SHOT Show 2005
Guns, Cots, Ammo, Youth Shotguns and Camaraderie
by John C. Krull
Gun Week Production Manager
The 27th Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show was held in Las Vegas Jan. 28-31. This is the place to be if you want to see what is new in firearms, outdoor clothing, camping equipment, and all the other relevant gear that you need for those types of activities that you perform in the outdoors. Paintball even had its own section this year, and might have in the past, but this isn’t an area of real interest to me and I had just happened upon it. I’m not sure which I like the best—seeing the new products, or visiting with old friends and making some new ones.
Other than the firearms area, I think the police equipment suppliers and manufacturers take up the second largest square foot area. In this section and not far from the Second Amendment Foundation’s booth was the Black Hawk Products Group’s (4850 Brookside Ct., Dept. GWK, Norfolk, VA 23502; phone: 800-694-5263; on-line: www.black-hawk.com) booth. They have some of the finest—if not the finest—tactical equipment that I have seen. While most of it is manufactured with military or police tactical teams in mind, a lot of what they have to offer is easily translated into civilian use. Two products that I was especially impressed with were, first of all, a soft-sided tactical rifle case for my Bushmaster AR, and the second was a 3-day or 72-hour, depending on your terminology, backpack. I hope to be doing reviews of both of these products over the summer months.
Black Hills Ammo
I can’t remember a year in the last decade that I haven’t included the use of some Black Hills Ammunition (PO Box 3090, Dept. GWK, Rapid City, SD 57709; phone: 605-348-5150; on-line: www.black-hills.com) in several articles per year. At first it was primarily their .223 that I was using, but over the years along with the expanding offerings from Black Hills, I have also been able to expand my use of their ammo.
Some of my background is shooting on the Marine Corps rifle and pistol team. It’s my understanding that in recent years the firearms competition teams from all the branches of the service are using Black Hills ammo as their choice in competition.
Last year, when testing an M1A from Springfield, the Black Hills Gold .308 performed the best. I’m using it again this year in a DPMS .308 rifle and am also using Black Hills in a Bushmaster AR I will be writing about.
This summer I expect I will eliminate several New York state woodchucks using my Savage Striker in .22-250 by sending their way a 50-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet propelled from Black Hills Gold ammo.
There seems to be one big problem with Black Hills ammo, at least in my area; you can’t get it. It’s time for dealers to wake up out there and to start taking advantage of the secret from them hills out there.
Thompson/Center
In addition to searching for new products at SHOT, there are always old friends that I have to drop in on. Ken French from Thompson/Center (T/C) (PO Box 5002, Dept. GWK, Rochester, NH 03866; phone: 603-332-2394; on-line: www.tcarms.com) is always one of them. It’s always good to talk with him and his wife, Pam.
Of course we always have to get down to business at some point and talk about what is new from T/C. Several years ago I did a review on the T/C .22 Classic semi-auto .22 LR rifle. This was T/Cs first venture into a multi-shot firearm. For years they had been known for their single-shot rifles, pistols and muzzleloading firearms.
The Classic was and is truly an accurate rifle. Now they have introduced a similar rifle, but in .17 caliber. So we should be coming out with a report on that one later this year.
I also asked French about the status of the 10-round magazine that had been promised by T/C for the .22 Classic. We have now received two of those in the mail and will let you know how we feel about them. Just from examining these magazines, their quality is above average and they look like they are indestructible. They are American-made and have a lifetime warranty. No way you can go wrong with a T/C.
Mossberg Youth Shotgun
Another manufacturer that I habitually have to stop to visit is O.F. Mossberg & Sons (7 Grasso Ave., Dept. GWK, North Haven, CT 06473; phone: 203-230-5300; on-line: www.mossberg.com). Joe Koziel, who retired a few years ago, was present at their booth this year. It was good to see another old friend.
We talked about the new offerings from Mossberg, which included some info on their 835 Ulti-Mag. This has got to be the ideal gun for both turkey and waterfowling, but a gun that I was much more impressed by was their 20-gauge shotgun whose stock is designed to be shortened by removing a filler piece from the butt, thereby changing the shotgun’s length-of-pull for youth, females and other shooters of slighter stature. The length-of-pull is the distance from the middle of the trigger to the end of the recoil pad and very much determines whether the gun fits a shooter or not.
Several years ago, I did a review of youth shotguns for both Gun Week and Woman and Guns. The Mossberg Bantam was one of the guns reviewed at that time. This new model is called the Super Bantam. The Super Bantam comes with either a black or a camo synthetic stock. The barrel on a Bantam is shorter, making for lighter weight to the gun and a more comfortable balance. They are still interchangeable with all standard 20-gauge, 6-shot capacity 500 models.
The Bantams also include an extra-long magazine plug, which, when installed, limits the gun to being a single-shot. This allows the instructor or parent to decide when the student is ready for the repeating feature of the pump shotgun. Retail price ranges from $316 to $404 for the combo, which includes a slug barrel. This is a gun that can grow with your new shooter.
Battenfeld Technologies
Any shooter who isn’t using at least one product from Battenfeld Technologies Inc. (5885 W. Van Horn Tavern Rd., Dept. GWK, Columbia, MO 65203; phone: 877-509-9160; on-line: www.battenfeldtechnologies.com) is really missing the boat.
These people have some of the best products for: gun cleaning; gun-related tools; stock checkering and finishing products; PAST recoil reduction products; stuff you have to have for reloading; replacement gun stocks, and great gun rests for use at the range.
