Mossberg’s new Night Train II .308 looks good in digital camo.

Can anyone remember a time when there wasn’t a Law Enforcement section at the SHOT Show? For a fairly new addition to the program, the LE section has really taken off. I can’t remember the exact year, but it must have been two or three years after the creation of the section, when it became clear that such an area would be amazingly popular.

As the shuttle bus I was riding pulled up to the convention center, an older gentleman turned to his partner in the seat next to him and said, “Well there certainly seems to be plenty of black pants and brown shirts again this year.”

For once in my life I decided to bite my tongue and allow these two members of the braided leather suspender crowd to waddle on to whatever booth they would be manning. I was off in search of black nylon and Velcro and didn’t need anyone getting in my way.

Ruger’s new LCR polymer-framed revolver and cylinder frame.

Cut to 2009 and the opening bell of the SHOT Show at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center. Once again I was thinking about people getting in my way. Only this time it was people wearing “black pants and brown shirts” blocking the aisles in the Law Enforcement section.

Regardless of what people say about overall attendance of the 2009 SHOT show, things in the Law Enforcement section were hopping right from the start. Special thanks for the level of activity in the section can largely be attributed to the Obama Gun Sales Team, which was, at the time of the SHOT show, preparing for an historic Presidential inauguration ceremony. Call it Fear and Loathing in Orlando.

Tactical Guns

The big news was, of course the torrid pace of black gun sales. To spend too much time talking about wholesale and retail sales of the AR-15s and their clones would be to overstate the obvious. Suffice to say that everything with detachable magazine, pistol grip and bayonet lug was in high demand. But it wasn’t just the black guns flying off the shelves. It was accessories as well.

Everything from picatinny rails to collapsible stocks became hot commodities following the 2008 presidential election and the pace did not slow down as the inauguration approached. Demand was so strong that many manufacturers complained of an inability to get part parts.

Early in 2009 some makers were telling tales of woe about receiver shortages. Apparently manufacturers with the ability to machine AR components were not keeping pace with demand and backorders measured in months were common. All this led to some spillover sales for other models. Buyers were placing orders on everything from Springfield Armory’s M-1A to the PTR-91 (a G-3 clone) to AK variants. It seemed that dealers just wanted to have some type of black rifle in stock for the coming spring.

But the truth is a black rifle is a black rifle. One AR clone works pretty much like another and the proliferation of black gun makers didn’t really have anything new. A couple different variations on the gas-piston AR upper are now on the market, but they really didn’t offer anything new and radical.

All the hoopla and buying frenzy was based more on fear upcoming legislation than on anything new in the design arena. Still, as far as I’m concerned, any guns sales are good gun sales. And more buyers of black rifles mean more voters when the issue finally comes to the fore.

Well, there was one AR variant that really caught my eye. The AT-14 marketed by American Tactical Imports brings a whole new dimension to the AR platform. Now you can have an AR that fires .410 shotgun shells. Imagine the possibilities. If you thought the lever-action .410 shotguns that hit the market a few years back were fun, the AT-14 should put those to shame. This, of course, is not the first military style rifle to be chambered for the .410. There are still some of the old SMLE conversions floating around out there and the Saiga AK-styled shotguns. But the AT-14 looks to be infinitely more enjoyable.

The AT-14 is currently offered in two styles: the Classic and the Compact, both with five-round magazines, but a 15-round magazine will be available soon. The gun is a smooth bore, open-choke .410 shotgun. Both models have barrels at just over 20", and an overall length of 37.8". The Compact version of the AT-14 differs from the Classic version in its weight, with the Compact weighing in at just 5.73 lbs., while the Classic version tips the scales at 6.28 lbs.

FN’s SCAR 16C, the civilian version of FN’s popular Special Combat Automatic Rifle/MK 16.

Other big news in area of long guns is the release of the SCAR 16C, the civilian version of FN’s popular Special Combat Automatic Rifle, the MK 16. Chosen by the U.S. Special Operations Command as its next generation modular assault rifle, the MK 16 is a selective-fire 5.56x45mm NATO rifle with both full and semi-automatic capability using a short-stroke gas-piston system.

The system offers three interchangeable barrels that can, if required, be switched by the individual operator in just minutes. The weapon is completely ambidextrous with a fully free-floating barrel, multiple integral MIL-STD 1913 mounting rails and a telescoping, folding stock with adjustable cheekpiece. Having gotten my hands on the SCAR MK-16 I can tell you from personal experience it to completely controllable in both semi- and full-auto fire and just about perfect in the area of ergonomics. Like all FN products I’ve carried and tested, the MK-16 was totally reliable under a variety of conditions, but don’t take my word for it. I think the USSOCOM trials were a bit tougher than my tests.

As is true with most military firearms, the public started clamoring for a civilian-legal version of the SCAR almost before USSOCOM got their first deliveries. Well, the folks in Belgium followed through with a semi-auto version that should keep shooters happy for years to come.
Another well know name in the firearms industry: Mossberg unveiled a couple very nice additions to their product line at the 2009 SHOT show. One is an old favorite that is now available to the general public; the other is a nice addition to the precision rifle community that gives shooters and even smaller agencies a suitable price point to get started.

The first is the venerable Mossberg Model 590A1 combat shotgun. This is the military version of the well-known Model 500. But for those who don’t know the subtle differences, the Model 590A1 is beefed up for the rigors of military and police use. This is the only 12-gauge pump shotgun ever to pass the stringent U.S. Military Mil-Spec 3443 standard.

This article appeared in the Gun Digest 2010 annual book. For more tactical gear from the "World's Greatest Gun Book," Click Here.

