SHOT Show, Day Two in Review

I'm sitting in the Press room getting ready for Day Three of SHOT Show, and figured I'd recap Day Two quickly. Yesterday was divided between the first and second floors, with more of the smaller manufacturers on the first floor and the larger ones on the second. Obviously there are always exceptions, but for the most part there's a pretty clear delineation between the two.

Some random thoughts:

• The folks at Victorinox were *super* nice, very friendly and happy to talk about their products. They have a line of Scout-related knives (which makes perfect sense) that really caught my attention; but the one thing that really jumped out was talking to the rep and she pointed out the custom knives with mammoth ivory scales - and didn't seem the least bit apologetic. It was refreshing to see the lack of PC faux humility...
• One of the great things about talking to the smaller manufacturers is that more often than not, you're talking to the owners of the company and/or the folks who actually designed the item. Stopped by the Rohrbaugh booth and looked at the nametags of the two gentlemen answering questions, and sure enough, they're both named Rohrbaugh.
• The guys at Coonan Arms have a great sense of humor - they've got a marketing piece out decrying their .357 Magnum pistol as responsible for the end of the Zombie Apocalypse, for one; they also proudly declare: "Looking for your first pistol? This isn't it." It's great to see a manufacturer that doesn't take themselves too seriously - see previous post with the Mossberg lever action.
• I've been here for two solid days and I haven't seen even half of the exhibits. I've more or less conceded the law enforcement side of things; choosing to focus mainly on the major manufacturers and what's new and exciting. I've got eight hours to fit everything in; I certainly can't get everything, but at least I'm going to try...
• One of the side effects of being at SHOT is that I'm pretty well isolated from outside events. I wake up, shower, dress, get to the show, and I'm on the go until dinner time (which, coincidentally, is much closer to bedtime with the time difference...) I've missed the latest goings-on in the political world, and with the way things are going this year, I can't say that's a bad thing...
• I've taken well over 400 photographs so far, and expect to have a serious overload when I get home to the main PC and can download everything and get it posted. I've been trying to use both the Nikon as well as the iPhone (don't tell the GA guys!), with the iPhone being used for on-the-spot blogging and the Nikon for later, with more attention paid to image quality (although I won't be threatening Oleg any day soon...) when using the DSLR.

Plenty more to come in the next few days - stay tuned!

That is all.