I am posting these as a work in progress. For the time being, images are all at the above link,and I will add the writeup below as I get it done. As I work on writing up each section, I post the images to the album at the same time. For now, you'll just have to do some clicking back and forth to find things.
Eventually, the images will be embedded into the writeup to reduce confusion. Thanks for your patience in this.
I arrived at the SHOT Show on Thursday 15 January 2009 at 14:00, was there pretty much opening to closing on Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th, and from opening to 14:00 on Sunday.
The writeup below is in chronological order as I walked the floor since that's the way my pictures appear. If you're looking for a specific manufacturer, I suggest using Ctrl+F function to search the page.
The above is a link directly to the SHOT Show website and contains a downloadable .pdf file of the floorplan of the convention center. You can use the "find" (or binoculars) tool in Adobe Acrobat to look for vendors you may be seeking out, or for the vendor number from the spreadsheet linked to below.
I didn't like the format of the SHOT Vendor List on their page, so I made my own in a Google Doc format. There are two tabs you can see at the bottom, with the first tab being all of the vendors, and the second tab being those vendors that are displaying in the "Law Enforcement/Tactical " section. This is where I'll spend most of my time, and will probably save Sunday for cruising other parts of the show to see what I missed.
Some of the larger vendors will have displays in both the Tactical section and the general section, with the display in the general section usually being the larger. If you're interested in one of these vendors, it's usually worth your time to visit both displays. Hopefully the above spreadsheet will help you find who these vendors are so that you don't miss anything.
A company
out of Miami is going Glock gripframe reductions and texturing. Custom
orders are possible and preferred. They can take a grip down as much
or as little as you need, and texture, or not, whereever you need.
Like everyone else in the industry they are backed up pretty well, but
they appear to do nice work and their reputation is growing with every
happy customer.
The big news, for me,
at Nighthawk's booth was their expansion into aluminum frames. At both
previous Orlando SHOT Shows I had asked the powers that be about
getting an aluminum frame, and they were reluctant due to potential
durability issues. They appear to have put these concerns to rest as
they were showing quite a few aluminum frame pistols. One way they are
addressing the durability concerns is to use ramped barrels in all
aluminum frame guns so that, at the very least, the feedramps will last.
Nighthawk
and Knight's Armament have teamed up to produce a "Knighthawk" pistol
and rifle. The unifying feature between the two guns, besides the
name, is the Knight's Armament signature ball endmill treatment, that
gives a somewhat "golfball" look, made famous on the prototype Knight's
PDW. In the case of the pistol the treatment is on the front and rear
cocking serrations as well as the grips. On the rifle, a Knight's
SR15-E3, the treatment has been applied to the visible portion of the
barrel, the KAC rail covers, and the pistol grip. Only 100, or maybe
even only 50, will be made and it sounds like orders are filling up if
not filled. Not exactly my thing, as I think this is more of a thing
for collectors and I don't see a functional advantage to the pair, but
it's always nice to see two good companies collaborating and putting
out new things. The one place I can see the dimpling being an
advantage is on the rail covers, and if this one thing makes it to the
general market then I'd lable the collaboration a success.
Nighthawk
also has a 10mm 1911 with 6" slide comine out, and the sample on
display had a short section of rail where the rear sight should be and
to this was attached an Aimpoint T-1 micro. While perhaps not suited
to concealed, or even duty, carry, this thing is SCREAMING to be used
on a hog. It's a bit of a niche product to be sure, but a nice thing
to have for those that want it or can make use of it.
I
stopped by this booth specifically to get hands on the Valor, the one
pistol in their line that I was actually interested in seeing. I was
suitably impressed. This pistol has everything you want, and nothing
you don't. Solid trigger, Novak sight cuts, beavertail grip safety,
extended thumb safety. It is well put together and the "feel" of the
gun was just right, with a smooth slide cycle and nice trigger. The
problem is that they only made 200 in 2008, and are only making another
200 in 2009. Get 'em while you can!
They also have a smaller
version of the Valor, with an aluminum frame, in the CCO. 4.25" barrel
so they can still have the bushing and GI guiderod (a good thing).
Fixed Novak sights, as opposed to the adjustables on the Valor, and a
ramped barrel to help preserve the frame. A Valor/CCO combo would be a
great pair, with the Valor for training and the CCO for carry. Same
controls, same muscle memory, just one smaller lighter for everyday use.
