While Illinois is under terrible winter snow and sub zero temperatures this week following the Bears loss in the playoffs (is there a connection?) I bravely took another one for the GSL team and travelled to Las Vegas to attend Industry Day at the Range and the SHOT Show in crippling sunny 70 degree weather. Oh how I suffer! But I figure I am due, last year’s range day at the Boulder Rifle and Pistol Club was brutally cold with 20-30 mph winds and the year before that it rained on us.
As always, I watch the associated “Gun Writer Types”, Pod Casters, Content Creators, and Media Influencers who get to attend the Range Day. At another range day this year I was asked if I was a Content Creator. I just said I was uncomfortable with that title and more suited to Shaman, or maybe Wizard.
This year I am proud to announce the Duck Commander beards appear to officially be a thing of the past. Media types still wear a lot of black polar fleece with hoodies coming in a close second with plaid shirts. Big clunky Casio watches are also rare to see in this group with bare wrists and Smart Watches being in vogue. They are always so eager to get on the bus and then impress their seatmates with how much and who they know in the gun media.
The 40-minute trip to the range nearly made my head explode with 75 babbling “experts” and the guy behind me was so important and wonderful he could not shut up about himself and all the “Operators” he knows and exchanges firearms insight with on a regular basis. If I heard Delta Force or Seal Team 6 operators one more time before we thankfully pulled in I was going to have to point out just because you own a guitar does not mean you are Ted Nugent.
Anyway, this huge range in the desert hosted manufacturer bays to shoot all their latest guns and odd products using their supplied ammunition. The firing line had to be at least a quarter mile long and maybe closer to half mile- it is uphill in the middle, so walking it both ways lets you breathe plenty of desert air.
After being a firearms instructor with my federal agency for 25 or so years this whole idea of walking up, shooting and then walking away is better than Christmas! I did not have to pack, transport or carry anything to the range, did not have to supervise or re-teach near idiots, did not have to repack and transport, disassemble or clean anything- and best of all there is no paperwork at the end!
The following items were some I tried out or found interesting.
Suppressors were clearly the hot tickets on the market this year. Saw them even mounted on .50 cal monsters. They were everywhere on the range- but being from Illinois they hold no attention for me. Not only are suppressors illegal in Illinois, but they will also never be legal there. Going way back into the legislative notes and history of the state, seems Demorats (did I spell that correctly?) were afraid if suppressors were legal some people would use them to shoot other people. Simple right? I not so secretly believe the legislators feared they could be silenced. Imagine all the people who were not shot by law abiding citizens over the years because they did not have suppressors. Sure, old angry Johnny just had to hold off shooting someone else because it would be too loud. You can’t just shoot guns at people in Chicago! Why that would be criminal!
My sole interest in one suppressor at the range is linked to my being impressed by design genius. One of the problems with suppressors is they heat up quickly and stay hot. They also can then pass hot gas back down the tube and vent through the chamber area- into your eyes. Well, Ambient Arms took this on, and by looking at jet engine technology built a device that has flutes in the body. When a bullet passes through the device it sucks in air through the flutes behind the bullet passing. This ends up with a 75% reduction in temperature at the muzzle end and 60% at the base. Pretty cool engineering. Oh the puns
My favorite gun of the day, was one that leaked about 10 days ago. I saw it somewhere else and then could not find it on the maker’s website, but when I walked into the Kahr Auto Ordnance Bay I said, “Do you have the new….” And the rep said “The new .22LR Tommy Gun? It’s right here.” I don’t know how many of them they have for sale, and he did not even know the MSRP because it was so brand new, but that Tommy Gun with 10/22 type stick mags in .22 LR was just pure fun. It is very light weight (doesn’t need the weight of the original .45s) and pretty much no recoil. It worked like a champ. Is it practical for anything? Uh- no. Is it just fun to look at and shoot? Uh- yeah!
This one had a red dot mounted on top of the receiver…somebody just had to do that, and I wish they had just left it alone-you know classic lines and all, but being it was their gun and I got to shoot it I was not going to complain too loud! It is an iconic design in .22 -what’s not to like?
Rock Island Armory asks the question- would you like a fold down, packable, pump action shotgun pistol? I had never considered it before now. Maybe I should have. This new PAK OUT pistol is 38″ extended and folds down to 24″ and is easily carried in a backpack. It is a 12 ga pump with 4+1 capacity. Nifty.
Shield Arms makes a lot of innovative magazine items, and I am fond of their G19 compatible 15 rd mags for Glock 43X’s (over their factory 10 rd count) and their clones. At the range they also highlighted making a new all metal mag for Glock 17s which will hold 20 rounds. This hits the market next month. They also did a chop down grip Glock 43 to make a tiny 9mm pistol even smaller- yet still holds one of their 10 rd mags (Glock issues the 43 with 6 rds only). Shield arms also showed off a nifty red dot mount called the ROC that goes on top of tiny J frame revolvers and lets you put small red dot optics on those pocket guns.
