Great Outdoor Show, Memphis - Review

[AndABeer]

I went to The Ducks Unlimited Great Outdoors Show in Memphis today. It was expensive but I got to shoot a variety of guns from different manufacturers. Here's my report:

1st Booth - SIG Arms, shot the 6" Trailside with adjustable sights. It was a very sweet .22. Tuesday, when my favorite shoppe opens for the week, I will put my name on the waiting list for this pistol.

2nd Booth - Glock, shot the 36. I was surprised by the lack of recoil, surprisingly accurate. It won't make me give up my 30 though.

3rd Booth - Smith & Wesson, walked up, looked at the display, looked at the Rep, "What?! No smart gun?" Walked away.

4th Booth - Para, shot the P13-45. Nice enough piece, not overly impressed.

5th Booth - HK, this was by far the funnest. They had a suppressed Tactical with some kind of red dot sight on it. I have owned a few USPs in the past and was never overly impressed but this thing was such a damn hoot. My first experience with a suppressed pistol and this type of sight. I was so stoked about shooting a suppressed gun that I mostly overlooked the sight, wish I had paid closer attention to it. The sight was like a C-More or a Holo-Sight, but a lot smaller, in fact I think it was mounted in the standard rear dovetail. Anyone got info on something like this?

6th Booth - Springfield Armory, shot the Professional model. I believe this is the vaunted FBI HRT contest winner. Nice enough gun, but not worth $1800, especially with all that trigger creep.

7th Booth - back to Glock, shot the 21. Kinda knew I'd like it from the start. After I buy the SIG, I'll pick one of these up. Hopefully figure out what sight was on the HK and put one of them on the 21.

8th Booth - back to SIG, shot a 2340? in .357. My first .357 and the only .357 available at the show to shoot. Pretty neat round, I already have a .357 barrel on the way for my Glock 20, now I'm even more excited about its arrival.

A fun time all around but then the cell phone rang. Being on call sucks.

Again if anyone has an idea of what sight that might have been on the HK, I'd appreciate a holler back.

 

[Matrix]

I had a death in the family and missed the show. I've been to all the previous festivals, and they were all good.
I wonder how the S&W reps were treated? I suspect they caught a lot of abuse.

 

[buzz_knox]

Aww, you beat me to it! Shucks!

Well, here's my take:

Glock 36: recoil along the lines of a 27 but maybe a little milder. The grip felt better while shooting than I thought it would when just holding it. Won't give up my 30, though.

Glock 35: nice piece. Seemed to be accurate but without paper targets to gauge my group on (they only had clay pigeons strung on wires at 7 yards and 20 yards), I don't really know. Nice trigger and feel. Interestingly, the ammo for this was 180 grain LEAD loads. So much for the Glock reps reading the manual!

Sig 245: this little shooter is great. It was accurate, very controllable (better than the 36 in my opinion) and typical Sig quality. I may have to get one to go along with the 220 I've always wanted. I prefer the 220 but I like the idea of a matched set.

HK Mark 23 with suppressor: Damn! That thing is unbelievably sweet! Extremely accurate, and very controllable (obviously). But, it's as heavy as my Bushmaster! I think I'd rather have a suppressed MP-5 or HK UMP.

HK Tactical with suppressor: same as above except for the Optima sight. Didn't care for it that much as I thought I'd do better with the regular sights.

HK USP Compact .357 Sig: extremely controllable and not as loud as I'd anticipated. It was the first one I'd ever seen. Might have to get one for myself. Anyone know if the barrels interchange for a .40 conversion?

HK P7M8: recoil seemed snappier than expected for regular ball ammo. The thin frame seemed to concentrate the energy and stung my hand a bit.

Springfield Professional Model: uh, nice but what's the big deal? $1800 bucks. Don't think so. I prefer a regular ole 1911 with about $200 in mods over this thing. And it was way too tight! The slide actually locked forward and couldn't be retracted without a lot of effort.

Para-Ordnance P-12 LDA: quite accurate and controllable with a nice trigger. A P-13 version would be in the must have file!

Ruger Mark II with bull barrel: I was talking to the Ruger rep (nice guy, by the way) and he handed it to me with all the ammo I could want for free. That's a sweet little pistol. I was popping targets at 20 yards right and left. I may have to get the 22/45 if it's as good.

Walther P99 .40: Nice pistol. Not much recoil. The trigger takes some getting used to but I like it. Might have to get one, especially after the Walther marketing manager there said Walther was not a party to the S&W agreement and wanted no part of it. $10 says Walther starts building its own distribution net.

But, the best weapon of the show for me was: the SA MIA Squad Scout rifle. Excuse the language but . . . DAMN! I'm not the best with a rifle so I wanted to just get a feel for it. Put it on the bipod, locked onto a pigeon at about 115 yards and fired to just feel the trigger. Pigeon vaporized. Couldn't believe it but it did it 4 more times. This thing was like a laser: if you could see it, you could hit it. This goes on my must have list.

The S&W reps seemed a bit nervous and, according to the Walther guy, were getting ripped a bit. But, the worst of the lot from my view were the Glock reps. Everyone else was very friendly and helpful. These guys acted (towards me at least and confirmed by my girlfriend) as if talking to you was equivalent to taking out the trash: something they just had to do.

All in all, this was a fantastic show. The Ducks Unlimited staff/volunteers were great people and very helpful. I'm definitely going back next year.

Oh, a final thought, the best part of the show: the MP-5 demonstration by the HK instructor. I've fired one before but will have to go back and try again using the tips he gave us.

Speaking of the HK, I was talking to the DU range supervisor (for lack of a better title). Last year, a group of camo-clad "enthusiasts" showed up at the Memphis range (which is generally open to the public) with AR-15s and loaded mags ( and backing their truck up to the area where the tables are set up). They were acting a bit squirrely and the DU rep asked the HK instructor to load up the MP-5 "just in case." He then asked the group to leave as the range was closed that day for the show, and they protested. But, after looking around at the various guns displayed, they high-tailed it out. Maybe that explains why every weapon there had at least one loaded mag available to the representative in charge of the table.