The SHOT Show has been running for a couple days already, but we only arrived late Thursday morning. We spent Thursday mostly in the lower level, so we only saw about half the show (we’ll be checking out the other half today). SHOT is not really geared towards our sort of gun stuff (older experimental and prototype weapons), but we had a good time and found some cool things nonetheless.
First, we had the chance to film an interview with Charles St. George, inventor/designer of the Leader T2 rifle. We had a great time speaking with him both on and off camera – he’s another example of the great folks in the gun world – very knowledgeable about firearm design and manufacturing, and also a very genuine and friendly gentleman to speak with. He is here at SHOT with Micor Industries, showing his new Leader 50 semiauto bullpup rifle (which looks really slick). I’m hoping to have the interview compiled and posted by the end of next week.
It seems like every third booth at SHOT is showing a different manufacturer of AR rifle – one has to wonder how many more of these the market can really support. But amongst the passe black rifles, we found a pretty cool new product announcement – new production Radom pistols. The factory in Poland is still looking for an importer, but it sounds like they will be very reasonably priced. I would definitely get one!
We also had the chance to chat with Nathaniel, Rufus, and Alex – students of gun design who are visiting the show from Colorado and Germany. Thanks for stopping by, guys – it was fun talking!
If ARs were the main theme of the show today, zombies were a definite second place. Zombies are the big marketing thing right no – we saw all manner of zombie gear, including zombie ammo, zombie targets, and even a dedicated zombie shotgun. I’m going to take photos of every such ad I can find today for a fun little gallery of marketing goofiness. 🙂
There are some plans for more good stuff tomorrow, so stay tuned!
is the Radom in every detail authentic, or has there been some changes?
I don’t know – I wasn’t able to break it down at the booth. My guess is that they pulled the original tooling out of storage, and probably didn’t make any significant changes. No way they could make their claimed price if they had to make all the tooling from scratch.
want…one,…hold…me…back…want…
The new Radom looks very close to the original, but a more detailed review would be necessary, of course.
I will take a Radom or two, please! I need more Polish guns and that one looks SWEET!
I saw the same gun last year, so don’t hold your breath. This year they say $450 apiece, but won’t say how or when.
From speaking with the guys there, it sounds like the factory management is all tooled up for production, but doesn’t want to make a big run without orders. And they don’t see the importance of getting a good importer to make a big order. Typical bureaucratic disconnect. We’re going to see if we can hook them up with a reputable and interested business here in the US and maybe get the thing off the ground.
The engineer I spoke to was really hot to have production get going, because he is on the waiting list to get one of them himself. 🙂
On second thought, I remember a first batch of a very small production run of replica Radom Vis pistols, made in 1992. I cannot tell for sure, but from memory it seems it was meant as an exercice to gauge the feasibility of a newly-made replica, both from an industrial point of view and also commercially speaking. I really don’t know how well did the experiment fare.
I was hoping they were newly made on the old machinery and therefor save some production cost. The Random is a truly great forgotten weapon. A NIB Random for the price of a Glock would be a great deal for the folks that appreciate the design. I seriously would buy one. However, importing handguns to the U.S.A. is a long , snow-covered and uphill path that take time and resources. Many of us will wait with fingers crossed.
Very cool.
I offered to place a big wholesale order last year. No dice.
I was also at the shot show and saw the 2 VIS pistols serial #S 1 and 2 one of them had a Nickel finish. They were finely finished like the pre war guns. I pointed out that they had a had a smaller eagle and I was wrong. They had used the original eagle stamp. The head man of the booth was asked to talk to me he said the Eagle stamp used was from the Nagant made in Poland. It was just a little smaller than the one used on the early VIS. I will be in line to buy one of the new ones.
Any updates on the availability of the new Radom pistols?
Nothing new – the factory doesn’t want to make a big batch until they have a buyer, and nobody is willing to buy until they see that the factory can effectively make a big batch. Really a catch-22 situation, unfortunately.