SHOT Day Two

Spent most of my day on the second floor, which seems to be where SHOT's heavy hitters are.

I finally got a chance to look at a Ruger Scout rifle. Quality was good, and the action was smooth, but the sample I looked at had a noticeably canted front sight! From the looks of it, you might be able to fix it with the right tools, but for me it was a poor first impression.

Smith and Wesson's M&P .22 is now shipping. It has both a manual safety and a magazine safety. The former I can live with, but the latter is a deal breaker for a serious training handgun. This pistol also lacks the variable geometry grips available on the "real" M&Ps. Assuming the magazine safety can be disabled, this could be a still be useful for practice gun, at least until a conversion kit comes out for the full size M&P.

Ruger also has a new .22 pistol which is a departure in design from their very successful Mk1-Mk3 series. It's similar in appearance to the Walther P22.

Tactical Solution's .22 conversion for the Glock looks great. They are hoping to have others available in the future.

KelTec had an improved version of their KSG shotgun. The new KSG has two 7 round magazines which are manually selected. The pump mechanisms' tendency to pinch the shooter and short stroke have both been corrected. These are shipping now and have a lot of promise. I am making arrangements for a demo of this gun in Minnesota.

The neatest thing I saw in the shotgun market was Mossberg's new Flex system. Available for the 500 and 590 series, this system allows the user to change stocks and forends without tools. This is only available on new guns; unfortunately there are no plans to offer any retrofitting.

Mossberg also has a bolt action .223 varmint rifle which accepts AR15 magazines. I expect this will be extremely popular with coyote and prairie dog hunters.

At the Mossberg's booth I was assisted by none other than world record holder Jerry Miculek.

Safariland finally took my advice and is making a kydex shoulder holster for the J-Frame Smith & Wesson. Demonstrating this was the legendary Bill Rogers. While the holster was well designed, the harness left a lot to be desired. Hopefully this is corrected in the final product.

Speaking of holsters, Hogue, known for their handgun grips, has entered the holster market with a simple plastic design.

I met the folks from Mission First Tactical at Outbreak Omega last year, when most of their products were prototypes. Their line of AR15 accessories and furniture are now available and look great. Seems like like everyone is making AR15 adjustable stocks now. I saw new designs from Ace gunstocks, Safariland, ATI, Tapco, CAA, and many others. Most of them are clearly inspired by the Magpul CTR design.

I'll have some pics up on our Facebook page when I get back to Minnesota.