My time at the 2010 Shot Show

Time at the range with the Winchester Model 70 Stealth  

Well like all things in life and to coin an old Vulcan proverb, “for everything there is a first time.” This was my first time to the 2010 Shot Show at the Sands Expo & Convention Center right off the strip in Las Vegas. It is connected to the Venetian and you pass through the building to get to the exhibit halls. As far as firearms are concerned, I cut my teeth on those when I was just a mere boy of eight, but until I moved to Arizona I never had the opportunity to go to a show. I remember when I was a younger man, reading an ad for the first Shot Show in 1979 and wanting to go. It only took me 31 years, but there I was, deep in the heart of the greatest gathering of like minded people in the world. Last year I had a great opportunity to attend the 2009 NRA Convention here in Phoenix, and you could say this show prepared me as to what to expect when it was time to go to the Shot Show. However that wasn’t the case, because as anyone who has ever been to a Shot Show will tell you, “It’s huge!”

New in the Taurus lineup, the Public Defender

When my good friend and mentor Bob Shell emailed me and asked if I wanted to go, I resounded with a, “hell yea!” Since we work closely together on so many projects I am basically an employee of his company, Shell Reloading. Being a writer in training and working for a writer, it would give me a chance to put my experiences in words for all the people who haven’t had a chance to see this grand event. As a member of the press, our day started on Monday with the coveted, “Media Day at the Range.” Members of the press in the shooting and outdoor sports industry get a chance to shoot some of the newest guns from the biggest names in firearms. Now if you enjoy shooting, and you’re not a limp noodle, this day is heaven on earth. Where else can you shoot a .22 rifle on up through a 375 H&H magnum that no one has touched or seen yet, being they are new models of a familiar cartridge. Now imagine you have an unlimited ammunition supply, targets to shoot, multiple ranges and there is no cleaning them after your done. Would you define this as a little slice of heaven? I sure would and did!

Beretta has a new scattergun, the Tx4 Storm semi automatic shotgun in 12 Gauge

Now that I have you drooling, it gets better. After endless hours of burning powder with Browning and Winchester, who also provided the ammunition and Bushnell Optics, who provided all the scopes on the rifles, we had a second range to go to on the other side of Vegas in Boulder City. This range was host to many other big names in the industry like Glock, Steyr, and Berretta. We walked down the firing line sampling everything that is great about the shooting sport and loving very minute of it, and if that was not good enough, they brought in caterers. We ate very well at both ranges. Now if this is not the Greatest Country in the world then you just needed to ask some of our foreign visitors. Of all the people I spoke to from another country, they said they wanted to live here and told us how incredibly lucky we truly are to have the freedom we have, and I agreed whole heartedly with them.

Better wear your walking shoes, the booth numbers say it all.

Now this was only Monday and the Shot Show hadn’t even begun yet. But I was busy wondering what to expect and what I would see and do when I got there. Well, first things first, I had to get my Shot Show credentials and for that I had and email with a bar code because we registered on line prior to the show and it was fairly painless once I knew where to go. There were many helpful guides along the way, so navigation was easy, just crowded. There was a suggested 58,000 people there this year and I believe half of those were in the hallways. Since my boss is with the media, I carried a Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D with a 4 Gig card, so running out of memory wasn’t a concern. Although it should be noted that if you do not carry press credentials you will be asked to leave, since there is no photo taking at the show. When we got our bearings on where the venders were we wanted to see, we entered the exhibit hall. Your first thought is, “Wow,” it seems like it goes on a far as the eye can see, and I does from the aspect of the size of vendor displays. There are full size buildings and trucks with trailers as well as company vehicles parked through out. It was truly a sight to behold. Walking the pathways was slow, since your busy looking at displays and at the same time dodging other attendees. It always seemed to thin out towards the end of the day, but the first two seemed hectic as people rushed around tending to their business. You have four days to take as much in as you can and from my point of view that’s a task in its self. It has been said if you visit every vendor, you can only spend 30 seconds at each booth and I believe that to be true. It would be impossible to list everyone who’s there, but it’s safe to say if they shoot or support shooting, they were at the Shot Show. By the third day it was thinning out and you could move a little better and the fourth day it was a breeze to walk around.

If you going to be comfortable, bring your own house to the show

Some advice I would give, if you love Vegas and you enjoy being on the strip, that’s great, but if you want to save a buck or two get a hotel off the strip close to normal businesses and restaurants. A lot of them provide basics for the price of a room and give you free internet access. We stayed at the Imperial Palace and while it served as a room to sleep, lacked any other small creature comforts like a coffee pot, in room safe, fridge, or internet. Everything else cost an arm and a leg, so having a cell and lap top with a USB connect or air card will serve you well. Eat a hearty breakfast before you go to the show as lunch at the show will bankrupt you with $9 hamburgers. We went to dinner at Buca di Beppo, Outback, Lone Star and others and paid normal prices and had a good meal every night. If you can, get a room with a kitchenette and shop at Wal-Mart and you will have snacks, drinks and microwavable foods on hand for less than it would cost to eat out. If you an expert navigator, great, if not a GPS with current maps, is a Godsend, we never got lost, I mean disoriented. We split gas, and paid every other meal and didn’t spend much on extras and spent $300.00 in a week, not including the room. Start saving for it now and I’ll see you in Vegas for the 2011 Shot Show.