ASA Media Day and NRAAM

I don’t attend too many trade shows and conventions. Until recently work had kept me pretty occupied, travel is expensive and lets be honest photographing at them is absolute hell. Every booth has different lighting, some with closed in walls that make it dark and murky, others like to place their products on giant backlit pedestals. Yes, I’m talking about YOU Surefire. Not to mention all the walking, the masses of people and the inevitable post-convention sickness.

But this year NRA decided to host their annual meeting in Atlanta, where I live. A three day event showcasing pretty much anyone involved in the American firearms market, the 146th NRAAM features over 800 exhibitors and 80,000+ attendees. What separates industry shows like SHOT Show from NRAAM is the environment and overall feel. SHOT Show is held for industry and governments to see what the latest and greatest is and being held in Vegas means lots of late night parties (no, seriously). NRAAM on the other hand is focused on consumers and gun-nerds, and being associated with the NRA means a more family friendly, and honestly relaxed, environment.

So I thought sure why not, maybe go for a day. See some old friends from the industry, maybe make some new ones. As an NRA member it’s free anyway. Then the American Suppressor Association hired me to take photos at their media day shoot the day before NRAAM. *sigh* Ok fine, twist my arm why don’t you. I guess I’ll make a whole thing of this.

Knox Williams, President of the ASA. This guy has done so much for the industry in just the past few years. And he’s a year younger than me!
Actually the first time I’ve gotten to fire the MCX in 300BLK. John Hollister is pretty much the only other person I trust with my camera, so he took this for me.
Speak of the devil, here he is.
Blackhawk even came along with their lineup of suppressors.

The Maxim9 is really quick and neat to takedown, There’s a lever on the top that you flip that holds the pistons in. After flipping that you slip the slide off the rear. That’s it.

 

Yup, the 3D printed suppressor you’ve been hearing about. The baffle stack is fully 3D printed out of inconel, and can handle up to 300WM. I was pretty impressed, and it will be very interesting to see what else the industry does with 3D printing.
Daniel Defense accepting the Hiram Maxim Percy award presented to Marty Daniel from the ASA.
Silencerco got the Suppressor Manufacturer of the Year.
John Hollister accepting the ASA’s Firearms Manufacturer of the Year award presented to Sig Sauer.

Day after the ASA Media Day shoot was my first day at NRAAM.

Goddamnit, the bane of SHOT Show even plagues NRAAM.
AAC’s Halcyon modular .22 can in all it’s glory.
Even the the threaded section is modular!
Rated for the 5.7mm of course.

Not to be outdone by Gemtech, AAC is starting to offer a tri-lug adaptor for the Halcyon. The advantage here is there is no length added compared to the standard mount.
Surefire is doubling down on their Sidekick light. Which is the right thing to do. I’ve had one since they first came out and I freaking love it. In fact I actually used it to light this shot! So coming soon is a headband and new color options.
The XH15. Entry level weapon light, estimated to cost around $100. 350 Lumens. Consider me sold. They are going to give Inforce a lot of competition with this. Expect it available in about a month.
Surefire actually had these for sale at the show! So of course I bought one. Unfortunately they only had the X400 version of the new light. So I sit here with a holster and no light to use it with. I’m pouting, like a little child.
I really am rooting for Hudson here. I like quirky engineering solutions and really hope that the H9 is the first of many products we see from them. Pricing on these is $1147 MSRP and they are shipping out in June. I really wanted to get photos of the inside, but they didn’t want to take them down due to someone trying to walk off with parts at SHOT.
Hazard 4, who I love and can do no wrong, continues to make awesome products. This tennis racket shaped bag is coming in a month or so and will retail for $140-ish.

The SIG booth was packed pretty much the whole show. SIG really is knocking it out of the park with the “whole package” approach.

SIG is going whole hog on the P320 and I don’t blame them. Having won the MHS contract they have assured the model’s place in the market. The height over bore is really the only thing holding me back, but it’s really hard not to like the P320.
Especially when they’re offering pistols with optics zero’d from the factory.
Larry Vickers held a trivia contest at the Blue Force Gear booth. I killed it. They literally ran out of things to give me. I had to stop answering questions just to give other people a chance. I’d like to thank Forgotten Weapons for my esoteric weapons knowledge.
S&W had soooo many M&P’s on display. There’s no question they wanted as many people to get their hands on the M&P M2.0. I asked about an optics ready M2.0 and the rep was cagey about timeline but said it is coming by the end of the summer. Maybe. Hopefully this time around they’ll smarten up and sell the slides by themselves.
S&W is applying the new texture from the M2.0 across their whole pistol line, which is a good thing.
I was VERY impressed by the CZ P10. The trigger is nearly perfect, the slide release doesn’t require too much effort and the bore axis is nice and low. Too bad that apparently you can’t find the damned things.
It’s really nice to see more companies join in to the suppressor game, especially if it’s with innovative products like this. These uppers will retail for about $600.
Based on how the barrel is designed it should fit on Magpul’s X-22 Backpacker stock.
The baffle stack slides out as one unit, making disassembly a lot neater.
A wild USW is spotted at the SilencerCo booth! This is apparently the only one in the country.
SilencerCo has been partnering up with various holster manufacturer’s to make sure the Maxim9 has all the aftermarket support it needs.

I might be unpopular for saying this out loud, but I did NOT like the trigger on this gun. Somehow, someway they designed a trigger that has creep on an extremely long reset. It feels almost like a two-stage reset. Wat. I am not the only one who thinks so, pretty much everyone I talked to who handled it agreed with my observation.
Neat.
I really wanted to like this. I really wanted to give Remington a chance to get this right. They haven’t. The pistol is top heavy, the trigger is mushy, the reset is literally non-exsistant, and the right side ambi slide release literally does not work. You can press as hard as you like but it isn’t going to drop the slide.
Shipping now, the new MFR XS Daniel Defense MLOK rails. These are ridiculously light.

Beretta has put a lot of thought into the APX. While some have made disparaging remarks about the looks in handling it you get the feeling that everything is designed for a purpose. As someone with short fingers I particularly appreciate the long tear dropped shaped magazine release and that grip just melted into my hands.
I was pleasantly surprised to find full slide rails on the inside.
The new Safariland RDS holster, available in ALS and SLS versions. The M&P model should be dropping in a month or two and SIG P320 models to follow later this year.
Yes, that is an HTC Vive. Aimpoint brought this to the show as a VR experience. Unfortunately I never got to try it out.
Aimpoint Micro S-1

The Fix by Q. I want this so badly. It’s extremely light, and the bolt throw is amazing. I wouldn’t expect anything less from Q.
It’s actually finally been made, the Honey Badger.
Magpul’s new Glock magwell, retailing for $50.
Magpul Ruger American stock.

After two days of hard work at NRAAM Blue Force Gear hosted a great party for the Special Operations Care Fund. It was nice to meet some new people and chill.

There was a respectable AC/DC cover band
Really really good food too.
Items were raffled off with funds going to the SOC-F.

MG42. Daddy want.