The firearms industry is alive and well, and fighting for market share.  This year's Shooting Hunting Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show was held in Atlanta, Georgia February 1-4.  Here are some of the highlights.  First, a minor disclaimer:  While I've tried to include information about new firearms and ammunition, I didn't stop at every booth and ask about every new item.  Instead, I concentrated on those new products I might want to buy or use, or recommend to students.  There may be a new rifle for shooting buffalo that I didn't see, but that's ok.  The last buffalo attack was several months ago.

    My favorite booth belonged to the Spyderco knife company.  I had stopped at another booth where a lady offered to show me a knife sharpener.  Before I could say anything, she dragged the blade of my new Spyderco "Walker" folding knife across some sort of cheap metal sharpening gadget.  What she thought was a sharper blade was a blade sharpened in the wrong direction with lots of rough spots.  For the rest of the day, I stewed about that, but remembered that the Spyderco booth had a sharpening setup as part of their display.  It turned out that a Spyderco employee named Dan was sharpening knives for showgoers.  I took my Spyderco knife to Dan, told him the story, and asked if he could fix it.  He spent about 5 minutes sharpening it on metal and ceramic rods, and checked it under a magnifying glass, then cut some strips of paper.  The blade was perfect again.  As I was thanking him, someone else came up with an SOG knife to be sharpened.  Dan said he was glad to do that, too, and that SOG paid royalties for "the hole" (the hole in the blade used for one hand opening).  There are more expensive knives on the market, but there's a lot to be said for a company that treats people as I was treated by Spyderco.  Something to think about the next time you need a knife.

    As expected, Smith & Wesson had several new products.  We've all seen the new Chief's Special line of small semi-automatic pistols, and some of us have seen the new revolvers with titanium parts.  It turns out there were several new models that have not show up in the press yet.  One is the Model 331, an AirLite Ti (titanium) 6 shot J frame revolver in .32 H&R Magnum.  That's not much of a caliber, but the weight of the revolver is 11.2 ounces.  A lot of people will buy and carry this gun or the companion hammerless Model 332 in the same caliber.  The Models 337 and 342 titanium .38 Special +P revolvers were there also.  Two more surprises:  the Model 242 is a 7 round .38 Special +P hammerless revolver based on the L frame with a round butt.  The Model 296 looks like the 242, but is a 5 shot .44 Special revolver.  If you're going after the concealed carry market, a set of very light weight revolvers in .32 H&R Magnum, .38 Special +P, and .44 Special sounds like a great plan.  For those who prefer heavier calibers, the Smith and Wesson Performance Center has short barrel custom versions of the Model 627 (8 shot .357 Magnum) and the Model 657 (6 shot .41 Magnum).

    S&W has also improved their low cost Sigma lines of 9 mm and .40 caliber semi-auto pistols.

   Kel-Tec, which makes a line of inexpensive 9 mm and .40 caliber pistols, introduced a new P-32 .32 ACP pistol.  The P-32 is designed to hold 7+1 rounds and should be able to handle "hot European" or +P .32 ACP loads.  With a loaded magazine, the P-32 weighs around 10 ounces, an ounce or so less than the new S&W revolvers.

    One of the best "carry" pistols on the market today is the Colt CCO .45 model.  The CCO has a Commander slide and an Officer's model frame, the best of both pistols.  Concealability is more often a product of the grip size rather than the barrel length.  The CCO has the right barrel length and reliable Commander slide and spring setup, while offering a smaller, but not too small, grip.  The new Colt Pocket Nine was there.  Some people are going to buy this, and like it very much.  Colt has a neat revolver called the Survivor which can fire 18 different calibers from its Phillips and Rogers designed cylinder.

    I have to admit I'm not a big fan of Taurus firearms, but my opinion may be changing.  Taurus has a number of new revolvers made from titanium in calibers like .41 Magnum and .45 Colt.  The ergonomics of these new revolvers, in particular the new grip design and material, makes them very easy to handle, point, and shoot.  The heavier calibers have ported barrels.  There are pros and cons to porting, but when you're firing a .41 Magnum from a short barrel, the porting should help.  The trade-off is a lot of smoke and flames going out of the barrel in what appears to be all directions.  The new Taurus revolvers have a good feel to them.  Taurus has a new pistol called the PT-400 in .400 CorBon caliber.  This 8 shot semi-auto handles a cartridge that delivers 10 mm performance.  If the PT-400 is built as well as the new revolvers, it should be a real winner.

  Taurus has several titanium revolvers with the new grip style in the following calibers: .38 Special, .32 H&R Magnum, .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum, .45 Long Colt, and .44 Special. The small Millennium semi-automatic pistol is now available in .40 S&W as well as 9 mm. The Millennium pistols will soon have the Taurus Security System which uses a key to lock the pistol. This system was introduced on their snub nose revolvers last year.

