SHOT SHOW 2011
Well another Shot Show in the books, again Sniper’s Hide was lucky to be part of the Rifles Only booth along with Tony Burkes at TAB Gear. We also had one of GA Precisions’ new AR10s rifles in the booth so we could show off the new GDI prototype mount for the precision rifle.
The week started for me on Monday with the Ashbury International Live fire demo. Chiller was nice enough to give a ride out to the Range just outside Nellis and pulling up it was interesting to note how busy it was. Morris & Co puts on a very nice spread with free BBQ along with some other vendors. I was greeted by Morris & Matthew and told about the dealer program ready to roll as well as getting an update on inventory, which is ready to roll out to the end user. While getting some food, I was fortunate enough to sit with Pinco Palla & Davide, who are always extremely friendly and treat to visit with. Also I was able to shake hands with Cory Trapp for the first time, it’s one of the great things about SHOT, putting faces to names.
Inside the tent I had a chance to talk to David of Long Range Bipods. His cradle design bipods were featured on the Ashbury rifles. Also right there next to Long Range bipods were the guys from Adaptive with their new FDAC . A great product the improvement to the charts and information was awesome.
On line Ashbury had everything from their .50 Caliber down to the M40E as featured in the video trailer found on the home page of Sniper’s Hide. The highlight for and the rifle I gravitated towards was the TRG 42 in the Saber Forrest Stock from Ashbury. Cory was manning the glass for that submission and I went ahead and loaded 5 rounds of RUAG 338LM. With the suggestion of a mil of wind, I went straight for the target at 1100 yards. First round was just off the edge, so I held 1.25 mils of wind and proceeded to put the remaining 4 shots on Target. While talking to Cory I think Chiller was moving down the line shooting everything Asbury had to offer.
Day 1 of Shot is always exciting for me, I want to see what is new and Day 1 didn’t’ disappoint me.
As soon as I walked in on the way to the Rifles Only booth Scott of Accuracy International greeted me. To say I am fan of AI is an understatement of epic proportion, these Battle Proven rifles are the Holy Grail for many a tactical rifle enthusiast. Scott was busy putting out the new AX rifles, and said as soon as the dust cleared from SHOT that he had a 338LM and 308 for Sniper’s Hide to get their hands on. Having known about, and handled the AX during my Armorer’s Course, I was really happy to get this news. The new AX chassis were online as well as the Savage offering, which I know, is of interest for many.
A highlight of SHOT in regards to Accuracy International is having Dave Walls on hand. This year Dave was all over SHOT including spending some time at the Rifles Only Booth telling everyone the history of the Accuracy International Rifle. For those unfamiliar, and many are, Dave invented the Action that became the AW. An Engineer, Dave likes to tell the story of how the AW came about and why the action is squared and not round. Not only he is a wealth of knowledge on the history of the AI, he is quite entertaining thanks to the years of speculation on why he designed the action the way he did. He tells that, on one particular outing to the range he was plagued by the constant shortcomings of other actions available at the time, so lamenting this to a friend, it was suggested that if didn’t like what was out there, he should make his own. So, Dave said, “alright I will” and went behind his house to the garage. Combing the shelves of his small shop, he was unable to find any round stock from which to start, so he began with the only thing he had, a piece of square stock and thus began the journey towards the AW we have today. Started in a small shop inside his garage using only what he had available. The AW is square today because that is what he had…
At the end of the isle where the RO booth was located, we had Nightforce. Much has been said about whether or not the 5-22X F1 would be on hand at SHOT and to the disappointment of many, I tell you now, there is no 5-22X . A select few were ushered back behind the curtain of Nightforce to witness the next evolution of the Nightforce scope. It has no name, though it is called several things internally, this scope has been kept under wraps for the better part of two years. Two years some might says, in the scope world is quite a long time. Well Ladies and Gentlemen it changes the game. I went back and tried to think of things like patents in regards to the modern tactical scope, really aside from reticles, all that came to mind were the double detent patents by USO. Now I am sure there more, I mean there has to be right, but can you think of them ? Well I couldn’t so when you consider 7 patents on one design, you have to ask yourself, can your scope keep up ? I will say this, you will never look at NF glass the same way again, the optical design does some things that just makes this scope pop, I mean it has an eye box to make a Hensoldt jealous. The WOW factor is there, the features, rich, and the rest, well I am sure I said too much already. I won’t say wait, because the new F1 reticles are awesome. The new MLR2 is by far one of the best FFP mil based Reticles I have seen, and will be a staple in my stable moving forward. I mentioned to many that this year there was actually very little if no real buzz, well that is because all the buzz was kept to a single room behind a very busy booth were most couldn’t hear.
