I’m a little disappointed with this year’s SHOT Show. I just have not seen many people putting out much content on it. It really seems like significantly less is being pushed out than in years’ past, and I don’t know if that is a lapse on the part of the media or if there are significantly fewer people at SHOT. Either way, here’s what we got. Let’s get into it.
MarColMar: CETME Rifles
I have a soft spot for the CETME rifle. The old Spanish service rifle, draws its design directly from the founders of HK before they were allowed back into West Germany. I also like that it’s not an AR-15 nor an AR-18 knockoff, its something different. A roller-delayed blowback, to be precise. What’s new about thise 70-something year old gun is that MCM is now offering them in factory SBR options, as well as in .300BLK. Not sure about silencer attachment options at the moment, though. These babies fit all standard STANAG mtal mags, will be offered with and without 1913 rails for optics, and come in black, green, FDE, and gray. If you’re the kind of person who likes novelty in their gun safe, this is a good place to look. [source]
Keltec: P15
Red Here: Kel-Tec has announced their first striker fired pistol, the P-15. Available in both polymer and aluminum frame versions. Unfortunately, only the polymer version includes a rail, but both versions are optics ready. The optics mounting system isn’t a typical plate system (shocking from Kel-Tec I know), but more of a section of the slide that can be swapped for different optics. Kel-Tec claims the P-15 is “the world’s smallest and lightest double stack 9mm” very similar to what used to be said about the PF-9. I think this gun will be a cash cow for Kel-Tec, small concealable pistols always sell the best, and hopefully these will fund Kel-Tecs continued mad scientist experiments.
Desert Tech: Quattro-15
We’ve all seen quad-stack mags before. 60-ish rounds in almost the same profile as a 30-round mag. They don’t really work quite right, since they have to take a 4-stack of ammo and compress it into a double stack. Desert Tech decided to take another crack at the issue by removing the bottleneck, literally. Their new quad-stack mag doesn’t compress down to a normal STANAG magwell. They’re also working on a lower that has an increased magwell to accept these new mags.
As long as they make the new magwell dimensions available for other companies to make with relatively little hassle, this could stick around for a while. If they try to keep it all proprietary, it is doomed from the start. Even if they remain the sole source of mags, if other companies can make the magwells it should see at least some commercial success.
Angstad Arms: Roller-Delayed PCC
The gun world has been full of PCCs since about 2014. 99% of those guns have been straight blowback guns, and I’m sick of them. There are a few variants, mainly MP5s and Sig MPXs and the newish Stribog A3, but a new option has shown up: Angstad Arms. Angstad was one of the few companies making PCCs before they were cool. Hopefully they are ahead of the curve once more.
Diamondback: Sidekick .22LR and .22WMR Revolver
Diamondback, of tiny Glock clone and currently decent AR fame, has gone in a completely nexpected direction. At first glance, this seems to be another Ruger Wrangler/Heritage competitor, but only at first glance. Not only does this gun come standard with swappable cylinders for WMR, but this is a 9-shot double action. The Heritage and the Wrangler are 6-shot single action guns. With +50% capacity and not having to thumb back the hammer on every shot I’d call this noteworthy. It is compatible with the Ruger Wrangler’s grips and has an MSRP in the mid-$300 range. Not super cheap, but a decent price for what you’re getting. I wish DIamondback the best of luck in their new old style gun ventures.
Black Collar Arms: APS
I’m not sure what this is. It’s interesting, I’m just not sure what I’m looking at. It’s not quite a pistol brace, so much as a monopod that directly attaches to a buffer tube. But it’s made for pistols. I actually don’t hate this. In fact, now that I think about it, it could be very useful for someone who purchased a Savage 110PCS (below). What do you guys thinks? [source]
Q & Faxon: 8.6 Creedmoor/.338BLK
Q has been working on this cartridge for a while (I wrote about it a few years ago) and it looks like its finally coming to market. Or coming closer, anyway. The guys at Q are partnering with Faxon to produce barrels for Q’s The Fix rifle and for AR-10s. If you don’t know what 8.6CM is, its basically .300BLK for .308-sized guns and mags. I’m glad that this concept is finally physically appearing, though I don’t expect this caliber to hit store shelves before 2023. What is most interesting is the twist rate they came up with for these barrels: 1:3! Yes, you read that right. One rotation in 3″ of barrel length. If there was ever a case for a modern progressive twist barrel, this may be it. [source]
FN USA: The High Power Returns!
Red here: FN has announced a reintroduction of the Hi Power. Unlike the recent Springfield SA35 this is an updated version with modern “quality” of life improvements such as easier takedown, ambi controls, 17rd magazines, and an extended beavertail to avoid hammer bite. I’ve seen some mention of full length guide rods as well, but haven’t seen them in FN’s promotional photos. FN mentions a “modernized lockup” which seems to have removed the multiple lugs from the top of the barrel. Also added is some much needed checkering on the front and back straps, as well as larger/ more aggressive slide serrations (although no front cocking serrations for now). These additions seem very well thought out, and there is of course the rumor of a railed and optics ready version to follow. I am indecently excited to try one of these, and see where FN takes the design going forward. [source]
Palmetto State: CZ Scorpion mag AR PCCs and 5.45 AKs
I’m not a fan of dingle-feed mags in traditionally double-fed guns, like Glock mags in an AR. I know that lots of people have success with them, but it just feels wrong to me. PSA has had a Scorpion mag fed AK9 for a while but now they are offering an AR9 that uses those mags as well.
