SHOT Show 2019 – ATAC Range Day Recap

Monday, a brand new start to the work week and I was up bright and early heading out to Nellis AFB for the ATAC Global Range Day.  After a huge wind gust pulled an awning and tarp off it’s anchors and did it’s best to decapitate me, I was known today as the media guy in the orange that nearly got his head taken off. (Editor’s Note: Range Materials Self Defense Course coming summer 2019) I’ve been called way worse, and considering the tightly regulated rules and conditions on photography at the ATAC Global at least they knew I was press and were okay with photos.

First up I hit OSS Suppressors. Anyone who has used OSS knows about their helical design to vent pressure and gas directly out the front of the can instead of through a traditional baffle stack.  Their latest line Helix QD cans for 308 and 338 are impressive. The Gear Head Works ONE pistol bolt action in 300BLK with the OSS HX QD 762 was beyond quiet and made the bolt action feel like I was shooting a 22LR. The idea of the ONE is a compact, ultra-light, ultra-quiet, precision bolt action, and they’ve certainly hit that mark.

While I got to shoot some insanely light machines guns and some pretty sweet upgradable parts for said machine guns as well, the truth is the majority of people will never get to shoot a full auto machine gun or fully appreciate what upgraded parts and weight saving actually mean or translate to them. This is where the military part of the event really becomes clear.

With no hopes of seeing civilian ownership, but a possible trial by the Canadian Forces sometime between the second coming and the heat death of the universe, we put plenty of rounds through the Ohio Ordnance Works M240B GPMG, a reduced weight version of the workhorse vehicle or grunt mounted machine gun.

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I did take the time to tinker with the F4 Defense small frame 308 semi-auto rifle, a ridiculously light assembly coming in to the tune of 6-7 pounds. Everything rearward of the magazine well are all AR 15 compatible parts including the trigger. This unit takes standard AR 10 magazines, and one of the unique features is the hydraulic buffer and flat wire spring that reduces the recoil of the 308 to what felt like a varminting caliber. Very cool build. I’d love to see how the hydraulic buffer and flat wire recoil spring perform in a STAG 10 or BCL 102 build to really smooth out those non-restricted Canadian setups.

The last few items of note that I got to demo today were Magpul‘s line up of CZ Scorpion EVO parts. New this year were their 35 round stick mags, ambidextrous magazine release and pistol grip. Built with the usually high detail that Magpul is know for the MSRPs for these parts will pretty much assure that ever EVO out there is going to have Magpul on it. Save the 35 round stick mags I think there is plenty of desire for those parts in Canada as well.

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Tomorrow the show floor opens and I’ll once again be running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off sprinting from interview to interview. Keep tuning in to TV-PressPass here and on Facebook and my Instagram pages for updates this week.