Less Lethal Options

 One thing I noticed was a marked increase in less lethal options offered. Mostly, I just shake my head and move on, because the offerings are usually craptastic "tasers" that aren't tasers at all and that require the person to be in physical contact with the bad guy.

There were definitely a few of those this year. Noteably, an unbrella and a hairbrush. Yeah, some of this stuff is hilarious ins a pathetic way, and I would never recommend any of that shit. Get yourself a good can of pepper spray and learn to use it, instead of reyling on gimmicks.

(I apologize for my inability to insert the picture correctly from my phone) 

But this year, in addition to the  typical gimmicky stuff, I saw a lot of pepper ball guns designed for the civilian market. While a large part of me believes that if you're going to carry, you need to carry a real gun, I also have to acknowledge that the pepper ball guns do have merit. In fact, I shot a couple at Industry Day and had a blast. They were just plain fun to shoot and have zero recoil, and they were surprisngly accurate. I wouldn't want to be hit with one!

I think these may be a good option for people who live in non-permissive states, or are not leagally allowed to own/carry a firearm for self-protection. (At least for now, until they enact legislation against these, too.)

I do also believe that if someone chooses to carry a pepper ball gun, rather than an actual fierarm, they need to put in the same amount of work (if not more) that a firearm owner would put in.  The user needs to understand the limitations of pepper balls, as well as how and when to deploy them.

GunDiva's SHOTShow (non-pew) Favorites

As usual, there are far too many things that we have seen to write about them all, so as I was going through my notes I decided to choose a favorite item from each day. 

Day 1

For many years, I taught, and was Associate Dean, in a healthcare program. I still have a passion for teaching, and love teaching advanced bleeding control classes. Some of my favorite booths at the show are the trauma-based ones. I was absolutely beside myself to find True Clot. This is a simulated blood product that acts so much like real blood that it's eerie. Their entire catalog of training supplies is a trauma instructor's dream.

Day 2

GunDude Jay and I are avid hikers, so the outdoor portion of the Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Tradeshow always interests me. Our packs are pretty well supplied, but I'm always looking for ways to improve our gear.

Katadyn introduced an updated version of their BeFree personal filtered water bottles that I wanted to check out. We currently carry LifeStraws, but I'm not keen on having to basically lie down at a a water source and drink out of it. Plus, with the LifeStraw, there's no way to draw and store additional water, whereas with the Katadyn water bottles, you can store and carry a liter of water.

I primarily was interested in the personal water bladders, but as we spoke with the Katadyn rep, I realized that their personal pump was a much better option for us. It's small and lightweight, but more importantly, it can hook to our larger water bladders in our hiking packs.

Day 3

Two words: Smokeless Range

Last year, while at the DryFireMag booth, I learned about the Smokeless Range, which is a fun training tool from Laser Ammo involving the DFM, a laser cartidge, and a projector. I intended to buy it last year, but never got around to it. I'm actually glad I didn't buy it last year, because this year's version is much bolstered. It's about $1,200 for the software, two DFMs, two laser inserts, and a throw camera. In looking at the Laser Ammo website, there are other options available, with a wider price range.

I regularly use the Ti firearms trainer in class, and while the Smokeless Range doesn't have the depth of training for professionals, it appears to be an excellent home system, one I'm looking forward to.

We have one more day on the show floor, and who knows what I'll fall in love with then.

Industry Day at the Range 2025

Today was cold and blustery, which seems to be the norm for Range Day.

Every year, I'm excited to go, but my excitement quickly diminishes once I'm around people. It only takes one group of self-important media to take the excitement right out of me. 

My list of guns I wanted to see/try was pretty small, but Mez's list was a bit longer. (I'll let him talk about what he shot in his own post.) I did follow him into the KelTec booth to try the P57. Color me not impressed. We were given five rounds, loaded manually, not using the stripper clip, which was the first red flag for me. I specifically asked for a demonstration of the stipper clip, and just got an explanation of it. I really wanted to see it in action, but the guy working the line prefered to load the gun manually.  The second red flag, and nail in the coffin, for me was that I had THREE failures to go into battery. 3/5 rounds FAILED TO LOAD. If it happened only once, I would have chalked it up to user error, but three times (after checking my grip, and recoil management to make sure I wasn't limp-wristing it) was a 60% failure rate. I will say that Mez had a 0% failure rate, and he shot the same gun immediately before me.

I was excited about shooting the Ruger RXM, because, well Dave Spaulding is pretty excited about it and I respect the hell out of him. I handled it at my logal gun shop right before I left, I was pretty underwhelmed with it, but was still optimistic about shooting it. After shooting it, I'm still pretty underwhelmed. I had high hopes for it, thinking that it would be a good entry-level gun for new shooters.  I like that it accepts Glock magazines and that it'll fit a Glock holster, so it is a good starter gun for people who want to go in the Glock direction. The price is also right, about $450. I don't hate it, but I'm not in love with it.

               BioFire Safe gun

The gun that I can't get out of my mind was one that wasn't even on my radar. Mez pointed it out. He saw "biofire" and said he wanted to check it out, so I tagged along. I'm glad I did, because the gun mostly horrifies me, and I'm ashamed to say it was developed in Colorado. It's a "smart" gun, operates only by the owner, identified either by fingerprint or facial recognition. The owner can authorize four other users by adding them to their account. Because the gun only works for up to five authorized users, it is exempt from the Colorado safe storage laws, according to the manufacturer. I understand that they're wanting to fill a very specific self-defense niche and I respect them for that. 

However, I see way more drawbacks to the gun than advantages:

-it's bulky

-the battery life is only 1 week - 1 month, depending on use, therefore it is recommended that owners keep it plugged in at all times to keep the battery topped up. What happens if the electricity goes out? We live rurally, and extended electrical outages are not uncommon.

-should the owner injure their shooting hand in an attack, unless they've set up a second profile for their off hand, the backup verification is via facial recognition. That seems like a great idea, unless the owner's face has also been beaten.

- since it's dependent on all of the electrical components to work, what happens in the case of an EMP? 

- It's expensive, about $1400. GunDude Jay summarized it nicely when he said that it's a $400 gun with $1000 of electronics.

We did see/shoot a few other guns, but we were pretty over the cold and wind and cut the day short. 

Off to SHOTShow we go!

We're packing our bags and heading out to Las Vegas again for the 2025 SHOTshow.

Between GunDude Jay, Mez, and I, we should have brief posts daily beginning on Monday, January 20.

I hope we haven't lost too many followers during our hiatus, and we're looking forward to bring some new content.