Once again, I come to you after having survived a week at the SHOT Show.
The ravages of cross-country travel, tiny airplane seats, bad food, late nights, early mornings and walking miles of aisles have taken their toll, but the good news is that I made it there (and back) and saw lots of good things to tell you about in the coming weeks.
Keeping to my long-ago pledge to always be real with you wonderful readers out there, I’ll say this: I love the SHOT Show; the place where it is held every year, Las Vegas, not so much.
Now I know that will not earn me a place on the city’s tourism board, but as we have talked about here before, I’m glad that lots of people like the SHOT Show and that’s fine. It’s just that Vegas is not my particular cup of tea. I’m glad to see all the tourists who are there and are having a good time, but Vegas is probably not where I would go to vacation.
Is that OK? To each his own.
So, for the unfamiliar, what is the SHOT Show? Well, SHOT is an acronym for Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade, and this is by far the greatest show on earth for anything, and I mean anything, to do with firearms, hunting, recreational and competitive shooting, and everything in between.
There are buyers and exhibitors from all 50 of our United States as well as 119 countries at the SHOT Show. This year, there were more than 2,800 exhibitors on the show floor, which covered more than 18 acres (that’s right, 18 acres) and made for 14-plus miles of aisles to walk — and no, I didn’t get to all of them.
This was the 47th edition of the SHOT Show, which has now greatly expanded its exhibits into the Caesars Forum, just across the Vegas Strip, which you can access by a handy bridge. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 60,000 people attended this year’s show, including 2,500 members of the outdoors media. The main portion of the SHOT Show is held in the Venetian Expo adjacent to the hotel and casino in the resort of the same name, where I was lost only about four times a day. (It’s huge!)
So to try to tell you about my week at SHOT, day one is spent in travel. This starts in the wee hours, traveling winding roads within my home state to Charleston, West Virginia, to get on a spacious (all sarcasm intended) plane to Atlanta, where I get on another (and, thankfully, larger) plane to get to Las Vegas. This Atlanta-to-Vegas flight seemed longer than usual, but maybe it was just me. When you get to Vegas and finally find your luggage, you find a cab to get to your hotel — it was Harrah’s for me this year — then make the short walk up the Strip to SHOT.
Every time I return from SHOT, I generally get a lot of questions about what I saw there, what I really liked, and what the trends seem to be in the firearms, ammunition and hunting world.
Once again, under full disclosure, the immensity of the show is overwhelming: You want to see it all, but you just can’t. As you race from one meeting to another, you see five more things on the way and say: “Man! I’ve got to get back here and check that out!”
I will try to give you a few of the highlights.
Most of you know that shotguns have always been my first love (but I like rifles and handguns as well), and this year there were plenty of scatter guns to drool over. Mossberg just unveiled a load of new tactical shotguns. (They are also bringing in a couple new turkey shotguns.) Several new variations to the 590 pump gun and the 940 Pro Tactical guns were there.
The biggest change here is the 590R, which is an AR-like configuration on the venerable 590. An AR-type stock, rotary safety and flat AR-type trigger are the first things you will notice. The other 590 offering is the 590RM, which is fed by a detachable magazine. The magazines available come in five-, 10- and 20-round capacity. (The 20-round mag is a beast!)
(READ MORE: Another smash-hit shotgun from Mossberg)
I saw many shotguns plain and fancy this year — and found one in a place I didn’t expect.
Heritage Firearms is bringing a group of side-by-side shotguns into its line known as the “Badlander” series. Heritage included the usual short-barreled version in this lineup, but what really intrigued me is the model with a 28-inch barrel.
Many of us love the old “double barrels” that Dad and Granddad hunted with; we wistfully look at pictures of them with shotguns from Fox and L.C. Smith. This shotgun from Heritage just brought me back to that era, and I want to hunt with one. Double triggers, tang-mounted safety and a black chrome finish with pretty dark wood will grab you as well if you are thinking about a side-by-side shotgun in your life.
(READ MORE: Another reason to like shotguns)
Well, you knew I would run out of time and space this week, so we will just have to take up this look at more cool new stuff from SHOT another time.
To tell the truth, I need some more time to get over the jet lag and the vestiges of Vegas.
“Guns & Cornbread” is written by Larry Case, who lives in Fayette County, W.Va. You can write to him at larryocase3@gmail.com.