The prologue to SHOT Show is always Monday's range day. The event opens at 0830, and members of the media get to explore, shoot, and learn about the best, the brightest, and everything else that’s hitting the market. This year's range day was cold, windy, but thankfully rain-free, which was a welcome change. I made my way from the low end to the high and saw everything between. Out of all of that, seven things that stood out.
KelTec PR57 Pistol
I've come around to admitting that KelTec has become one of my favorite companies. I like weird stuff and I like my weird stuff to be affordable. KelTec does that exceptionally well and this year their latest weird, affordable gun is the PR57. It’s a 5.7x28 pistol with a 20-round fixed magazine. Yes, a fixed magazine that loads with stripper clips and we're partying like it's 1896.
Well, not really. The PR57 keeps most of the modern features you expect in a gun today. It's optic-ready and there’s a rail for accessories. The gun uses a rotary barrel system which keeps recoil very low when compared to blowback options. At the range, the gun felt fantastic, with barely any recoil.
It took no effort to load the gun, and was much easier than I expected it to be. You can use reusable clips that aren’t all that clip-like. They enclose the ammo and use a plunger to load the magazine rapidly. You can also easily load the magazine with one round at a time. The PR57 has a somewhat long, but very smooth trigger. The PR57 plenty accurate and a lot of fun to shoot.
American Tactical Imports Road Agent
I love double barrels and the folks at American Tactical have brought in a pair of shotguns they are calling the Road Agent. They have both a stainless receiver model and one with a black receiver with a silver inlay to class it up. The stainless model is the Road Agent Prime and it has longer 26-inch barrels compared to the standard model with 18.5-inch tubes.
The guns have a classic look along with some not-so-classic features. The guns are hammer-fired but feature a safety that acts as a dual hammer block. It's on the left side, but the safety blocks both hammers. If you press the safety down, it switches off, but if you press it beyond the off position, the hammers de-cock.
I'm not sure if any other double-barrel shotguns have de-cockers, but it's a great feature. Like any double barrel, the Road Agents are a ton of fun to shoot. It's a dual-trigger gun, and you can cook off both rounds very quickly. We have nice wood furniture and the enjoyment you get from a double barrel without the usual price…MSRP is $599.
Hera H6
I vaguely remember hearing about the Hera H6 a few years back and then it seemingly disappeared. I'm not much of a bolt gun guy, but the weirdness of the Hera H6 captured my attention. When a bolt action rifle features a removable AR magazine that loads from the side and shoots 5.56…I’m in.
The current crop of Hera H6 rifles are either .223 or .223 Wylde. There are plans for a .300 Blackout version as well. The H6 rifles use AR-style handguards decked out in M-LOK and D points. The H6’s odd rifle-like stock even folds. That creates an extremely compact platform that's super lightweight and fun to shoot.
Accuracy proved to be good in the ten rounds I fired. Recoil wasn't a concern, and the ergonomics were different, but very functional. The Hera H6 would be not only a really fun bolt gun, but also a very functional, light rifle for deer, hogs, coyotes, and almost demands to be suppressed.
Apollo 11
Double stack 1911s and 2011-type designs keep growing in popularity and function. The double stack 1911 and 2011 platforms tend to sell anywhere between $800 to $4,000. The difference between the most expensive and the most affordable is vast, with the least expensive variants being built in Turkey in that sweet $800 to $1000 range.
That changes now with the Apollo 11 from Live Free Armory. It’s an American-made double stack style 1911 pistol for right around $1,000 dollars and it comes in numerous color options and various sizes. The Apollo 11 pistols come in at higher price points depending on your features.
Shooting the standard and compact models was a ton of fun. It's controllable, accurate, and has an extremely short, light trigger. Live Free Armory makes a ton of components for other companies, and they've finally dived into offering their own gun with the Apollo 11 and it uses Check-Mate 2011 magazines.
Rock Island TM22 Lever Action Rifle
You can always scount on Rock Island Armory to import or design some interesting stuff. The latest that jumped out as I walked through their booth on range day was the TM22 lever action rifle. A .22LR rarely catches my attention, however, when you see a lever gun with a magazine well, that tends to draw me in.
The TM22 rifle has what appears to be a tubular magazine…but that's just for looks. Beneath the action, you can load a 10- to 25-round magazine and fire away. The TM22 is absolute blast to shoot. It's different, and different is always good to me. I shot two magazines through the gun and at 25 yards, it was plenty accurate.
The little gun made the steel ring over and over again. The barrel is threaded - as it should be - and since it will chew through subsonic ammo, the TM22 would be a great suppressor host. And its MSRP of $399 means it will retail at a sub-$300 price point. Not bad for a very fun gun.
The Range Day Shenanigans
Another Range Day has come and gone. I'm a little wind burnt and tired, but psyched for the rest of the show. There’s more to come, so stay tuned.
– Travis Pike, Shooting News Weekly