Last week we reported that Remington was seeking financing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. On Monday the iconic gunmaker announced a financing deal had been agreed with its creditors. A Restructuring Support Agreement has been announced that will reduce approximately $700 million worth of Remington Outdoor Company’s consolidated outstanding debt.

Even with all the advances in polymer materials and design over the last decade or so, half of my magazine stash is of the aluminum variety. While both types have their positives and negatives, most AR15 shooters sometimes to forget that magazines are disposable items. Of course longevity and reliability tests are an important part of the weapon’s ammunition feeding system, but at some point, worn our components should be replaced.

The Kriss Vector has drawn quite the following with its sci-fi appearance as a gun that looks like it belongs in World War 4. The Kriss Super V recoil mitigation system technology has also attracted many to the platform. The Vector also gained great popularity as a Pistol Caliber Carbine (PCC) due to its use of venerable Glock magazines. This year Kriss has released many new accessories and upgrades to compliment their current Vector offerings.

Dark Storm is continuing down the path of making AR15s available for those in the less fortunate states such as California and New York. To fuel this endeavor the company is working with the California company Bear Flag Defense in introducing the companies polymer ejection port magazine loader that is used to load 10 rounds of 5.56x45mm into a state compliant rifle with a pinned magazine. Understand that the loader is only meant and designed to push rounds into the magazine and is then removed from the rifle for shooting. It is not at all meant to be fired from, which would actually be impossible in the first place. Dark Storm is also bringing in a number of pistol caliber carbines but many of these have been around for a while.

We previously covered Bad Company Tactical on TFB in SHOT shows past and looked closely at the companies R2S quick detachment system. Initially Bad Company Tactical was focusing their efforts on handgun holster systems, attaching their R2S to the Picatinny rail of a handgun and placing that into an open holster that could fit numerous designs. Although it appears to have been a solid design, the market hasn’t really taken to the handgun option. Instead, the company is following customer demand and moving towards more mounts designed for grenade launchers, rifles, and really any tool that the R2S male hook can be attached to securely. To that end, Bad Company Tactical has expanded their Picatinny mounted line, and even into the world of MOLE and PALS webbing to mount their female base attachments.

Savage released a significant new product enhancement this year with the Savage Accufit system for the companies Accustock on the 10 commercially available Model 110 bolt action rifles that form one of the flagship product lines. Essentially taking a page out of polymer handgun frames with adjustable grip swells, Savage is applying the concept to their Model 110s with 4 adjustable lengths of pull in 1/4″ increments, and adjustable cheek pieces that come in 1/8″ increments. These adjustable pieces work via clipping into the base stock. Customers will receive all the available adjustments when they purchase any one of the Model 110 rifles. The cheek risers lock-in via a hook arrangement that hooks into the stock from above. The length of pull increments work via a stack on system wherein they are tightened by two screws in the buttplate/recoil pad. It should be noted that the recoil pad stays the same throughout the adjustment process (the increments are really just spacers), while the comb risers are different items.

Shooting for Women Alliance had me at the tagline, “It’s not about pink. It’s about you”!

The IWI 40x46mm Low-Velocity UBGL/Standalone Grenade Launcher has been around for a few years but this is the first time we were able to actually get our hands on the launcher at TFB. Available for LE/Military customers worldwide, the launcher is designed to lock onto the bayonet lug of the Tavor 5.56x45mm X95 rifle by way of two locking pins that keep it in place. At first glance, it appears to be similar to any other UBGL/GL design on the market but IWI really seemed to put a lot of effort into the finer points of detail on the launcher.

Originally known for their AR15 magazines with floor plate retainer in the shape of a bright red “2”, the Idaho based company Amend2 has introduced an entire line of Glock magazines as a part of SHOT 2018. The magazines use a glass fiber filled nylon magazine frame (no internal metal body), and have a very gracious baseplate that shares some contour lines from H&K USP magazines at a distance (with the exception of the Glock 42,43, and 31 compatible magazines). Followers are bright red and the floor plate retainer is the same “2” shape as the earlier AR15 magazines that company was founded on. The back of the magazines have round count indexing holes as well.

