I had fun at this years Shot Show media range day and saw some great things. So a funny story I was at the springfield booth and I was shooting the new XD Mod.2 45acp. Rob Leatham decided to come up behind me and try to distract me while shooting. But looking at the first picture you would almost think that I was getting a nice relaxing back massage. One of my favorite guns of the day and an addition to my must buy list is the Range Officer Champion. This more compact 1911 shot like a dream and was super accurate. In picture 3 Rob Leatham decided to embarrass all of us who thought we could shoot. Picture 4 shows both the Range Officer Champion and Compact.

At the Glock booth they let us shoot the new MOE model Glocks. These are guns that have had the slides milled out from the factory to low mount an electronic dot. I was told that the guns will ship with the slide out out cover incase you decide not to put a sight on. And the they have no plans at this time for taller factory sights that could co-witness.

Another one of my favorites for this year and the biggest surprise was found in the SAR booth. The new SAR ST-9 & ST-45 is a great sleeper gun. What I mean by this is that this Turkish gun will be looked down upon by many. But let me tell you this thing is solid and she is a shooter. It is a polymer striker fired pistol available in both 9mm & 45acp. It comes with three sizes of grip back panels to fit most hands. The magazine release is a paddle like release similar to HK pistols. The magazine release, Safety and slide release are all ambidextrous and easy to reach and use. It should ship this year and will be distributed by EEA. When you load a round in the chamber you are cocking the pistol, allowing for a nice lighter trigger pull that aids in accuracy.

This year IWI is going to make a bigger push into the U.S. market. The UZI Pro Micro pistol is new this year with its polymer frame. The Galil is a battle proven with a rich history. IWI has now improved that weapons system. The polymer lower will make it weigh less all around which most users will enjoy. It will now come standard with rails across the length of the top a rails under the hand guards. And the biggest improvement comes that this generation of Galil will be able to use any standard AK47 magazines. IWI will also be importing multiple models of their Jericho pistols.

The quite part of the range: SilencerCo had the Salvo 12 ga shotgun suppressor available for testing. WOW what a difference this bad boy makes. The negatives are the added length and weight on the end of the barrel. The pros are really reduced recoil and just fun shooting that will help save your hearing and your dogs while hunting. The Salvo is constructed in such a way that you can take some of the baffles off shorting its length at the expense of a louder shotgun blast. At the Smith & Wesson booth they had the new M&P compact 22LR in a suppressed electronic dot set up. This is just fun to shoot and requires no hearing protection to use.

This was one of the funnest booths at the show was Witt Machine Co. At their table they had a Mosin cannon that they had built basically just for fun. On display was a huge flash hider from another one of their cannon builds, Just look how big it is compared to my wife hand for scale. Now they also had some of their serious work available for inspection. They specialize in really creative and adaptable flash hiders. The flash hider kits come in three parts allowing you to not only direct the gasses where you want, but also look good while doing it.

Have you ever wanted a 9mm revolver? have you ever wanted a 9mm revolver that does not use clips? Well Korth firearms has done it. Using unique locking cams in the extractor mean that you can load rimless 9mm rounds into this revolver. The trigger was nice and smooth and the recoils was very manageable. The only con of this revolver is the price, your looking at a cool grand for this type of coolness.

You get to meet some great characters at the Shot Show. On the left is the "Great One" Rob Leatham, and of course everyone knows the "Gunny" Mr R Lee Ermey. The joke here is that I told Springfield Armory sponsored shooter Rob I was going to be switching to Glocks. And I told the Gunny I didn't like Glocks anymore. Most people do not realize that the firearms industry is relatively small compared to other industries. And its at the Shot Show were you run into the same people year after year not only for networking but for having fun as well.

The Maglula Bench Loader is something that I am anticipating and should be available soon. Down Range Fab www.downrangefab.com had a booth full of some of their different target options. One of the cool things they do is a clay hanging system. Using a series of Pigeon Hangers that attach to the main steel target stand you can mount clays in any configuration you can come up with.

Now gun art is interesting by it self as is. But what if I told you this artist was only 13 and has been making art since the age of 5. Please visit www.charlesarts.com to see some more of his work

www.rightnowrange.com had a booth showing off a cool cardboard target system. You basically unfold everything and set up a shooting gallery.

magstoragesolutions.com had a display of their AR-15 magazine storage solution. This clips hold any AR-15 magazine securely and all in one place like inside your safes door. www.tacticallypractical.com had an interesting take on vertical firearms grips.

The CMMG MK47 was fun to shoot especially in full auto. Even though I am a diehard Tundra guy the Nissan Titan project looked great. So has a new plier tool called the switchplier 2.0. And some people take their shot show serious, although it seems way over kit for just a product review video doesn't it?