The Caldwell Rock BR Competition Front Rest is one of those practical gun rests. This is a cast unit that weighs 15&Mac251; pounds and is built to hold up forever under the conditions it is put to by benchrest shooters. The cradle is designed to allow shooters to install any of Caldwell’s deluxe front rest bags to fit round-bottomed rifle forends. The Rock BR has numerous adjustments on it to help the shooter more accurately place his or her shots. It retails for $195.98 and also comes in a model for .50 BMG shooters that is bigger, weighs 24 pounds and retails for $223.98.
If you aren’t using their products, visit them on-line or request their catalog to see what you have been missing.
Spartan Gun Works
The SHOT Show covers more area than you can imagine, unless you have been there, and many of the booths seem to cover acres of space. The Remington Arms Company (870 Remington Dr., Dept. GWK, Madison, NC 27025; phone: 800-243-9700; on-line: www.rem-ington.com) booth occupies one of the largest areas. They have even erected walls around their perimeter to give them more wall display area. It’s like entering an entity by itself and actually it is. With a display like this, it can be hard to cover all the products offered by someone like Remington.
When I had been at their booth the first time, I thought that I had seen everything that there was to see. But, while speaking with another of Gun Week’s writers, he brought to my attention a double barrel .45-70 rifle at the Remington booth put out by Spartan Gun Works.
Spartan, I’ve been lead to believe, is a line of firearms produced in Russia and imported by Remington. While I do hate to see another import that will take some of the sales away from US manufacturers, I have to admit that what Spartan is producing looks really good, and many of their firearms are configurations not being produced by US manufacturers. This is probably why Remington decided to take on the line in the first place.
While I like several of the Spartan guns, and they have break-action side-by-side (S/S) and over-and-under shotguns, single-shot centerfire rifles, autoloading shotguns, along with some rifle/shotgun combos, the gun that I instantly was attracted to was their S/S double-barreled rifle. This Spartan is going to be available in either .45-70 or .30-06 only, and the first ones available will be in the latter caliber. I really don’t need a double-barrel rifle, but have always wanted one—in .45-70, of course. I guess it somehow makes you feel that you are or were a part of the safaris to Africa in the early 1900s. In my part of New York state, there isn’t even any game that I would be able to hunt with a double rifle like this.
The Model SPR22 rifles have 23.5-inch barrels, with an overall length of 40.5 inches. They weigh in at 7.5 pounds and sport a walnut stock. The metal finish is blued. The doubles feature sling swivels, double triggers and adjustable iron sights, and have an automatic safety. The retail price of the Spartan double rifle is only $559 and seems to me to be well worth it. We hope to be doing a testing of one of these this summer.
Birchwood Casey
If for no other reason, I always have to stop by the Birchwood Casey (7900 Fuller Rd., Dept. GWK, Eden Prairie, MN 55344; phone: 800-328-6156; on-line: www.birchwoodcasey.com) booth just to thank them for the help and supplies that they had provided for the previous year, which helped with the articles written in the previous few months, and, of course, to hopefully get their continued support.
The Shoot•N•C targets are probably the most useful on the market. These are those black targets that form a yellow haloed hole in the target letting you know where each shot has hit. They make spotting your hits so much easier at both long and short range. It can be a real chore trying to find your bullet hole on a target at 100 yards when you are using a .17- or .22-caliber, but the Shoot•N•C technology makes it easy.
Birchwood Casey also has an excellent line of cleaning products along with bluing and stock finishing products. Check them out; I know you will find something that you need.
Hunter’s Specialties
I’ve been using and testing different products from Hunter’s Specialties (6000 Huntington Ct. NE, Dept. GWK, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402; phone: 319-395-0321; on-line: www.hunterspec.com) for several years. I especially enjoy their videos.
This year Mike Capps from Howard Communications gave me a thorough tour of their booth which must have been 50 or 60 feet long, maybe more. They have game calls for every type of hunting whether it be winged or four-legged. I already mentioned the videos of which I have three already to review in the upcoming weeks. They are a nice way to sit back and relax and dream.
A new product they are offering is their Scent-A-Way wipes. These will eliminate human scent and will provide long-lasting protection against “game-spooking” odors.
Along with the wipes they also have Scent-A-Way lip balm, something that we can probably all use. Don’t forget the shampoo to keep your hair scent-free.
The product that I found at their booth that I found I liked the best is a unique type of fold-up cot. This baby is really different. There have been so many types of cots that I have seen that I just didn’t trust them or believe that they were worth the money being asked. This cot is an oversized pop-up constructed with aluminum and steel tube framing and is covered with Realtree Hardwoods Green polyester cloth. It looks good, it feels good, and I trust it to hold my weight, although I’m not all that heavy to start with. I can see having a couple of these around not just for camping but also in case of company visiting and staying for the night. They are also easily transportable to load into your car or truck during times of emergency or disaster. A carrying case is included for transporting. Their retail price is: $99.95.
Detonics
I just want to finish this article out with the rebirth of a firearm from the past, the Detonics. It has been a while now since you have been able to purchase a new Detonics .45-caliber pistol, but Jerry Ahern is bringing them back with Detonics USA (115 Enterprises Dr., Suite B, Dept. GWK, Pendergrass, GA 30549; phone: 866-759-1169, on-line: www.detonicsusa.com). From my conversations with Ahern it shouldn’t be long now before production starts in earnest and dealers can get their orders in. The first model to come off the line will be the Combat Master of which we have one coming for test and evaluation and will let you know more about it in a coming issue of Gun Week.
Ahern has been working hard for several months now setting up the suppliers and the manufacturing and assembly facility to produce a quality product. More as soon as we have more information.
Well, that is all I have time for because Joe has been waiting on me for days already to get this article completed. In a few weeks I will be writing my annual Father’s Day gift article in which we will start reviewing some of the products that we have been testing since the SHOT Show.
When contacting any of these manufacturers or suppliers remember to tell them that John at Gun Week sent you.
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