As I sit here on Thanksgiving eve, I will have to admit that, even with Obama doing all he can to ruin this country, we still have a lot to be thankful for. The majority of Americans are decent, God fearing, God loving people. It just seems like the evil in this country is in our leadership, all the way down to the local level, especially in our school systems. We have lost some of our freedoms in the last year but we have withstood many other attempts to take more from us. All in all, we have a lot to be thankful for. Hopefully this time next year, I can say the same thing.
 
We are about 6 weeks or so away from the annual SHOT SHOW, where literally thousands of manufacturers and distributors show off all the new products for the coming year. Some of which may actually show up. The show has, over the past few years, become more of a “concept show” where they show radical new guns that in most cases, never see the light of day. Kase and I were talking about this recently and there were quite a few guns that were shown in recent years that never made the production lines. For instance, Taurus showed a 2” 500 S&W  well before S&W came out with their snubby 500, yet it never went into production. EAA had a polymer framed pistol made of clear polymer so you could see the inner workings. It never made it. Rock Island Armory had a polymer single stack 1911 on display several years ago. It still hasn’t made it to the dealer’s shelves, Marlin had an 1895 chambered in 475 Linebaugh, and even took orders for it, but never could make it work so it was dropped before it ever went into production, and the list goes on. It seems that with the economy where it is today, the best way to introduce a new gun is make one or two, and put them on display at one of the big shows. Then if you get a lot of orders for it, build it. If not, then quietly drop it and deny you ever had it at the show.
 
Here are some of the new items that will be premiered at the show. They may never be produced but they are scheduled to be on display. Legacy Sports, who import and distribute a lot of different brands of guns has a new M-1 carbine in 9mm coming out. It uses the readily available 9mm Beretta M-92 magazines. They also have several new home defense shotguns coming in 20 gauge. The older crowd quite often have a problem with the 12 gauge especially with OO buckshot. So there is a definite void that the 20 gauge can fill. Legacy also distributes the fine Howa rifles, which are some of the finest rifles on the market. Howa made Weatherby rifles for many years.  The Howa 1500 (exactly the same gun as the Weatherby Vanguard) is coming out this year in snow camo.  And speaking of camo Legacy is premiering pink camo on single action revolvers (which seems like a sacrilege to me). They are also coming out with a Ned Buntline Special revolver. Speaking of Howa a moment ago, they are coming out with a rifle/scope combo. It is the Howa 1500 combined with a Zeiss scope.
 
Colt is supposed to have several versions of their new Model 901 rifle in 308. We have been hearing rumors of this one for a year or more. I have received info from no less than 10 new companies that are coming out with new AR-15s. Strike that. I forgot, it is socially unacceptable to call them AR-15s anymore, just like the term Assault rifles is a no-no. Now they are Modern Sporting Rifles or MSRs. Anyway, I have received info on at least 10 new companies that are coming out with new MSRs. It sure seems they are fighting a losing battle there as the market is already saturated with them. Guns that sold for $2000 a bit over a year ago are now $750. Ruger;s new SR762 is a 308 version of their SR556. It is not a cheap gun either at about $2000. Hopefully the market saturation and high price won’t kill it’s sales.
 
ATI, the company in the Philippines that imports a lot of really nice firearms including one of the best 1911s on the market, is scheduled to introduce a single stack polymer framed 1911. As I mentioned above, this has been tried before with no success. Hopefully this one will do better. ATI is also bringing out a copy of the German sub-machine gun, called the MP-40 in 40 S&W.
 
The slide fire conversion that works great in a MSR (AR-15) will soon be available for the AK-47 and AK-74s. There is also a tiny little AK-47 coming out called the Micro AK. Rock Island Armory has a new 10mm Compact 1911 on the way. Their standard 10mm is so popular there are long back order lists for it.  They also have a new Tactical 9mm coming soon.  EAA is coming out with a whole line of purple handguns. They are even giving them a series name. They are called the Pavona which I think translates into something having to do with one’s sexual directions.
 
