EOTECH is releasing three new magnifiers including a compact 3X, a new 5X, and a more budget-friendly version of their venerable G33 called the G30. The G30 comes with a quick-detach mount instead of the swing away mount traditionally featured on their more expensive magnifiers.

SHOT Show 2020 ended up being a great time for those heavily invested in the 22 LR community. It seemed as if almost every exhibitor had something in 22 LR. Chiappa Firearms didn’t fail to bring their own 22 LR offering to the table with the Little Badger Rifle. The Badger is a small, light and inexpensive 22 LR foldable single-shot rifle.

Salient Arms is coming out with three different production AR15 rifles this year, the entry-level being the Green rifle with a variety of barrel options. They also have other rifles to include the Gray rifle which has a muzzle brake that clips on to Salient’s handguard instead of the Surefire muzzle brake. All of the rifles come with a Surefire brake for the mounting of Surefire suppressors.

Samson Manufacturing is a producer of aftermarket parts like handguards, backup iron sights, stocks and flash hiders for various makes and models of guns. At SHOT Show 2020 they unveiled a new exciting addition to their line of products, the A-TM and B-TM folding stocks for the Ruger Mini-14 and Ruger 10/22 respectively.

Brownells has upgraded their AR180 upper with a number of features, now with a more retro style folding stock and even a compatible AR180 lower receiver to match the style of the original stamped metal receiver. It now comes with new brace attachments to allow it to be registered as a pistol.

I had the opportunity to speak with the creators of SafeShoot this year at SHOT Show 2020. The system they’ve come up with aims to prevent friendly fire incidents for hunters, law enforcement and the military. At SHOT Show 2020, SafeShoot had a live demo of the system on display for attendees to take a look at and experience first hand.

This year Magnum Research is bringing their custom 1911s to the market with a Crusader and a Viking-themed 1911, in addition to their Presidential Donald Trump Desert Eagle. We were told that the Presidental handgun will be sent to the Donal Trump Presidental Library collection. The Crusader and Viking 1911s are modeled after various designs associated with the Vikings and Crusader orders.

SCCY is introducing the company’s first striker-fired handgun, the DVG1 or David Versus Goliath-1. The handgun is very similar to their earlier double-action versions but in this case, it is striker-fired. Along with standard versions of the handgun there are also optic-mounted versions that customers can purchase right off the shelf and from the website. Another design feature that was changed was the slide serrations, curved inward to allow a better grip when racking the slide from either the front or the rear. Capacity is 10+1 in 9x19mm.

Primary Arms introduced and highlighted four optics at SHOT 2020. The first is the GLX Series which has a motion sensor to detect when the rifle is in use to save battery power. A number of different reticles are being introduced for the GLX as well. The version on display at the show was a 4-16 power. Next is the 2x Prismatic that was intended for Law Enforcement use and has an improved mounting system. Next in line is the 2x and 5x Prismatics. These have improved chevron reticles as well.

Accuracy International is working on bringing their AT-LE rifle to Law Enforcement this year. It is based on the AX design and has a shorter 16-inch barrel, designed to fit into small spaces where police officers can fit their precision rifles into their patrol cars. It also has a threaded barrel for suppressors that LE agencies can purchase from Accuracy International as well.

Speer Ammunition is coming out with a 5.7x28mm round that coincides with the introduction of the Ruger-57 handgun that also came out this year at SHOT Show. Speer is actually working on optimizing the round to make sure that it will function well in the Ruger handgun. In addition, the company is coming out with a subcompact carry ammunition brand that is optimized for subcompact handguns. They will certainly work in duty-sized handguns but achieve maximum velocity out of a shorter barrel.

MasterPiece Arms showcased their new Matrix Chassis system.  It is intended to be their most customizable and ergonomic chassis yet.  Focusing on one of the shooter’s most critical inputs into the rifle, the trigger press, MPA has labored to produce a product that will make the shooter’s grip and therefore trigger press more repeatable.  They have achieved this by allowing the shooter to customize their grip interface in three different locations, the reach to the trigger in the grip/grip angle, thumb placement with a variety of shelves and trigger finger placement with the trigger finger support inserts.  I haven’t done the math for myself but apparently, 5 grip options 3 thumb rest options and 4 trigger support options lead to over 100 different options.  

American Reserve Munitions A.R.M are anything but conventional.  They are based out of Horseshoe Bend Idaho and specialize in exotic ammunition production for their own company as well as OEM production.  Most of their projectiles are lead-free, not for the tree-hugging California reasons but rather for the increased performance that can be attained through the use of solids or polymer/ceramic cores.  

Last year at SHOT Show 2019, I had a chance to take a look at a prototype rifle by MARS Inc. Back then it was in an early development stage with most parts being in white. Later, during 2019, we learned that MARS and Cobalt Kinetics submitted a rifle to NGSW trials that was based on the general design of the gun we saw at SHOT 2019. For SHOT Show 2020, MARS brought the civilian version of the rifle chambered in .308 Winchester. This final iteration of MARS rifle is called M19 Mustang.

At SHOT Shows or other exhibitions, booths of companies like Serbu Firearms are some of the most interesting ones to visit. And the reason is, as a rule, such companies constantly experiment with new ideas and if you are lucky enough, you can meet and discuss their inventions with the actual owners who also oftentimes are the chief designers. This year, I had another chance to meet Mark Serbu and learn about his new creation – a 5.56 rifle dubbed Diabolus.

