ltwguns.com

How about a thread talking about what was cool at SHOT other than the stupendous LTW booth? I'll go first-

1. I met Wayne Novak for the first time. Guy treated me like an old pal, made me feel very welcome, and even showed me something he shoun'ta, but I ain't telling.
2. The Kahr booth had a suuuper mini 1911, Justin Moon told me it was a concept gun that probably won't see production, but I mean it was tiny and yet still ergonomically viable. It was in .45 GAP, and the frame was downsized to match. Had the SFS system on it. Justin told me it was done for them by Terry tussey, very impressive bit of work.
3. Blackhawk's new light has a lot of cool features, the dimmer is especially useful I think. People will complain that it's complicated because it has more than off/on but as anything that does more, there's a little learning involved. It is actually very simple. Dunno how it will stand the test of time and hard knocks, and I'm still not sure I'm 100% sold on that company, but it's worth watching.

More later.

Cool stuff for me...

1. Meeting Ted Nugent; even if I didn't get to spend much time talking to him.

2. Meeting all the LTW smiths. What a great bunch of guys!

3. The new Leupold scopes.

4. Talking to Robbie Leatham (again)

5. Meeting Ernie Emerson.

6. The Al Mar booth. The had a REALLY cool new fixed blade. Too bad it's limited to 500.


NOT COOL.

Taurus 1911

Other than the LTW booth and the fine folks there. I enjoyed being able to meet Bill Wilson and Les Baer for the first time.

The Sure Fire booth had some of their many new LED flashlights which are now as bright as the 70-100 lumen incandescent and xenon models we all have. The new LED's will be the wave of the future as the lamp lasts for 10's of thousands of hours, is shockproof and operates longer on the same set of batteries.

It was also nice to see all of the numerous well known manufacturers getting into the 1911 world. There might be some drool left on the HK UMP45 and what all was next to it from where I had to go take a look at them. The Smith & W Custom shop had some surprisingly really nice pieces as well. And the last thing that jumps to mind right now was the damascus slides at the Caspian booth. They were awesome.

Boy there was a lot of cool stuff but a couple that really caught my attention...

1. US Optics booth and meeting JBW3. What a great guy and a heck of a salesperson, that visit is going cost me some serious money but well worth it.

2. Meeting Celt and Clay from HD Rifles. I've owned a few rifles from Celt and finally got to put a face to the voice. HD Rifle unveiled a new M700 variant custom action that is absolutely state of the art.

3. Got a couple of minutes with Todd Jarrett at the Para both after he saw my badge and thought I was government affiliated

4. Like Mark, the Leupold both. Finally rolling out a full sized Golden Ring binocular, not Wind River model. Also HD lens spotter.

5. Bill Jordan and Team Realtree.

There's more but these stand out the most.

ned it was good to meet you nad will up there I was bummed i didn't get to spend as much time as i wanted hanging around the booths, ohh well.
you guys do awesome work and my budget will never be the same.
Trevor

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Any questions email me at trevor@trevorzantos.com

It was the first Shot that I have attended and I covered a lot of ground.
I enjoyed meeting the fellows at the LTW booth, I have spoken with Ted and Don a few times before, but it's nice to meet people in person you have chatted with.
I finally got to meet with the crew at Caspian. They have always treated me well on the phone and in my dealings with them, but to get to actually meet them ws also a pleasure. We also met a lot of neat people hanging around during the thre days I was there. Bruce Piatt was a real gentleman and a wealth of information, and I also met and spoke with Bob Marvel at great legnth. Be on the lookout for his new jig hopefully by the end of the year.
If any of you have never met and spoke with Chip Mcormick and crew you need to make a point to do so. He is an absoloute gentleman and as down to earth as anyone you could imagine. I had never met or spoke with him prior, but it was also nice to meet Ray and Armond to put a face to the voice.
Renee' at the Brown booth was a pleasure to talk to as she is on the phone when I place an order. It was the first time I had the opportunity to speak with Ed Brown though, and to say the least, he is all business and a man of few words.
The folks over at FMG were real nice to talk to. Roy Huntington is down to earth and took time out of his schedule to speak with us for a while as did John Taffin who I had been wanting to meet for quite some time now.
Heck, I cannot even remember off hand everywhere we went, it was all business though and unfortunately not well planned out in the route we took. Next year I'm going in with a plan so I have time to do a little more looking and learning. There sure is a lot of ground to cover at that venue.

