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• ACR
• Swat Scope Scout Sniper Periscope Kit
• Arsenal Arms 90th Anniversary AK74s
• Follow Up on 50 Angry Bees
• A SIGnature Gas System
• If Victory Knocks, You Had Better Open the Door.
• A Premium Pocket Pistol
• A Para-Normal AR
• The Last Ruger LCR Durability Rumor, We Promise
• A Happy Ending

As some of you may already have noticed, the SHOT Show concluded last week. However, thanks to a huge backlog of coverage, we're still going strong. Today's writeup concludes our content for this enormous show, though...at least until next year.

ACR

We were holding out on the ACR thinking we would get a moment with it to tear it down, but even over the course of a few days the booth was too busy. Here are a few shots as a follow up on the teaser from earlier:

Swat Scope Scout Sniper Periscope Kit

Arsenal Arms 90th Anniversary AK74s

Arsenal Arms crafted two beautiful anniversary AK74s which were later presented to the NRA.

Follow Up on 50 Angry Bees

Earlier this month we reviewed the AR-57 platform in our article "50 Angry Bees." We had positive feelings towards the platform and as such felt that we should pay the folks at the AR-57 a visit. They of course, gave us the nickel tour and showed us some of the ideas they're experimenting with, which included fluted barrels, short barrels, suppressors, and even a California legal upper.

They also showed us an experimental project they were working on that would allow users to change their barrels using a 5/8 socket a long socket extension, and a torque wrench. While I'm not sure your average gun owner should be playing Mr. Gunsmith, I can see the advantage that has in speeding up the manufacturing process. Since there is no extractor notch to time off of, they just torque it to 60 ft/lbs and check the barrel height off of the receiver. Clever.

A SIGnature Gas System

There isn't much that hasn't already been said about Sig Arms. They've introduced a gas piston AR-15, and are finally selling their Sig 522s on the market. Honestly, their line up wasn't too exciting so we just let the fanboys have at it.

If Victory Knocks, You Had Better Open the Door.

Since the dawn of time there have been Swiss Army Knives. They have been a symbol of durability, versatility, and a whole bunch of other adjectives that mean "really handy" since they were first introduced in the 1890s. More recently, Swiss Army Knives have been surprising people with high quality knives that do all sorts of unexpected things, like have USB drives, or LED lights.

Traditionally they are the tools of Boy Scouts, handymen, and the Swiss Army but Victorinox is trying to expand their market to include business professionals, rescue workers, and chefs. The most novel of their newest knives is the Victorinox Remote which has an integrated wireless transmitter that allows you to open modern garage doors. In their daily life oriented line of knives they also introduced the Presentation Master, which has a Bluetooth PC remote, USB drive, fingerprint recognition, and laser pointer. (Ironically, the laser pointer is illegal in Switzerland).

In 2007 the Swiss Army decided it needed to replace its 46 year old pocket knife with something a little more modern. After a pretty standard competition for the contract Victorinox came out victorious with their latest revision of the Soldier Knife. Of course, this has been out for 2 year so there's not much to say about it other than now it's in the traditional Swiss red.

All in all, the 2010 lineup of Victorinox knives was a bit of a surprise. It didn't help that I missed the CES 2010 coverage of last week or I'd at least have known about their garage door opener but at least they're trying to innovate in a relatively static market. My only gripe about their line up was the lack of a rescue hook on their Rescue Tool. It just makes sense

A Premium Pocket Pistol

Rohrbaugh wowed the SHOT Show last year with their compact, positively fed, all metal, single stack, subcompact 9mm. Their handgun weighs in at 13.5 oz, is less than an inch thick at it's widest point, and just over 5 inches at it's longest point. This makes it the lightest alloy-framed 9mm on the market, and also one that slides nicely into your pocket. It sounds like it would be a winner except for the fact that purchasing it would cost you your first-born son.

A Para-Normal AR

One nifty thing we were able to take a close look at this year was the Tactical Target Rifle by Para-Ordnance. Where most other companies are bringing gas piston ARs to the market, Para has chosen a different and unique approach to modifying the AR operating system.

First, the recoil spring has been moved forward and surrounds the gas tube (more on that later). It's accessible by removing a cover on the handguard, exposing the recoil spring and what would appear to be a gas piston.

The cover itself can be used to retract the spring, but it gets cooler. The gas block itself channels the gas through a u-turn before sending it back to the receiver, effectively reducing dwell time relative to the barrel length. The dark, knurled object just rear of the gas block in the photo above is the retaining clip that keeps the spring from resting directly against the block.

What appears to be a gas piston is actually an extended gas tube attached directly to the bolt carrier.

The tube attached to the bolt carrier slides over a smaller tube extending from the front gas block; this is very similar to how the gas is channeled from the barrel to the piston in the SVT-40. Instead of acting on a piston, though, the gas is channeled back through the hollow tube to the bolt carrier.

This means that the bolt unlocking mechanism remains unchanged from conventional ARs; the bolt uses gas rings (unlike many piston designs) and pressure is normalized as it unlocks.

There is one significant change to the bolt carrier above and beyond the enormous silver tube resting on its top: The rear end is cut off. Because the spring surrounds the gas tube, no buffer tube is required, the rear of the upper receiver is solid, and the bolt carrier has to have its rear sawed off to allow it to cycle back far enough.

All in all, a very interesting adaptation of the AR operating mechanism. Special thanks to Para-Ordnance for providing us with this cool demo and for giving us baseball caps, which were also cool.

The Last Ruger LCR Durability Rumor, We Promise

Remember a couple days ago how we were talking about an exhibitor whose LCR showed durability issues? Well, we heard from him again and found out that these were side-effects of the modifications required to pull the firing pin from the gun. The actual functional LCR his company uses for testing has gone thousands of rounds without issue.

It's nice when a story has a happy ending.

A Happy Ending

Like this story, for instance. This is the end of our 2010 SHOT Show coverage. We leave behind us dozens of flash-depleted AA batteries, about a quarter inch of shoe leather, an empty bottle of ibuprofen, one hell of a bar tab, and hopefully an adoring public that's just a teensy bit better informed than they were before.

Whether you agree with that last or not, we at 230grain.com hope you've enjoyed this coverage. As always, we welcome comments or suggestions in our forums. Our normal article schedule will resume in February, or whenever we manage to recover from gun overloads.

Thanks for stopping by.