2012 SHOT Show Day One Wrap-up

The second I stepped on to the show floor this morning I was overwhelmed. The “entrance” to the show that I walked through takes up an entire ballroom at the Venetian and is twice as big as the biggest local gun shows in Metro Detroit. I wandered around the first couple of booths and checked out all the new stuff in the ballroom before discovering that the ballroom was indeed just a tiny part of the show. The main show floor is massive, you can’t even see one end of the ballroom from the other. Into this circus of guns and gun gear I walked, not sure what I’d find.

In the interest of saving you time and just showing you what you want to see, I’m going to toss up some pictures here and some accompanying details for each to fill you in on what I saw on the floor today.

Above is the new H&K G28 Patrol Rifle, a new offering for law enforcement and military in 7.62x51mm. Its big talking point is an all-steel upper that lends some serious heft to the gun but makes it ultra-reliable and accurate.

I stopped by the combined K-Var and Arsenal, Inc. booth and saw some amazing stuff. They’re now importing weapons straight from the famous Zastava arms factory in Serbia which has been manufacturing small arms for over a century. Above is one of the high-quality Mauser bolt-action rifles they’ll be bringing in this year. The wood was absolutely beautiful and the action was very smooth. In addition to the bolt guns they’ll be bringing in, they’ll also have some handguns made by Zastava that are really slick.

In other Arsenal news, they were also featuring their SLR-106 “Krinkov” AK pistols in 5.56x45mm. These things are just screaming to be made into SBRs, and as is typical of all Arsenal products, have impeccable finishes and build quality.

Another exceptional new item was on display at the Rock River Arms booth in the form of the LAR-47. This AR-type rifle is chambered in 7.62x39mm and will take any kind of AK mag in 7.62. They’ll be hitting the shelves within a couple of months and I can’t wait to take one to the range to try it out.

Ruger had their American Rifles on display, bringing in a lot of traffic. After throwing one around in my hands a bit, I can understand why. In addition to the 77/357 I was able to finally shoot at the Ruger booth on Media Day, the American Rifle’s been added to my wishlist for 2012.

Keep following Outdoor Hub’s SHOT Show page for live updates and more from the floor as the show goes on. Click here to check out my highlights from Media Day.

Matt Korovesis

I've been a history and gun enthusiast since I was a kid. I love to shoot just about anything, from silenced bolt-action .22s to fully automatic heavy machine guns, and I love even more when I get to write about them. My main interests are modern small arms and the military small arms of World War II and prior conflicts, with a particular focus on Russian and Finnish firearms. Reading about guns like the Mosin-Nagant rifle in books and on the internet got me interested in collecting, shooting, and writing about them, and I hope to do the same for others through my work.

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