Introducing the Thunder Ranch AR-15! In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves meets with iconic trainer, Clint Smith, to talk about his collaboration with his fellow Pacific-Northwesterners at Aero Design. More or less, Aero and Thunder Ranch teamed up to build the ultimate urban rifle based on Clint’s preferences and what he has seen work (and not work) in his 50 years of using and teaching the AR-15 platform. Check out the details on today’s video.

In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves talks with Jerry of Zev on the SHOT Show floor about Zev Tech’s new slides. Zev is releasing several new slides for the Gen 3 Glock 19 or the Zev OZ9 that permit the user to utilize a Glock 17 or Glock 34 length slide and barrel combo on a compact Glock 19 frame. The slides cost just $399, stripped. Check the video for more details.

In this episode of TFBTV, James visits the PTR booth to discuss new additions to the 91 series, i.e. the PTR-91. The PTR-91 is PTR’s original flagship firearm, functionally a clone of the wildly successful HK91 and G3 rifle series first devised by Heckler & Koch. PTR has taken the design and made meaningful modern upgrades to the series. This year, PTR adds new models to the 91-series line.

Seekins Precision got their start back in 2005 making high-quality aluminum scope rings.  At that time it was just Glen and his wife, Katie, in their garage with a single CNC machine.  By 2014 they had expanded the business into a 25,000 sq/ft shop with an entire workforce. Through all of this Glen hasn’t gotten a big head.  I remember my first year at SHOT (2016, I attended simply as a dealer) I was asking some different folks about what goes into making an accurate AR-15, and I stopped by the Seekins booth.  I was about 20 minutes into picking the rep’s brain when I looked down and saw his name tag. It was Glen Seekins himself. He had taken the time to talk to me and explain what he could even though I was a relative nobody in the industry.  To me, that just shows he has a real passion for what he does. I have seen the same passion with his employees. This is why I pay attention when they release something new.

True Velocity and Sierra Bullets have partnered to introduce composite cased commercial ammunition that should be available in 2020. The cartridges will be composed of True Velocity’s steel-base polymer cases loaded with Sierra bullets. This ammunition will be initially available in .308 Winchester with more caliber options such as 6.5mm Creedmoor to be added in the future.

At SHOT Show 2020, along with the firearms announced last year, Zastava Arms USA also displayed two new guns that they have started importing just recently – the M91 DMR/sniper rifle chambered in 7.62x54mmR and the ZPAP85 pistol chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO.

Not wanting to wait for SHOT 2020, Hornady released most of their new product information back in October 2019.  Most of the buzz centered around the new A-Tips. They are designed and packaged to be as consistent as possible.  The aluminum tips are precision machined and each bullet is sequentially packaged ie in a box of 100 you will have bullets 1001 to 1100 from the press.  This leads to greater consistency and as we know in the long-range game consistency is king. 

In this episode of TFBTV’s SHOT Show coverage, James of TFBTV goes over 5.11’s new gear for 2020 with Meghan of 5.11. From Tom R.’s article on the new gear at SHOT (https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2020/01/26/shot-2020-511-tactical-all-the-things/):

You will be forgiven if you are not familiar with the name ZAI.  It stands for Zermatt Arms International, they are the current manufactures of the Big Horn series of actions (many readers will be more familiar with the name Big Horn Arms), the Origin and now the RimX.

Robinson Arms is producing reproduction Stoner 63 rifles and light machine gun variants (semi-automatic) in a limited run of 200 rifles and light machine gun conversion kits with the iconic top-fed magazine.

At SHOT Show 2020, Browning Ammunition announced the addition of three new cartridges to their catalog – 6mm Creedmoor, 28 Nosler and 350 Legend. In total, there are seven new loads added to the following five ammunition lines: BXC, BXS, BXR, Long Range PRO and FMJ. Let’s see how the company describes each of these ammunition lines and what loads of the new cartridges are included in them.

During the SHOT Show 2020, Century Arms has introduced a number of new AK variations that will be added to their product line in the foreseeable future. These guns include a couple of new iterations of the VSKA rifle, a 9mm WASR and a prototype of a 5.45x39mm AK that is currently in development. Let’s take a brief look at each of the new Century Arms AKs.

New for 2020 from S.W.O.R.D. is a humungous brass catcher that can fit their Mk18 Mod 1 Mjölnir chambered in .300 Norma mag, .338 Norma Magnum, and .338 Lapua Magnum.  The first thing to catch my eye when I walked by their booth, their new brass catcher sits under a beefy deflection chute that covers the ejection port.  The deflection chute is fastened to the rifle via a QD latch attached to a section of rail on the fore-arm.  This accessory will be a boon to shooters who want to keep their brass out of the dirt. More importantly, it satisfies an important safety requirement of heliborne snipers who might use such a weapons system:  Keeping their brass out of the rotors.

Zev Technologies is a premier high-end firearms manufacturer of handgun and rifle components. In the past few years, Zev has released its own line of ZEV OZ9 pistols and this year at shot they have improved their 2020 lineup by offering a couple of new variations for their OZ-9C Pistol and components.

For those familiar with X Products, you’ll know that they come out with a combination of innovative, useful and fun products for the firearms industry. X Products was at SHOT 2020 showing off their pressurized and unpressurized flamethrowers, drum magazines, their famous Can Cannon. New this year is the X Products Fore, an AR-15 Compatible golf ball launcher.