well, it’s for the guys that say, I really like the S&W SIGMA, but wish it had a higher bore axis.
I don’t know what they were thinking – They must thing people actually like the P250. Even though the only agency that I know of adopted it and then dropped it like a hot potato, going back to their old worn out 229’s instead of using the new not-so-hottness.
That’s disappointing to hear about the Remington pistol. Had high hopes for it based on size, low recoil and price. Hopefully they take the feedback and improve it over time.
Thar beretta pico is almost as ugly as the Nambu 94.
The Glock 42 in a 9mm will be very nice. Maybe they will announce it next year.
The Pico… I was tempted to go to the Beretta booth and take a look at it. But as a testament to how uninteresting it is… I couldn’t find reason to walk the 15 steps into the booth to see it.
You know the reason why the Glock 42 .380 is, as you say, four years late right? It’s because it has to be manufactured in the US in order to be sold in the US. Glock didn’t have the full plant up and online until 2012-13. The G42 is the only Glock ever that’s not manufactured in both Austria and the US.
The G42 is too small to house 9mm. A single stack 9mm Glock will have to be more dimensionally similar to the G26/27 (except for thickness). You can fit one 9mm round into a G42 mag, but you cannot fit two.
The G41 may become a IDPA CDP killer, hard to say but the G41 is already shipping to LE agencies around the country for tac teams etc… A lot of people don’t really know how popular the G34 and G35’s are with quite a number of agencies.
I take it you’ve not seen the 42 over layed on a 26.