As I mentioned in a previous post, there were a lot of products on display in the exhibit hall. A few stood out for me, some for the right reasons, some for the wrong reasons. I’ve mentioned a few previously, but pictures are always nice.

The Good.

Conditionally, this will be good. Quality will be the key.

The Inland Manufacturing name has been resurrected and the company will be producing M1 Carbines, which they say are going to be built to the original specifications. If this work out, it will be very good. Right now, the only really reliable M1 Carbines are World War II vintage original production guns. They aren’t particularly common, thanks to executive orders signed by previous Democrat Presidents. Even not so great examples are pretty expensive and like new ones are very example. Which is a shame since the M1 Carbine and it’s .30 caliber round would make nice truck or home defense rifles for those who don’t want or can’t use a hand gun.

Previous attempts at producing new production guns have been less than completely stellar. One company was using original USGI receivers, and those guns were pretty good. The problem seems to have come when the company had to start making their own receivers. The receiver on a M1 Carbine is complex and thus expensive to make well. The new production guns have had mixed reviews at best. Currently one other company is making new production guns, but I’ve read enough bad reviews to make me very leery of buying one of their products.

As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. If they got the receiver and bolt engineered and built correctly, this will likely be a very successful product for Inland. That is the big if of this product. That plus cost, but a quality product will bring a good price.

Inland plans to offer three flavors of M1 Carbine. The gun at the top of this photograph is the standard version, with a 15 round magazine and evil, JayG attracting, bayonet lug. The next one down is for the weenie states that have silly restrictions on “assault weaspons”. It has a ten round magazine and no bayonet lug. The bottom rifle is the “paratrooper” model with a folding stock. Again, that won’t be available in weenie states because we all know that folding stocks are way more “killier” and the populace is not to be trusted with such evil guns.

While on the subject of M1 Carbines, Chiappa is introducing two variations. One is 9mm and the other is in the ultra rare .22LR. Again, build quality and reliability are going to be key issues in determining if these are going to be popular, lower cost, alternatives to “real” M1 Carbines. Chiappa has a reputation for producing guns that have unique features, but they also have a reputation for spotty build quality and reliability.

The Chiappa guns will come in both wood and synthetic stock versions.

As you can see, there are significant design differences between a .30 Carbine round and a 9m or .22LR version. While the .22LR version will be nice for plinking whenever ammunition becomes available, the 9mm version could have utility as a home defense or truck gun. Did I mention that reliability is a key determinant here? A jam-o-matic in either caliber is going to kill sales as soon as the word gets around.

I think this will also be good. It’s the new Remington RM380 in, of course, .380ACP. .380ACP is emerging as a credible self defense round for people who don’t want to lug around a bigger gun or a larger caliber. Newer loadings of the ammunition have increased it’s effectiveness. Remington is among many manufacturers bringing new .380 guns to market. This is a double action only, external hammer gun. It will be provided with two magazines, one with a finger extension base plate. It’s a small gun and many people are going to want that finger extension to keep the gun comfortably in their hands. I think this will be a popular pocket pistol, provided Remington avoids the problems they had with the R51. If you live in CA, MA, or another state with stupid hand gun restrictions, don’t hold your breath waiting for this to show up in the display case of your local gun store.

The bad

This was really bad last year. Remington introduced the R51 as a low recoil, relatively inexpensive, 9mm self defense gun. They introduced it with much fanfare, only to have it be a gigantic flop. Plagued with unreliability and poor build quality, Remington was forced to buy back all of the initial production for a full refund, stop production, and re-engineer the gun. The major design changes involved the ejector and the disconnector. More importantly, Remington engineers evaluated and changed the production methods and changed how the assembly people were trained. Remington management made the decision to move production from their North Carolina facility to a new plant in Huntsville, AL. The gun is being relaunched and Remington expects it to be very successful. It’s interesting that Remington thinks they can make an all metal firearm at a reasonable price and still make a profit. A task which Smith & Wesson seems to be incapable of, at least that’s what they say.

But I digress.

The R51 is a concealed hammer, double action only, pistol. It’s designed to have lower recoil than many other 9mm firearms and is aimed at the self defense, not police market.

Remington had engineers, not sales people, manning the area where the R51 and the RM380 were on display. The engineers I spoke with were quite honest in their assessment of the problems with the R51. While the hand built prototypes worked quite well, that just didn’t translate into the production line versions. The guns I was able to handle, hand cycled smoothly in contrast to the over lubed guns I tried out last year. There was a world of difference in the feel this time around.

According to one of the engineers, there are no plans to build a California version of this gun and other restricted states are doubtful as well. That’s a shame because if the problems are really worked out, this is going to be a great firearm for a lot of people who don’t like recoil a whole bunch.

The DERP

This is a double pump shotgun that is going to be, at least for now, distributed solely through Cheaper than Dirt. It’s dumber than shit to me, but what do I know? Someone who picked it up and cycled the action informed me that after about four “shots” worth of action, the gun jammed up tighter than a horse’s butt in fly season. Apparently there is a problem with the action release. That aside, how much does this sucker weigh? More importantly, what is the benefit of having this type of gun over a single barrel pump or quality semi auto?

It looks double killy, doesn’t it?

If two barrels are good, three must be better, right? From Chiappa, a triple barrel shotgun. Maybe it’s good for trap, skeet, or waterfowl, I don’t know. Of course the third barrel adds weight to the gun and makes it just that much more fun to lug around. It’s available in 20 and 12 gauge, but the shorter barrel version will only be available in 12 gauge. I have to wonder how reliable this will end up being. But, it looks cool.

I’ll have some more in a day or two, including stuff I spent my own money on at the show.