Ned,
Yeah my good buddy Terry Tussey did do that gun. He stopped by the both early Friday to show me and let me slobber all over it. There was a ton of work in that gun. Just in case you didn't see, Springfield is putting out a Micro Compact in .45 GAP that is down sized. Still not as small as Tussey's but still pretty cool.

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Tony Barnes
Brownells, Inc

Highlights:

In addition to meeting all of the LTW members in person... yes even you Tim. HA!

Idamarie Alessi and the “well-groomed” tigers...

The LTW party was great... thanks Keith!

LMT 1 piece upper for the AR-15 – neat piece for those who must have a free floated gun...

Couple of neat 1911s at the Springfield booth...

The “Light Fighter” party was pretty good...

But probably the neatest thing I saw at SHOT was the Rorbaugh R9 and R9S. I missed them last year but had a good look this time. That is one neat pocket pistol with a good ammo capacity and a very useable trigger.

The best highlight though was the presentation of the check to Ted Nugent.

The Bad:

Not much new and really interesting stuff...

The Taurus 1911... yikes! But for $500 whatta’ ya’ expect.

I walked every single aisle of the SHOT show. And after hiking through the "camo zone" I was ready to start punching people if I turned a corner and saw yet another camo bikini.

Let's see: GG&G has a new bipod that isn't tubing and springs, like another brand we all know. The Ares Shrike belt-fed upper for AR/M-16 is very interesting. At the other extreme, Taylor's & Co. Tammy Loy practically stuffed a Sharps reporduction in a pocket of my photo vest, she wants me to test one so much.

The big thing: FN. They are going to be offering a semi-only, civvie legal P90. And the same status of their FN2000, the bullpup .223.

And the gorgeous hardware at the LTW booth. Ned, that 9mm cleaned up almost looks normal.

Oh yes, and did you know that Cor-bon is making 500 Special ammo, for those of you who do not want to break your wrists with your 500SW? As soon as I saw it, I started wondering, would it fit into a SuperBlackhawk frame?

Somebody told me SA is coming out with a "7/8" sized short 1911 for .45 GAP. Was this at SHOT, does anybody know anything?

That stuff all sounds so cool! I'm gonna have to pay attention next year

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Heirloom Precision, LLC.
480-804-1911

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

TR

They did indeed introduce such an animal at this years shot show. Follow the link for a picture of the gun. I wonder how long Springfield will wait before they update their website.

http://www.1911forum.com/forums/showthr ... hlight=gap

It is on the cover of the latest Handguns magazine, due out any moment. Dave Fortier, lucky bastard, got to do the article.

Yeah Ned Springfield had one. Pretty cool. Not a short as the Tuessy gun. He built his on the Jr. Frame he designed for Caspian which is basically a Detoincs sized frame with a short MS housing and a full size grip safety. The Springfield is bacially built on the micro compact model. They sectioned the frame verticaly making the frame .125" narrower front to back. They then took .125" off the back of the slide which made them shorten the firing pin and the extractor. Oh yeah, it's an alloy frame also. Nice and light.

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Tony Barnes
Brownells, Inc

Thanks guys. Sounds very interesting. Hey Pat, you can't catch all the gems now..... I'm sure Fortier did a bang-up job, in my book he's in the same "credible and technically articulate" category as you. Hard to find these days.

I sent Mr. Tussey an Email about the little gun he did. Have never met him or had previous contact, but he sent a very nice reply. That little gun really was something, I'm still Jonesing on it!

In addition to David doing a good job on the writing, his wife does the photography for many of his articles. I can always tell when David has done his own shots, as his wife has a much better eye for lighting than he does. His ain't bad, but hers are beautiful.

Jerry Lee (my Editor at Handguns) and I joked about an "All David and Patrick" issue. My reply was "you mean: An all Patrick and David issue."