    Kimber continues to amaze us with the variety and quality of their 1911 type pistols.  This year you can special order a 9mm Kimber in stainless steel, and I'm going to get one just as soon as they're available.  A 1911 type pistol in 9 mm is perfect for IDPA and IPSC, at least for someone like me who shoots better with a 9 mm.  The only time you lose points with a 9 mm in IPSC shooting is when you miss the "A" zone.  True, it's impossible to win a match these days shooting a "minor" caliber, but I never win anyway, and I'm going to have a lot more fun with a Kimber 9 mm.  These pistols are also available in .40 S&W caliber, and there is a rumor a 9X23 model might be made in limited production.

    I'm sure we all remember the Clint Eastwood movie where he has the Automag pistol in .44 Automag caliber.  Well, this classic is back in production.  If you want to impress everyone at the range, this one will do it every time.  I suspect a lot of people will buy this pistol and keep it as a collectable, but it appears as though it would be fun to shoot.

    Beretta has fallen into the marketing pit by taking their very good Brigadier models (strengthened slide and dovetailed sights) and put things like "Elite" and "Border Marshal" on the slides.  I guess you have to to that these days when market share is the battleground.  Beretta also has a "Custom Carry" model, and all of these are available in either 9 mm or .40.  Last year they made a stainless version of the Model 92FS.  This year the same gun is the "INOX Tactical."

    My favorite product at the show was the new 31 dB muff type hearing protectors from Howard Leight.  Their older 29 dB model "was" the best hearing protection on the market.  The new muffs represent a significant advance in this critical area of the shooting sports.

    Both Winchester and Speer are making low cost .357 SIG ammunition for practice.  This is a major clue that the .357 SIG is catching on in the marketplace.

  Freedom Arms (made in Freedom, Wyoming) has a revolver in .475 Linebaugh caliber to go with their other heavy duty models. Calibers include .50 Action Express, 454 Casull, .44 Magnum and .357 Magnum. In case you've had a good year in the market, the Freedom Arms revolvers sell for around $1,800 in the larger calibers.

  Magnum Research has some big revolvers, too. These are called BFR, and I'm pretty sure that stands for Big Finest Revolver. Calibers include .45 Long Colt/.410 (with a modified choke), .45/70 and .444 Marlin. Shooting the .45/70 in a rifle is an exciting experience. I imagine that shooting this caliber in a revolver, even a Big Finest Revolver, would be a thrill.

   Handguns for personal defense have to have what appears to be conflicting characteristics. You have to be able to draw the gun in a hurry, pull the trigger, and have it go off. The fewer buttons to push or levers to move the better. Speed is essential. A pistol like the Glock is ideal for defensive applications. At the same time, pistols like the Glock can be a problem if handled by an untrained person. All you have to do is pull the trigger. It is possible to make a Glock safe by locking the trigger (or locking the pistol inside of a container). That defeats its main purpose, however. Imagine a pistol that looked and worked like the Glock, but which has three different safety conditions. This describes the new Steyr M-Series pistols. The Steyr has a "Safety Condition 1" which is like the Glock: a trigger safety, drop safety, and firing pin safety. Nothing happens until the trigger is pulled. "Safety Condition 2" is a manual safety. Once activated, the safety can be de-activated by moving the trigger finger up inside the trigger guard. "Safety Condition 3" uses a special key to lock the pistol, and also prevent disassembly. The grip angle on the new Steyr is ideal for point shooting, and the new "triangle/trapezoid" sights help fast acquistion of the target. The Steyr also has a loaded chamber indicator. It is almost as if the gun were designed by lawyers who were also shooters. The M-Series will be available in 9 mm and .40 S&W. I want one.

  Benelli has a new pump shotgun called the Nova. This shotgun has a number of innovative features, and uses "forced techno-polymers" along with metal inserts to wind up with a lightweight, but strong design. One of the new features that I like a lot, and you can expect to see copied in police and hunting shotguns in the future, is a "mag stop" button on the bottom of the forend. Push in the button, rack the slide, and the chamber can be emptied without loading another round into the chamber. Imagine a police officer chambering a round, getting out of the car, not having to fire, and then needing to remove the round from the chamber. That takes time with a gun like the Remington 870. With the Benelli Nova, you just push the button, rack the slide, and put the round back into the magazine. The gun goes back into the rack with an empty chamber. As we say around computers, a "nice hack."

  There were a lot of ammunition manufacturers at the show. Black Hills now uses Hornady XTP bullets in many of their factory loads (red box). I like Black Hills remanufactured 9 mm (blue box) and often buy two or three boxes from the same vendor at the local gun shows. At this point I would have been better off, on more than one occasion, just by buying a case or two. This is very good ammunition.

  At every SHOT Show, common sense is put on hold and attendees all go away with a wish list of new guns that need to join the next year's collection. In my case, there were three new additions to the list: the H&K USP Compact in .357 SIG caliber; the 9mm Kimber, and, surprise, an oldie, but goodie: the Ruger GP-100 with fixed sights and a 3" barrel. There are few revolvers or pistols that have ergonomics, strength, and reliability equal to the not very sophisticated GP-100.