Sheer Firepower on Display at SHOT Show Industry Day at the Range

SHOT Show 2016 in Las Vegas got started this week exactly how you would expect the largest firearm convention to begin, with an impressive display of sheer fire power.

Kicking off the trade show Jan 18 was the Industry Day at the Range, where buyers and media representatives can test out the latest firearms on the shooting range. As you might imagine, the opportunities were endless, from tactical assault rifles, long range rifles and pistols.

With the smell of gun powder in the air and a cacophony of live fire at the Boulder Rifle & Pistol Club outside Las Vegas, Nevada, we perused the lanes to find out what gun makers wanted us to know about their latest weapons.

There were a whole lot of semi-automatic rifles at the range this year. One that caught our eye was the newly engineered X95 by Israel Weapon Industries. Designed for use by Israeli Special Forces, the X95 is an improvement on the brand’s Tevor model that came out a few years ago.

“Because they are special ops guys, they wanted something shorter and more compact,” said Casey Flack, sales manager.

The new design features a shorter barrel for an even smaller weapon. They shifted the trigger in front of the magazine and moved all the controls further back. The X95 comes stock as a 5.56 mm but it can be adapted easily to accommodate 9 mm and 300 caliber.

Over at the Beretta lane we took a couple shots with the ARX 100. Not much has changed on the gun from previous years other than its offering in the color brown. This 5.56 mm ARX is completely ambidextrous, more so than any other gun on the market, according to Rafe Bennett, vice president of product marketing.

“Everything from the selector, magazine release, the bolt release, the charge handle and which way the bullets eject is completely reversible,” he said. “A lot of guns are starting to have 75 percent of those, but no one has all those things as flexible.”

When it comes to Walther Arms, most people think of its 9 mm pistol. This year the company introduced the PP2 M2 with a button magazine release and a 6.1 pound trigger.

The gunmaker also debuted the first 45 caliber in the company’s 140-year history. The PPQ 45 is designed as a smaller, more ergonomically comfortable hand gun than most 45 caliber handguns. Designed with one of the shortest reset on the trigger than any polymer gun on the market, the PPQ 45 does all it can to make shooting smooth and easy.

Photo credit: LiveOutdoors