15 Jan 13

Mood at the Show is edgy! Everyone is wondering if, and how, their lives will change. No one trusts, nor expects, anyone in government to exhibit good judgment, nor care a whit about citizens. Universal distrust and open suspicion of true motives is on everyone’s lips. Manufacturers of guns, and particularly ammunition and magazines, are all sold-out. Many are not even taking orders!

Formally unprepared Americans, by the legion, continue to be intensely involved in panic-buying of nearly anything that shoots. No one expects let-up any time soon.

Show is orderly. Heavy police presence. If there were any protestors, I didn’t see them!

Well attended! Difficult to move around at times.

Items of note:

DKX Armor has on display their Max III Rifle Armor. Amazingly light, so light it floats! Stiff and an inch thick, it stops 30-06 at contact range. Hard to believe!

Another AR manufacturer, Adams Arms in FL. All gas-piston. Seeing them for the first time. Look very nice!

Four-Sevens, makers of flashlights I carry, featured their QTLC, a 220 lumen light, less than three inches long and .8″ in diameter. Lot of light from a unit that small. Everyone needs a flashlight on their person, all the time. The QTLC makes it easy!

Strategic Systems from AL had on display their sophisticated, three-dimensional HITS target. It crouches. It jumps up. It shakes and goes down when hit! Wonderfully realistic rifle and pistol target, but too expensive for non-government training.

Lots of knife-makers at the Show, but a new one, Spartan Blades, showed a small, fixed-blade CQB knife, excellent for quick access when you have to get someone off of you immediately!

Another target-maker, Take Aim, showed a self-resetting, long-range, steel rifle target. Excellent for sniper training. Immediate, visual/auditory hit-confirmation is critical in any kind of serious rifle training. The longer the range, the more difficult adequate confirmation becomes. This system solves the problem, but it is big, heavy, and expensive.

I saw the much-talked-about Boberg Pistol. Very small 9mm, on par with the Rohrbaugh. Heavy trigger and deep reset.

Doublestar featured their “C3″ (for “Constant Carry Carbine”) AR. Just over five pounds! Excellent car-gun, but, like all ARs currently, sold-out many times over!

At the EOTech booth, I saw the new EXGS. It is an EOTech optic already mounted on a quick-release mount w/riser to facilitate co-witnessing w/iron sights. When you want an EOTech for your AR, this is the way to go!

GG&G had on display an 870 shotgun sidesaddle, canted forward at fifteen degrees. Superior to a conventional, vertical sidesaddle. When I tried it, I wondered aloud why no one had thought of angling it like this before!

I saw and handled the new Glock 36S. It is basically a G36 with a G30 frame. So, it is a double-column, compact, 45ACP concealed-carry pistol, with the thin slide of the G36. Good deal lighter and less chunky than the G30. When you want to carry a 45ACP pistol, it is a good way to go. Similar in size to the ever-popular SA/XD-S, and designed to appeal to the same market-niche.

Blackhawk had on display several new and innovative products:

EPOCH duty-holster, designed to accommodate a G17 w/attached weaponlight. Locks on the ejection-port, rather than the trigger-guard. Very smooth and secure!

The “Diversion Bag,” designed to carry ARs, and other military rifles, in low-profile. One, camouflaged as a tennis-racket case, and a higher-capacity version, designed as a gym-bag. Wonderful for transport of serious rifles and accouterments, without attracting undue notice!

We only got started! Much more to see tomorrow.

/John