Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Shot Show 2019 - Las Vegas




Kristin and I attended this year's Shot Show (2019) in Vegas, as guests of exhibitor 5.11 Tactical.  Since forming our new Custom Firearms Retailer, Crow's Custom, Mid-2018, we've been excited about getting setup as an Authorized Dealer with all the industry's Top Brands, Manufacturers, and Distributors. With that said, we just had to make an appearance at Shot Show 2019! I must say, we had an excellent time checking out all the new products coming out this year, and visiting with some of the industry's best.

Unfortunately, we did NOT take enough pictures, since we were there to Network and get setup as a Dealer with anyone we aren't already setup with.  But, I wanted to show everyone the pictures we did take, and give ya'll a quick recap of what to be on the look-out for this year!

Daniel Defense

As everyone knows by now, Daniel Defense, the main sponsor of Shot Show 2019, unveiled their latest offering, and their first step into the Bolt Action game, the Delta V.  This is essentially a highly accurized, suppressor ready, Short Action Bolt Gun built on the Rem700 patterned Action, equipped with a fully modular and adjustable polymer tactical stock featuring MLok attachment points for your bipod and accessories. 

The rifle comes in 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm-08, and .308/7.62mm as of January 22nd, 2019, but they've assured me there are plans to make this rifle available in a few other caliber offerings.  I did ask about Long Action calibers, specifically .300 Win Mag and .338 Lapua and was immediately told, "those calibers are an entirely different animal and would mean going completely back to the drawing board....not going to happen in the near future."

I pulled specs for the Delta V from Recoil Web, who just published an awesome review on the rifle a few days ago:


  • CALIBER: .308 Winchester | 6.5mm Creedmoor | 7mm-08 Remington
  • BARREL: User-interchangeable, stainless steel cold hammer forged to contour
  • BARREL LENGTH: 20” (.308 Win) | 24” (6.5 Creedmoor) | 24” (7mm-08 Rem)
  • BARREL TWIST: 1:10 RH (.308 Win) | 1:8 RH (6.5 Creedmoor) | 1:9 RH (7mm-08 Rem)
  • MUZZLE THREAD: 5/8” x 24 TPI (Threads Per Inch) with thread protector
  • WEIGHT: 8.9 lbs (.308 Win) | 9.5 lbs (6.5 Creedmoor/7mm-08 Rem)
  • LENGTH: 40” Max (.308 Win) | 44” Max (6.5 Creedmoor/7mm-08 Rem)
  • ACTION: Mechanically bedded stainless steel action with integral recoil lug
  • BOLT: Three-lug bolt with a 60 degree throw and rotating bolt head
  • BOLT KNOB: 5/16 – 24″ removable bolt knob
  • TRIGGER: Adjustable single stage Timney Elite Hunter with two position safety (1.5 – 4 lbs)
  • PICATINNY SCOPE BASE: 20 MOA/ 5.8 MRAD of elevation with four #10-32 bolts
  • BARRIER STOP: Integrated into pillared bottom metal for stability
  • ERGONOMIC STOCK: Constructed of carbon fiber reinforced polymer
  • ADJUSTABLE CHEEK RISER: For preferred height, yaw, and drift
  • CONFIGURABLE BUTTSTOCK: Offers length of pull and butt pad height adjustments
  • ATTACHMENT: 11 total M-LOK points along forend with one point on bottom of buttstock
  • QUICK DETACH: Ambidextrous M-LOK QD sling points on forend and buttstock
  • MAGAZINE: Accepts AICS pattern detachable single feed magazines
  • MSRP: $2199.00

Kimber

Kimber is known the world over for making high-end semi-custom 1911's.  I say semi-custom

because they are made in a factory on an assembly line process, but their guns are made with the utmost attention to detail, quality, and tolerances.  They have always gone above and beyond to offer the firearms community as many custom features as possible, in as many finishes as possible.  This year Kimber is releasing a striker fired micro pistol, a new lightweight 1911 offering called the Rapide, 6 models of a hammerless revolver, the K6, as well as one model with a hammer, a DA/SA type K6. We spent some time checking out the Kimber booth, and seeing all the new variations of their product lines. One of my Dad's friends wanted us to look at the different K6 hammerless revolver offerings and see what we thought about the various barrel lengths offered.  I must say, for a compact revolver that is quick to draw from a concealed position, the K6 fits the bill! However, I was most impressed with the Rapide 1911, as I feel this is Kimber's first venture into the modern custom handgun market.  We've seen what ZEV Tech, Agency Arms, and Lonewolf Dist have done with the Custom Glock Market over the last few years (my apologies to the dozen or so other Custom Glock companies that I failed to mention).  However, the high-end custom 1911 market has been dominated by a select few companies that predominantly target the competitive shooting sports market.  Kimber's new Rapide 1911, fills that niche, and does so in a very classy, and very useful package!
The Rapide is currently offered in .45 ACP and 10mm. The frame and heavily machined slide are made entirely from Stainless Steel and finished off in Kimber's proprietary KimPro II finish in Black. The match grade stainless steel barrel features a LH 16" Twist Rate which is pretty standard for this class of 1911, but is finished off in a super hard Gold DLC Titanium Nitride finish.  I was unable to find out if Kimber has purchased the equipment to do DLC finishes themselves at their shop in Yonkers, or if they are outsourcing the finish on the barrels for these.  If they did in fact purchase DLC finishing equipment, this could open the door down the road for a variety of other colored barrel finishes for some of their other 1911 models.

Kimber finished off this new model with Tru-Glo TFX Day/Night Sights, a G10 Grip, and a V-Cut aluminum trigger set at 4.5lbs at the factory.  MSRP is expected to be $1490 USD at the time of release.

Remington

The guys at Remington Outdoor Company, formerly the Freedom Group, acquired AAC, Bushmaster, DPMS, Remington, and Marlin a few years back under the direction, and with funding from Cerebrus  Capital Management, an investment firm.  Since this time, we've seen the ACR released to the civilian market under the Bushmaster portfolio, DPMS' quality control has increased significantly, and a new plant was opened in Huntsville, Alabama specifically designed to manufacturer AR-15's and Remington's version of the 1911, the Remington R1, based off the old Remington-Rand Blueprints from the Ilion, NY plant that date back to the Great War and WWII.  Remington brought their entire product lines from all major divisions, and it was fun to look at some of their larger silencer ready precision rifles.  As a matter of fact, I was holding one such rifle when the marketing team from Remington came over and started filming me while I was holding the rifle, I worked the bolt, and posed for the video footage. If anyone see's a video floating around YouTube or Remington's website with me in it, please shoot me a link! I'd like to link to the video here.

There's a lot of cool things going on at Shot Show, and much more to write about...but it's time to sign off for tonight.  Stay tuned for more cool products and spoilers from Shot Show 2019 in Las Vegas, NV!