The more interesting thing they announced is their new AK-105. Its interesting because it is chambered in 5.45×39. Since that ammo supply basically disappeared when the Russian ammo was banned, they seem pretty confident that 5.45 will be easy enough to get to fuel these new guns. Gives hope to the rumors of them buying up 5.45 machinery and making it themselves.
Rock Island Armory: Red dot compatible 2011s
Not really ground breaking in terms of tech or trend here, except that RIA is known as the “cheapest that still might work” in the 1911 world. They already produced their “Pro” line of 2011s, but at SHOT they’ve shown off optic-ready models. Expect the MSRP to be in the $1200-$1500 range, depending on caliber. [source]
Magpul/Maztech: X4 System
Not super sure what all this entails, but it looks like a live round counter and a HUD for your scope. For now. There’s a lot of buzzwords in the beginning and what looks like a lot more stuff coming that will expand the system into something very interesting. As with everything Magpul, expect the release date to be… well, not soon.
EOTech: EFLX
EOTech is finally getting into the pistol-mounted red dot market. I’d call this dot a little behind the times, and for a few reasons. First off, its an open emitter. The big names have all been releasing closed emitters for a few years, although open emitters are still the dominate style on the market. Maybe EOTech has a closed emitter model currently in development? The second reason I’d call this dot behind the times is that that it fits the Delta Point footprint. It’s definitely the less common of the two main dot footprints on the market, though not uncommon. I believe the M17 is Delta Point milled, but don’t quote me on that. On the upside, it is a top-load battery, and the full-sized 2032 as well. No reduced battery life in exchange for easy swapping batteries here, its the best of both worlds.
In all, this isn’t a bad first outing from EOTech. Depending on reliability and price, this could be a successful, if conservative, first step for them.
Standard Manufacturing: SG9
Standard Manufacturing is introducing their Glock clone, the SG9. Nothing really interesting about the gun except for it’s frame. It uses a removable chassis, a la P320. Other companies and guns claim to have similar swappable frames, but none really make the most of it like Sig does. I am optimistic about it though.
Look at the frames they’ve shown. They are machined instead of stamped steel like Sig’s frames are. That is a lot of effort to go through to not follow up. Here’s hoping that SM actually makes commercially available the kind of parts necessary for this to be something besides a waste of time.
The other interesting thing is that they’ve chosen to utilize Caracal mags. Odd choice in my mind, but not really a pro or con, just odd. MSRP is $650 for the base model, $750 for the optics ready version. The biggest takeaway from this is that Standard Manufacturing is branching into the realm of realistic, sensible weapon designs, and away from double barreled pump shotguns and volley-fire rimfire revolvers. I don’t think this gun will make their fortune, but hopefully will lead to less gimmicky offerings in the future. [source]
Savage: 110PCS
Savage has introduced a new bolt action pistol. The heyday of the bolt action pistol for silhouette shooting ended about 40 years ago, but the rise of the pistol brace has brought a small handful of them back onto the market. I am not interested in this because it’s a bolt action pistol. Look at what side the bolt is on:
This thing is a mag-fed, left-handed bolt gun, it just has an ejection port on the right side. For an MSRP of a grand, and all I need to do is add a scope and brace on the back end, easily done considered the helpful addition of pic rail in both locations, you have a very handy rifle for a southpaw shooter like me for not a lot of money. Considering that it will be initially offered in .300BLK and .350 Legend, and have a threaded barrel, this can be an extremely interesting hunting rig for not a ton of money. Consider me interested. [source]
Federal Premium: HST loaded in .327 Fed
Federal Premium ammo is announcing their premium HST ammo now to be offered in .327 Fed Mag. Not the most exciting announcement, except that as a .327 FM owner, I am always excited to see that caliber getting more commercial offerings. Also, the .327 Fed Mag and the new .30 Super Carry both shoot .312″ projectiles, so more offerings of one should lead to more offerings of the other, and y’all already know I’m excited about the .30 SC. [source]
Franklin Armory: BFS-3 for Glock pistols
It’s here. It’s finally here! A binary trigger for a pistol! It’s odd that no one has brought one to market yet, until you think about how little space there is inside of a pistol within which to work. Franklin Armory makes a bunch of binary triggers for a bunch of different guns, so it makes since that the industry leaders would be the ones to bring this next step to fruition. So, how much cash do we have to lay down to ride the handheld lightning? Estimated MSRP is a soul crushing $900! Apparently, the slide is also replaced (not just the trigger group), which greatly inflates the final price. It also means that the binary trigger is model specific, triggers meant for the G17 won’t work on G19 or G34, etc. It also leaves room for other enterprising companies to make competing options if they’ve got the engineering chops to figure out how to use existing slides. [source]
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