The Shot Show was busy for a lot of us, we pressed the flesh, exchanged pleasantries, and got a lot of hands on with various products. On Day One of Shot I didn’t leave the building until 6:30PM thanks to the many companies that came calling.
Another stated purpose of mine was to see the new THOR Series of Suppressors at AWC. Chris Short sent me a quick note via cell to please stop by and I did so without hesitation. Most people on SH know I am fan of suppressors. Well I always ‘known” of the Thunder Trap, but frankly being a big Ti fan I was never really drawn to one enough to look any further. With the announcement of the THOR series, well I was truly intrigued. This THOR series will be extended to not only the Thunder Trap but the Raider series as well and I immediately made a bee line to AWC booth.
Now, I have quite a few Ti suppressors, my first was bought back in 2004 with my Jets, then moving forward I was in early getting a Shark, then on to Gemtech, Thunder Beast ending with my most recent a Tac Ops. In all I have to say I have a lot. So being familiar I think I had a pretty good base line from which to form an opinion.
Immediately the, AWC is nice, better than nice, it has all the right features one would look for, and you can see it. The baffle system comes back to place I have only seen in my Tac Ops, the thickness of the end caps, impressive, which has to lead to better sound dampening, as well as heat dissipation. He has a crown feature I like, and I personally think is necessary. I was told they are magnum capable and this lead me to my next step with Chris… Ordering two of them, I was sold.
The best part of this, I am ordering two the same way anyone else would, Chris wanted me to know the process so I can relate this process to the readers. He’s passionate about what he does and how he does it. He takes pride in, not only the suppressors, but also the paperwork provided to the end user. You essentially do nothing but sign it, enclose your check and wait. Before I ever came to SHOT to meet AWC, I said if I like the suppressor, I would buy the suppressor, so there as no air of favoritism, my opinion will be mine based on something I bought. Well I’m buying two.
We had a ton of SH Members come by, many just to say Hello and I apologize to everyone for not being able to visit. When I was in the booth, it was a mad house. Tony Burkes was like a one-armed paperhanger, he was pinned in the corner showing off his new sling and demo’ing the all the others so much, I don’t think he managed more than 1 bathroom break a day. Heck most days we spent eating on the fly in the booth while talking to people. Not exactly classy but that is the nature of SHOT I suppose and a good problem to have. I saw many of you gesture as you walked by and I want to say we really appreciate the support. Funny, I was in more than one booth and people didn’t know it, yet they were talking about the site to the companies and how they heard about the product through the Hide.
This year I was able to touch base with a lot of the SH vendors, and it’s always good to see them. I know Mike Cecil was around a bunch doing the videos, the guys from Better Optics Chris & Jay, Doug from CameralandNY, Alex from Euro Optics, Scott Berish. We had the Vortex booth behind us, and we were able to talk to Scott there, GAP, Manners, Badgers , was local, as well I spent a morning or two visiting with Kasey from Accu Shot. I remember seeing Mike Bush for about half a second, Mike Recigno from Tac Ops was by the booth, Mike Miller from TIS, the crew from Bartlien, I mean the list is very long,, not to mention the new guys coming around.
One reason for all the attention around the RO booth was the celebrities that stopped by. George Gardner brought Ted Nugent to get some TAB Gear and because Cowboy Bravo was there, was had the cast of Top Shot at the booth most of the week. Chris Cerino and Ian were on hand, as well as several others. This was nice, it was fun teasing Chris about his second place showing, he's a good sport and took our ribbing really well.
