SHOT Show 2024 – Part 1

By now, everyone has made it back home from Las Vegas. All should have recovered from whatever disease or virus they picked up while traversing the 13.9 miles of aisles at the Show. A few of us from FMG suffered in the Show’s aftermath.

What was there that caught my eye or is worth covering?

 

I did not see as much of the Show as I have in years past. As the editor, I split my time between looking for products to cover and being in our booth recording interviews. This year, two Law Enforcement Education Program presentations were included in that.

 

Sunday

Previously, the live fire range events happened on Monday. During the last couple of years, those events have begun on Sunday. That leads to some quasi-business/social events that happen in the evening. Smith & Wesson unveiled their new .44caliber lever-action, the 1854, in a dinner at Machine Gun Vegas. It provided the first opportunity to talk with the crew from Lipsey’s – a Louisiana-based firearms distributor – and an account manager at Smith & Wesson about a new product of theirs. That’s the Ultra Carry J-frame revolver, which you will see more about it in a few months.

Monday

Started off the day at the Law Enforcement Range event. Every range tied to SHOT was getting rain, and this one was no different. Fortunately, it was drizzle, not a deluge. Stopped by the ranges and pop-ups being utilized by several companies and talked with them about their products. Saw evolutionary optics, firearms, sights, and suppressors. Nothing caught my eye as being revolutionary.

The host agency’s range staff and explorer scout did a fine job facilitating everything, including parking.

Whether or not the weather drove it, Staccato added another live-fire event at Range702. We were able to shoot all their C and P model lines with optics-equipped pistols in one bay. In an adjacent bay, the XC and XL models were available – with and without optics. Uniformly, the triggers were what one should expect from a factory custom pistol. Whether with the optics or irons, I was consistently able to hold the business card-shaped head box at 7 yards.

More interesting to me was the Staccato-branded ammunition line. The company currently has two different loadings – a 124gr ball round for training and a 125gr truncated cone match round. Accuracy and function were solid with all the training ammunition I was able to shoot – about a magazine’s worth for each of the six pistols I shot.

Law Enforcement Education Program

That evening, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and rifle manufacturer Daniel Defense co-sponsored a meet and greet for the Law Enforcement Education Program. It was great to meet our collaborators at NSSF. Being able to talk with some cops I knew and others that I didn’t know made the evening worthwhile.

 

What About The Show Itself?

 

5.11 Tactical

There were three distinct areas they addressed with new products. First, more clothing is designed specifically for women in the community, whether on or off-duty. Kristen Gooding made a point of mentioning they did not “shrink it and pink it.” They’ve also developed a business casual line with necessary but less overt features. Finally, they are adding MultiCam to their x.VI line of tactical team attire. Included in the line now are the Sigurd shirts made of a jersey mesh material with velcro-like material on the sleeve pockets. These shirts are made in ranger green, black, storm grey, navy blue, and range red.

Blue Force Gear

In addition to their 20th anniversary, they have released an evolution of their Trauma Kit Now-Nano. It can be oriented horizontally or vertically and accepts two external pouches for Narcan, tourniquets, trauma shears, or multiples of any one of those. It comes in black for duty-belt use. We spoke with Chris Sizelove about this kit on a video.

 

C&H Precision

They have an interesting and likely reasonably priced 2-12x LVPO coming to the market. One friend was involved in its development and is so far happy with the scope’s performance. They have redesigned their enclosed emitter Duty optic to have two cross-bolt locking lugs instead of one. Unfortunately, that will necessitate the use of a new base.

Federal Cartridge Co

The #1Buck 12gauge load they debuted last year is now hitting shelves and the street. And, while not a L/E-centric offering, they announced a #2Buck in 20gauge with the FliteControl shot cup. They had small displays showing both loads.

 

Hi-Viz Sights

They released a pistol sight that is designed to be a bridge from traditional iron sights to optics for a shooter. I have one and will start working with it later this month. The concept is intriguing.

Part 2 will be out in two weeks.