Hindsight from The New Gun Week
March 10, 2000
New Products in the Desert
by Joseph P. Tartaro,
Executive Editor
For many in the firearms community, the annual SHOT Show involves more time than the four official days of trade exhibits and seminars.For exhibitor companies, this may involve one or more days before and after the show opens to set up and dismantle booths and product samples. For many companies, there are other related national trade shows and international events that follow almost immediately.
Throughout the four days of the SHOT Show, there are also a number of special events, including breakfasts, lunches, dinners and after-hours receptions that are hosted by companies as part of their press and dealer relations programs.
Then there are the special product demonstration events for gun writers and editors that involve shooting. These are usually scheduled at various locations away from the exhibit hall the day before the show officially opens. Many are often joint efforts involving two or more companies.
This year, there were at least four such events on the Sunday before the show opened in Las Vegas. Since it was pretty much impossible for one person to attend them all, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) staff and contributing editors were divided.
I attended a mixed shooting event and barbecue hosted jointly by Taurus International, Rossi firearms, PMC Ammunition and B.C. Outdoors, the North American importer for German-made Docter(r) sports optics. The event was held at the company shooting facility behind the PMC-Eldorado complex in the desert near Boulder City, NV. B.C. Outdoors is part of the new Eldorado Cartridge Corporation group of companies, which also includes PMC.
In the center were separate, covered bench facilities for pistol and rifle. On the far right, there were skeet and trap ranges where writers could bust clays with the new Gold Hunting over-under and Verona shotguns imported by B.C. Outdoors-using PMC shotshell loads, of course.
To the left, members of the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) had set up several Cowboy Action Shooting scenarios. As might be expected, PMC ammunition for Cowboy Shooting was used in these informal events.
PMC was introducing a new 124-grain .357 Sig law enforcement/personal protection loading in their Starfire line. This round has a velocity of 1,350 fps and muzzle energy over 500 foot pounds. It is the business load for those who use the more economical PMC 124-grain, FMJ/FP Bronze line .357 Sig cartridges for practice.
Taurus has added a number of new pistol and revolver products for 2000, including a new Tracker with a 4-inch barrel that is based on the Ranging Bull design. The Tracker is available as a 7-shot. .357 Magnum or 5-shot, .41 Magnum in either matte stainless or Total Titanium. It has the Taurus keyed Security System, as do the other company handguns.
Taurus also introduced a new Millennium Model .45 ACP pistol with Titanium slide on a polymer frame that is only slightly larger than the PT-111 9mm Millennium pistol. Other news included the return of the .40-caliber version of the PT-92.
I sampled the new PMC Predator .22 Rimfire Magnum cartridges for small game and varmints at the rifle range. The new Predator magnum .22s are available loaded with a 40-grain jacketed hollow point or a 40-grain Jacked Soft Point.
Then I tried one of the new Rossi Model 62 pump-action, take-down rifles and carbines offered in a choice of blued finish or stainless steel. These are dandy new quick-pointing additions to the world of rimfire .22s. Next, I shot a new little Rossi single shot, break-action shotgun with an interchangeable .22 LR rifle barrel. The Matched Pair allows one to add the .22 barrel to either a .410, 20-gauge or 12-gauge shotgun.
PMC introduced several new loads for 2000 in their expanding shotshell line. In their premium Gold line, they've added a Gold Clay Target 12-gauge, with a three dram load pushing 1-1/8 ounces of size 7-1/2, 8 or 9 shot at 1,230 fps. The reloadable, ribbed plastic hull surrounds PMC's one-piece plastic, DymaFlexTM wad that has an integral shot cup to protect the shot from deformation.
PMC also has a new 3-inch Magnum Turkey Load that uses a maximum dram charge to propel two ounces of No. 4 or 6 extra-hard lead shot. They've also added three new buckshot loads, including a high velocity 00, a low recoil 00, and a high velocity 27-pellet load of #4 buck.
Finally, PMC's new shotshell offerings include Heavy Field Loads in 16-gauge, 28-gauge and .410, Clay Target loads in 28-gauge and .410, plus a low recoil 12-gauge Cowboy Action load. I got to try several of these metal bad-guy targets from the seat of a wagon using a side-by-side as part of a Cowboy scenario that required me to leave the wagon, circle around to the rear and dispatch five more targets with a lever action rifle. On the third run-through, I hit all the targets in respectable time.
B.C. Outdoors showed the new Verona over-unders as well as new Docter rifle scopes with 1-inch tubes, binoculars and the new Doctersight(tm) holographic red dot sight for handguns, rifles and shotguns.
Then it was time to hit the chow line and chat with representatives from Taurus, Rossi, PMC and B.C. Outdoors, as well as others in the gun magazine field-just as the January sun was setting on the desert.
The New Gun Week is published three times a month by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) on the 1st, 10th, and 20th. Hindsight is a commentary written by SAF President and Gun Week Executive Editor Joseph P. Tartaro. This commentary may be reprinted so long as credit is given to the author and the publication. For more information or to subscribe, write Gun Week, PO Box 488, Buffalo, NY 14209, or call 716-885-6408 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, or inquire on Compuserve to John Krull, Production manager-JohnSAF@Compuserve.com or gunweeksaf@broadviewnet.netAlso, check out the New Gun Week at http://www.GunWeek.com