CZ
had a new Scorpion on display. Yes, that's right, a Scorpion. .32ACP,
30 round magazine, pistol. It's only semi-auto, and there doesn't
appear to be any provision to (pay the $200 tax and) add a stock and
convert it into an SBR, and there aren't very many .32 suppressors out
there (nor does the barrel look hearty enough to take a threading), but
it still looks like a fun novelty item. Not my bag, but a fun thing
nonetheless and I'm sure there is a market for such things.
I
was here to see one thing, and one thing only: the new Trijicon
Accupoint 1-4x optic. I found it, and it did impress. However,
despite everyone else's excitement at the "true" 1x lowest setting, I
found myself much more excited about the adjustable hood which can open
or close the light gathering element on top of the scope. Having used
Trijicon optics in very bright environments, and having to tape over
the fiber optics on more than one occasion to tone down the brightness
of the reticule, I think this is a superb addition to the product.
The
other news from Trijicon was that they had a couple of new
super-compact ACOGs that appeared to be in the 1.5x range. Very small,
even smaller than the previous 1.5x Compacts, and very light and they
had models there that had mounts for both picatinny rails as well as
carryhandle mounts. This is good news as the excellent Larue mounts
for the Compact ACOG line are intended for the carryhandle version and
have a channel machined into them that mimics the carryhandle for
attachment of the optic. I didn't get any pictures of them, as the
booth was jam packed with people.
Finally, Trijicon has gone
green. No, not environmental, their reticules. At first (and frankly
still) I was a bit skeptical as to how this might appear on folliage
etc. but it does appear to be a nice halfway point between the
sometimes-too-bright red and the sometimes-too-dim amber of the current
lines. They appeared to have a green version of just about every scope
in the line, so they look to be very committed to this new color option.
A funny thing happened
when we walked into the Hardigg booth, we noticed that everyone working
there had shirts embroidered with both the Hardigg AND Pelican logos.
As it turns out, Pelican has bought out Hardigg. Let's hope that this
means that both lines will continue to be produced as the Hardigg cases
offer some real improvements over the Pelican line, and those of us
that have used the Pelicans can really appreciate what Hardigg has to
offer.
On that note, we focused on a nice product from the
Hardigg Mobile Armory line which includes a soft case "Field Pack"
inside of one of their wheeled Storm Cases. For those that travel to
training classes (or, I would suppose, operations) this offers a great
way to transport a primary carbine as well as a backup carbine within a
protective case and still have a soft case that you can remove from the
hard case and tote with you to the range or away from the vehicle
without having to drag around the cumbersome wheeled case. I'm hoping
to secure one of these and develop a way to rigid mount the hard case
into the back of my SUV such that it can be removed only when the case
is open. That way I can securely transport my carbine(s) but still
have the soft case inside to carry from the parking area to the range.
For
those that don't know, some of the improvements of the Hardigg over the
Pelican include an inovative latch that requires the user to first push
down on a small button and then up to open the latch. To anyone that's
used a Pelican case in the past you know that the latches can get
bumped and pop open, something that can't happen with the Hardigg.
Another improvement is the handle which folds flat and snaps into
place. Both from a shipping standpoint of not having the handle
extended to get broken off and from a storage standpoint, having a
folding handle just makes good sense.
They have a new grip treatment and
cocking serrations on some models. Ho Hum doesn't begin to describe my
lack of excitement over these. But, what is there really for them to
do? They can't make the grips any smaller, there aren't really any new
calibers to offer, etc. Maybe one of these days we'll see the fabled
Glock Carbine. Yeah, right. I will say, however, that the smoother
texture did feel better in the hand. If offered a choice between the
current checkering and this model, I'd take the new grip. The problem
is that it comes with these new ridiculous semi-circular cocking
serrations which make no sense whatsoever.
I breezed through
this booth, and didn't see much that caught my eye. What's the point,
really, when their stuff comes out in drips and drabs, gets
discontinued by the time they sell 100 of them, etc. The one thing
that caught my eye was that they had several SBRs displayed. Not sure
if these were meant just to tease us or what. I couldn't find anyone
in the booth that could answer my simple question of "will these be
offered as factory registered and transferrable commercial SBRs?" I
mostly got the deer in the headlights look. If they are available, and
by that I mean both "available" as in they make them and "available" as
in they make more than 5, it would be a great boon the the Krink market
to have a factory gun intead of some cobled-together project gun by
some guy in his garage.
