So yeah, I spent Inauguration Day shooting all the latest guns and ammo at the Boulder Rifle & Pistol Club in Nevada the day before SHOT Show 2025 opens at the annual Industry Day at the Range. How great is that? Well, great for me anyway. It was below 0 degrees back home so almost anyplace else was better. Got up to about 40- but the wind as usual was howling out in the desert 25 to 35 mph. It blew so hard it sucked sand up out of the desert in plumes. Looked like a Sci-Fi movie.
Let me put Range Day in context- I have been a range master and firearms instructor for over 30 years now. This one day of the year, I get to shoot all the brand new 2025 SHOT Show guns, while using their supplied ammunition, and when I am done, I say “Thanks” and walk away. Oh, I might ask a question or two and write something down or take a picture, but mostly I just wait in line, shoot the new gun and walk away.
I don’t have to carry anything out to the range. I don’t have to set up targets. I don’t have to sign for and pack ammo to the range. I don’t have to clean any guns when I finish, and I don’t have to pack them up and haul them home when the day is done! This is better than Christmas for me!
Industry Day at the Range is held in conjunction with the SHOT Show and they claim over 200 manufacturers have guns and ammo out on the huge desert range. Sig apparently holds their own SHOT Show range day now and there is a new group outing going to the Prairie Fire Range in Pahrump, NV today (apparently the former Front Sight area) but all the big-name manufacturers are at Industry Day except SIG and this year I did not see Springfield Armory.
Gun writers and video influencers are the invitees. Manufacturers hope the media will like what they see and shoot and generate stories about it. I often see stories in magazines coming out two and three months later. I was there today and will tell you what I saw and what I liked or did not like with the new products.
First up in the door, Walker’s gave everyone a new pair of hearing muffs and a pair of new impact resistant sport glasses. Ironclad also gave away free tactical gloves- a very welcome item. Nice start, and you can’t trust those “gun writer types” would bring their own without having clips on them to hold on to the cuff or the long elastic band that goes between gloves and runs down the sleeves. I am a grizzled veteran of such affairs brought my in ear Iso-Tunes, over ear Peltors and some Tafosi lenses I really like. They are light tint and have fingernail sized cut outs at the top of the lens to let out perspiration…a big help to me as I can fog a mirror just by walking past it. I also took Illinois grade clothing and rightly so. Heavy flannel shirt, polar fleece hoodie and a lightweight Eddie Bauer goose down outer jacket. Remember kids, any idiot can be cold…takes no prep whatsoever. The desert will chill you despite where you are from.
I started out in the SDS/MAC/Tisas/Tokarev bay and got to check out the MAC 9mm double stack competition ready 2011 pistol. It was a beefy handful and shot well. Developer told me they have been improving this gun for 2 years in 4″ and 5″ models and want it to be an out of the box competition piece. It was a good shoot and also had a compensator on the front. Comp on a 9mm is kind of a new thing with manufacturers but it worked well. The gun is selling for about $700-$800. It is a brute. I also got to shoot the Tisas offering in a 9mm double stack 2011 and liked it alot. It had a lot of the same features of the MAC, but was a bit more carry friendly and coming in about $600 it seems like a good place to start if you are looking for a 2011 to tinker with. They also had one of their iconic Inglis Hi-Powers on hand I saw last year. Could not help myself, had to shoot it. Very sweet traditional Hi-Power 9mm lines -same model the Canadian Military and Brit SAS used to carry for $400.
One of the funnest pieces I found today was made by HED High-end Defense Solutions. They are selling a magnetic base red dot sight. Yep. It sticks on top of uncut pistol slides, inside optics cut sides and on rifles. They are now working on a version for shotguns. I asked about putting it on .45s and 10mms and they said they have never had one come off. You push a release on the base, and it breaks contact, and you can snap it off of your pistol slide and put it in your bag. Then, get this, if you stick it back on it does not lose zero. Their 2nd gen version includes a small gate off the backend that actually snaps over rear sights to help keep it zeroed. I shot it, took it off, replaced it and went back to knocking steel. Amazing. They are marketed for $365. Quality gear, not just a gimmick.
I bumped into the guys from Tactical Grit Todd Greenberg and Doug Silk who showed me their new lead removal hand washing product in squeeze packs and bottles. Completely waterless. Chemically it scrubs your skin and encapsulates the lead deposits and rubbing it on make the encapsulated lead and dirt fall off of your hands. They said their studies found it removed 99.4% of dirt/debris. The base ingredients are the same as you would get if treated for lead poisoning. Pretty cool stuff. I have been using lead wipes for a few years in my range bag and on my cleaning bench, but they dry out. I am anxious to try out the Tactical Grit samples.
Hi-Viz well known for replacement light tube and tritium sights had a new co-witnessing set of sights that can match up with a red dot. Yes you can now see the dot and your sights in the same picture if you want or need it. Heaven forbid technology breaks down or batteries stop working. Hi-Viz also had my fave product of theirs the Fast Dot H3 tube system now available for S&W, Glocks and SIGS. Think of low-profile irons except with tubes and the front and rear tubes are bright red/orange. Except when you line up the front and rear then the front sight turns bright green! Green for go! It is very cool and works with both eyes open, one eye, astigmatism and even weak eye dominant. I will put some on my next pistol purchase. Optics Planet has them for $125.