I had a couple of notable standouts,
I went down to FNH with Ben Voss to get a tour of their PSR submission. This was pretty neat. Built for FN by Unique Alpine, this multi-caliber capable 338LM featured a polygonal barrel with progressive twisting. Something I know has been discussed here, well they are doing it and my understanding was the rifle is performing extremely well. I doubt the civilian side will see this rifle any time sooner and know they were discouraging anyone from photographing it. I had a lot of really great features. Also I was interested in the SCAR DM rifle, the longer SSR I think they call it. That had my interest up…
As usual I spent a fair amount of Time with Nathan Hunt with Zeiss Tactical / Hensoldt. Notable for me was their night vision as well as the Spotter 45. The NV1000 is a small inline unit and matched with their outstanding glass quality, it sure to be a highlight for the New Year at Sniper’s Hide. Also the Spotter 45, named so for the 45X maximum zoom range, the Spotter45 features a GEN II Mil Dot Reticle, which is different from the Spotter 60 with it’s L shaped mil scale. Another bit of news out of Zeiss might be the greater tactical sport from the Sport Optic side of things.
During my travels, I managed to see Kyle Lynch at Barrett. The new 20” 50 cal was front and center as well it featured a new Barrett made suppressor specifically for this system. That was awesome, I got filled in the BORS and it’s changes for the new year. The BORS will be available in Mils and it will add 10 MPH wind data in the window with the new update to the software. This will let you reference the wind as it reads out the range.
I made a stop to see Kevin from Knights Armament, I was particularly interested in the 16” EMC… very nice. He took me through the system pointing out the changes and highlighting the advantages of the Knights proven system.
I also looked at the Colt multi caliber capable system, not a lot of details, but this will let you switch from a 5.56 upper to a 7.62 one with the same lower.
And finally… even though I missed a ton of things that happened, I want to end on this note.
Friday morning I came to the booth to find a card from Mark Larue sitting under the Sniper’s Hide name. So, I made a point of heading down to the Larue Tactical Booth to see Mark and talk to him. When I got there, it was just coincidence that Tony Burkes was there talking to Mark himself. I initially didn’t know if Mark had left the card or if it was there because I know Jacob had paid him a visit, but what the heck right. Believe it or not, no fireworks, we shook hands, and had a good laugh about it all, and Mark himself said it was all in good fun as he put it. In the end we shook hands several time and he was showing us his upside down scope mount on the OBR at the booth. Before leaving, hoping we had cleared the air I was sure to ask him if I could get a SH discount on the OBR… he had a chuckle at that.
Well there you go… SHOT in a nutshell.
Well another Shot Show in the books, again Sniper’s Hide was lucky to be part of the Rifles Only booth along with Tony Burkes at TAB Gear. We also had one of GA Precisions’ new AR10s rifles in the booth so we could show off the new GDI prototype mount for the precision rifle.
The week started for me on Monday with the Ashbury International Live fire demo. Chiller was nice enough to give a ride out to the Range just outside Nellis and pulling up it was interesting to note how busy it was. Morris & Co puts on a very nice spread with free BBQ along with some other vendors. I was greeted by Morris & Matthew and told about the dealer program ready to roll as well as getting an update on inventory, which is ready to roll out to the end user. While getting some food, I was fortunate enough to sit with Pinco Palla & Davide, who are always extremely friendly and treat to visit with. Also I was able to shake hands with Cory Trapp for the first time, it’s one of the great things about SHOT, putting faces to names.
Inside the tent I had a chance to talk to David of Long Range Bipods. His cradle design bipods were featured on the Ashbury rifles. Also right there next to Long Range bipods were the guys from Adaptive with their new FDAC . A great product the improvement to the charts and information was awesome.
On line Ashbury had everything from their .50 Caliber down to the M40E as featured in the video trailer found on the home page of Sniper’s Hide. The highlight for and the rifle I gravitated towards was the TRG 42 in the Saber Forrest Stock from Ashbury. Cory was manning the glass for that submission and I went ahead and loaded 5 rounds of RUAG 338LM. With the suggestion of a mil of wind, I went straight for the target at 1100 yards. First round was just off the edge, so I held 1.25 mils of wind and proceeded to put the remaining 4 shots on Target. While talking to Cory I think Chiller was moving down the line shooting everything Asbury had to offer.
Day 1 of Shot is always exciting for me, I want to see what is new and Day 1 didn’t’ disappoint me.
As soon as I walked in on the way to the Rifles Only booth Scott of Accuracy International greeted me. To say I am fan of AI is an understatement of epic proportion, these Battle Proven rifles are the Holy Grail for many a tactical rifle enthusiast. Scott was busy putting out the new AX rifles, and said as soon as the dust cleared from SHOT that he had a 338LM and 308 for Sniper’s Hide to get their hands on. Having known about, and handled the AX during my Armorer’s Course, I was really happy to get this news. The new AX chassis were online as well as the Savage offering, which I know, is of interest for many.
