Media Day

Guns and Gear in Print

ImageWhat has become the traditional start of SHOT for gun writers was the shooting trifecta at three range venues around Orlando.  Browning/Winchester hosted one, Remington/Marlin/Bushmaster/DPMS hosted another, and the much larger and more established Bass Pro Shops Media Day, which included more than 40 or 50 co-hosting companies, found media types testing a literal maze of guns, ammo, and assorted gear......
                     SSR hit the ranges with eight staff members to cover all three events.  Associate Editor Oliver Shapiro, Field Editor Rick Sapp, contributors Rochelle Kaplan, Durwood Hollis, Shelby Murdoc, Bob Hausman, Bill Kendy and Jeff Fletcher did the heavy lifting. I batted cleanup.  What follows are impressions, mostly good, some bad, and others a bit mysterious, all of which the reader may judge for him/herself.- Bob Rogers           

Editor -Oliver Shapiro:

What can compare to going shooting on a mere 4.5 hours of sleep? Nothing that I can think of, and the fatigue and exhaustion from nighttime traveling to Orlando, settling into a new hotel room, and waking up at 6 AM almost immediately became a distant memory as soon as I got into the back seat of editor Bob Rogers’ rental car. We (along with production manager Ramona Rogers and contributor Shelby Murdoc) discussed a bunch of topics animatedly as we made our way to the day’s first Media Event, hosted by the Remington group of companies.

                An impressive selection of products were lined up for our inspection and use, and I immediately gravitated to the new Marlin group of bolt-action and lever-action hunting rifles; I recommend that you look for new models in the X7 line for the former. After trying each one, I wouldn’t mind adding any (or all) to my collection. Over to the right were the tac-style ones including the Remington R25; talk about fun times.

                And of course the shotgun station, where I really liked the new black M877 pump shotgun, with ArmorLokt protective coating, SuperCell recoil pad, Rem Choke system, and very attractive design… even though some of us didn’t quite hold up our end of SSR’s clay sports reputation… Pumps are near and dear to my heart, as a pump scattergun was my first firearm many years back, and I’m wondering how much I’ll have to spend on a new gun cabinet to add this one (as well as the Marlins, the R25…).

 Image            Over to the Bass Pro Shops venue, where something like 50 manufacturers (including Bass Pro Shops – who’d a thunk?) were trying to impress the ink-using fraternity. Kind of overwhelming but I nevertheless managed to get a few rounds in with some Beretta, Savage, and Ruger models. (I was already impressed with Savage’s new Accu-Stock design when I saw it at the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers event months ago, and initial range testing suggests it will likely live up to its promise.)

                Back to Remington for some lunch, a bit more shooting, and back to the hotel to get ready for the Zeiss reception. I certainly prefer shooting to dim, crowded, and noisy get-togethers,  but this one was better than most, and nice to see Terry Wieland and Jim Carmichael receive well-deserved awards for their work in outdoor writing. Cap it off with some dinner at a nice restaurant, and you have a great start to a SHOT Show trip.

Rick Sapp:  I have slathered skin moisturizing cream on my new wrap-around multi-color dragon tattoo before going to the sheriff’s range where the editor’s blonde wife watches me fire a DA/SA semi-automatic and says: “You shoot like a girl.” Then, with Superman-like vision, she stares through my Gator cap and asks if I have a “comb-over.”Crushed, I am too unmanned even to ask what the heck she means, plus my dragon had begun to itch. So it is the ideal time to bust some Champion clays during Media Day at the shooting range southeast of Orlando.  Will and Darby Fennell, Beretta contract shooters, supervise the ProMatic traps. I take one of the Beretta UGB25 Xcel break-barrel semi-autos, the model with a carrier for the second cartridge on the right-hand side of the receiver. This gun chambers automatically through the feed port after the first round fires. With the ejection port in the bottom of the receiver, the UGB25 expels spent hulls downward, and so is user-friendly for both right- and left-hand shooters and nearby competitors.Darby shows me why I am only winging the speedy clays. “Too slow getting on the bird,” she says taking the trap version of the UGB25 out of my hands to demonstrate. I chip the clays. She vaporizes them. She is shooting “like a girl,” I suppose.

Shelby Murdoc:                I’m sitting in the eye of the hurricane. Around me the shockwaves blow back hair and the bystanders struggle to be heard over the booming thunder. Where I sit, however, things are quieter, almost calm. I shut out the activity around me and focus on the little green diamond one hundred yards away. Two half-inch holes, one high right and the other low left, show my previous attempts. I squeeze the trigger and unleash a fifty caliber bullet with another thunder crack. The huge muzzle break vents most of the blast off to the sides, keeping me in the clear but pounding the spectators once again.  This shot touches the bulls-eye. I look up from the Bushmaster BA50 .50 caliber cannon I’m lucky enough to get to try and see that no one is waiting. “A couple more shots?” I ask the rep helping us writers through the pre-SHOT Media Day events. He grins and loads three more giant rounds into the magazine. A lot of the BA50 design is based on standard AR parts, and, other than the left-side bolt handle, it’s a lot like shooting a regular black rifle. It’s a monster that doesn’t take long to learn.                “You seem to be  liking this,” the rep observes.

