SHOT Show 2016 (Tuesday)

The first day of SHOT Show flew by before I knew it. If you haven’t been before know that the place is insanely large (multiple floors) and can be very disorienting especially in the basement.

I knew I was truly at SHOT Show when within the first 10 minutes my feet had been run over by a milk crate cart. These wheeled carts are definitely one of the spectacles of the event and I’m still unsure how they actually get here. Do people mail them? Is there a milk crate rental service out there? Do they bring them on planes? I don’t think I’ll ever know but if you ever come to the event expect your shoes to get trampled by them.

The first stop of the day was to the awesome company Mystery Ranch. Mystery Ranch makes some incredible backpacks that are tough to find and compare in person. Their hunting line of packs is available in some retailers but their military and EDC line are not which makes events like this (or visiting their office) the only way to view them.

The three packs pictures here are most commonly found packs in the EDC community. They are sized largest to smallest from left to right and are the versions currently found on the Mystery Ranch site.

There aren’t many plans for changing the designs in 2016 but there may be a few small changes in the works. Mystery Ranch has a very busy year ahead of them so we’ll see if any of the talked-about changes happen.

Here’s the obligatory picture of the Mountain Ruck from Mystery Ranch. The pictures online don’t do the size of the pack justice as it is seriously huge.

What more can you ask for than a dog wearing boots, with googles, headphones, and an awesome vest? If you look closely in the googles you can see what I was wearing that day… a bright red ADR hoodie. Lots of people found me because it was probably the most non-tactical looking piece of apparel there.

Took a stop by the Source booth to see what they had new and it was a camo version of one of their packs. I was hoping for something new on the bladder front but it didn’t sound like anything was planned.

On the way over to the Vertx booth I passed this spectacle that absolutely needed to be photographed. How many patches can you fit on a coat? Apparently the answer is all of them.

I was glad to see that Vertx was at the show as their packs get a lot of publicity in the community but it’s tough to find one in person. The right is the Vertx Gamut and the left is the Vertx Gamut Plus.

The Gamut Plus has a couple inserts out on the market right now with one being for cameras. It looks great and I think I might need to get my hands on one in the future… maybe for a review or something.

Vertx had a huge wall of accessories out which all attach to the inside Velcro on their packs… might have to grab some of those too.

The packs are all built in a way that look very average and non-conspicuous (all have built in conceal carry) but have removable panels with MOLLE underneath. If you want it to look tactical that’s possible but, in my opinion, the selling point is that it does not look tactical. There are quite enough tactical packs on the market so it’s always nice to see ones that are built with tactical needs in mind but don’t have a tactical appearance.

After Vertx I ran into some of my good friends from NERD. One was sporting an ADR Tac Hat with a DZ USA patch on top. Can’t beat that combo!

From there we hit up Grey Ghost Precision and viewed their current rifle offering.

Grey Ghost is located about an hour from ADR HQ so maybe this year will be the year we get down there and tour their place.

How could you not want to see where these beauties were made?

The Adams Arms booth had this incredible GBF piece there. Plus, the people at Adams Arms are some of the nicest and best people around… it’s always awesome stopping by their booth during the show.

Another DZ USA patch siting on a GORUCK GR1 pack… in other news that patch is one of the best ones I’ve seen.

The Yeti booth was great and their offerings were of high quality (as always). Shipping bottles sucks but I might need to attempt a run of ADR branded Yeti bottles… it would probably be awesome.

Seeing a patch you’ve made “in the wild” is always a treat. These FF7 patches were some of my absolute favorites to make due to how much of a impact it had in my childhood.

Speaking of patches the Modern Arms Death of the Bad Apple patch is easily one of the best available this year. The quality is awesome and MA Boy carrying around that dead Bad Apple head is wonderful.

On our way to another booth we passed by a random knife booth that had some incredible pieces.

This custom looked incredible in the hand and you could tell the maker was very passionate about his product.

Just look at that blade tip… it was tough to photograph but I hope I got the full beauty in it.

Last pic from SHOT Show on Tuesday was of these awesome dogs. You can’t beat the look they’re pulling off and I’d love to pick up some of those pieces for Watson.

This wouldn’t be an ADR Shot Show post without a pictures of patches received on the first day there.