The SpotterUp team had the privilege of attending industry day at the range this year prior to kicking off SHOT Show 2018. We shot a lot of cool guns, some we loved, some we didn’t. Here are a few of my favorites:
STI OMNI: Newest offering in the DVC line is this integral-comped, RMR-cut full-railed blaster. This is officially my favorite gun of SHOT 2018 range day.
Hudson Manufacturing H9 and H9A: Hudson announced a new variant of their premiere pistol which replaces the steel frame with an Aluminum frame, polymer grip panels and fiber optic front sight. The H9A is about 1/2 pound lighter than the H9 and I think i preferred the improved grippy-ness of the polymer grip panels.
Archon Type-B: Formerly known as the Arsenal Stryk-B, the newly re-branded Archon Firearms are hoping to bring the Type-B to market in spring 2018. I was excited about this pistol because i think its an interesting design and has real potential, and shooting it only increased my interest.
IWI Tavor TS12 Shotgun: This thing seems to be pretty controversial based on the amount of negative comments I’m getting on my social media, but i actually like this gun. Its the same size as the Tavor rifle, and believe it or not its actually thinner. You can read more about it here. At about 8 lbs it was compact and pretty handy, but it did seem to kick a bit more than i expected, but that may have also just been me being lazy at the end of the day.
HIPERFIRE: We got a chance to try out a variety of guns with HIPERFIRE performance triggers, compensators and grips. I was excited to test out their triggers and compensators under both full-auto and semi-auto fire, as well as both .223 and 9mm carbines and I’m happy to report they performed extremely well. You can read more about their new for 2018 releases here.
IWI Galil ACE: Another gun I’ve been wanting to shoot for a long time and finally got a chance to on range day. Although i was really excited about the 7.62×39 version, i ended up liking the feel of the 5.56 variant the most. The action of these guns is surprisingly smooth and they shoot great.
Brownells BRN-15: Brownells is releasing several models of classic M16 clones and two AR-10 clones which should get the blood pumping for anyone who is a fan of the originals or even just a fan of the classic stylings. Based on what i saw at the range i think Brownells got these right and i look forward to seeing them come to market.
Desert Tech MDR: Desert Tech finally started shipping the MDR in 2017 to mostly patient customers and i finally got my hands on a live one to put some rounds through it. The red dot sight sitting on top felt like a little bit of an odd choice for this gun, however the rifle was fun to shoot and the recoil impulse was softer than expected.
Ritter and Starke 6.5 Creedmore: One of the only precision rifles i laid my hands on during range day, this rifle was frankly astonishing. The action was so smooth and the recoil impulse so soft, that paired with the high end Kahles glass on top i felt like i could shoot the wings off a fly at 100 yards.
Hope you enjoyed the videos half as much as we enjoyed taking them. 2018 should be another great year for the firearms industry. Stay tuned to SpotterUp for more great original content. – Yoshimoto
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