A highlight of SHOT in regards to Accuracy International is having Dave Walls on hand. This year Dave was all over SHOT including spending some time at the Rifles Only Booth telling everyone the history of the Accuracy International Rifle. For those unfamiliar, and many are, Dave invented the Action that became the AW. An Engineer, Dave likes to tell the story of how the AW came about and why the action is squared and not round. Not only he is a wealth of knowledge on the history of the AI, he is quite entertaining thanks to the years of speculation on why he designed the action the way he did. He tells that, on one particular outing to the range he was plagued by the constant shortcomings of other actions available at the time, so lamenting this to a friend, it was suggested that if didn’t like what was out there, he should make his own. So, Dave said, “alright I will” and went behind his house to the garage. Combing the shelves of his small shop, he was unable to find any round stock from which to start, so he began with the only thing he had, a piece of square stock and thus began the journey towards the AW we have today. Started in a small shop inside his garage using only what he had available. The AW is square today because that is what he had…
At the end of the isle where the RO booth was located, we had Nightforce. Much has been said about whether or not the 5-22X F1 would be on hand at SHOT and to the disappointment of many, I tell you now, there is no 5-22X . A select few were ushered back behind the curtain of Nightforce to witness the next evolution of the Nightforce scope. It has no name, though it is called several things internally, this scope has been kept under wraps for the better part of two years. Two years some might says, in the scope world is quite a long time. Well Ladies and Gentlemen it changes the game. I went back and tried to think of things like patents in regards to the modern tactical scope, really aside from reticles, all that came to mind were the double detent patents by USO. Now I am sure there more, I mean there has to be right, but can you think of them ? Well I couldn’t so when you consider 7 patents on one design, you have to ask yourself, can your scope keep up ? I will say this, you will never look at NF glass the same way again, the optical design does some things that just makes this scope pop, I mean it has an eye box to make a Hensoldt jealous. The WOW factor is there, the features, rich, and the rest, well I am sure I said too much already. I won’t say wait, because the new F1 reticles are awesome. The new MLR2 is by far one of the best FFP mil based Reticles I have seen, and will be a staple in my stable moving forward. I mentioned to many that this year there was actually very little if no real buzz, well that is because all the buzz was kept to a single room behind a very busy booth were most couldn’t hear.
The Shot Show was busy for a lot of us, we pressed the flesh, exchanged pleasantries, and got a lot of hands on with various products. On Day One of Shot I didn’t leave the building until 6:30PM thanks to the many companies that came calling.
Another stated purpose of mine was to see the new THOR Series of Suppressors at AWC. Chris Short sent me a quick note via cell to please stop by and I did so without hesitation. Most people on SH know I am fan of suppressors. Well I always ‘known” of the Thunder Trap, but frankly being a big Ti fan I was never really drawn to one enough to look any further. With the announcement of the THOR series, well I was truly intrigued. This THOR series will be extended to not only the Thunder Trap but the Raider series as well and I immediately made a bee line to AWC booth.
Now, I have quite a few Ti suppressors, my first was bought back in 2004 with my Jets, then moving forward I was in early getting a Shark, then on to Gemtech, Thunder Beast ending with my most recent a Tac Ops. In all I have to say I have a lot. So being familiar I think I had a pretty good base line from which to form an opinion.
Immediately the, AWC is nice, better than nice, it has all the right features one would look for, and you can see it. The baffle system comes back to place I have only seen in my Tac Ops, the thickness of the end caps, impressive, which has to lead to better sound dampening, as well as heat dissipation. He has a crown feature I like, and I personally think is necessary. I was told they are magnum capable and this lead me to my next step with Chris… Ordering two of them, I was sold.
The best part of this, I am ordering two the same way anyone else would, Chris wanted me to know the process so I can relate this process to the readers. He’s passionate about what he does and how he does it. He takes pride in, not only the suppressors, but also the paperwork provided to the end user. You essentially do nothing but sign it, enclose your check and wait. Before I ever came to SHOT to meet AWC, I said if I like the suppressor, I would buy the suppressor, so there as no air of favoritism, my opinion will be mine based on something I bought. Well I’m buying two.
