SHOT Show 2015: New products

Once a year retailers, distributors, manufacturers and media of the shooting, hunting, outdoors, and law enforcement industries descend on Las Vegas for the biggest gun show the city has ever seen. The Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade show, or SHOT Show, is where manufacturers come to show off their new products and retailers come to see the new products and place orders for those products. The SHOT Show is not open to the public but it is open to select media. So lets get to some of the highlights of this years show.

Barnes RangeAR Ammunition

Barnes announced their new RangeAR ammunition which is designed to be cost effective for target, training, and competition…or possibly prairie dog hunting? This new ammunition utilizes a zinc core projectile which is one way they are keeping the cost down. The initial offerings will be 5.56 x 45mm 52 grain and .300 AAC Blackout 90 grain. Availablity is expected in February 2015. For more information visit Barnes RangeAR website.

Savage Arms A17

One of the new products that got a lot of press and attention was the new A17 semi-automatic .17 HMR from Savage Arms. It is no surprise that I am a huge fan of the .17 HMR (read my article about why I think the .17 HMR is the best prairie dog gun) so I was very excited to hear about this gun. Many people (and a few companies) have tried to modify existing .22 LR semi-automatic rifles to shoot the more powerful .17 HMR round without much success. The pressures of the .17 HMR proved to be too much for traditional blow back bolt cycling methods. Savage designed their bolt to lock into position and a few milliseconds after firing the round the bolt will release and cycle like a normal semi-automatic. This has two benefits, it allows some of the pressure to exit the barrel so not all the pressure is being exerted on the bolt, and it allows the gun to retain the accuracy of a bolt action gun.

The A17 uses a 10-round rotary clip similar to the B.Mag. The rotary clip looks like a much better design than the clip on the 93R17 which everyone I know who owns one has had issues with.

The above video from Kentucky Gun Company does a good job of demonstrating some of the features of the gun.

Gnat Warfare

Who doesn’t want to shoot down a remote controlled plane with a shotgun? Gnat Warfare is making that fantasy a reality. The Gnat has reactive targets on the bottom of its wings that explode when impacted by a shotgun pellet. The wings are designed to be replaced while the main engine and electronic components are reusable. Gnat Warfare can make your next corporate or private event a blast!

Those are just a few of the more interesting things I saw from SHOT Show. Is there something else I should have listed here? Post it in the comments.