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It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

No, not Christmas. Nor Thanksgiving or Kwanzaa or Halloween and certainly not Passover. Nope next week is SHOT Show, the annual gun industry extravaganza where gun and accessory manufacturers show off their new stuff.

I have never been although I am eligible to attend, it just is too far away and I can’t justify the expense but it would be awesome to go one year. I went to the NRA Annual Meeting in 2019 when it was held in Indianapolis but SHOT Show is a whole different beast. Some years are better than others, 2022 was pretty lame and there was a lot of backlash about making attendees wear masks. What is usually true is that Palmetto State Armory has all of the coolest new stuff. They often will introduce concept guns, some that never make it to production, but last year they let people vote on what they wanted to see PSA bring to market.

A goofy 5.7mm little subgun was the big winner, the X-57….

Then they actually listen to their customers and provide updates:

Not really my cup of tea but the cool thing is that they listen to their customers and incorporate changes. A lot of people crap on Palmetto State for making “gunz 4 poorz” and other bullshit like that but for the vast majority of shooters, PSA is really “good enough”. Not my go-to AR nor my main back-up AR but I do own Palmetto State stuff and it works well enough for a shooter of my very modest ability. Places like Daniel Defense and Glock, do you think they listen to randos on social media about suggestions?

It will be interesting to see what SHOT Show brings this year with a Trump administration taking office the day before SHOT starts. I expect suppressors will be a big feature this year given how fast the approvals for suppressors have become.

14 Comments

  1. MN Steel

    My last rifles were a $800 blonde M-1 and a $900 redhead M-1 bought about 8 years back. I think. Maybe the Savage 93 17HMR with a couple hundred rounds for $300 off ArmsList before they went gay.

    Buying new is cool, and the online used places are lame now, gunshows are full of black rifles and pistols and pot-scrubbers, I only have two hands so I don’t need more shooters.

    Pretty much been reloading for my big rounds, need to cut out a 1000 yard range in the swamp behind the house.

  2. Tree Mike; eff bee eye code name, Foghorn Leghorn

    When it comes to AR’s the only things that really matter are barrel, bolt, trigger group quality. I’ve horse traded and built (and shot) through endless AR’s, Anderson, DPMS, Aero, PSA, Daniel Defence, etc. The main things you need to stay away from are cheap barrels and bolts. The aluminum parts just carry around the critical parts.
    Opinionated old guy. YMMV

  3. Bean Dip Tray

    I like the WWII guns from all sides and M1 Garand is still the most powerful that I have shot.
    Gun smoked water filled antifreeze containers with it and later skinned a deer on a car lift.
    Good Red State times that just aren’t happening anymore.

  4. Warren Shafer

    I have a PSA Xm-177e2 retro coming soon. I am old school when it comes Firearms. I have a M-16a1 retro just like I carried during my time as a Marine Corp Rifleman, Grunt. Plus 2 GI style 1911a1’s, likewise as I carried later when I became an NCO.

  5. Don Curton

    Apparently S&W just announced that their “classic line’ of revolvers will no longer have the Hillary Hole. Not sure about the rest of their stuff, but if that’s true I might actually buy one. I’m actually actively looking for a good .357 wheel gun anyway. I think the announcement was timed to coincide with the Shot Show.

      • Don W Curton

        Back in the day, S&W caved to the gun control crowd and put a “safe storage lock” on all their revolvers. If you look at the left side of the pistol, just above the cylinder release latch, there’s a round hole into which you can insert a key and lock the action. It’s not a safety (although commonly referred to as such) and you need to keep the cheap-ass pot metal key handy to unlock it. Since the Clinton’s were in office at the time, and Hillary was active in this endeavor, the hole is referred to as the “Hillary Hole”.

        There’s been reports of the lock breaking under heavy recoil and making the pistol non-functional until fixed, which is not where you wanna be in a self-defense situation. It also mars the looks of the revolver too. though that is just an opinion (that lots of us share).

    • ghostsniper

      I’ve been in desperate need of a Colt Python, stainless, wood, 6″, for about 50 years and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to scratch it off my bucket list as they are waaay too expensive to justify.

      • Don W Curton

        I have an old Python, and while it is the coolest looking pistol ever, you really don’t want one. You think you do, but you don’t. Unless you are rich enough to buy one as a safe queen, don’t do it. I keep taking mine to the range and keep having reliability issues with it. It just ain’t a good shooter. Right now I’m dealing with light hammer strikes not igniting the CCI primers on my handloads. I’ve replaced the hammer spring and completely disassembled and cleaned everything, and still suffer a light strike at least once or twice per cylinder. Note that the same ammo fires perfectly reliable in 4 other non-Colt revolvers with zero failures. The strikes are slightly off-center, yet when I’ve checked the timing is damn near perfect. IDK, probably just get a Ruger and relegate the Python to safe queen status. Or sell it.

        I can’t speak for the newer ones, YMMV.

  6. Max Wiley

    The thing to remember about PSA is that the first round of purchasers will end up being beta testers to find the last few wrinkles that need to be ironed out, so I am never a PSA product hipster. That being said, they are doing a great job developing cool ideas that are priced reasonably.
    I had been wanting a short barrel 300BLK for quite some time but I wanted it to check a lot of boxes.
    1) Needed to have a folding stock and be capable of fitting in a backpack with the stock folded.
    2) Piston gas system with easily available adjustments for a wide range of ammo types, including suppressed subsonics.
    I had been watching the PSA JAKL since it was released and it did indeed have some issues but recently it seemed that had all been worked through and I went ahead and bought one. It has been flawless and is a genuine joy to shoot. In addition to checking all of the needed boxes, it also brings nice-to-haves like AR15 lower and fire controls and can be fired with the stock folded.
    Only rarely have I been super excited about a firearm and have it live up to the hype. The JAKL has done that and I am very pleased because it occupies a very important slot in my armory. I may not be interested in every single project PSA has running but more power to them IMO.

  7. ghostsniper

    I built my AR from scratch about 5 years ago starting with a Spikes lower and a Dark Rain upper and barrel and some of the accessories were Palmetto.

    So far, some 12,000 rds later, no problems with any of it.

    This year I am planning on building a new AR in .308.

  8. James J

    Honestly it isn’t worth it. Vegas is a terrible place and the show is a mad mad house. I did 6 shows and honestly haven’t been back since, 2018 was my last one. Between the “cool” guys and instawhores it has ruined it pretty much

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