I can’t believe that anyone doesn’t know what SHOT show is, but it is basically a huge industry trade show for guns and related materials. This is the venue where, every year, manufacturers trot out their latest and greatest to ys to show the public. (Although, to be fair, some vendors drop a new product with little fanfare and don’t wait until SHOT.)

The various firearms blogs cover SHOT because its a sweet way to find content without having to do any actual work. There’s dozens of new guns and accessories, so you can just pick something click-baitable and run with it.

I like looking at the SHOT show reviews because there’s usually something in there that appeals to my survivalist nature.

SHOT show this year has a slew of interesting stuff, but one thing I find interesting is the folks at Henry Arms, the guys who make the lever action guns, have a semi-auto 9mm rifle that, like Ruger, takes interchangeable magazine wells to allow all sorts of pistol/rifle combos. And, interrestingly, the gun looks very innocuous and innocent. No evil black rifle look, no pistol grip, no folding stock. In fact, it looks like a little Browning BAR. For those of you living behind enemy lines, this might be a handly little carbine. Naturally the argument will be “What good is a carbine that shoots 9mm”. I’ll leave that up to the short-sighted to discuss.

Savage, who make a fine .22 rifle, have a takedown .22 out but I think it’s going to appeal mostly to Savage fanboys since, in my opinion, the market for a takedown .22 semiauto has been thoroughly commandeeered by Ruger.

Smith and Wesson has a 22-shot 5.7mm version of the M&P pistol which is…interesting. I haven’tbeen sold on the 5.7mm cartridge but part f that is due to it being ridiculously expensive. But, that high price reflected that, at the time, there were basically just two guns on the market for it – the PS() and the FN57. Now with Ruger and KelTec having an offering, perhaps the prices will come down as more ammo is produced. Ruger doubled-down and introduced a carbing in 5.7 that takes their 5.7 pistol mags and if I were a 5.7 guy, that would probably be the direction I’d go just for the sake of logistics. But, for me, the 5.7 is right up there with 6.8SPC and .300 Blackout….a niche cartridge thats just too exotic to add to my TO&E. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

I’ve spent the last thirty years as some form of survivalist. By now I’ve pretty much gotten set in my ways regarding my preference for certain gear, but I do enjoy seeing the new stuff that the manufacturers bring out each year. I’m usre as SHOT continues there will be more “Hey, check this out” coming along. Did you see anything that got you excited?

Crossed another one off my wish list. I’ve been wanting one of these as a trail gun for quite a while and the stars just lined up today to present me with the opportunity to acquire this lovely paperless hand cannon:

This is not my daily driver. I’ll leave that to the likes of Ted Nugent. I’m quite happy toting a 9mm around for my day-to-day. But, for tromping in the woods, this little number is exactly what I’ve been wanting. I need to swap out the factory sights for something nicer, and I’m on the fence about the red dot, but once that’s done all thats left is a good field holster and I’m set.

I’m not necessarily an HK fanboy. I don’t believe that the sun shines out of their Teutonic fundaments and that every product out of the Fatherland is a shining monument to Germanic engineering. But, I do recognize that they make some stuff that is pretty darn good. For me, most notably, it’s their rifles.

Back in the old days if you wanted an HK-pattern rifle you got it from…HK. Around 1989 an import ban was put into place and the lovely HK 91, 93, and 94 guns were verboten. A few half-hearted rulebeater models were brought in but the pipeline pretty much slammed shut in ’89. There were a few clones on the market for the 91…Hesse Arms springs to mind, as well as one or two others. And, of course, the drunken monkeys at Century Arms tried their hand at it as well. They all uniformly sucked. If you wanted roller-delayed goodness you had to shell out the shekels for the real deal…when you could find one. And those prices did nothing but go up, up, up.

Nowadays it’s a slightly better story. There’s a decent G3/HK91 clone out there from PTR, a 93 clone that didn’t suck was brought out briefly by Century a couple years back, and PTR is now making MP5/HK94 variants. It’s not a bad time to be a fan of roller-delayed systems as long as you’re willing to live with the off-brands.

Years ago, I made the decison that, as for me and my house we shall wield the G3. While I like the FAL, and think the AR10 platform is probably the best choice these days for a .308, I’ve invested enough in guns and logistics to stick with the G3 pattern. No regrets there. Although were I to do it all over again, it would be AR10 for the ergonomics.

For years, I’ve been wanting a little 9mm carbine that could be highly portable but still throw a goodly amount of lead downrange. My first effort was to serendipitously acquire an Uzi carbine. A fine gun, no two ways about it. The only drawback was that it was heavy and not readily acceptable of things like optics or lights. Reliable as a rock, though. Straight blowback, so a bit clunky and heavy.

Next on the evolutionary highway was the CZ Evo. Same blowback system, half the weight, and accepts railed accessories. Also has a thriving aftermarket. If you want the ‘semi-auto subgun’ (oxymoron) experience but don’t want to shell out $1600+ for an MP5 clone, the Evo is a great gun.

Feeling experimental, I dipped a foot in the Ruger pool and picked up a couple of their takedown 9mm’s. The carbine is a handy little thing and I like it alot. Their takedown pistol, with an arm brace, is a very handy little thing that makes up into a tiny package. Again…straight blowback, so heavy spring ad heavy bolt.

Recently I sucked it up, opened my wallet, and bought an MP5 clone from PTR. I picked up a 9CT which is a pistol version of the regular MP5. With an arm brace attached it is a wonderfully comfortable, compact, and decidedly handy little carbine. I mean it just fits the hands perfectly and handles like a dream. And since it uses roller delayed instead of blowback, it can be lighter and less ‘ka-chunk’-y when you shoot it.