All models will come standard with heavy-walled barrels, metal trigger guards and safety buttons in a durable Parkerized finish. A full range of sighting options are also available in front bead, ghost ring rear or 3-dot configurations. Several variations of stocks will also be available with wood, synthetic, speed feed and adjustable aluminum. All 590A1 models come drilled and tapped from the factory making it easy to mount a picatinny rail, scope base or other optic options. Other accessories available for the 590A1 include heat shields, picatinny rails as well as orange buttstocks and forearms for training purposes.

Les Baer’s AR-based Police Special, possibly the finest civvie M4 available.

And there’s even an optional bayonet. I haven’t yet come up with a practical application for the bayonet, but it sure looks good. And that’s good enough for me.

Mossberg has also moved up a notch in the tactical rifle market with its new 100ATR Night Train II bolt-action rifle. The Night Train II is a .308 Winchester bolt-gun equipped with the new adjustable LBA™ (Lightning Bolt Action) Trigger System and free-floating 22" button-rifled barrel.

While I haven’t fired the Night Train II, my initial observations and my first hands-on experience tell me this is nicely balanced and mobile tactical rifle.

What I really like about the unit is that the Night Train II comes complete with a factory-mounted Barska 6-24 x 60mm variable scope; muzzlebrake; Harris Bipod; and neoprene comb raising kit with foam cheek pad inserts — all factory installed and ready to roll and all for one money as the auctioneers like to say. MSRP is just under $1,000, meaning you might be able to find it for about $800 some places.

Now this is not a high-dollar package and it is not meant to be. Instead, it should prove to be a good, serviceable rifle with a few nice bells and whistles.

It should be a solid improvement over the original Night Train, which got a bad rap in some internet forums largely because people were comparing that gun to rifles costing six times more.

Personally, I want to shoot it. Look over that new trigger system and take a good hard look through the Barska glass. Right now, I see no reason it will not live up to its billing and do what it is reasonably expected to do.

On the handgun side, the big news for 2009 revolved around small guns, with Ruger’s new LCR (light compact revolver) being the talk of the show floor. This polymer-framed revolver might not qualify as a true tactical arm, but you can be sure the little 12-oz. powerhouse will certainly end up as a back-up gun with some police officers on the street.

I say powerhouse because the LCR is designed to digest a steady diet of +P loads. Ruger, in creating the little five-shot revolver, uses a radical mix of design elements and the latest, greatest materials to ensure that the gun remains tough as nails while shaving every ounce. The coating used on the aluminum frame is not new, but it is the first time anyone ever thought to put it on a firearm offered to the commercial market. Another trademark look of the LCR is the radically fluted (almost reverse rebated) cylinder.

Colt Industries’ new folding stock for the AR-15/M-16.

There certainly is no extra metal left on that thing. Early reports are that the little gun has a bit of bark, as one would expect with a 12-oz. revolver and +P loads, but is certainly controllable and well up to its task as a close-range defense gun.

This is the second year in a row that Ruger has kept the lid on a “secret” project in order to make a big splash at the SHOT show. The 2008 introduction of the LCP, Ruger’s first entry into the pocket pistol market, came with equal fanfare and market interest. When these little revolvers get into gun shops they likely will not stay on the shelves long.

Saying that someone has come out with another 1911 typically gets only a raised eyebrow and perhaps a monosyllabic “hmm” as a response. After 98 years, what more can you do with that classic design? The answer to that rhetorical question came from a rather unlikely source. The folks at Doublestar down in Tennessee are well known for making fine AR-15 rifles and carbines.

Well, soon they will be well known for making a top-notch 1911 pistol. It seems what you can do with the 1911 is invest in high quality machinery and parts and make sure they’re assembled with the utmost diligence and care. That’s what they are doing over at Doublestar and their 1911 should give anyone who loves that grand old sidearm the chance to say, “Now that’s a nice pistol.”

The same is true for Les Baer. The company that carries his name has been making top-grade guns for a long time now by doing just what I described above: Taking top-quality parts and putting them together better than anyone else. But this year Les has a new twist as he’s building up a double-stack .40 S&W on the 1911 platform. You might say, “It’s been done before.”

To which I would say, “Not the way Les does it.”

And the same would hold true for his Police Special AR-variant. People are calling this thing the best-shooting M-4 clone they have ever seen. In one package you are getting patrol carbine size and precision accuracy, with 100-yard groups coming in at about a half an inch. Which means that rifle can shoot better than most of us can. That’s just the way Les makes his stuff.

That about does it for the gun portion of my SHOT show Tactical Gear round-up. But I should let it be known that I only put the gun stuff on top of this article because this is GUN Digest. From my perspective most of the coolest innovations and biggest changes announced at the 2009 SHOT show came on the gear side of the equation. And they came mostly from folks who don’t make guns.

There is one notable exception. Colt had something really cool. The folks in Hartford, who spent lots of time making M-4s for the soldiers in the sandbox have developed the slickest folding stock for that rifle I have ever seen. Now I don’t know about you, but I always thought the original collapsible stock on the AR-15/M-16, making it the CAR-15, was a bit of an afterthought. It appears to me it was whipped up without any real engineering and designed simply to fit over the buffer tube there in the stock.

After 30-some years of that traditional system, Colt put some thinking into a new folding stock and came up with a dual-fold mechanism that actually gets the butt out of the way and still allows shooter to fire the gun while the stock is folded. I’m told it was designed with motorcycle officers in mind, but a quick look says it will be a huge asset for paratroopers and vehicle operators. Now the folded version can be fired without any part of the stock banging into or hanging up on your forearm. Very nice.

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