By Mike Keleher
For the thousands of gun business attendees, the annual SHOT Show is the largest firearms trade show in the world. If you have never attended in it's 40 year run, it is difficult to picture the miles of tables and booths from around the world or the thousands of firearm industry attendees. Last year the show hosted 65,000 attendees who are there to see the latest and greatest products and wrangle vendor contracts for distribution. 65,000 people is a lot of gun people in one place-like an NFL stadium full of people who love guns.
There is always a buzz about which new gun company or firearm will generate the biggest splash at the show. I would like to share some of the biggest surprises which garnered huge interest on the first day of the show.
The biggest rifle splash to me was leaked by the Franklin Armory about two weeks before the show. They promised several remarkable new offerings in the AR market. One of the biggest announcement was an AR system that has a "new"s Binary trigger system which features a normal safe, and semi auto features as well as a third position that allows two shots. The first shot is like a standard trigger pull, and letting off the trigger initiates a second shot. This on and then off trigger allows the second shot to initiate in fractions of a second behind the first shot and is inherently more accurate than a more traditional 3-shot burst. The Franklin trigger system is fully legal as a semi-automatic device while a 3-shot burst is considered an automatic weapon.
This two shot idea is new to AR platforms, but has actually been in use with over and under target skeet shotguns for decades.
Franklin also introduced the Reformation NRS line of firearms. NRS stands for "Not a Rifle or Shotgun" and has straight cut lands and grooves in the barrel which does not cause a projectile to spin. (Back to the musket?) They have devised a unique projectile with fins on it and claim it is quite accurate. I saw a sample projectile and it looks like a tiny .30 copper Nerf football with trailing fins. Franklin is stating the weapon is not subject to NFA, requires no tax stamp, is not a short barreled rifle or short barreled shotgun by law and could travel between states without legal paperwork.
My vote for biggest splash in the pistol market is the new sub-compact Sig Sauer P365. The 9mm P365 just hit the media about a month ago and is being marketed in the very popular concealed carry field against the tiny S&W M&P Shield and the Glock 43.
The attention this pistol brought to the show was impressive. I had to wait in a line to get a chance to handle and photograph it like this gun was a celebrity signing autographs. It was the longest line at the show, and people were taking plenty of time getting their DNA and prints all over the five units Sig had on display. That is a picture of it in my average sized hand. It is a striker fired system like the now very popular P320, but it is not just a chopped down P320. I don't know that this new gun will make people throw out other small 9mm's but Sig owners love their brand and they will buy a lot of the P365's for every day carry in the next year.
In the shotgun field Remington, was showing off 11 new models of pump 870's to include their newest Detachable Magazine models (3 shot or 6 shot mags-kind of odd as a classic 870 holds 5 rounds). They allowed people to shoot it on a timer with dummy rounds. You would eject a dummy round, drop the mag, insert a new mag, chamber another dummy and pull the trigger to show just how quick system is. They are calling it the "Speed Machine" and the fastest loading pump shotgun ever built. I ran their test in 7 seconds and the fastest of the day did it in 6 seconds.
When I got to the Mossberg booth, their new offering went a step beyond the Remington DM. Mossberg showed a new never before seen 590 Pump with a magazine -but where the Remington model only holds 3 or 6 shots, the new Mossberg offers 10 round and 20 round double stack magazines. More is better in my book. If you are going to use a magazine in a pump shotgun, I want a lot of rounds in it. I would anticipate Remington or magazine makers will be adding more capacity to compete with Mossberg.
A couple of other points from the day included Brownells having a spot on their calendar at two o'clock for "Major Announcement." That was a head scratcher and stood in the crowd to see what it would be. Brownells is a huge suppliers of parts and ammo and recently they started selling firearms as well. In the end, the big announcement was some M-16A1 style semi-automatic rifles which were on display all day as "Retro" . Not a huge surprise to me, but turns out they were are the first guns ever manufactured by Brownells-a company that has only ever sold parts and ammunition. They will sell these old Vietnam style guns in 5.56 and in an AR-10 .308 model and every component piece is made by Brownells.
Ruger showed off a 6 shot LCR revolver in .327 Magnum-a very interesting cartridge with good penetration but considerably less recoil than a .38 Special +P or .357 Magnum.
Ergo Grips also showed off their unique Delta polymer grip for revolvers. Picture an inverted rubber shark fin under a small revolver with finger grooves. It looks very strange and non-traditional, but when you pick it up, the Delta grip makes instant sense in your hands and in your brain. You can put an awful lot of meat on the grip including all of your fingers, and creates a forward cant in how you aim the gun with an bit of extended wrist. The grip also fits high into the web of your hand making oh-so pointable. Ergo says it is available for S&W J-frames with round butt and Ruger LCR revolvers.
Franklin Armory… why? why not just buy an AR pistol?
The new Sig pistol looks great! especially if it is drop safe.