KurtM
Well-Known Fanatic
Well, for those of you lucky enough to have missed the S.H.O.T. show, here is my take on it. It has been a down year in the industry and that took it's tole on displays.
Everyone and their brother, sister, dog, cat, and Peruvian water turtle for the young one, now makes an AR-15 type rifle/carbine/pistol. It is absolutely necessary to mill out big trianges, squares, and all sorts of weird geometric shapes from the upper, lower, F F.tube.....etc. I guess these will all be used in a clean room, as they are nothing more than huge windows to let in dust, grit, grime, sand, insects, and in some cases small rodentia. I can only assume that the barrel makers and blank makers have either forgotten how, or run out of material to make a 20" barrel.
I found a company making really great M-14/M1A type rifles, BULA Defence Systems. I would pick them over any other makers rifle, and I know M-14s!!!
All the optic makers still insist on following the silly as hell first focal plane reticle, in low power variable scopes. Not one of them can be used for ranging below 4.5 power, and if you have 6X as your top end you can really only "range" things at full magnification, so you might as well have a second focal plane scope where at least you can see the reticle the whole time. I am convinced if all these folks would spend a weekend or two shooting Prairie Dogs, they wouldn't need any of this silliness because they would intrinsicly know how much to hold over/under/ left or right in the wind because they actually got out and shot!!!
Federal has two nice new 168 grain 308 rounds that L.E. should be using instead of Gold Medal match. They are designed to expand, and have the same accuracy potential of a Sierra Match bullet!!!
As noted it was a down year, and I only saw two "Factory Engineers" to take a picture of.
I did find a way to keep my bottled beer cool and safe, and outside of walking about 8 miles a day, that's about it.View attachment 12942View attachment 12943
Everyone and their brother, sister, dog, cat, and Peruvian water turtle for the young one, now makes an AR-15 type rifle/carbine/pistol. It is absolutely necessary to mill out big trianges, squares, and all sorts of weird geometric shapes from the upper, lower, F F.tube.....etc. I guess these will all be used in a clean room, as they are nothing more than huge windows to let in dust, grit, grime, sand, insects, and in some cases small rodentia. I can only assume that the barrel makers and blank makers have either forgotten how, or run out of material to make a 20" barrel.
I found a company making really great M-14/M1A type rifles, BULA Defence Systems. I would pick them over any other makers rifle, and I know M-14s!!!
All the optic makers still insist on following the silly as hell first focal plane reticle, in low power variable scopes. Not one of them can be used for ranging below 4.5 power, and if you have 6X as your top end you can really only "range" things at full magnification, so you might as well have a second focal plane scope where at least you can see the reticle the whole time. I am convinced if all these folks would spend a weekend or two shooting Prairie Dogs, they wouldn't need any of this silliness because they would intrinsicly know how much to hold over/under/ left or right in the wind because they actually got out and shot!!!
Federal has two nice new 168 grain 308 rounds that L.E. should be using instead of Gold Medal match. They are designed to expand, and have the same accuracy potential of a Sierra Match bullet!!!
As noted it was a down year, and I only saw two "Factory Engineers" to take a picture of.
I did find a way to keep my bottled beer cool and safe, and outside of walking about 8 miles a day, that's about it.View attachment 12942View attachment 12943