Drawbacks? Price. Here’s the part that I don’t understand – HK stuff is never, ever cheap (except for that brief window where G3 mags were $1). But even the cloned stuff is expensive. Case in point: I need MP5 magazines. Genuine steel HK mags are just north of about $80 each. Even polymer third-party mags come in at around $20-$25 each. Compare with Magpul mags for my Ruger and CZ that are only $14 ea. I’ve picked up some ETS mags, which get mixed reviews, and I just bought a bunch of Unity brand (Yugo) mags that also are basically advised to be kept as practice-rather-then-operational mags. For metal mags, I am told that MKE and Korean-made are the only real alternatives and even those arearound $50+ per mag.

And thats the one big drawback to the brute ruggedness and reliability of the HK system of firearms – the ridiculously expensive environment it creates. Scope mounts, slings, mags, spare parts, etc, etc….all wildly more expensive than almost any other platform. And thats not just the OEM stuff….even the third-party stuff is expensive.

So…if any of you fine humans have a source for decent MP5 metal mags at a price that won’t break the bank….help a brother out and let me know, hm? Or, if you used to have an HK/clone MP5 and you got rid of it but found a box of mags in your gun room, let me know and let’s see what we can work out.

Picked up a new Glock the other day. A Glock 44 which is a .22 caliber version of the Glock 19. Why? Because with 9mm at around forty cents a round, I can practice my pistol shooting technique for 1/10th that.

Look, good pistol shooting includes having the bullet hit the target, no two ways about that. But before that happens you need to grip, draw, present, acquire a sight picture, squeeze the trigger while maintaining that sight picture, and do followups. Doing that at forty cents per round adds up in a hurry. You don’t need full power 9mm for acquiring a sight picture….22 works just fine and it lets you know when it does (or does not) hit the steel plate if you got your sight picture correct. Same for your draw and presentation. And since the G44 fits the same holsters, mag pouches, etc, as the G19 it makes sense to use it for training.

What do I do with it? I practice drawing from concealment, getting a good sight picture, and placing the shot on the steel. Repeatedly. Over and over and over. And then do it from weak hand. And then from different positions. And practice mag changes. And..and…and.

These are all things that go towards improving and maintaining skill. If you can do it on the cheap, then absolutely go that way. I have .22 conversion kits for my G3 clones, my AR’s, and now for my Glock.

So how does the Glock stack up against some of the conversion kits on the market? The only one I have any real experience with is the Tactical Solutions kit from about ten years back. As I recall it was tempermental. This Glock 44 fired about 350 rounds, half of which were ancient Winchester Western, and had exactly 2 failures to fire. I attribute that to the sometimes sketchy nature of rimfire primer compound application. No failures to extract or feed, which kinda surprised me. Accuracy at usual pistol distances was surprisingly good. Sights were Glock adjustable white-dot and they worked fine although for true replication of your carry gun you might wanna drop some ‘real’ sights on it.

Mags are ten round, and two come with the gun. You’re definitely gonna want more. This thing was a blast to shoot. It is easily my favorite Glock and I’ve got a buncha drastic plastic in the safe…but this one is just downright fun.

Worth paying price of a 9mm Glock? To me, yes. Let’s say it saves me $.30 per round in practice ammo. That means it’s paid for itself after around 1200 rounds, or $50 worth, of .22 ammo. But more importantly, I can go spend and hour at the range doing nothing but draw-shoot-draw-shoot for an hour and be out less than $30.

I’m a Glock guy when it comes to the pistol I’ll run out the door with when the apocalypse gets here. That means I need to practice shooting it in all sorts of conditions…strong hand, weak hand, oblique angles, from retention, etc. Odds are pretty strong that any real-world episode will not be like standing patiently on a shooting line squarely facing a non-moving target. No, it’ll be fast, close, and using whatever position gets the sights on the target as quick as possible… and for that, you have to practice. Thus…the Glock 44.

Dealer prices was $319, and with shipping it as about $345~. Totally worth it.

When Ruger brought out their PC Carbine takedown gun a few years back, I was quite excited. The new Ruger was setup at the factory to take mags from Rugers poly 9mm pistols but you could swap out the magazine well insert and put in a different insert that allowed you to use Glock mags. The gun ships with both the Ruger and the Glock mag insert. This is a good idea on Ruger’s part because, realistically, no one buys Ruger centerfire autos. For every SR9, Security9, or American pistol sold there are probably about 250 Glocks sold. So…Ruger plays it safe. Smart.

But since the gun is designed to accept different magazine well inserts to accommodate different magazines, it would only be a matter of time before magazine inserts for things other than Glock pistol mags started showing up, right?

Well, you’d say that, but………for a while it was a barren wasteland of innovation.

Just on a whim, I did some Googling and discovered that, indeed, third parties are now getting magazine adapters out there for other pistols. Most notably Beretta, CZ, and Sig pistols. The free market abhors a vacuum, and every swinging Richard with a 3D printer thinks he’s got the Next Big Thing…..and that is awesome. Thats how innovation works.

I’m not going to get into the conversation about why a person would want a carbine that takes the same caliber/magazine as their pistol. Thats been hashed out elsewhere. My point is, though, that if you like the Ruger PC carbine platform but wish that it would accommodate your favorite pistol magazine….take heart, you may be in luck with a little Googling.

I’m married to the Glock platform so I’m pretty happy with the OEM insert, but I’ve got a buddy who likes the .40 Beretta 96, and another one who is a CZ75 afficianado, and now they can have a carbine that matches their pistol.

Major kudos to Ruger for creating that environment for the PC Carbine….although, really, it’d be to Rugers advantage to be the ones making a variety of inserts.