This year's SHOT show was one of the best. There were over 1,740 exhibitors from all 50 states and 100 different countries. With the two main exhibit halls packed from wall to wall, NSSF added some smaller booths on the corridors along the way. A lot of new companies had the opportunity to display their latest entries into the marketplace.

We were fortunate to attend this year with Dr. Dennis Johnson, MD, PhD and his wife, Carolyn. Dennis, recently retired, is a senior medical consultant and will be posting timely articles on Guns and Shooting Online pertaining to medical and survival issues for the sportsman. As he and his wife are avid shooters, they will also be writing reviews on some neat stuff in the coming year.

We drove to Las Vegas, as usual, in Mary's GMC diesel truck and stayed at the Railroad Pass Hotel in Henderson, NV to avoid the chaos downtown. For us, it is easier to drive in each day and back at night to be able to relax without all the noise. Besides, the food at the RR Pass is superb and very reasonably priced during the off-season.

On Monday, we attended the SIG SAUER Range Day at the Clark County Shooting Complex. What a set up! We should all be so lucky to have a facility like that. The Clark County Complex has everything that any shooter could want. If they don't have it, you don't need it.

The folks at SIG SAUER really went all out for their range day. Most of their firearms were available for shooting with enough ammunition to support a small army. In addition to the many SIG SAUER pistols, their MCX and MPX semi-automatic rifles were also available for use. As were the new ASP airgun clones, which are designed for law enforcement and military training, or just fun for us regular folks.

Our thanks to SIG SAUER for a great time. Not only for the opportunity to shoot the their firearms, but also for a superbly catered lunch.

After four days of roaming around the show, we made arrangements to test and review a variety of products during 2016 for G&S Online. All of which are pretty cool and should be of interest to a lot of folks. Among others are:

• The Ruger American Pistol, developed for law enforcement and military to meet MIL-SPEC standards. This new striker-fired, semi-automatic pistol is available in both 9mm and .45 ACP. It has a one-piece machined stainless steel chassis. The slide is treated with black nitride to reduce corrosion and friction. This pistol will be a lot of fun to shoot and with an MSRP of $579, it promises to be a serious competitor in the market place.


• GAMO introduced The Magnum Airgun. This promises to be a real game changer, with an estimated 1,600 fps in .177 caliber, it should be lethal on small varmints. We are looking forward to checking this gun out for ourselves.


• Meopta showcased their newest hunting scope. This MeoPro 3-9x50mm model is competitively priced and has the same high quality optics found in all Meopta products. We will definitely be using this scope on our fall hunts.


• White River Knives in Michigan introduced two new blades designed by Jerry Fisk. These knives are handmade and fabricated from top-grade steel. We hope to be able to field test them in the coming months.


• PolyCase Ammunition, in conjunction with Ruger, introduced a new generation of bullets for self defense. Called Ruger ARX, we have already received an allotment for testing in 9mm and .45 ACP.


• The CVA Accura LR with its 30 inch barrel, a big seller for BPI in 2015, has been configured with a thumbhole stock for long range shooting. This is a welcome modification and Mary is looking forward to trying it out.


• COAST introduced several new products, including the A8R Rechargeable Penlight and a high lumen flashlight (HP550) that puts out over 1,000 lumens.


• SIG SAUER introduced their new P226 ASP and P250 ASP pistols in .22 caliber. Both pistols were lots of fun to shoot at the range. With their 16-round magazines, they are almost perfect clones of their SIG centerfire counterparts. We will be testing the P250 in the coming months.

It goes without saying that it was impossible to visit all of the exhibits at the SHOT Show. However, we did the best we could in the time available. SOLKOA, Battenfeld, CRKT and Olympia also introduced a variety of new products that we will test and review in the coming months.