What do you do when you’re a hard working nurse practitioner mother and wife, your husband is in law enforcement? Imagine, you’ve got 6 kids, and just don’t have the time to find a holster that will work with the scrubs you have to wear every day or any other outfit? With no business background, Mike and Tessa Renaud created Lethal Lace to solve that issue!

Meet my new friend, Kristen. She’s the brains behind Packin’ Neat.

Boasting the tagline “designed to keep you beautifully concealed”, the ladies at Miss Concealed brought the heat this year at SHOT Show 2018 with their line of “Hidden Heat” concealed carry holsters.

The Unimag from Ross & Zheng Engineering was created with the intent of having one magazine that was capable of working with the majority of popu lar cartridges that are chambered in an AR15, STANAG magazine configuration (or with similar dimensions). This means that the Unimag is designed and tested with the following cartridges in mind-5.56x45mm, .300BLK, .204 Ruger, 5.45X39mm, 6.8mm SPC, 7.62×39, 6.5mm Grendel, and .458 SOCOM. Too new at this point, but testing will probably be eventually done, but to add to that list is the .224 Valkyrie.

High Threat Concealment (HTC) specializes in providing concealed tactical gear for armed professionals demanding a low profile signature as well as the civilian wanting to utilize the best gear. The HTC line is modular allowing for scalability based on threat and need.

Beretta’s Intelligent Rail emerged out of a previous U.S. Military solicitation for a “Powered Rail” on rifles and carbines several years ago. One specific contract was the Precision Sniper Rifle competition that SOCOM held, requiring competitors to submit a “Powered Rai” with their designs. The push for a powered rail within the U.S. Military appears to have stagnated, but the fruits of that competition appear to be popping up throughout the industry in the public, in this case with Beretta USA on the companies ARX160. Beretta didn’t work on the project alone however, it worked closely with TWorx Ventures, a developer of the Intelligent Rail for the AR platform, but in this case working with Beretta.

Many women say that most of the EDC pocketbooks look outdated and are impractical. Gun Tote’N Mama’s founder Claudie Chisholm is changing the EDC accessory marketplace for women.

A few years ago I went to the Vehicle and Darkness D3 course with Haley Strategic. At this course, students learn how to fine-tune fundamentals while manipulating lights and shooting in and around vehicles. A vehicle ballistics lab was also very informative. After the course, I realized how detailed and intricate these scenarios could get. I would have been very surprised to find a course that could top the knowledge I had learned over those three days.

Manufacturing a gun lock that is both very safe around those who shouldn’t be around your firearm, but yet have the ability to be instantly unlocked in times when you actually need your firearm during a self-defense situation is a very tricky design tightrope to cross. Zore, an Israeli based but producing in California company, thinks it has the answer. Essentially the product idea is to have a bullet-shaped chamber insert that expands when attempting to rack the slide to the rear (the extractor catches on to the chamber insert as it would with a live or dummy round), thus locking it into the chamber even further. This insert is attached to a block on the outside of a handgun, that has a rotating RAPIDial. Twisting this RAPIDial is very akin to twisting a Master Lock from the High School days of old, turn to a number one way, then back to the second number, then for a third time, in the opposite direction. However, this is only a 3 digit combination of 9 numbers a slot. Zore can be programmed with 20 different digits of 9 available numbers apiece (although this would be a poor decision to have all 20 in a self-defense situation).

Many new and improved products have been brought to market by Trijicon in the months leading up to SHOT 2018. Fans of the Trijicon HD iron sights will be happy to hear of the Trijicon HD XR night sights. The HD XR sights boast an expanded field of view and more precise targeting with the reduced size of the front sight (.122”) to nearly a third of the size of the original HD’s.

TFB TV actually took a trip to the Austrian located factory of Ritter & Stark last year. We were able to look at the internal factory work being done on the rifles before they get shipped over to the United States. At SHOT 2018 we were also able to take a look at both the long action SX-1 MTR and the newer short action SLX rifle.