Taurus got a new CEO a while back and he is leading the company into new directions, which is very good. They have 2 new carbines coming out called the CT-9 and CT-40. These are short handy carbines chambered in 9mm and 40 S&W. For those that live in densely populated areas where having a MSR in 223 might not be a good idea in a home defense gun, these little carbines in handgun calibers make a lot of sense.
 
Many years ago Sharps came out with a 4 barreled little pistol. It fired one barrel at a time with a rotating hammer. Then a hundred years later a company called COP came out with the same thing except larger and chambered in 38/357. It was a well built little stainless pistol, but it’s main safety was a 47 lb. double action trigger pull. That was part of what killed it. Now another company called Edge Arms has a 4 barreled 22 Magnum scheduled for production. It, like the other guns, has a rotating hammer and fires one barrel at a time. The little pistol holds 2 extra rounds in a little clip in the butt of the gun. And speaking of Sharps, Lyman, who has marketed several series of custom made 1878 Sharps rifles is bringing out the new production 1878 Sharps. It has all the special features but not the custom price. This one is chambered in 45-70 and features double set triggers, Lyman’s tang sight system with globe front, laser engraved action and premium wood with ebony forend tip. This one will be available at about half of what the previous full custom model was priced at. It is slated to sell for a bit under 2 grand.
 
For those that like the little single gun safes to keep by the bedside, Hornady has a new one coming out that a key, or an electronic bracelet to open it for access to the pistol. Also in the accessories line up, Gerber has a new tomahawk out. It is called the Downrange Tomahawk. Now I don’t think this one is meant to throw downrange, that is just the name of it. I mentioned this a while back that I had a fellow call and berate me for hunting bears with a handgun. He commenced to inform me that a handgun was not for bears as a 475 Linebaugh bullet would skim off a bears head and just piss him off. He said he used tomahawks for Grizzlys and Brown bears and the tomahawk blade would split the Grizzly’s skull all the way down to his navel, and that a real man would use a tomahawk. Well, if that is so, then just call me Shirley, as I am not a real man. The new tomahawk from Gerber reminded me of this escapee from the Anchorage nuthouse. For you black powder shooters, Alliant Powders has a new black powder substitute (they call it a black powder replacement) called Black MZ.
 
In times of a faltering economy it is sometimes best to drop some series that parts are hard to get or impossible to get in some instances. This was the reason we dropped our very popular Mastodon series, along with the Brute, the 5 shot Stealth Hawk and the 5 shot Skorpion along with our Urban Survivalist. We have since brought back the Skorpion and the Urban Survivalist but it will be a while on the others. When parts are not available it doesn’t make sense to take orders for guns that I can’t give even a rough estimate of when they will be done. I talked to a good friend this week who is what I consider the #1 custom gun maker around. He said he was having a helluva time getting parts as we all are and that 50% of his orders were sitting gathering dust waiting on parts. That is exactly where we are. I have almost 100 orders that are well over a year old. They are getting done and out to the customers but it is taking much longer than normal due to these shortages.
 
Sorta on the same topic Ruger has announced that they are dropping at least 10 of their series of handguns. They have totally dropped the Redhawk, which I really hate as I feel the Redhawk is the finest double action revolver they have ever made. But they are gone now. They are also dropping the Super Redhawk standard model in 480 along with the Alaskan model also in 480. Some of the other guns to be dropped are 5 versions of the 9mm P-95, the standard GP-100 in 327 Federal, and the LCR in 38 special+P. It is always sad to see a gun maker drop several series of guns but sometimes it is necessary evil. Ruger has recently announced they are bringing back the Red Label over/under shotgun, but only in 12 gauge. Expect the prices to sky rocket on the smaller gauges and also on the other guns that I mentioned above that Ruger is dropping. People are funny critters. They are not interested in a gun while it is in production, but as soon as it is dropped from production, they scream and whine that the finest gun ever has been dropped and overnight they become “collector’s items”. 
 
There are a lot more to tell you about and I will get to them next month. Til then, remember we do have a lot to be thankful for. God has been good to us. Tomorrow, on Thanksgiving day, be thankful for what we have.
 
Til next time, take a youngster or lady shooting. They are our future.
God bless,
Gary