SHOT Show 2008 - Media Day at the Range

We arrived just after the busses brought most of the media guests from Las Vegas. We shot at the Bolder Shooting Range. Plenty of room for all the manufactures to show us their new products

Many thanks to Bass Pro Shops for their generous support of this event and the media guests

This is a media only event. We registered ahead of time and signed in before heading to the range. Many volunteers helped keep things safe and moving smoothly during the day. Thanks to all the people (young and old) in the white shirts for their support and hard work

We snuck a peak of the empty dining tent we'd visit a little later on for lunch. Smoke from the huge smokers next to the tent reminded us all that lunch was going to be a good on e.. kind of made it hard to shoot at the bays where the wind carried the smells of ribs, sausage, etc

What's new? The KRISS Super V CRB/SO .45 ACP Civilian Carbine..and it's little brother the full auto SBR version

It was a treat to be some of the first people to get trigger time on this new system. We shot semi and two round burst ont he SBR. No full auto at the range (dang range rules..)

This was a popular bay and shooters went down range a few at a time to test this one out. We learned a lot about this new system, very interesting to say the least

Did I mention a 30 round Glock 21 magazine adapter?????

Two round burst at this rate of fire is like one shot going off..And with no kick they almost use the same hole on the target

So how to prove the lack of muzzle rise? I tried to show the lack of movement with some video clips I took of one of our editors while shooting it. First I took four shots from a two round burst

Next I faded them to about 20% so they are almost transparent. Next I stacked them on each other. You can see in this hybrid pic how little the gun (and shooter) moves while two rounds of .45acp leave the barrel

Arsenal was at the shoot with a selection of rifles and an SBR with plenty of ammo supplied by Wolf

Arsenal was set up with a bunch of AKs to shoot. Wolf supplied the ammo for this bay and I was happy to help them 'use it up' a bit

My name is Pete, and I'm an AK-holic.. I really shouldn't go to events where tables of AKs and full magazines are put out for me to shoot. But I can't help it

Shot everything they had available. Some of our favorite AKs come from Arsenal in Las Vegas.

Shooting the Bulgarian AK74S-U (Krink) in 7.62x39, what a beautiful machine.

Thank you to Wolf for supplying the ammo at the Arsenal bay. No failures (obviously) and plenty of fun behind the trigger

Wilson combat had these two available

A shot of both front and back sights on this AK

front and rear sights from XS for the AK47

Shooting the Glock 23 with XS sights

The XS sights on a shotgun

Food was served, catered, smoked meat

We were given issues of some recent magazines

Some of the selection of less than lethal  ammo

I asked to get shot me with a non lethal. I was the first and last to do it, the range offers didn't approve

An interesting multicam pack

Aimpoint was here displaying their products

Some of the interesting stuff at the Aimpoint booth

Some situations require both long range shooting and closer fighting. This option from Aimpoint might be just the ticket.

Let the rifle sit at a slight angle and use the mini Aimpoint without removing or adjusting the larger optic

The Aimpoint bay was busy all day.. a factor of their products quality and their excellent staff at the shoot

Aimpoint showed usa new device for helping to keep shooters safe while delivering accurate rounds downrange

Shooting around and over cover with the new Aimpoint device

Beretta had a lot of products available to shoot

Beretta's shotgun

Beretta's new compact in9mm

Shooting the small Beretta

Benelli had a few tents as did some other companies with a wide range of products

Ruger, Hornady

Federal, Styer - Mannlicher

The 500 yard range for long range shooters

Some of the long range rifles available to shoot on the 500 yard range

We received a detailed map of the range which was marked with who was at each bay..

Some of the archery bays set up to show off new products

LWRC - Shot a 6.8 SBR at the LWRC bay

Silver State Armory supplied the ammo for LWRC

Shooting the 6.8 threw a few fireballs, here's one I caught on film

Shooting the 5.56x45 gas piston rifle by LWRC

The guys from LWRC brought out a selection of their gas piston ARs

The LWRC gas piston system on their own AR lowers, a good combo !

.308, 5.56x45 and 6.8 made by silver state armory in NV. Thanks to SSA for the ammo we used in the LWRC rifles

These guys are not afraid to take their products apart for inspection for the people who are new to the gas piston AR

One of the benefits of a gas piston is no heat or dirt in the bolt

Yamaha 4wd test drives

We drove the test track in each of these Yamaha's

To sum it up, we all had a great time turning perfectly good ammo into brass cases on the ground