The OFFICIAL H.o.G. SHOT Show 2012 RECAP

Ever go into something where you know exactly what it is but there’s still really no way to comprehend how or what it’s like till you experience it for yourself the first time? That was SHOT Show 2012 for me. Over and over I heard, “it’s so big you can’t even imagine,” or “You’ll be lucky if you get through the whole thing in a week.” Like anything you think to yourself, “Yeah I know it’s a big deal, but how big can it really be?”

Turns out SHOT Show 2012′s statistics ranked it as #5 of ANY trade show in Las Vegas (the home of trade shows) with over 60,000 attendees this year (stats taken from the official NSSF SHOT Show recap). Media Day at the Range saw over 1000 different media personalities visiting 100 different exhibits with nearly any type trinket you can imagine with a trigger and firing pin. I think the one of the only type guns I didn’t see was something belt fed, and there were plenty of those at the SHOT Show itself.

After all the speak about how big it was, I anticipated a fight everywhere I went. You know, how reporters swarm an eyewitness (at least in movies) all at once wanting to get the early scoop? Well that’s what I thought it would be like trying to get interviews with design engineers, company execs and marketing reps. Turns out, for as many that attended the show, it’s literally so big and everyone spreads out so much that it’s possible to walk right up and do what you want. Media day at the Range was the same way. Wanna shoot a gun? Cool. 2 guns? Why not!? “Here, there’s no one in line behind you, why don’t you burn another magazine?” SWEET!

SHOT Show 2012 was fun, don’t get me wrong, but I tried my hardest to keep a pace that was dizzying. At Range Day, we (Dad and I http://hausofarms.com) walked all the way to the end, started with the Umarex USA tent and worked our way up till we ended with the makeshift trap range where I got to shoot the new Browning A5 auto loading shotgun. Days consisted of packing as many interviews, pictures, new product rundowns and quality film footage together as we possibly could, then hustle back to the hotel room (I wouldn’t have gotten jack done in the Press Room, too much going on for my ADD to allow productivity) then capture video, edit, do writeups and pic edits during the video render & upload, then post. I’m getting exhausted all over again just thinking about it.

My biggest surprise of Range Day? Easily how truly silent shooting a .300 Whisper Suppressed really is. When I say I NEED that gun, I’m not saying I want it real bad, I’m saying I NEED it. My biggest surprise of the show was how warm and welcoming Dan Coonan was with his .357 Magnum Automatic, and how staggeringly brilliant (brainiac wise) each of the guys at the Heizer Defense booth were. They’re aerospace engineers for crying out loud! Thompson Center choosing to go all “Encore” on a new bolt action concept in their Dimension was the most welcome innovation to me at Range Day, and being able to hit a milk just at 964 yards with perfectly loaded SetPoint Ammunition was quite the ego builder as well. And these things are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of interviews, product updates, and first looks at guns we’ll be handing out over the next month. Awesome. And I won’t even get started of the phenomenal industry personalities I met.

Watch the video if you want a real feel of what it looks like. The aisles that are empty at the end of day 3 were packed all day every day. Shoulder to shoulder people, head up, looking for the next big thing. Thanks for the support, for the kind words, and for following Haus of Guns on our first journey to the NSSF SHOT Show.