Steyr had some new competition ready pistols laid out with the ATD in Aluminum Frame and ATC all Stainless Steel frame. They have every feature you can imagine on them including compensator options, and when I asked about my personal Steyr issue, they swore they have holsters coming for these guns and for some of their older models. One of my shooting pals has a Steyr he swears by but just can’t get holsters for it and I think he emails them about once a month for the last couple of years-you would think they would get some holsters made or at least change their email address.
The most innovative AR carbine design I saw on range day has to be the MIMIC Speed 9. The carbine looks like most other maxi-zoom M-4 platforms, but the magwell is odd. Turns out, they have engineered a fairly amazing new 9mm magazine. The magazine holds 60 rds. Yes, 60, in the space of a 30 rd mag. It is not double stack as we know it, rather think of two 9mm single stack magazines welded together back to back. Then insert 60 total 9mms into the thing. Once you shoot up your first 30 just eject and turn it around and put it back in for the second 30. It is odd, and they had to do a lot of engineering to get it to feed, but I shot it and it works like a champ. The makers were quite proud of it, and rightfully so.
Glock had a big booth and there was a line all day to get to shoot the new GEN 6 pistols in G17, G19 and G45. I wrote about their new Generation in November offering 9 improvements to “Perfection.” I got to talk with Glock reps and shoot one , and long story short-l it’s good. It is the best production Glock ever built. So many aftermarket builders and parts sellers were doing upgrades to standard Glocks, essentially, they just incorporated the best aftermarket features into their production guns. One Glock rep told me he thinks some of the aftermarket parts sellers will take a big hit in their sales.
Putting one in your hand immediately resonates with the improved grip design with palm swell and beavertail. It fits good. There is also a stippling on the forward frame for my support thumb with thumbs forward grip I liked. My Glock rep pointed out the undercut of the trigger guard leading to a higher grip, and I said you mean I won’t have to Dremel tool grind this one down like all my other Glocks? He visibly winced. The trigger is better and the gritty feeling may be gone forever- I’d need more trigger time with it. It is not the best aftermarket Glock trigger I have fired, but from Georgia production line it is the best Glock has fielded next to their add on performance trigger. Selling the new Gen 6’s at the same price point as the Gen 5’s and Gen 3’s still amazes me. It’s more, and better, and still costs the same price? Amazing.
This is the gun Glock should have been selling for the last 10 or 15 years. Just took them time to get to it.
The other amazing thing in the Glock booth out in the desert sun and wind talking to anyone who approached was a statuesque blond woman- who owns the company. Mrs Katharin GLOCK, widow of founder Gaston Glock. She was a delight to talk to, and oh so proud of her company and the design team behind the Gen 6. Attractive, single rich woman who owns one of the largest pistol companies in the world… how attractive is that!
Mec Gar makes mags. In fact, they make most of the mags for companies like Sig Sauer and Beretta, so you know they are good. They showed me some all-metal mags they are putting out this year to include one for the Glock 19 (normally 13 or 15 rds) and this will hold 18 rds in the space of a regular G19 mag with a finger extension. That is a lot of bullets in a medium size pistol! Being metal, it also positively clicks when inserted, and when the eject button is depressed that Mec Gar pops out even if the gun is canted sideways! They are also producing two new metal mags for G17’s which hold 18 and 20 rds and this year will produce a metal 33 rd stick mag for PCCs. They said they are also working on a new model to put in to the normal 10 rd G26 pistols which will now be able to carry 15 rds.
Flux Defense had their oh so fun to shoot wrist brace Sig P365s on display again, and last year shooting one with all kinds of gadgets hanging on it in 20 mph winds was still a gas and pinging steel at 50 yds with that small 9mm was lots of fun. Flux Defense last year was only one of about three manufacturers that offered folding PDW rigs. This year I find a number of other big name makers are in the lucrative game.
This year, Flux Defense are offering a new version called the Ultra Light which has a polymer frame and polymer folding wrist brace and a second forward mag storage well like a foregrip. You have to get your own Sig 365 (longer than the micro compact versions) and install it in the frame/brace. They also throw in a holster of the thing, and it even deploys the folded wrist brace when drawn from the holster all for $499. The range rep said the holster could be in the pants or outside the waistband. I was a bit incredulous about stuffing all that inside the waistband- especially because there is already so much of me in there. However, the rep said you would be surprised how good it worked. I would indeed.
Breakthrough company was showing their Shield Mats, gun cleaning mats. They look eminently practical as roll out rubber mats with lined compartments to set gun parts in so they don’t roll away. What made it even better, down one side they have a magnetized strip to keep things where you put them. They sell for $39 and $49 for pistols and long guns respectively.
The biggest lines at the range day were lined up at a bay offering free sessions firing belt fed AR-15s. Imagine the smiles and delight all day long when a rep hands you a belt fed AR to squirt into the desert. Ah the smell of America along with sagebrush and sand.
