This was my first year to attend SHOT show. I didn’t know what to expect or the extent of walking that would be done over the four days at the show. I was literally blown away at how many people attended the show. I also knew there would be sensory overload from the 1600 products on display.
On the first day
of the show, I was focusing on getting a feel for the show. I stayed with the rest of the GEARS crew this day since they were all veterans of the show. Seeing as much as I could and trying to grasp my mind around everything. I saw products and company’s I have never heard of. I enjoyed visiting the Walther booth and checking out their new 5” PPQ 9mm pistol. We pretty much visited all the large company’s in the large room and saw all of the new products coming in 2014. This is the day the overload of my brain happened. I saw so much but it was like my brain had too many tabs open. Hopefully being a veteran next year will give me an easier time in filtering what I need to see and focus on and what I don’t.
The second day
on the show I split up from the rest of the GEARS crew to get some work done. I was focusing mainly on my project AR build. I was looking for what barrels, grips, rails and all the other parts within an AR that I wanted to be part of the rifle. I used some Trijicon sights at the SHOT show Media Day so I spent time in their booth. I already had an idea of what I wanted more information about. I was very interested in the sights with the fiber optics that use the outside light to illuminate the sight. That way no batteries could die. For the rails I was mainly looking at longer and smaller diameter products since my hands aren’t huge. The muzzle device that really caught my eye was the slanted brake from Yankee Hill Machine. I got a lot of the AR build done and I can’t wait for the final product.
On the third day
we were wrapping up some things. Not so much of searching every row of booths but more of going to particular booths to talk to a particular person. The crowd had subsided some and it was easier to walk without a sea of people to maneuver through. There was a huge amount of tactical gear on the first floor from tactical vests to helmets and steel targets. We got through all we needed and we left early to save our legs for the next day.
On the last day
of the show we got there later in the morning and went to the Westone audio booth and had a custom mold made of the inside of Atticus James’ ear to have sent to a lab and have some ear protection sent out. Today was just for looking at pistols.
We went past Perazzi and the price of their shotguns caught our eye. $18,000 for their shotgun was on the inexpensive side. They had a $365,000 set of 4 shotguns. They were beautiful firearms for sure. But I could never justify that and had no idea what made it that expensive. It was amazingly engraved but that can only do so much for the price.
I want canted sights with my AR project build. We went to diamond head to look at their rails but actually was more interested in the spring loaded flip out canted iron sights. They weren’t on a canted rail but on the top rail so when flipped out to the 45 degree angle by a press of a button on each sight.
Show Overview
I felt that in the big room in hall D that it was very hard to navigate the large room in a such a way to make sure you saw every single booth. You would go down a hall and then hit a dead end from going forward and you’d have to take a left or right and maybe get turned around and causing you to miss exhibits.
The SHOT shot app was a big help. But although it had a map point A to B feature, you’d have to figure out exactly which way you were facing to what way the app is telling you to go. It was kind of confusing and time consuming to figure it out. I was disappointed there wasn’t any type of action cameras that I was able to find.
This show was amazing. The experience was just unreal and my brain will be downloading for weeks to come. There was sensory overload. Seeing so many cool things, you would stop then forget exactly what you were doing before you got mesmerized. I really loved being there and I will becoming out to the show for years to come.