                “Oh, yeah,” I agree readily, trying (but probably not succeeding) to keep from looking and sounding like the proverbial kid in the candy store). “Bring it on!”

Rochelle Kaplan:

Fourteen long years had passed since I’d last been in Orlando, and at that time, my final destination was Gainesville and Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School. On that occasion, I was writing a first-person account of my 3-day dragster course, one of the most challenging and exhilarating classes I’d ever taken. Somewhere in my house, I still have the computer printouts that documented my top speed (168 mph?). While I enjoy the SHOT Show tremendously, I regret it cannot come close to the excitement I felt in 1995. Well, maybe that cute, tiny, palm-fitting .22 from North American Arms  comes close.

Still, I was happy to be at my first SHOT Show in Orlando, a meeting I’d only attended previously at the Las Vegas Convention Center. But first, I had to orient myself Imageto one of the largest convention centers I’d ever seen. I can virtually walk the show in Vegas with my eyes closed, knowing which hall contains which exhibitors, with the “gun hall” being the one I visit first. At the Orange County Convention Center, the show was laid out lengthwise as if it were in one continuous, never-ending exhibit hall. For me, I like the layout in Vegas better, though next year’s conference will be at the Sands for the first time.  That means just one thing:  maybe I should bring my tricked-out dragster roller blades with the narrow aisle crowd sensors and tactical taser/shotgun scabbard.  “Outta my way!” I’d shout.

 Bill Kendy

Writers who attend the SHOT Show can count on days becoming blurs, walking miles and miles, having sore feet, an aching back and feeling like the silver orb in a pin ball machine. We literally bounce from one exhibitor to another, trying to set up appointments, grab people on the fly and being “flipped” all over. If one person is running over on a meeting or out of the booth, everything from that point runs late or not at all.  Maybe finger flipped has a better meaning.

Hectic and challenging…but fun.

Durwood Hollis:

Since the various shooting ranges are several miles away from Orlando, the event sponsors pile the media on buses for the trip and use the travel time to show the groups videos of their new products. The Winchester presentation of their new Dual Bond centerfire fodder, with its bonded lead core and hollow point bullet profile, demonstrated devastating effect on all manner of big game. Likewise, the new Dual Bond sabot shotgun sabot encased slugs offered similar performance.

At the range I had the opportunity to shoot the new Winchester fodder in the newly reintroduced Winchester Model 70 and the Browning X-Bolt rifle. After seeing the performance on paper, I can’t wait to try out this new technology come fall hunting season. Afterwards, I took my turn with a scope-sighted, .12 gauge Browning BPS shotgun and the new Winchester Dual Core sabot slug. Deadly accurate at 100 yards, I was even able to ring the 300 yard gong with every pull of the trigger. Believe me, that’s terrific shotgun slug performance.

Also, the new Browning Maxus shotgun made its first appearance at this event. Featuring a design that offers less felt recoil and muzzle jump, as well as faster bolt speed and lock time, this new autoloader must be seen to be appreciated. After using the gun on clay targets, it was evident that the Maxus will bring an entirely new shooting paradigm to the fall uplands and marshes.

After lunch, another bus took the group to the Bass Pro Media day at the range. Here, I was able to shoot the new Remington R-15 VTR™ Modular Repeating rifle. After sending several magazines of lead downrange with the autoloader, I was convinced that it was the hot ticket for making a serious impact on the coyote community, as well as varmints of every ilk.

The folks at Taurus provided several different handgun models for us shoot at the event. Clearly the most popular was The Judge (Model 4510 TKR-SSR) and the slightly smaller Judge Public Defender (Model 4510PD-3TI). Both 5-shot revolvers are chambered in .45 Colt/.410 Ga. 2.5” shotshell. And after shooting the little wheel guns, I was amazed at how easy they handled with either loading. Absolutely the best home defense handgun on the market, it’s a sure bet that they’ll be hot sellers.

Jeff Fletcher:               “Point and shoot!” “Aim and fire!”  “Squeeze slowly!”  These were part of a volley of instructions from range masters to the assembled army of gun media.

                “Drop dead!” hollered back one writer with obvious trigger itch. 

In an instant, 30 bobbleheaded journalists ducked for cover.                The roar and rumble, burrrrrrrrrrrrrp of full auto ARs, AKs, teeth shattering, bone rattling 50 cals (Damn you, Murdoc!), blang, blam, bling of pistols and revolvers, flying clays and pellet raindrops…all we needed were some grenade launchers.  About that time, some shooters standing around waiting for something exciting to happen heard a chilling sound:  Chinggggggggggg.

                        Later:  “Bass Pro?” questioned a first-timer scribe.  “Where’s the lake?  I brought my tackle box.”

Ah, another glorious Media Day at the Range.