My next pistol purchase? Oh, that is an easy one. Ruger introduced their RXM 9mm Glock clone about 3 weeks ago. I have handled two of them since then and was all set to order one for $400 but decided to wait until I shot one at the SHOT show. Verdict is in. It is good to go. I saw an impressive torture test of several thousand rounds run consecutively through one (dipping it in water to cool it off- don’t try this at home). I don’t know why they waited to put out a G19 clone- they have been in America since about 1988, but Ruger did this one right. They had Magpul design the polymer frame as Magpul knows a thing or two about polymer. Then most of the slide/bbl parts are compatible with a real G19 and there is a glut of aftermarket parts for those Austrians, and then they took a page from SIG and the trigger/firing piece is a removeable FCU like the Sigs. Shoots like you want it to with very good sights and better trigger than you ever saw come out of the Glock factory.
I also shot the new Ruger 10mm LC carbine, and while it is an odd-looking duck with a left side mounted cocking lever and goofy safety design, it of course runs solid like any Ruger, and I am an absolute sucker for anything that spits 10mms out the front end. I have shot this carbine in 9mm and .45 in past years and they just work. I had one in 5.57mm for about 10 minutes and got rid of it brand new because I have no use for the 5.57mm cartridge. Then about 10 minutes later Ruger introduced it in 10mm… story of my life. Shoulda been there at the right time.
I got to shoot the new H+K micro compact 9mm the CC9. They told me it is the smallest pistol H+K has ever built. It is also all US made and holds 12+1 plus it is pre-cut for optics. MSRP is $699. Oh look it is the H+K CC9/365/43X/Hellfire/Something/Something for $700. H+K still loves their product line held to a premium price!
I shot some Turkish built shotgun over/unders from SDS and had a lot of discussion with one of the input designers. First, I shot the Spandau in 12 gauge and powdered some clay birds. Breaking it open the hulls flew out like they were jet propelled. Designer said they are hoping to market this sub $1000 gun to gun clubs and youth clubs. It is a full-size gun but would take all the abuse of competition shooting instead of younger shooters having to delve into the $3000-$7000 guns just to start out. Next, I was given the Spandau Premier O/U to shoot. I have seen this movie before- first they put you in the Honda Civic, and if you have some money then they put you in Accord to test drive- oooh this is nicer! The Premier has of course a nicer deep blue finish and a Perazzi style stock with a wider butt, which strangely dissipates recoil differently than the narrower regular Spandau. Weird! The Premier is all hand fitted. The fore end is numbered to match the barrels which match the receiver and stock. Solid gun for $2000.
I also shot one of their Amscor single shot break action 20-gauge shottys just for fun. Whenever people ask me “What kind of gun can I get my non-shooting wife for self-defense for the house?” I always tell them “Get a single shot 20 gauge.” Well, this break action is a little unusual, but I shot so many consecutive clay birds with it the handle just kept forking over more shells. He got a kick out of it too. Very easy to aim, short vent barrel. You unlock it to break open by pulling back on the trigger guard. Unusual but took about 3 seconds to master. Works great and they sell at local gunshops for like $100-$150. What’s not to like in something that will never see heavy use but is dependable right alongside a loud voice announcing, “I have a shotgun, and I have called the police!”
Biggest fun find at the range day? Hands down it was the Flux 365 Raider. I have poo-pooed mounting pistols into polymer pseudo rifle frames but never shot one. This one was built on a Sig P365 with long grip handling all the big Sig mags like 21 rds. It has a foldable very narrow stock/wrist brace (so reminded me of my Man From UNCLE days) and it accepts a spare mag like a front brace/handle alongside a forward mounted gas pedal. This particular gun was a SBR version and in addition to the stock thing, it also had a suppressor and a 6″ barrel and a reflex red dot. Even with 20-30 mile wind gusts I was pinging steel all over the course out to 100 yards! What fun! I did not even think to ask with the thing costs…yeah, that much fun.
Another fun surprise was getting to shoot the Colt Kodiak .44 magnum with a 4″ ported barrel. It is a handsome handful with a non-fluted cylinder and a low-profile reflex dot sight. It also has small porting holes under the front sight. Design engineer said he did not have a way to really measure the recoil difference or efficiency with the ported barrel, but did get some picture measurements showing the muzzle flip was about 2″ lower in the pictures. Now being old and crochety I don’t care for 4″ barreled .44 mag revolvers. Too much snap and twist in my medium sized mitts. I think 6″ is much more manageable. So I got to shoot some full house Rem 200 gr .44 mags out of the Kodiak and boy does it make a difference. Being large frame and heavy this gun with the ports shoots more like a .357 and it also tames some of the abuse your palms receive with a very good rubber grip. Traditionally if I shoot a couple of cylinders of .44 mag my palms resonate like I gripped the push mower and mowed the lawn for half an hour. Kodiak = Good. Oh, those ports get that non-shiny stainless steel dirty, but it wipes right off. They run between $1250-$1500 about the same price as the Colt Anaconda with six- and eight-inch barrels.
Well that was the fun stuff from the windy desert today. Gotta get to bed, the real SHOT Show starts tomorrow.