This year at SHOT 2018 Lancer has produced a new AR magazine well extension and a designated .300 AAC BLK Advanced Warfighter Magazine (AWM). After hearing of a designated .300 AAC BLK magazine I was somewhat confused as I had always assumed magazines would function the same whether running .223, 5.56, or .300 Blackout. When I asked more about the magazine I found the .300 Blackout magazine had a different internal geometry with increased rib clearance for better feeding and to prevent binding with 200-grain bullets or heavier, significantly increasing reliability.

USA1SHOT  makes these injection-molded platforms that allow a shooter to non-permanently attach a brace to the grip of a handgun, while also attaching a Shockwave brace to the end of the brace itself. The majority of these buffer braces are permanently attached to the handgun stabilizer, lacking any ability to uninstall the buffer tube itself. Some of them even have Hera Arms Adaptors, giving useres the ability to collapse into two along the right side of the handgun.

In what is most definitely the most ridiculous item of the entire SHOT show, Paper City Firearms out of Massachusets has on display this earth-shattering 4-pound tubular bayonet that sides in and out of a Picatinny mounted tube that can be attached to a corresponding rail. With the push of a button, the bayonet can be slid out of the tube, becoming fully extended and then locking in place. To withdraw the bayonet, one simply presses down on that underside button, allowing the bayonet to manually retract into the aluminum tube, also locking in place at the bottom. The bayonet itself is tubular, with a curve coming up from the blade tip, and a hollow portion in the center.

The theme for this year’s SHOT Show 2018 (for this writer, at least) was the focus on the female shooter. Not surprisingly, there were more female-centered booths this year than any other year in SHOT Show history. One such booth was the Girls With Guns (GWG) booth.

In today’s episode, we follow Miles to Shot Show 2018 and check out the Velocity Systems booth.

South African Truvelo had their CMS rifles on display at the Pheonix Defense booth. We’ve covered the extremely short barrel (15 inches) 20x42mm and the single shot 20x110mm anti-material rifle from Truvelo, but this is an opportunity to look at the company’s popular 7.62x51mm NATO and .338 Lapua bolt action, magazine fed precision rifles. The only difference between the two is essentially the long and short actions lengths and the caliber. Additionally, the .338 Lapua version had a muzzle brake installed while the 7.62x51mm version had a simple thread protector installed on the muzzle.

It warms my heart to see so many silencer-ready firearms coming to market. Just in to TFB from Newport, New Hampshire are two of the newest rifles from Ruger: the Ruger Precision Rimfire (RPR) and the Ruger PC Carbine (PCC). While both feature threaded barrels in a standard 1/2“ x 28 thread pitch, a similar release of new rifles ten years ago might have ignored suppressor compatibility. You really have to hand it to Ruger: for a company who’s typical customer used to be strictly a bolt gun/White Tail type of shooter, they are making it easier to be the Quiet Man or Woman. Side note, if you haven’t seen the John Wayne classic, it’s worth your time.

Primary Weapon Systems (PWS) is known for making a long stroke piston AR rifles. What sets them apart from other AR manufacturers is their ability to run internals modeled after the AK platform; while still maintaining the ergonomics and last round bolt hold open benefits of an AR. The long stroke piston system reduces the amount of metal on metal impact, thus reducing reliability issues and parts breakage.

Cadex Defense had two recently introduced products specifically for the .50 BMG M2 Heavy Machine Gun on display at their booth at SHOT 2018. The first one was their KOLOS sight mount, meant as a lighter and less obtrusive alternative to the earlier SOLO sight mount. Second for this year is the M2 Cradle Mount.

Iron Claw Tactical out of Wisconsin was showing off a 5.45x39mm Krink option that the company has recently put together. Built off a Bulgarian SLR-104UR SBR ( stock form sold by Arsenal), the Iron Claw Tactical has a number of aftermarket parts, and parts of the companies own line that come together under a single gray Cerakote job.