We had a ton of SH Members come by, many just to say Hello and I apologize to everyone for not being able to visit. When I was in the booth, it was a mad house. Tony Burkes was like a one-armed paperhanger, he was pinned in the corner showing off his new sling and demo’ing the all the others so much, I don’t think he managed more than 1 bathroom break a day. Heck most days we spent eating on the fly in the booth while talking to people. Not exactly classy but that is the nature of SHOT I suppose and a good problem to have. I saw many of you gesture as you walked by and I want to say we really appreciate the support. Funny, I was in more than one booth and people didn’t know it, yet they were talking about the site to the companies and how they heard about the product through the Hide.
This year I was able to touch base with a lot of the SH vendors, and it’s always good to see them. I know Mike Cecil was around a bunch doing the videos, the guys from Better Optics Chris & Jay, Doug from CameralandNY, Alex from Euro Optics, Scott Berish. We had the Vortex booth behind us, and we were able to talk to Scott there, GAP, Manners, Badgers , was local, as well I spent a morning or two visiting with Kasey from Accu Shot. I remember seeing Mike Bush for about half a second, Mike Recigno from Tac Ops was by the booth, Mike Miller from TIS, the crew from Bartlien, I mean the list is very long,, not to mention the new guys coming around.
One reason for all the attention around the RO booth was the celebrities that stopped by. George Gardner brought Ted Nugent to get some TAB Gear and because Cowboy Bravo was there, was had the cast of Top Shot at the booth most of the week. Chris Cerino and Ian were on hand, as well as several others. This was nice, it was fun teasing Chris about his second place showing, he's a good sport and took our ribbing really well.
I had a couple of notable standouts,
I went down to FNH with Ben Voss to get a tour of their PSR submission. This was pretty neat. Built for FN by Unique Alpine, this multi-caliber capable 338LM featured a polygonal barrel with progressive twisting. Something I know has been discussed here, well they are doing it and my understanding was the rifle is performing extremely well. I doubt the civilian side will see this rifle any time sooner and know they were discouraging anyone from photographing it. I had a lot of really great features. Also I was interested in the SCAR DM rifle, the longer SSR I think they call it. That had my interest up…
As usual I spent a fair amount of Time with Nathan Hunt with Zeiss Tactical / Hensoldt. Notable for me was their night vision as well as the Spotter 45. The NV1000 is a small inline unit and matched with their outstanding glass quality, it sure to be a highlight for the New Year at Sniper’s Hide. Also the Spotter 45, named so for the 45X maximum zoom range, the Spotter45 features a GEN II Mil Dot Reticle, which is different from the Spotter 60 with it’s L shaped mil scale. Another bit of news out of Zeiss might be the greater tactical sport from the Sport Optic side of things.
During my travels, I managed to see Kyle Lynch at Barrett. The new 20” 50 cal was front and center as well it featured a new Barrett made suppressor specifically for this system. That was awesome, I got filled in the BORS and it’s changes for the new year. The BORS will be available in Mils and it will add 10 MPH wind data in the window with the new update to the software. This will let you reference the wind as it reads out the range.
I made a stop to see Kevin from Knights Armament, I was particularly interested in the 16” EMC… very nice. He took me through the system pointing out the changes and highlighting the advantages of the Knights proven system.
I also looked at the Colt multi caliber capable system, not a lot of details, but this will let you switch from a 5.56 upper to a 7.62 one with the same lower.
And finally… even though I missed a ton of things that happened, I want to end on this note.
Friday morning I came to the booth to find a card from Mark Larue sitting under the Sniper’s Hide name. So, I made a point of heading down to the Larue Tactical Booth to see Mark and talk to him. When I got there, it was just coincidence that Tony Burkes was there talking to Mark himself. I initially didn’t know if Mark had left the card or if it was there because I know Jacob had paid him a visit, but what the heck right. Believe it or not, no fireworks, we shook hands, and had a good laugh about it all, and Mark himself said it was all in good fun as he put it. In the end we shook hands several time and he was showing us his upside down scope mount on the OBR at the booth. Before leaving, hoping we had cleared the air I was sure to ask him if I could get a SH discount on the OBR… he had a chuckle at that.
Well there you go… SHOT in a nutshell.
