#SHOT2016

SHOT 2016 was an amazing experience. Below are some pictures I took during SHOT show. This picture set will feature the most innovative products that I PERSONALLY saw. This will be my last SHOT related article. Going back to gear and gun reviews for the rest of the year. A big thank you to TFB readers for following this picture series!

Walking around SHOT show this year I came across a neat set of hearing protection. The Hunter A2, manufactured by Hunter Electronic is a low profile, active electronic solution for protecting an end users hearing. Up until SHOT show, I was not aware of this company, however, they seem to have a large market share in Europe. The Hunter A2 series has microphones on both left and right ear muffs that amplify hearing, yet block sound above 82 decibels.  The microphones have separate adjustments, and the Hunter A2 boasts “sound direction detection”. The Hunter A2 series has an IP54 rating, which means they are both protected from dust and water spray. The Hunter A2 has a 3.5mm input jack for a communication radio. The external communication radio is not dependent on the Hunter A2 having battery power. In regards to batteries, the Hunter A2 will run 300 hours on 4 AAA alkaline batteries. The Hunter A2 has a noise reduction/single number rating of 26db. For comparison my Howard Leigh ear muffs have a single number rating of 25db. Pretty comparable. I like the low profile construction of these ear muffs. If I bought a pair of these, I would cerakote the housing black or green. I am anxious to see how the American market responds to these. I would love to test the “sound direction detection”. Perhaps my editors can arrange a test.

At SHOT show this year, if I had to pick one company that had the best accessories for the FN SCAR platform, hands down, it would be Kinetic Development Group.  Aside from accessories for the FN SCAR platform, Kinetic Development Group also makes some neat accessories for the Ar-15 platform as well as a growing suite of M-LOK based rail accessories.

This being my first time at SHOT, I’m sure there were all sorts of shenanigans going on that might not make the light of day in the public sphere. However there were a number of pieces that did make the industry news. Thankfully James Yeager and Instructor Zero never had a show down.

Love the concept or hate the concept, Clipdraw is now offering their Belt Clip for the Smith and Wesson Shield, Glock 42, Glock 43, Ruger LCP and Springfield XDS. The Clipdraw Belt Clip works by securing a metal clip to the pistol. Since the metal clip indexes along the slide or receiver, the pistol can be carried inside the waist band, concealed, without the need for a holster.

We blogged about the two companies coming out with AR trigger systems that increase a rifles rate of fire on TFB, Military Arms Channel has an excellent review of the Franklin Armory system as well. But at SHOT we were able to get a real hands on look at the Franklin Armory booth.

Toby Mellville of Bad Company Tactical was out at SHOT with his rifle and handgun rapid retention systems on hand. These systems have been out for a while now, but this was the first time I had heard of them. Unlike some of these kydex “M4 holsters” out on the market, the R2S works as a picatinny mounted retention system. The mount can go on the top rail, or some versions go on a side rail. Either way, imagine a complete minimalist Safariland holster, with just the ALS system, sans the actual holster covering. There is a square mounted piece that attaches to MOLLE, or a belt, that has a V shaped opening, with a clip at the bottom of the V, and a square shaped button at the top. The weapon system mount has a picatinny mounted V shaped extrusion, that is then slipped into the V shaped opening on a users belt/flak jacket, thus holstering the weapon until the square shaped button is pressed to release it.

SHOT 2016 Day 3 has come to an end. Below are some pictures I took during Day 3 of SHOT show. I will not be covering Day 4. Heading back to New Mexico tomorrow. Great show.

Remington, America’s oldest gun company, and also several of its newest, since the Freedom Group consolidation, had a massive presence at the 2016 SHOT Show. Its booth was seemingly an avatar incarnated of the true nature of the company itself: A conglomerate of multiple booths collected into one sprawling location, with distinct and sometimes disharmonious personalities.

There were a number of Turkish companies at SHOT, specifically three that I came across while on the lower level. There might have been more among the booths, but these were the ones that I was able to make contact with. You might notice that Uzkon and Deryra have very similar designs of semiautomatic shotguns, both visually like an AR, magazine fed, carrying handle, and picatinny rails on the handguard. I’m assuming that the design is made by both, with royalties paid to one or the other.

Jerimiah Cohen was displaying his production ready .45 ACP Kalashnikov pistol at SHOT, in the KG Industries booth on the upper level. KG coatings is a company that makes a number of firearm coatings and has been around since the 1960s, when the SEALs were looking for a corrosion resistant finish. Jerimiah’s gun was in their glass booth because he uses their coatings.

Reproduction firearms have always occupied a portion of the shooting market, for a variety of reasons. Many competitions are based around old firearms, such as the Single Action Army Shooting Society in the sport of cowboy action shooting. Other shooters simply want to have firearms that are faithful reproductions because they want to shoot them much more than they could an actual hundred year old or so firearm, or because they are too expensive to risk. However, reproduction scopes are not very well known, and thus Hi-Lux optics company has filled that void by manufacturing reproduction scopes. One of the primary reasons they are doing this is for the CMP Vintage Sniper Rifle competitions where competitors compete with original or reproduction firearms. Many of the older scopes have degraded in quality over the years, or are extremely expensive, some of the Unertl scopes for the Springfield 1903 have reached eight thousand dollars for example. Thus, Hi-Lux has made faithful reproductions of such scopes as the M8 USMC Sniper scope (the long Unertl scope that you’ve probably seen from Saving Private Ryan), the M40 USMC 39×40 (greenish tint body, used during Vietnam on the Remington 700s), and William Malcolm Vintage Telescope Rifle Scopes, used on such competition designs as the Browning High and Low Wall rifles (even longer scopes, almost the length of the rifle, from the 19th century).

Lucid Optics has released some new products for 2016. The Lucid SC9 spotting scope and the L7 1-6x rifle scope join their existing catalog. I got to handle both of these optics this year at SHOT.

Brandon from The AK Guy was out at SHOT with his design for his AK50, a Kalashnikov inspired .50 BMG rifle. He only came out with it on the second day of SHOT, because he ran into some trouble with the regulations, but not the law. The hotel he was in has rules about keeping firearms, or replica firearms in hotel rooms, so initially confiscated the design, but later returned it to him. Regardless, he was able to showcase it at one of the booths in the show.

Billet Rifle Systems presented several very neat products at SHOT 2016. Billet Rifle Systems is known for producing billet style, Ar-15 80% lower receivers as well as complete rifles. 80% lower receivers are not considered firearms by the Bureau of Alcohol tobacco and Firearms. To make a functional firearm an end user must mill out the last 20% of the lower receiver.