January 21, 2014
By David Draper
A record crowd of more than 67,000 people fell upon the halls of the Sands Expo & Convention Center in Las Vegas for the 2014 SHOT Show . There were new guns to show off, tricked out vehicles and gadgets galore.
Among the throng of camo-clad, bearded masses, a few attendees stood out, beckoning passersby to stop at their booths like sirens calling from the deep. It's safe to say thousands fell for this age-old marketing trick, including some of our own editors. Among all the lovely booth babes at the SHOT Show, here are a few of the favorites we found among the masses.
Tru-Spec Skirts Skirts made from
Tru-Spec's Multicam Black camo couldn't conceal these two beauties from the roving masses. We stopped by to check out their new line of clothing and tactical gear, including a great Grid Fleece layering piece.
Cabot Custom With pistols like the Damascus Steel .45 with mammoth tooth grips,
Cabot Gun's custom 1911s are known as the Rolls Royces of the gun world. Our chauffeur around the booth was the beautiful Britt McGee.
TEA Headsets The front of the
TEA Tactical Headsets booth was home to a perpetual traffic jam, thanks to Vanessa and the rest of the tactical girls peddling pinup calendars in support of American snipers.
A New Year It's a new year and we needed a new calendar, so we swung by the
Smith Optics booth where Holly, India and Rosie were signing copies of the 2014 Hot Shots calendar. Of course we did it for the Help for Heroes charity, which all proceeds go to, and not because of the girls inside.
Seeing Red Las Vegas-based
Sierra Pacific Innovation didn't have to travel far for the show. Their PAS-15 thermal sight clips on most scopes, turning them into thermal imaging optics for the hog hunter.
Handcuffs, Please Try as we might, we couldn't get Megan to put those handcuffs to good use. She played the good cop in
The Mako Group booth, sporting accessories by Frontline and FAB Defense.
AR You Ready? AR components are everywhere at SHOT Show, but the most intriguing might have been the
Relia-Bolt with tapered lugs that all but eliminate the chance of a dreaded bolt-to-barrel jam. It didn't hurt that Sharps also had a pretty lady on hand to walk us through the Relia-Bolt's design.
Shoulders to Cry On We made sure to stop by the
CAA Tactical booth to sign the guest book honoring the life of Lieutenant-General Mikhail Kalashnikov. For the exceptionally distraught, Russian models Olga and Yulia offered a couple of cute shoulders to cry on.
Rocky Road Sara and her friend stopped us in our tracks by sporting a pair of
Rocky's C5C lightweight boots with multi-directional, self-cleaning treads. Visitors to the Rocky booth could also donate to the Folds of Honor foundation and get a bottomless cup of beer in return. Too bad we had to go back to work.
Take Aim The
Aimpoint booth is always on our must-visit list, and not just to see Angela, who's been an annual fixture there for nine years running. We're also fans of Aimpoint's Micro H-1, which is available with Blaser's saddle mount for owners of those fine rifles.
Art & Technology Always on point when it comes to gun launches,
Benelli brought it to a whole new level with a pair of concert violinists in their booth. The duo caught our attention, and soon we were marveling at the artistry inherent in the company's new ETHOS shotgun.
Prize Winner We ran into Sharon outside the
Remington booth, where she was promoting a rifle raffle benefiting the Special Forces Charitable Trust. Some lucky winner will take home Remington's Precision Sniper Rifle in .338 Lapua, topped with a Leupold Mark 8 scope, as well as a case of Barnes Precision Match ammo to bang gongs with.
