One day down at massive SHOT show
Well, I survived the first day at the Shooting Hunting and Outdoors Trade Show in Las Vegas.
I had been warned, but still wasn’t prepared for the sheer massiveness (is that a word?) of SHOT. We’re talking 190,000 square feet of floor space filled with everything a shooter or hunter can dream of, and plenty that he can’t.
Yesterday my main goal was to just get my bearings so my buddy Mark Freeman of the Medford (Ore.) Mail-Tribune and I just did a lot of walking and not a whole lot of talking.
One of the companies that caught my eye was North American Arms, which makes small handguns. This a five-shot .22 short mini-revolver. It’s maybe 4 inches long. Their most popular model is chambered for .22 mag and is slightly bigger. The retail on this little charmer is $199.
An obvious trend here is the huge number of companies who are now involved with AR-style firearms. I plan to spend a good part of today talking with manufacturers about this fast-growing — and largely misunderstood by the general public — segment of the firearms industry. I plan to do a story for The Roanoke Times.
It’s 8 a.m. and we will be headed to the show soon. I’ll be there all day, then have a meeting at 7 p.m. tonight with other officers with the Outdoor Writers Association of American. Tomorrow we have an all-day board meeting, then it’s back to Roanoke.
I’ll try to file another entry or two from the show today.
January 22, 2010 - 9:10 PM
Have fun out there Mark! I hope to go to SHOT one of these days.
That is what the military would consider a(CIWS) Close In Weapon System.
Hi Mark,
It was nice to meet you on your first leg of the flight out there. Sorry for not letting you get any work done. Hopefully we’ll be able to make a hunt happen this fall.
Same here, Bucky. And, don’t worry, I had plenty of time on the next leg to get my work done.
Keep in touch and let’s make that hunt happen when you get back to the area.
Mark